group
Two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other
social roles
Shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave
group cohesiveness
Qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between them
social facilitation
When people are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated, the tendency to perform better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks
social loafing
When people are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated, the tendency to perform worse on simple or unimportant tasks but better on complex or important tasks
deindividuation
The loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can't be identified (such as when they are in a crowd)
process loss
Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving
transactive memory
The combined memory of a group that is more efficient than the memory of the individual members
groupthink
A kind of decision process in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner
group polarization
The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of their members
great person theory
The idea that certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the situation
transactional leaders
Leaders who set clear, short-term goals and reward people who meet them
transformational leaders
Leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals
contingency theory of leadership
The idea that the effectiveness of a leader depends both on how task or relationship-oriented the leader is and on the amount of control the leader has over the group
task-oriented leaders
Leaders who are concerned more with getting the job done than with workers' feelings and relationships
relationship-oriented leaders
Leaders who are concerned more with workers' feelings and relationships
social dilemma
A conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will,if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone
tit-for-tat strategy
A means of encouraging cooperation by at first acting cooperatively but then always responding the way your opponent did (cooperatively or competitively) on the previous trial
negotiation
A form of communication between opposing sides in a conflict in which offers and counteroffers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree
integrative solution
A solution to a conflict whereby the parties make trade-offs on issues, with each side conceding the most on issues that are unimportant to it but important to the other side