Psychology 2720A/B Chapter Notes -Neutral Party, Acculturation, Group Dynamics

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2720A/B
• Professor: Clive Seligman

Document Summary

Group dynamics: the social psychological study of groups and group processes. Group: two or more people who are interacting or influencing one another. Think about it as a continuum from little a lot of group character. Social facilitation: the effects of the presence of other people on individual performance, which will usually be improved performance on simple tasks and impaired performance on complex tasks. Zajonc found the diff between simple/complex tasks. Dominant response: the action that is most likely to occur in a situation or on a task when the individual is alone. Proposed the presense of other people is physically arousing b/c their anxious about performing well. This can restrict attention: when task is simple, distractions are blocked, complex, difficult to attend to all necessary cues. E. g. number task given a chance to learn, ps preformed better. For studying; if the material is relatively simple, studying in the library might help narrow your focus.