Deck 10: Performance

Question 1

You are the manager of a large group of people performing an additive task.What steps would you take to minimize the Ringelmann effect in general and social loafing in particular?

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

Is there any wisdom in the old expression "Two heads are better than one"?

Answer 2

The old expression "Two heads are better than one" suggests that collaboration and teamwork often lead to better outcomes than individual effort. There is indeed wisdom in this saying, as it highlights several advantages of working together:
1. **Diverse Perspectives**: Different people bring unique viewpoints and experiences to the table. This diversity can lead to more creative and comprehensive solutions to problems.
2. **Shared Knowledge**: No one person knows everything. By working together, individuals can pool their knowledge and skills, which can lead to more effective decision-making and learning opportunities for everyone involved.
3. **Error Checking**: When one person might overlook a mistake or a detail, a second person can catch it. This collaborative approach can lead to higher quality results and fewer errors.
4. **Moral Support**: Facing challenges together can be less daunting than facing them alone. Team members can encourage and motivate each other, which can be especially beneficial during difficult tasks or when making tough decisions.
5. **Efficiency**: Dividing tasks according to each person's strengths can lead to more efficient completion of projects. When people focus on what they do best, they can accomplish tasks faster and more effectively.
6. **Learning and Growth**: Working with others can be a learning experience. Individuals can learn new approaches and skills from their collaborators, which can contribute to personal and professional growth.
7. **Resilience**: A team can often withstand setbacks and continue working towards a goal even if one member is unavailable or underperforming. This redundancy can make a collaborative effort more resilient than an individual one.
However, it's important to note that the expression "Two heads are better than one" is not without its caveats. Successful collaboration requires good communication, mutual respect, and a willingness to compromise. Without these elements, teamwork can lead to conflict, inefficiency, and a dilution of responsibility. Additionally, there are situations where too many opinions can lead to indecision or "analysis paralysis," where no action is taken due to overthinking.
In conclusion, the wisdom in the expression "Two heads are better than one" lies in the recognition that collaboration often yields better results than solitary efforts. It emphasizes the value of teamwork and the potential benefits of combining the strengths and abilities of multiple individuals to achieve a common goal.

Question 3

Select and defend one of current theory of social facilitation,supporting your points with evidence drawn from empirical studies of performance when alone and with others.

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

Use theory and research pertaining to social facilitation and social loafing to explain the productivity of a crew responsible for road repairs in a medium-size city.

Question 5

Are some people more likely than others to show improved performance in the presence of an audience?

Question 6

Apply Steiner's process model of group performance to explain the productivity of a group of people working together taking a multiple-choice test.

Question 7

Describe the methods used and results obtained by Latané and his colleagues in their study of groups,pseudogroups,and social loafing.

Question 8

Define and give an example of an additive,compensatory,disjunctive,conjunctive,and discretionary task,and draw a conclusion about a group's effectiveness in performing such tasks.

Question 9

Social facilitation has been documented in several species,including ants.Which theory can explain the generality of this effect,and which theory has trouble accounting for these findings?

Question 10

Explain how online group discussions may be able to avoid some of the problems that reduce the productivity of offline brainstorming groups.

Question 11

How do free riding and the sucker effect influence social loafing?

Question 12

Give an example of the Ringelmann effect,and identify the two factors that contribute to this group process.

Question 13

What makes eating such a socially complicated process?

Question 14

Use theories of social facilitation to make recommendations about how to best structure both simple and complicated tasks performed by employees in a manufacturing plant.

Question 15

Compare social compensation effects,as described by Karau and Williams in their studies of the collective effort model,to the Kohler effect.

Question 16

A group you belong to decides to use "brainstorming" to identify some creative solutions to a problem.What rules should your group follow? And what research findings would you cite to try to talk them out of their decision?

Question 17

If you were a university professor,would you encourage your students to work in study groups? Defend your answer.

Question 18

What is synergy,what forms does it take,and when is it likely to occur?

Question 19

You are intrigued by the different performances shown by high-school swim team members when they are practicing alone,when swimming with others,and when watched by their coach.Draw on studies of social facilitation to offer predictions of when swimmers will turn in their best and worst times.

Question 20

Discuss at least three different studies that have tested the basic question: Does the presence of other people facilitate or inhibit performance.

Question 21

Social loafing occurs most often when individuals are highly motivated to achieve the group goal.

Question 22

When people work on simple tasks with an audience,they tend to display a challenge response rather than a threat response.

Question 23

In a unitary,conjunctive task the group is only as strong as its weakest link.

Question 24

Because of process loss,actual output rarely equals potential output.

Question 25

The Köhler effect documents how the most productive individuals will continue being the most productive individuals only if they are rewarded for their performance.

Question 26

The presence of others increases productivity when the task requires dominant responses,but decreases performance when the task calls for nondominant responses.

Question 27

Using an individual idea session prior to a group brainstorm is referred to as the nominal group technique.

Question 28

Steiner's "law" of productivity states that actual productivity = potential productivity - process loss.

Question 29

Working on difficult problems in the presence of others triggers activity in the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex.

Question 30

Intellective tasks are usually optimizing tasks.

Question 31

Strong synergy-performing at a level that exceeds the capability of even the best member-is common in groups.

Question 32

When people are distracted,they perform even simple tasks more poorly.

Question 33

As the group discusses an issue,Mary has a great idea for a solution.She tries to make her ideas known to others,but with all the ideas flying around the room no one pays her any attention.She is experiencing groupthink.

Question 34

As evaluation apprehension suggests,only individuals with personality characteristics that are indicators of a negative orientation show social facilitation effects.

Question 35

Drive theory predicts social facilitation occurs even when there is no interaction between the actor and observer.

Question 36

The wisdom of the crowd effect was first documented by Francis Galton in the early 20th century.

Question 37

Decreases in productivity when individuals work in groups is the Ringelmann effect.

Question 38

When people feel anonymous,they work harder because they are free of evaluative pressure.

Question 39

Triplett,who was one of the first researchers to study social facilitation,was inspired to do his work after watching ants in an ant colony working collaboratively as they foraged.

Question 40

Because audiences facilitate performance,students should be encouraged to study in groups.

Question 41

When people are eating,social facilitation is more likely in ___ situations and less likely in ___ situations.

A)audience;alone
B)alone;coaction
C)audience;coaction
D)coaction;audience
E)alone;audience

Question 42

Studies of social facilitation challenge the wisdom of which relatively standard,and well-accepted,practice?

A)brainstorming
B)study groups
C)banquets
D)assembly lines
E)teams

Question 43

Which of the following statements is true,in general?

A)Most people report that they prefer to eat alone rather than with others.
B)People eat more when they are alone rather than with others.
C)People prepare relatively larger portions for meals that will be eaten individually.
D)Meals eaten by groups are longer in duration than those eaten by solo individuals.

Question 44

Which of the following findings is most likely?

A)Expert pool players play worse when observed.
B)Roaches complete a simple maze faster alone.
C)People who stutter speak more slowly alone than when observed.
D)People can more rapidly dress in familiar clothes when an observer is present.

Question 45

Elizabeth,a camp director,has seen some people rise to the challenge of the collective hike,as they seem to draw energy from the group.But other campers seem to become weaker when they must hike with the others.Elizabeth's insights are consistent with ___ theory.

A)Zajonc's drive
B)distraction/conflict
C)social orientation
D)Triplett's hypnosis
E)Cottrell's evaluation apprehension

Question 46

Triplett (1898)found that children would reel faster when

A)they were timed.
B)next to another reeling child.
C)an experimenter was in the room.
D)in a large group of observers.
E)a cockroach was placed next to them.

Question 47

When I try to remember the definition of the word synergy,if another person is with me and possibly evaluating me,I expend more mental effort,but that effort causes me to access more readily accessible bits of information,such as the word "energy" and "metallurgy." My reaction is MOST consistent with

A)Zajonc's drive theory.
B)distraction/conflict theory.
C)social orientation theory.
D)the mere-effort model.
E)a self-presentation analysis.

Question 48

Which of the following statements is true?

A)Social facilitation occurs when people perform coaction tasks,but not audience tasks.
B)Social facilitation becomes more likely when the task requires dominant responses.
C)Social facilitation occurs for physical tasks,but not for mental tasks.
D)Humans are the only species to show social facilitation effects.

Question 49

Blascovich and his colleagues,by monitoring physiological reactions in social facilitation settings,discovered that people display a(n)___ reaction when working on easy tasks and a ___ reaction when working on difficult tasks.

A)physiological;psychological
B)inhibition;activation
C)challenge;threat
D)flight;fight
E)alpha wave;beta wave

Question 50

According to ___,people perform better when others are watching because a failure or poor showing would threaten their social image,or "face."

A)Zajonc's drive theory
B)distraction/conflict theory
C)social orientation theory
D)the mere-effort model
E)a self-presentation analysis

Question 51

The tendency for individuals to become less productive as group size increases is known as

A)laziness.
B)the Ringelmann effect.
C)groupthink.
D)social inhibition.
E)input output losses.

Question 52

Which conceptual distinction is most relevant to understanding social facilitation?

A)task vs.socioemotional
B)dominant vs.nondominant
C)internal vs.external
D)unitary vs.discretionary

Question 53

A meta-analysis of 241 social facilitation studies (Bond & Titus,1983)concluded that

A)the presence of others increases the quality (not quantity)of task performance on simple tasks.
B)performance decrements on complex tasks are more pronounced that performance gains on simple tasks.
C)people perform complex tasks more rapidly when others are present.
D)social facilitation rarely occurs.

Question 54

Which finding is NOT consistent with a cognitive explanation of social facilitation?

A)Many species,including cockroaches,show signs of social facilitation.
B)Recall is poorer when stimuli are presented in the presence of others.
C)Facilitation is reduced if the others in the situation are not noticed.
D)Presence of others improves performance on the Stroop task.

Question 55

Zajonc's drive theory (compresence)explanation of the impact of others on performance assumes that an audience increases

A)mental effectiveness.
B)arousal.
C)physical strength.
D)distraction.
E)apprehension over evaluation.

Question 56

Which of the following statements is true?

A)Due to evaluation apprehension,prejudiced people are less likely to express their biases when they are in groups.
B)Electronic performance monitoring (EPM),because it is an invasion of workers' privacy,has been banned in U.S.industries.
C)Students who are learning new material should study together in groups.
D)When eating,social facilitation effects are strongest when people are with family or friends.

Question 57

___ theory stresses the role cognitive factors,such as attention to the task,play in producing social facilitation.

A)Zajonc's compresence
B)Distraction/conflict
C)Cottrell's evaluation apprehension
D)Triplett's hypnosis
E)Self-presentation

Question 58

According to Zajonc,for ___ tasks the presence of others ___ performance.

A)simple;detracts from
B)conjunctive;detracts from
C)complex;enhances
D)simple;enhances
E)conjunctive;enhances

Question 59

Fred,Ned,and Ted must make some party hats by folding up pieces of paper.When working alone,they could make ten hats an hour each.If the Ringelmann effect occurs,when Fred works with Ned they will turn out ___ hats an hour each,and when Ted joins them,they will turn out ___ hats an hour each.

A)12;14
B)5;1
C)8;6
D)4;3
E)15;20

Question 60

Which of the following statements is true?

A)Social facilitation occurs when an audience is present,but not in coaction situations.
B)Compresence is the personality characteristic that predicts how a person reacts when working in the presence of others.
C)People only experience social facilitation when the task is easy and the others who are present are focusing their attention on them.
D)Working in the presence of others can be distracting,but distraction does not inevitably undermine performance.

Question 61

Which of the following increases social loafing?

A)identifiability
B)trust in co-members
C)involvement
D)task complexity
E)low evaluation apprehension

Question 62

Which is the key to determining when social facilitation AND social loafing will or will not occur?

A)social identity
B)involvement
C)evaluation apprehension
D)size of the group
E)arousal

Question 63

Which of the following is NOT a component of Steiner's typology of tasks?

A)divisibility of the task
B)difficulty of the task
C)quantity or quality desired
D)procedures used to combine inputs

Question 64

The task is a(n)___ one if the group's solution to a yes/no type question must be selected from among all individual solutions.

A)conjunctive
B)compensatory
C)disjunctive
D)discretionary
E)additive

Question 65

How did Latané,Williams,and Harkins,in their classic study of social loafing,distinguish between productivity loss caused by loafing,and loss caused by coordination problems?

A)They studied highly motivated people in one condition,and unmotivated people in another.
B)They led some people to believe they were working in groups when they were alone.
C)They had some people work at collective tasks,whereas others worked on a coaction task.
D)They trained some groups to eliminate coordination problems,but did not train others.
E)They set clear,difficult but attainable goals for some groups,but other groups had no goals.

Question 66

Studies of the "wisdom of crowd" effect suggest that

A)groups are particularly effective when working on extremely difficult problems.
B)once the group reaches 5 members,it reaches its maximum level of "wisdom".
C)making decisions by averaging individuals judgments is,in some cases,both efficient and accurate.
D)the "crowd" members,to become accurate,must initially discuss the issue among members.

Question 67

The Ringelmann effect is caused by

A)social loafing.
B)poor leadership.
C)coordination losses.
D)both social loafing and coordination losses.
E)both social loafing and poor leadership.

Question 68

Which of the following does not fit with the others?

A)high personal involvement
B)indispensability
C)anonymity
D)clear group goals
E)challenging group goals

Question 69

Edwina knows the answer to the problem is 6.3,but the group does not accept that answer until Edward says,"I agree with Edwina;I think it is 6.3,too." This process is consistent with

A)social facilitation.
B)distraction-conflict theory.
C)the truth-wins rule.
D)conjunctive task solutions.
E)the truth-supported wins rule.

Question 70

Steiner's "law" of group productivity assumes that you must consider ___ to predict a group's actual performance level.

A)losses due to faulty process
B)the personalities of the group members
C)the performance of other groups
D)the extent to which the group functions as a team
E)communication,leadership,and motivation

Question 71

Which task is unitary,maximizing and additive?

A)relay race
B)leading
C)tug-of-war
D)mountain climbing
E)softball

Question 72

Which one will decrease social loafing?

A)eliminate group members' feelings of anonymity
B)remind members that they are part of a group
C)stress that responsibility is shared by the group as a whole
D)increase the size of the group
E)all will decrease social loafing

Question 73

Which of the following is NOT consistent with the collective effort model (CEM)of social loafing?

A)People will loaf less if they believe that can reach their goal.
B)People loaf less when they work on easy,unchallenging tasks.
C)If people believe that a poor performance will affect them personally,they don't loaf.
D)People who are committed to their group and its goals loaf less than people are more interested in pursuing individualistic goals.

Question 74

Steiner's "law" of group productivity states Actual Productivity (AP)=

A)PP - PL.
B)P + PG.
C)PP + AP - PL.
D)PO + PL.
E)PG + PL.

Question 75

Two things MUST happen for groups to solve disjunctive tasks.First,someone in the group must know the answer.Second,the

A)leader must accept the solution.
B)group must accept that solution as the correct one.
C)group must vote on the correct solution.
D)problem must be a noneureka one.
E)group's communication must be clear.

Question 76

Which of the following statements is true?

A)Anonymity,and not a lack of concern about evaluation,causes social loafing.
B)Social loafing can be eliminated by minimizing coordination problems.
C)Social loafing does not occur if the group faces a social dilemma.
D)Group members tend to underestimate the quality of their group's products.
E)Individuals loaf less when they are personally involved with the task.

Question 77

Latane,Williams,and Harkins,in their classic study of social loafing,

A)discovered loafing was eliminated when groups set clear goals.
B)manipulated the indefinability of each member by having groups work in a dark room.
C)distinguished between productivity losses due to loafing and losses due to lack of coordination.
D)examined how rapidly people working in a pickle factory packed pickles.
E)concluded that cognitive dissonance was a primary cause of social loafing.

Question 78

Williams and Karau found that individuals would ___ other social loafing members if the task was meaningful.

A)antagonize and insult
B)teach and instruct
C)isolate the
D)compensate for

Question 79

Studies suggest that social loafing can be avoided if

A)group members are reminded to "give their all."
B)individuals' contributions to the group product are identifiable.
C)group members are trained to better coordinate their combined efforts.
D)the leader is strong.

Question 80

Janet does not work as hard preparing notes for her study group because she knows Linda,"the brain," will do the work if she doesn't.Janet illustrates

A)the compensatory effect.
B)groupthink.
C)the free-rider effect.
D)the sucker effect.
E)the collective effort effect.