PSY 240

Lecture Outline

March 29, 2000

Group Processes

Today, Dr. Carlston began his lecture on Group Processes. He began the lecture with a discussion of group performance. The key issue is whether or not individuals perform better when in front of an audience or when not. In general we find that our intuitive ideas about whether or not an audience will help or hinder performance may be right some of the time, but not all of the time. He then discussed the ideas and research of Zajonc, which builds upon the notion that well learned responses are dominant and we rely on those most when aroused. However, several alternative explanations were given for his findings (think about the Cockroach study). Finally, Dr. Carlston ended with an example of how and why when making assessments (e.g., somebody’s weight), the average of a group of people’s estimates is typically more accurate than a single individuals.

Key terms/concepts:

Dominant vs. non-dominant responses

Cockroach study

Social facilitation

Role of arousal in performance

Evaluation apprehension

Distraction and performance

Home team advantage

Performance facilitation