In your school or work life, you must have faced a situation when you had been a
ID: 3448046 • Letter: I
Question
In your school or work life, you must have faced a situation when you had been assigned to a group project where each member of the group had a different expectation of work and most of them had even decided to do less than their share of work. The Tuckman model of group development demonstrates a process by which a group moves from a group of individuals to a cohesive working group. Another issue that may come up within a group are instances when a group faces threat situations and maintaining the vitality of the group becomes more important than achieving the tasks or goals assigned to the group. One of the theories most active in such situations is groupthink.
In social psychology, what problems do groups face with the individual(s) who are reluctant to perform their share of work? Explain why individuals tend to exert less effort when working in groups.
Considering the Tuckman model, describe an experience where you observed or had been a part of a group that may have developed along its continuum. Did the group go through all the stages of group development or stopped after reaching a certain stage? Describe circumstances that inhibited or promoted the transition from one stage to the next.
Describe the symptoms of groupthink as it pertains to group behavior. Describe a situation you consider as an example of groupthink (other than the ones already mentioned in the textbook). Explain why you consider this situation as groupthink. In case you were able to intervene in the group's processes, what would you do to minimize or eliminate groupthink?
Explanation / Answer
According to social psychology, people tend to put less effort when working in a group as opposed to the effort put by them when working alone is called social loafing. When working in a group people generally believe that other members of the group will take care of the work assigned to a group. This can happen if a person is less motivated by a task is likely to not work as compared to other members. Another reason cited by the psychologist is the phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility. According to this phenomenon, people might feel less accountable and feel that their individual effort has less impact on the outcome. Another factor can be the group size, the larger the group size more is the social loafing.
My experience of being a part of a group when the six of us were assigned a project. The group did form as per the Tuckman model, The first stage was forming stage where everyone was polite towards each other. Next stage was the storming stage where we saw a bit of conflict as members tried to influence the group. At the next stage, there was an effort to resolve the conflict and establish norms and roles. One thing I saw in the group that only some member was active and they either tried to shun their role or tried to be unresponsive when they assigned any task. Towards the end of the task, I was the one who was doing majority of the tasks to make the assignment sucessful.
Groupthink is a phenomenon when a group makes a faulty decision as a result of group pressure that led to the deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment. The symptoms of groupthink are by Irving Janis (1972) are:
Yes, I have experienced a situation that can be considered as an example of groupthink. Once we had kept a tenant at our house. He was sometimes lagged in paying the rent deliberately. My father was led to believe by other people that he is dishonest and should be thrown out of the house legally so we were caught in the legal battle unnecessarily. Instead, I would have spoken to our tenant and try to gauge his mental status and then cooly tell him pay our dues.