PSY220H5 Chapter 14: Groups
Document Summary
Thus triplett believed that the presence of others tended to facilitate human performance. Not the best test, there is drafting to improve times and the type of competition. Importance of companionship and of living in groups is taken as given in psychology. Group life offers large primates some not-well-understood advantages in the struggle for survival. Generally maintained that life with others offered our human ancestors protection from predators, efficiency in food acquisition, assistance with child rearing, and defense against human aggressors. Also generally maintained that these benefits are so crucial to survival that we have a psychological need to be with others and belong to a group. When isolated from others people typically experience great stress and become extremely upset. Many who are kept socially isolated for a sufficiently long time lose their minds. A group is a collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree.
