The newcomer in open and closed groups.

How does the assimulation of a new member in an open group compare with that of a new member in a closed group? Ss were 64 students in 3-person groups using a note-passing device. The relative influence of newcomers and regular members were studied. "The dependent variables included measures of communication direction… group influence, group satisfaction, and the relative ratings of the confederates by the naive group members." The open groups paid the most attention to the tasks. "Tenure and status were found to be positively associated." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GE55Z. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a theory of open and closed groups.

4 characteristics differentiate groups in which membership is in a constant state of flux (open groups) as opposed to groups in which the membership is relatively stable (closed groups): time perspective, equilibrium, frame of reference, and changing group membership. The significance of these characteristics for social behavior was explored. A number of tested and testable propositions concerning group stability and social behavior emerged from a rapprochement of research, relevant subtheories, and concepts associated with open and closed group behavior. The failure to consider the dimension of group stability in most previous social psychological research poses a question concerning the generality of social-psychological theories which are based upon research which ignores the pervasive dimension of group stability. (2 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The self-serving bias in relational context.

This article examined the impact of relationship closeness on the self-serving bias (SSB). Members of relationally distant dyads working on interdependent-outcomes tasks manifested the SSB: They took credit for dyadic success but blamed the partner for dyadic failure. However, members of relationally close dyads did not manifest the SSB: They did not take more credit than their partner for dyadic success and did not blame the partner more than the self for dyadic failure. This gracious attributional pattern of relationally close dyed members is due, at least in part, to formation of a favorable impression of the partner. Relationship closeness acts as a bound to an individual's self-enhancing tendencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity to groups as a function of group success.

"Three person groups were given different degrees of success and failure in a collaborative group task. Following this, individuals twice judged the number of flickers of a light, receiving a purported average judgment prior to the second estimate." Persons in groups given all successes showed significantly more movement of the second judgment in the direction of the purported group average than did members of all failure groups or persons having no group experience. Persons in groups having partial success were intermediate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transactive memory and performance in work groups: Specificity, communication, ability differences, and work allocation.

The present study examined the effects of specificity, communication, ability differences, and work allocation, on the utilization of transactive memory in work groups. Clerical staff members (N = 36) worked individually and then with a coworker to complete a quiz covering six domains of work-related knowledge and to allocate domains of knowledge or specific quiz items in a manner that maximized group performance. Allocations were made first individually and then collaboratively. Results indicated that transactive memory facilitated group performance. Specificity (item allocations vs. domain allocations) led to more effective utilization of member knowledge, but communication did not. Group performance was higher when members differed in ability and when they allocated more work to the more proficient member. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication restraints, group flexibility, and group confidence.

"This study was designed to explore the relationship between selected group structure variables and the group's ability to adjust to the requirements of a new situation (group flexibility) and the group members' expressed confidence in the ability of the group to succeed in a problem-solving situation." About 1000 men in 96 aircrews did a group task (8-item intelligence exam). Leaders in flexible groups scored low on the F scale and high on conformity. Greater confidence was expressed by members of high attraction groups and groups whose leaders tended to conform to the group members' opinions. "… groups with more open communication systems (group with fewer communication restraints) are more flexible and more confident." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive Reactions to Working in Groups in a Study of Group and Individual Goal Decision Making.

The authors explored group members' positive reactions to working in groups that performed a card-sorting task for which they set goals. They also tested predictions regarding observed differences between the goal decisions of groups and individuals for their own and others' performance. Consistent with predictions, group members had more goal commitment, more positive attitudes toward goal attainment, and greater satisfaction with their performance than individuals. Moreover, groups chose goals that were less difficult than the goals of individuals both for their own and for others' performance. The ways in which group decision processes and other factors may account for differences in group and individual goal decisions are considered. In addition, the social-emotional and task-related benefits members perceive of working in their groups are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tokenism also works with groups as tokens: The impact of group openness and group qualification on reactions to membership in a low-status group.

Two experiments tested whether the tokenism effect would also emerge when groups as a whole rather than individual group members are denied access into a high-status group. In total, 317 pupils were led to believe that their class was not accepted into a high-status group. The openness of this high-status group toward other groups (open, minimally open, and closed) and the qualification of the own class (low, high) were manipulated. In both studies, pupils of a highly qualified class confronted with a closed high-status group differed from all other conditions by preferring nonnormative action to normative action. These results indicate that tokenism is a very robust phenomenon that occurs even when groups strongly expected to join the high-status group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-awareness, probability of improvement, and the self-serving bias.

Evidence for the self-serving bias (attributing success internally and failure externally) is inconsistent. Although internal success attributions are consistently found, researchers find both internal and external attributions for failure. The authors explain these disparate effects by considering the intersection of 2 systems, a system comparing self against standards and a causal attribution system. It was predicted that success and failure attributions are moderated by self-awareness and by the ability to improve. When self-focus is high (a) success is attributed internally, (b) failure is attributed internally when people can improve, (c) failure is attributed externally when people cannot improve, and (d) these attributions affect state self-esteem. Implications for the self-serving bias are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social anxiety, self-presentation, and the self-serving bias in causal attribution.

Two experiments with 160 undergraduates studied the contribution of self-presentation concerns to the self-serving bias in causal attribution (individuals' tendency to assume more personal responsibility for a success than for a failure) and its occasional, but systematic, reversal. In Exp I, high- but not low-social-anxiety Ss (selected by scores on the Social Anxiety subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale) presented themselves in a far more modest light when a committee of high prestige others was to join the experimenter in evaluating their behavior than when the committee evaluation was canceled. In Exp II, this reversal of the self-serving bias among high-social-anxiety Ss was replicated, and it was also found that both high- and low-social-anxiety Ss portrayed the causes of their behavior in a more modest fashion when they responded via the "bogus pipeline," a measurement technique designed to reduce distortion and dissimulation in verbal responses, than when they responded in the traditional paper-and-pencil format. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Less pain and more to gain: Why high-status group members blame their failure on discrimination": Retraction.

Reports a retraction of the original article by Karen M. Ruggiero and David M. Marx (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999 [Oct], Vol 77(4), 774–784). The data reported in this article are invalid and should not be considered part of the scientific literature of psychology. The responsibility for this problem rests solely with the first author, Karen M. Ruggiero. The second author, David M. Marx, is in no way responsible for this problem. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1999-11645-009.) Members of high-status groups are more likely than members of low-status groups to blame their failure on discrimination and are less likely to blame it on themselves. This tendency was demonstrated in 3 experiments comparing men and women, White and Black students, and members of experimentally created high- and low-status groups. Results also showed that when making an attribution to discrimination, high-status group members were less likely to experience a threat to their social state self-esteem, performance perceived control, and social perceived control and were more likely to protect their performance state self-esteem. These findings help to explain why high-status group members are more willing to blame their failure… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Contagious Leader: Impact of the Leader's Mood on the Mood of Group Members, Group Affective Tone, and Group Processes.

The present study examined the effects of leaders' mood on (a) the mood of individual group members, (b) the affective tone of groups, and (c) 3 group processes: coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy. On the basis of a mood contagion model, the authors found that when leaders were in a positive mood, in comparison to a negative mood, (a) individual group members experienced more positive and less negative mood, and (b) groups had a more positive and a less negative affective tone. The authors also found that groups with leaders in a positive mood exhibited more coordination and expended less effort than did groups with leaders in a negative mood. Applied implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reward allocation in task-performing groups.

Three situational variables were varied to assess the relative weight given to equity and equality principles in reward allocations in task-performing groups: (a) the functional relation between individual and group performance (additive, conjunctive, or disjunctive), (b) the amount of variation among performances of individual members, and (c) the purpose of the allocation. In 2 studies, participants were asked to allocate rewards among 3 performers in a hypothetical situation; in a third study, participants actually performed a task and were asked to allocate rewards to themselves and the other group members. The 3 studies produced two strikingly similar results: (a) equity was given more weight relative to equality when input variation was small rather than large, and (b) the disjunctive relation, when the performance of one member was critical to group success, led to more equitable allocations than did the additive or conjunctive relation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reporting discrimination in public and private contexts.

The authors tested the hypothesis that members of stigmatized groups would be unwilling to report that negative events that occur to them are the result of discrimination when they are in the presence of members of a nonstigmatized group. Supporting this hypothesis, women and African Americans were more likely to report that a failing grade assigned by a man or a European American was caused by discrimination, rather than by their own lack of ability, when they made the judgment privately and in the presence of a fellow stigmatized group member. However, they were more likely to indicate that the cause of the failure was lack of ability, rather than discrimination, when they expected to make these judgments aloud in the presence of a nonstigmatized group member. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The costs and benefits of undoing egocentric responsibility assessments in groups.

Individuals working in groups often egocentrically believe they have contributed more of the total work than is logically possible. Actively considering others' contributions effectively reduces these egocentric assessments, but this research suggests that undoing egocentric biases in groups may have some unexpected costs. Four experiments demonstrate that members who contributed much to the group outcome are actually less satisfied and less interested in future collaborations after considering others' contributions compared with those who contributed little. This was especially true in cooperative groups. Egocentric biases in responsibility allocation can create conflict, but this research suggests that undoing these biases can have some unfortunate consequences. Some members who look beyond their own perspective may not like what they see. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

'I'm cooperative, but you're greedy": Some cognitive tendencies in a commons dilemma.

Investigated the effect of 2 resource management outcome variables (personal and group) on 4 classic cognitive tendencies (fundamental attribution error, actor–observer effect, self-serving biases, and self-centered bias) assessed at the end of a commons dilemma simulation in which Ss harvested valued resources from a shared, replenishable pool. A fifth cognitive tendency (false consensus) was examined as a function of Ss' stated harvest intentions before the dilemma began. 171 undergraduates were assigned to 1 of 34 mixed-sex groups. The false consensus effect was apparent among heavy harvesters. Responsibility for outcomes was seen as more personal than situational for both self and others: the fundamental attribution error was strongly evident, but the reverse of the actor–observer bias was found. Harvesters took more than their proportional share of responsibility for the outcomes, yet they assigned even more responsibility to others. Light harvesters disclaimed responsibility for damaged commons when others harvested heavily; heavy harvesters took considerable responsibility for poorly managed commons. In sum, cognitive biases and tendencies were very evident and, as a whole, tended toward self-servingness, but did not always take their traditional forms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of the stability and persistence of the K?hler motivation gain effect.

The current paper reports the findings of an experiment designed to investigate the persistence of motivation gains in small groups. The current study had participants work on a conjunctive task, where they believed that their performance was highly instrumental for the group to perform well. Building on prior work on the K?hler effect, although motivation gains became smaller over time, these gains in effort still remained statistically significant across several work trials. Moreover, the attenuation of the K?hler effect was found to be moderated by the stability of group membership. More specifically, as compared with people who worked with the same partner (i.e., closed groups), gains in effort were found to be more robust for participants who worked with several different partners (i.e., open groups). The current findings help fill an important gap in the motivation gains literature by demonstrating that motivation gains in groups can persist across multiple work trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Changes in Leadership Appraisal as a Function of the Stress of a Simulated Panic Situation". Erratum to Klein.

Reports an error in the original article by Klein (Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, Vol 34(6) Dec 1976, 1143-1154). On page 1152, there is an error in the first two sentences of the first full paragraph in the right-hand column of the page. The corrected sentences are provided here. In addition, Table 3 on p. 1152 is corrected. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1978-31666-001.) Research by A. Mintz (see record 1951-08008-001) and by H. H. Kelley et al (see record 1965-06787-001) left unresolved the question of what level of personal threat leads to group incoordination of "panic behavior." The present study set out to resolve this issue and to explore the additional relationship between leadership and behavior in the panic situation. The dependent variables were Likert-type questionnaire items designed to investigate the level of responsibility attributed to a leader by members of a group as a function of 4 variables: (a) 2 levels of stress (threat of shock or of small monetary loss), (b) 2 levels of leadership authority (elected or appointed), (c) 2 conditions of leadership ("me-last" or "me-first"), and (d) group success or failure. 14 male college students were run in this 2-4 factorial design with a nonfactorial control group. The task setting, which required Ss to retrieve their wooden cones through the same hole, was analogous to the situation that would occur in a theater fire where only one narrow exit existed. Results support the contention of Kelley that group incoordination (panic) increases under personal threat. Additional results show that (a) leaders facilitated achieving the goal of safe exit; (b) elected leaders were given more responsibility and were seen as more competent than appointed leaders, but only when the stress was comparatively low; and (c) success or failure seemed to have had little effect on the leader's evaluation by the group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic Group Identification and Group Evaluation Among Minority and Majority Groups: Testing the Multiculturalism Hypothesis.

Following social identity theory, the author hypothesized that members of minority groups are more likely than majority group members to endorse multiculturalism more strongly and assimilationist thinking less strongly. In addition, the multiculturalism hypothesis proposes that the more minority groups endorse the ideology of multiculturalism (or assimilationism), the more (or less) likely they will be to identify with their ethnic in-group and to show positive in-group evaluation. In contrast, the more majority group members endorse multiculturalism (or assimilationism), the less (or more) likely they are to identify with their ethnic group and to show negative out-group evaluation. Results from 4 studies (correlational and experimental) provide support for this hypothesis among Dutch and Turkish participants living in the Netherlands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forgiveness and Collective Guilt Assignment to Historical Perpetrator Groups Depend on Level of Social Category Inclusiveness.

The authors examined how categorization influences victimized group members' responses to contemporary members of a historical perpetrator group. Specifically, the authors tested whether increasing category inclusiveness--from the intergroup level to the maximally inclusive human level--leads to greater forgiveness of a historical perpetrator group and decreased collective guilt assignment for its harmdoing. Among Jewish North Americans (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and Native Canadians (Experiment 3) human-level categorization resulted in more positive responses toward Germans and White Canadians, respectively, by decreasing the uniqueness of their past harmful actions toward the in-group. Increasing the inclusiveness of categorization led to greater forgiveness and lessened expectations that former out-group members should experience collective guilt compared with when categorization was at the intergroup level. Discussion focuses on obstacles that are likely to be encountered on the road to reconciliation between groups that have a history of conflictual relations (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)