Craig D Parks - Group Performance And Interaction

Groups are all around us. We all belong to groupsbe it work groups, family groups, play groups, political groups, and so on. It is our good fortune that the publication of this book coincides with the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of group research. In 1898, Norman Triplett initiated this subject of research with his study of bicycle racers (see ), and since that time research on groups has been a growing, dynamic, and exciting area of study. The focus of this volume is on group performance and interaction. Of course, as with any topic as extensive as group performance and interaction, we have by no means exhausted the range of issues that could potentially fit under this umbrella. However, we have tried to focus on some of the major topics and on some exciting new developments that we believe have not received adequate coverage in previous volumes.

Group performance and interaction is an interesting and fundamental area of study, with an unabashedly social flavor. Over the years, the specific topics of focal interest to group researchers have waxed and waned. Steiner (1974, 1983, 1986), for instance, has written several interesting analyses of factors related to the activity level in the area of group research. Moreland, Hogg, and Hains (1994) have suggested that an interest in group research is in fact on the increase in recent years, and Sanna and Parks (1997) have pointed out that interest in group research has taken hold within many areas of psychology. Because of this, we would venture to speculate that the study of groups will never become a dormant interest to psychologists and researchers and theorists in other areas. It deals with a whole range of intriguing questions about how people are influenced by the groups to which they belong, or with whom they are interacting, and how these groups in turn might be influenced by their members. What is the experience of being in a group? What types of influences might groups have? What are the influences of groups on decisionmaking and performance? What are the implications of being in groups for applied settings, such as workplaces, juries, or airline cockpits? These are just a few examples of some of the many issues that are represented in Group Performance and Interation. Thus, although the specific topics of focal interest to group researchers may have changed as the years have passed and will likely continue to do so, we believe that the general enthusiasm for group performance and interaction issues will remain constant.

Although undoubtedly there are many other ways in which we could have organized this book, we have chosen to do so in the context of three main sections or parts; these are depicted in , we focus on some basic influence processes that may occur when people are part of, or are interacting with, a group. This chapter is divided into two main parts, each dealing with a description of how people can influence, and can be influenced by, other group members. Several models of group influence have been proposed, which focus variously on group members as both sources and targets of influence (e.g., Knowles, 1978; Latane, 1981; Mullen, 1983; Tanford & Penrod, 1984). Each of these models focuses on the influence of the number of present group members, their closeness, and their strength, either individually or in some combination. In the second part of this chapter, we focus on some dual process models of group influence, which attempt to address the relationships between majority and minority influence. In groups, there is a push for consensus, information can be shared and categorized, and so on (e.g., Crano, 1994; Thibaut & Kelley, 1959). We have chosen to include these topics at the beginning of our book because these issues are relevant to virtually all aspects of group life and thus are presumed to be operative in behaviors discussed in each of our following chapters.

, we begin to examine specific performance issues. The social facilitation effect, as it has come to be known, represents an important group phenomenon, as it tests the effects of perhaps the most minimal of social conditions. Social facilitation researchers have tried to assess a contrast between performances when alone versus performances when audiences or coworkers are present. We describe and discuss several intriguing theories on this issue as well as research that has been designed to test performance differences (e.g., Baron, 1986; Cottrell, 1972; Zajonc, 1965).