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Creative Collaboration in Groups
Abstract
A widely held belief in organizations is that small groups represent an ideal configuration for idea generation, in spite of much experimental evidence demonstrating a production loss effect. In this chapter, we review the main causes of this effect and argue that such studies provide an imperfect view of creative collaboration, because participants interacting in classical studies on brainstorming cannot be said to constitute a true group. We introduce a social identity perspective on brainstorming and explore some of its repercussions for improving creative performance in groups. In particular, recent technological developments involving virtual environment technology offer the potential means for organizations to truly benefit from the creative potential of groups.
Ce chapitre aborde le changement des attitudes au travers de la persuasion, ainsi que la résistance à la persuasion. Il vise à fournir une compréhension des dynamique de changement des attitudes et des comportements, notamment par (1) l'exploration de la relation entre attitude et comportement (2) la présentation du paradigme de la soumission librement consentie (3) l'examen de la théorie de la dissonance cognitive (4) la présentation des principales théories et modèles d'interventions psychosociales (5) la présentation des effets de diverses techniques d'inductions comportementale, des nudges, de la communication numérique, des normes sociales sur les comportements
Ce chapitre aborde: (1) une explication de ce qu'est l'attitude, son origine, les méthodes pour la mesurer (2) une présentation des théories et modèles de la persuasion (3) un questionnement sur la durabilité des changements d'attitude (4) une exploration de la résistance à la persuasion, à la désinformation, au changement (5) une mise en perspective des nouvelles recherches liées au développement de la communication numérique et virtuelle
Because of the range of design possibilities they provide, virtual environments have a promising potential to support creative work. This paper presents an experiment which explores the effects of contextual cues, provided in a virtual environment, on performance in a creative task. One hundred and thirty-five participants completed a classical creativity task in one of three environments: a virtual creativity conducive environment, comprising standardized elements identified from a survey as being characteristic of environments that support creativity, a real meeting-room (real control environment), and its virtual replication (virtual control environment). Results show that participants produced more original ideas and explored idea categories in greater depth in the creativity conducive environment than in the control conditions. These results were discussed in terms of research on creativity, priming, virtual environments, and of the design of workplaces.
This study examined four causes of group performance loss: goal specificity, communication, incentives for goal attainment, and high versus low cultural collectivism. Subjects were managers from Israeli kibbutzim (63 individuals) and cities (59 individuals) who worked on a simulated task requiring them to evaluate résumés. We used a two-by-three-by-four design in which sample, goal, and test condition were varied to test hypotheses. Group performance loss occurred only for urban respondents with a do-your-best goal and team task.
This study investigated how virtual environments prime subsequent interpersonal relations among unacquainted individuals. Participants met in a virtual library or a café. Individuals in the virtual library perceived greater self and partner formality compared to those in the café. In addition, more self-disclosure correlated with less formality only in the library, showing how revealing more about oneself goes against library norms. In contrast, perceived warmth and word counts were at the center of the effects found in the virtual café. Partner warmth and word counts also mediated the effect of the environments on formality. Overall, this article advances priming research in stimuli-rich virtual settings by showing how environmental salience and activation of contextual norms affected interpersonal perceptions among unacquainted partners.
The relationship between the self and the collective is discussed from the perspective of self-categorization theory. Self-categorization theory makes a basic distinction between personal and social identity as different levels of self-categorization. It shows how the emergent properties of group processes can be explained in terms of a shift in self perception from personal to social identity. It also elucidates how self-categorization varies with the social context. It argues that self-categorizing is inherently variable, fluid, and context dependent, as sedf-categories are social comparative and are always relative to a frame of reference. This notion has major implications for accepted ways of thinking about the self: The variability of self-categorizing provides the perceiver with behavioral and cognitive flexibility and ensures that cognition is always shaped by the social context in which it takes place.
Social loafing has been described as the phenomenon in which participants who work together generate less effort than do participants who work alone (e.g., Latané, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). Subsequent research (Harkins & Jackson, 1985; Williams, Harkins, & Latané, 1981) has shown that a particular aspect of this paradigm leads to the loafing effect. When participants "work together," their outputs are pooled (combined) so that evaluation of individual output is not possible. In those studies, the evaluation potential of the experimenter has been emphasized. However, when the experimenter could not evaluate individual outputs, neither could the participants evaluate themselves. In this study we tested the possibility that the opportunity for the participants to evaluate themselves would be sufficient to eliminate the loafing effect. In two experiments, the evaluation potential of the experimenter (experimenter evaluation vs. no experimenter evaluation) was crossed with the potential for self-evaluation (self-evaluation vs. no self-evaluation). In both experiments, consistent with previous loafing research, the potential for evaluation by the experimenter was sufficient to increase motivation, whether participants could self-evaluate or not. However, when the experimenter could not evaluate the participants' outputs, the potential for self-evaluation reliably improved participant performance. In fact, self-evaluation was the only motivation needed for participants to exert as much effort as that exhibited by participants who could be evaluated by the experimenter.
How does man know anything and, in particular, how can we account for creative thought? Campbell posits 2 major conditions: mechanisms which produce wide and frequent variation (an inductive, trial and error, fluency of ideas) and criteria for the selection of the inductive given (the critical function). The ramifications of this perspective are explored in terms of organic evolution and human history, and in terms of psychology and epistemology. This exposition is offered as a pretheoretical model.
This article examines how interaction by means of computer-mediated communication (CMC) affects the operation of both status differentials and power relations. The authors attempt to provide a corrective to the dominant assessment, particularly within social psychological analyses, that CMC tends to equalize status, decentralize and democratize decision making, and thus empower and liberate the individual user. This emphasis contrasts with sociological critiques employing the Foucauldian metaphor of the panopticon, claiming that power relations can actually be reinforced in CMC. The authors argue that prevailing conceptualizations of influence and power within social psychology have tended to prefigure the more optimistic account, and outline a theoretical framework in which processes of “panoptic power” in CMC are given a more concrete social psychological foundation.
Students rated a poem and an editorial believing that they alone were responsible, that they were one of four persons responsible, or that they were one of sixteen persons responsible for evaluating the communications. As predicted, group mem bers reported putting less effort into the assessment than indi viduals, and this diffusion of effort followed an inverse power function. In addition, individuals evaluated the communications more favorably than persons who thought they shared the evalu ation responsibility.
This chapter challenges traditional models of deindividuation. These are based on the assumption that such factors as immersion in a group and anonymity lead to a loss of selfhood and hence of control over behaviour. We argue that such models depend upon an individualistic conception of the self, viewed as a unitary construct referring to that which makes individuals unique. This is rejected in favour of the idea that self can be defined at various different levels including the categorical self as well as the personal self. Hence a social identity model of deindividuation (SIDE) is outlined. Evidence is presented to show that deindividuation manipulations gain effect, firstly, through the ways in which they affect the salience of social identity (and hence conformity to categorical norms) and, secondly, through their effects upon strategic considerations relating to the expression of social identities. We conclude that the classic deindividuation paradigm of anonymity within a social group, far from leading to uncontrolled behaviour, maximizes the opportunity of group members to give full voice to their collective identities.
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is sometimes heralded for its power to break down social boundaries and to liberate individuals from social influence, group pressure, and status and power differentials that characterize much face-to-face interaction. We review research conducted within the framework of the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) demonstrating that this is not always the case. When communicators share a common social identity, they appear to be more susceptible to group influence, social attraction, stereotyping, gender typing, and discrimination in anonymous CMC. Although CMC gives us the opportunity to traverse social boundaries, paradoxically, it can also afford these boundaries greater power, especially when they define self- and group identity.
An abstract is not available.
Groups of 4 brainstormed on computers for 20 min. In some groups information about the number of ideas generated was exchanged every 5 min. Some groups verbalized their ideas as they were typed, and others only typed their ideas. Exchange of information about number of ideas increased group performance, but verbalization decreased performance. Both information exchange and verbalization increased the favorability of performance perception. These results are consistent with the Paulus and Dzindolet (1993) social influence model of group brainstorming.
We conducted four experiments to investigate free riding, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking as explanations of the difference in brainstorming productivity typically observed between real and nominal groups. In Experiment 1, we manipulated assessment expectations in group and individual brainstorming. Although productivity was higher when subjects worked under personal rather than collective assessment instructions, type of session still had a major impact on brainstorming productivity under conditions that eliminated the temptation to free ride. Experiment 2 demonstrated that inducing evaluation apprehension reduced productivity in individual brainstorming. However, the failure to find an interaction between evaluation apprehension and type of session in Experiment 3 raises doubts about evaluation apprehension as a major explanation of the productivity loss in brainstorming groups. Finally, by manipulating blocking directly, we determined in Experiment 4 that production blocking accounted for most of the productivity loss of real brainstorming groups. The processes underlying production blocking are discussed, and a motivational interpretation of blocking is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies examined intergroup discussions via computer-mediated communication systems. It was hypothesized that depersonalization, in comparison with individuated interaction, would increase the tendency for intergroup differentiation in attitudes and stereotypes. In Study 1, 24 groups communicated internationally over the Internet in a longitudinal design. Interacting groups, based in 2 different countries, were individuated versus partially unidentifiable, and thus depersonalized. Results indicate that depersonalized groups diverge, or bipolarize, when compared with individuated groups. A follow-up study demonstrated that under depersonalized conditions, individual differences are less salient, whereas group memberships are more salient. In addition, stereotypes were more salient in depersonalized conditions. Results support predictions derived from the social identity model of deindividuation effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the hypothesis that performance in the group situation is inhibited as a result of group members' anticipation that their ideas will be critically evaluated by fellow group members. 152 undergraduates participated in 4-member groups. Ss brainstorming alone were led to anticipate immediate or delayed evaluation regarding either the quality of their ideas or content-free morphemic aspects of their speech. Their performance was compared to performance in group and individual brainstorming control conditions. Results show that the 4 evaluation conditions did not differ significantly among themselves or from the individual control condition, although each of these 5 conditions yielded a significantly higher number of nonoverlapping ideas per 4-person nominal group than the number produced by real 4-member groups. This pattern held for both a socially irrelevant "thumbs" problem and an energy conservation problem. Results suggest that anticipated evaluation does not exert an inhibitory influence on brainstorming productivity. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two experiments with 156 male undergraduates tested the extent to which the identifiability of one's individual output moderates social loafing—the reduction of individual efforts due to the social presence of others. In the 1st stage of Exp I, Ss were asked to produce noise either alone, in groups of 2 and 6, or in pseudogroups where Ss actually shouted alone but believed that 1 or 5 other people were shouting with them. As in previous research, Ss exerted less effort when they thought that they were shouting in groups than when they shouted alone. In the 2nd stage, the same Ss were led to believe that their outputs would be identifiable even when they cheered in groups. This manipulation eliminated social loafing. Exp II demonstrated that when individual outputs were always identifiable (even in groups), Ss consistently exerted high levels of effort, and if their outputs were never identifiable (even when alone), they consistently exerted low levels of effort across all group sizes. Results suggest that identifiability is an important mediator of social loafing. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A theory developed to account for behavior in social dilemmas—situations in which the rational pursuit of self-interest can lead to collective disaster—was applied to the analysis of group motivation losses. Two group motivation loss effects demonstrated in previous research, the social-loafing effect and the free-rider effect, are shown to follow from social dilemma theories. An experiment with 75 undergraduates was performed to empirically demonstrate a 3rd motivation loss effect, termed the "sucker" effect. It was hypothesized that group members would reduce their efforts if they had a capable partner who free-rode on their efforts, that is, who was capable of contributing to the group but would not. This prediction was confirmed. The effect was particularly strong in males. Potential remedies for such motivation losses are discussed. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent work (e.g., S. Harkins; see PA, Vol 75:20027; K. Szymanski and Harkins; see PA, Vol 75:7410) has suggested that social loafing occurs because participants' outputs cannot be evaluated by the experimenter, by the coactors, or by the participants themselves. This analysis had focused on the output of the individual, but in loafing research, participants work together to produce a group product. However, in this prior work participants have been unable to make anything of this group product, because no standard of comparison has been made available. Several recent formulations (e.g., G. Goethals and J. Darley, 1987) have suggested that the potential for group evaluation could motivate performance. Testing this hypothesis in 2 experiments, 1 using an optimizing task and the other a maximizing task, we found that providing a standard that allowed the "group" to evaluate its performance eliminated the loafing effect. The implications of these findings for current theories of group evaluation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the prediction that on difficult tasks (on which high levels of drive result in poor performance) working collectively would result in improved performance. A direct comparison of the methodologies of the social facilitation and social loafing paradigms was used. 48 undergraduate students were involved in the manipulation of 3 group conditions (alone, co-worker, and collective). The tasks involved 2 difficulty levels of computer mazes. Results indicate that Ss tended to perform better individually on simple tasks but better collectively on difficult tasks. Implications for integrating findings in social loafing and social facilitation are discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research has shown that Ss taking part in either physical or cognitive tasks alone and/or in groups put out less effort in groups, an effect called "social loafing." This loafing can be eliminated by telling Ss that their individual outputs can be identified even when they perform in groups. In 4 experiments with 304 undergraduates, the authors demonstrated that loafing can also be reduced either by increasing the difficulty (challenge) of the task or by giving each S a different task to perform. Despite the fact that these Ss felt as unidentifiable as Ss working on the typical loafing task, they performed as well as Ss with identifiable outputs. It is concluded that when Ss perceive that they can make a unique contribution to a group effort, social loafing is reduced even if individual contributions remain unidentifiable. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A series of studies examined the role of social influence processes in group brainstorming. Two studies with pairs and 1 with groups of 4 revealed that the performance of participants in interactive groups is more similar than the performance of those in nominal groups. A 4th study demonstrated that performance levels in an initial group session predicted performance on a different problem 2 sessions later. In a 5th study it was found that the productivity gap between an interactive and nominal group could be eliminated by giving interactive group members a performance standard comparable with the typical performance of nominal groups. These studies indicate that performance levels in brainstorming groups are strongly affected by exposure to information about the performance of others. It is proposed that social matching of low performance levels by interactive group members may be an important factor in the productivity loss observed in group brainstorming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The study extends research on the Proteus effect by demonstrating that avatars can prime negative attitudes and cognition in desktop virtual settings. Experiment 1 shows that, after virtual group discussions, participants using black-cloaked avatars developed more aggressive intentions and attitudes but less group cohesion than those using white-cloaked avatars. In Experiment 2, individual participants using a Ku Klux Klan (KKK)-associated avatar created more aggressive Thematic Apperception Test stories in comparison to a control group. Participants using the KKK avatar also wrote less affiliative stories in comparison to those employing avatars dressed as doctors. Overall, the resulting pattern of activation of negative thoughts (i.e., aggression) coupled with the inhibition of inconsistent thoughts (i.e., cohesion, affiliation) is consistent with principles of current priming models and provides initial evidence for automatic cognitive priming in virtual settings.
Virtual environments allow individuals to dramatically alter their self-representation. More important, studies have shown that people infer their expected behaviors and attitudes from observing their avatar's appearance, a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect. For example, users given taller avatars negotiated more aggressively than users given shorter avatars. Two studies are reported here that extend our understanding of this effect. The first study extends the work beyond laboratory settings to an actual online community. It was found that both the height and attractiveness of an avatar in an online game were significant predictors of the player's performance. In the second study, it was found that the behavioral changes stemming from the virtual environment transferred to subsequent face-to-face interactions. Participants were placed in an immersive virtual environment and were given either shorter or taller avatars. They then interacted with a confederate for about 15 minutes. In addition to causing a behavioral difference within the virtual environment, the authors found that participants given taller avatars negotiated more aggressively in subsequent face-to-face interactions than participants given shorter avatars. Together, these two studies show that our virtual bodies can change how we interact with others in actual avatar-based online communities as well as in subsequent face-to-face interactions.
This research draws on the social identity approach to investigate group performance in face-to-face and virtual brainstorming settings. In particular, we display Social Identity Cues (SIC) on participants or on avatars to foster group membership. We compare four conditions in a factorial design: Brainstorming in Face-to-face or Virtual setting, With or Without SIC. Seventy-two students belonging to a population with a strong social identity participated in the experiment, using their traditional clothing as SIC. The results show that the presence of SIC led to increased creative performance both in face-to-face and virtual settings. SIC also increased group identification, but only in the virtual environment. These results highlight the potential of avatars to support teamwork in a meaningful way.
An important challenge today is to support creativity while enabling geographically distant people to work together. In line with the componential theory of creativity, self-perception theory and recent research on the Proteus Effect, we investigate how avatars, which are virtual representations of the self, may be a medium for stimulating creativity. For this purpose, we conducted two studies with a population of engineering students. In the first study, 114 participants responded to online surveys in order to identify what a creative avatar may look like. This enabled us to select avatars representing inventors, which were perceived as creative by engineering students, and neutral avatars. In the second study, 54 participants brainstormed in groups of 3, in 3 different conditions: in a control face-to-face situation, in a virtual environment while embodying neutral avatars and in a virtual environment with inventor avatars. The results show that inventor avatars led to higher performance in fluency and originality of ideas. Moreover, this benefit proved to endure over time since participants allocated to inventor avatars also performed better in a subsequent face-to-face brainstorming. The prospects of using avatars for enhancing creativity-relevant processes are discussed in terms of theoretical and applicative implications.
Organizational Identity presents the classic works on organizational identity alongside more current thinking on the issues. Ranging from theoretical contributions to empirical studies, the readings in this volume address the key issues of organizational identity, and show how these issues have developed through contributions from such diverse fields of study as sociology, psychology, management studies and cultural studies. The readings examine questions such as how organizations understand who they are, why organizations develop a sense of identity and belonging where the boundaries of identity lie and the implications of postmodern and critical theories' challenges to the concept of identity as deeply-rooted and authentic. Includes work by: Stuart Albert, Mats Alvesson, Blake E. Ashforth, Marilynn B. Brewer, George Cheney, Lars Thoger Christensen, C.H. Cooley, Kevin G. Corley, Barbara Czarniawska, Janet M. Dukerich, Jane E. Dutton, Kimberly D. Elsbach, Wendi Gardner, Linda E. Ginzela, Dennis A. Gioia, E. Goffman, Karen Golden-Biddle, Mary Jo Hatch, Roderick M. Kramer, Fred Rael, G.H. Mead, Michael G. Pratt, Anat Rafaeli, Hayagreeva Rao, Majken Schultz, Howard S. Schwartz, Robert I. Sutton, Henri Taijfel, John Turner, David A. Wherren, and Hugh Willmott. Intended to provide easy access to this material for students of organizational identity, it will also be of interest more broadly to students of business, sociology and psychology.
Comparability of performances within four-person groups was manipulated in a brainstorming task. Crossed with this manipulation of evaluation potential, participants' outputs either were individually identifiable or were pooled. Replicating previous social-loafing research (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979), when outputs were identifiable, participants generated more uses than when their outputs were pooled. However, this difference emerged only when participants believed that their individual outputs could be evaluated through comparison with their co-workers' performances. When participants believed that their individual outputs were not comparable and thus could not be evaluated, there was no difference in the number of uses generated by participants whose outputs were identifiable and those whose outputs were pooled. These data suggest that to eliminate social loafing participants must feel not only that their outputs are individually identifiable as suggested by Williams, Harkins, and Latane (1981), but also that these outputs can be evaluated through comparison with the outputs of their co-workers.
Two studies aimed to examine an overlooked question in brainstorming research, comparing the effects on performance and attention to the ideas of other group members of 2 idea-generation techniques based on a pooling approach: electronic brainstorming (EBS) and brainwriting (BWr). The results demonstrate that the pooling approach, which is a major feature of EBS, is more effective for EBS than for BWr, and also leads to greater perceived satisfaction with EBS (Study 1). However, if the EBS is forced into a system whereby extra effort is required to see the other participants’ ideas (Study 2), the “superiority effect” disappears. These findings suggest ways of optimizing creativity in groups from the perspective of applied
social psychology.
We designed a tabletop brainwriting interface to examine the effects of time pressure and social pressure on the creative performance. After positioning this study with regard to creativity research and human activity in dynamic environments, we present our interface and experiment. Thirty-two participants collaborated (by groups of four) on the tabletop brainwriting task under four conditions of time pressure and two conditions of social pressure. The results show that time pressure increased the quantity of ideas produced and, to some extent, increased the originality of ideas. However, it also deteriorated user experience. Besides, social pressure increased quantity of ideas as well as motivation, but decreased collaboration. We discuss the implications for creativity research and Human–Computer Interaction. Anyhow, our results suggest that the Press factor, operationalized by Time- or Social-pressure, should be considered as a powerful lever to enhance the effectiveness of creative problem solving methods.
This brainstorming experiment assessed the extent to which idea exposure produced cognitive stimulation and social comparison effects. One hundred and sixty participants were exposed to either a high or low number of common or unique ideas. The participants’ likelihood of engaging in social comparison processes (high or low) was also manipulated through instructional sets. The results indicated both cognitive stimulation and social comparison effects. Exposure to a high number of ideas and to common ideas enhanced the generation of additional ideas. The effects of exposure to a high number of ideas was greater under high than under low social comparison conditions. Finally, recall of exposed ideas was related to enhanced idea generation. These results are consistent with the social/cognitive influence model of group brainstorming (Paulus, Dugosh, Dzindolet, Putman, & Coskun, 2002).
This article argues that social identities not only populate computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the Internet, but they often thrive there, both by designation (of identity: the cognitive dimension) and by design (the strategic dimension in which identities and their agendas are contested). This means that far from being eliminated in CMC, the group and its effects often shine through in CMC (intragroup cohesiveness and conformity, intergroup contrast, and competition). In terms of status and power differentials this can mean that the power and status relations associated with categories are reinforced, both cognitively, by being tied to the roles and relations associated with these identities, and strategically, by the surveillance which CMC can sometimes bring.
We argue that additional understanding of work motivation can be gained by incorporating current insights concerning self-categorization and social identity processes and by examining the way in which these processes influence the motivation and behavior of individuals and groups at work. This theoretical perspective that focuses on the conditions determining different self-definitions allows us to show how individual and group processes interact to determine work motivation. To illustrate the added value of this approach, we develop some specific propositions concerning motivational processes underpinning leadership and group performance.
This article reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of previous research on productivity loss in brainstorming groups. The following patterns were observed: Generally, brainstorming groups are significantly less productive than nominal groups, in terms of both quantity and quality. Stronger productivity Toss was demonstrated in the context of (a) larger groups, (b) experimenter presence, (c) tape-recorded vocalization of contributions (vs. writing of contributions), and (d) in comparison to a nominal group of truly Alone individuals (vs. a nominal group of Together individuals). These patterns are (a) highly consistent with predictions derived from social psychological explanatory mechanisms, and (b) only marginally consistent with procedural explanatory mechanisms, and (c) highly inconsistent with economic explanatory mechanisms. This article considers the implications of these patterns for the use of, and for future research on, brainstorming.
Research has shown that individuals produce fewer ideas in interactive brainstorming groups than when brainstorming alone. However, group brainstorming remains a popular technique in organizations and industry. One basis for this popularity may be the perceived productivity of group brainstorming. A survey of expected performance in group brainstorming revealed that most individuals believed they would generate more ideas in groups than alone. Individuals who, in a second experiment, actually performed in brainstorming groups also perceived their performance more favorably than individuals who brainstormed alone. The results of a third experiment indicate that the illusion of group productivity may derive in part from the opportunity for social comparison that is available in group brainstorming. It also appears that individuals tend to take credit for a disproportionate amount of the brainstorming activity in groups.
The illusion of group effectivity refers to the belief, persistent despite contradictory empirical evidence, that groups can stimulate creativity. This article uses unpublished data from the authors' research on brainstorming to illustrate the illusion of group effectivity and then presents a theoretical interpretation of this illusion based on two assumptions: (a) People are motivated to view their own performance in a positive light. (b) People who generate ideas in groups have difficulty in differentiating between own and others' ideas. They are therefore more prone to this self-serving bias than persons who work individually. In an experiment conducted to test these hypotheses, subjects who had brainstormed either in groups or individually were presented with the set of ideas produced by their nominal or real groups and asked to identify the ideas they had suggested and those that had occurred to them. Results were generally consistent with the hypotheses.
The high productivity of electronic brainstorming groups has been attributed to several factors, one of which is anonymity. The authors assessed the role of anonymity by randomly assigning brainstorming groups to one offour conditions: anonymous electronic, nonanonymous electronic, verbal, and nominal. The authors found some evidence that more controversial ideas were produced by members of anonymous electronic groups than by members of the other groups. The authors also found clear evidence that anonymous brainstorming groups produced more nonredundant ideas than did nonanonymous brainstorming groups.
The two volumes of The Social Dimension present a comprehensive survey of the major developments in social psychology which took place in Europe during the very active 1970s and 1980s. They aim to capture the diversity and vitality of the discipline, stress the growing emphasis on fully social analyses of social psychological phenomena - hence 'the social dimension' - and to provide a valuable resource for researchers in the future. Although comprehensive in scope, the volumes are not written in the formal style of a reference handbook. Instead, the authors of the thirty-three chapters, drawn from more than a dozen mainly European countries and all experts in their own fields, were invited to present their own personal overviews of the issues in social psychology on which they were actively working. Both volumes are organized into three main Parts. Volume 1 is concerned with the social development of the child, interpersonal communication and relationships, and the social reality, group processes, and intergroup relations. This ambitious enterprise has produced a distinctive yet authoritative summary and evaluation of the growth points of social psychology in Europe which will interest and influence not only social psychologists but many readers from related disciplines.
Why do interactive brainstorming groups perform so much worse than individuals working as nominal groups? This was the original question, which stimulated three decades of research, as described in this chapter. Three different phases in brainstorming research can be distinguished, each of which answered a new question. In Phase 1, interactive brainstorming groups were compared with nominal groups with respect to the quantity of ideas produced, and production blocking (having to take turns to express ideas) was identified as the major cause of productivity loss. But why did production blocking have such devastating effects on idea generation? To answer this question, a cognitive model was developed and tested in Phase 2. Blocking was shown to lead to cognitive interference. But at the same time, evidence indicated that exchanging ideas could have cognitive stimulation effects. This opened the possibility that with blocking effects removed, exposure to the ideas of others could increase idea quality as well as quantity. Therefore, in Phase 3, research attention shifted to idea quality. It was found that a deep exploration of categories of ideas led to higher idea originality. To assess whether participants were able to identify their best ideas, we added idea selection to idea generation and found that people prefer ideas that are feasible to those that are original. The outcomes of each of these phases have implications for work in other areas, including group performance, human memory, and creativity. These implications, as well as the implications for practice, are discussed.
Group members faced with the free riding problem may exit from the group as an individualistic solution to the problem. The prediction that group members, especially those whose contributions to the group task are high, would exit from the group more often as the cost for exit becomes smaller was successfully tested in an experiment using 40 three-person task groups. In addition, the effects of cultural collectivism on the exit response were predicted and tested by comparing American and Japanese subjects. It was argued that cultural collectivism among the Japanese is sustained by the system of mutual monitoring and sanctioning among group members so that free riding would be a more serious problem among the Japanese when mutual monitoring and sanctioning is removed. This leads to a prediction, which is opposite to the notion of strong group orientation of the Japanese, that Japanese subjects would exit from the group more often in the experimental group lacking opportunities for mutual monitoring and sanctioning. The results of the experiment supported this prediction.
Darwinism provides not only a theory of biological evolution but also supplies a more generic process applicable to many phenomena in the behavioral sciences. Among these applications is the blind-variation and selective-retention model of creativity proposed by Campbell (1960). Research over the past 4 decades lends even more support to Campbell's model. This support is indicated by reviewing the experimental, psychometric, and historiometric literature on creativity. Then 4 major objections to the Darwinian model are examined (sociocultural determinism, individual volition, human rationality, and domain expertise). The article concludes by speculating whether the Darwinian model may actually subsume all alternative theories of creativity as special cases of the larger framework.
This book presents a new theory of the social group which seeks to explain how individuals become unified into a group and capable of collective behaviour.
The book summarizes classic psychological theories of the group, describes and explains the important effects of group membership on social behaviour, outlines self-categorization theory in full and shows how the general perspective has been applied in research on group formation and cohesion, social influence, the polarization of social attitudes, crowd psychology and social stereotyping. The theory emerges as a fundamental new contribution to social psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Advances a social-cognitive theory of the human social group with respect to group formation, the cognitive salience of group membership, and motivational biases for positive self-esteem. It is argued that psychological group membership is more a matter of shared self-definition (i.e., social identification) than cohesive interpersonal relationships and that social categorizations can be internalized as cognitive structures in self conception. When functioning, their basic consequence is the stereotypical minimization of individual differences and the enhancement of perceptual interchangeability between the self and members of the same social category. This consequence produces the distinctive features of intragroup relations, such as mutual cohesiveness, cooperativeness, and uniformity. It is hypothesized that group behavior and relationships are mediated by a cognitive redefinition of the self in terms of shared social category memberships and associated stereotypes. The group was thought of as an adaptive psychological mechanism for "depersonalizing" individual behavior. Commentaries to this approach, as well as the present author's responses, are subsequently submitted. (French abstract) (74 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The purpose of the present research was to show how social identity theory can be applied to enhance individual productivity within groups. Three experiments manipulated in-group identifiability and importance of the group for one's social identity, and compared individual's productivity when working alone to when working in a group setting. The group setting in the first study involved either a collective of unrelated individuals, a group of participants expecting future interaction, or a group working for a group reward. The second study compared productivity in groups with four differing interdependent reward structures. The final study examine the impact of group members wearing a common uniform (vs. no uniform) and the presence (or absence) of an out-group. Results supported the general prediction that group productivity would be enhanced by factors that increase group categorization and the importance of the group to members' social identities (future interaction, interdependent reward structure and uniform/out-group present). However, productivity in groups was not influenced by perceptions of the task or identifiability of performance. These findings extend social identity theory by suggesting that group members will increase their in-group position through individual work efforts.
Two experiments investigated if and how visual representation of interactants affects depersonalization and conformity to group norms in anonymous computer-mediated communication (CMC). In Experiment 1, a 2 (intergroup versus interpersonal) × 2 (same character versus different character) between-subjects design experiment (N= 60), each participant made a decision about social dilemmas after seeing two other (ostensible) participants’ unanimous opinions and then exchanged supporting arguments. Consistent with the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE), when the group level of self-identity was rendered salient in an intergroup encounter, uniform virtual appearance of CMC partners triggered depersonalization and subsequent conformity behavior. By contrast, when the personal dimension of the self was salient, standardized representation tended to reduce conformity. To elucidate the mediation process, Experiment 2 investigated the causal links between depersonalization, group identification, and conformity. The results show that depersonalization accentuated adherence to group norms, both directly and indirectly via group identification.