Motivation in Groups

MOTIVATIONS FOR AFFILIATION AND GROUP FORMATION
1. NEED TO BELONG
  1. BAUMEISTER AND LEARY - 1995 - human beings have a basic and overwhelming need to belong, which causes them to join groups. the need to belong and be part of a group has been a critical topic since the early 1900s. being successfully connected to other human beings interpersonally or in groups produces a powerul and highly rewarding sense of self-esteem and self-worth
  2. FREUD - 1930
  3. MASLOW - 1968 - hierarchy of needs, with self-actualisation at the top of the pyramid, esteem needs, then belonging needs.
2. TAJEL & TURNER - 1979 - SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY - the individual's knowledge that he / she belongs to a certain social group together with some emotional and value significance to him. when thinking in terms of their groups, people categorise themselves as group members. e.g. INGROUPS or OUTGROUPS, belong to or not.
  1. SOCIAL IDENTITY is the part of the self concept that derives from group membership, influences an individuals attitudes and behaviour. can have a personal identity (I, me) or a social identity (we, us)
  2. TAJFEL ET AL - 1971 - MINIMAL GROUP PARADIGM - belief similarity increased favouritism. attitudinally similar individuals were liked more than dissimilar individuals. TAJFEL separated people into two groups based on their preference towards a painting by KLEE or one by KANDINSKY. the children strongly favoured their own group, they adopted the ingroup favouritism strategy. this finding was rather SURPRISING as groups criterion were indeed minimal. subsequent experiments were even more minimal such as BILLIG AND TAJFEL - 1973 - where people were split into groups X and Y, so people wouldn't infer they were interpersonally similar.
  3. PROBLEMS WITH SOCIAL IDENTITY - sometimes identification with an in group may lead to low self-esteem such as JANE ELLIOT's blue eyes / brown eyes experiment. IN ADDITION - the social idenity theory did not fully develop and layout what motivates people to identify with groups.
3. THE SELF-ESTEEM HYPOTHESIS - ABRAMS AND HOGG - 1988 - intergroup discrimination enhances social identity and elevates self-esteem. the more a group is positively differentiated from an outgroup, the more self-esteem is enhanced. people have A MOTIVATIONAL NEED FOR POSITIVE SELF ESTEEM.
  1. people have a need to belong and when there are greater feelings of inclusion within a group, there should be higher levels of self-esteem according to the self-esteem hypothesis. researchers have found that self-esteem has cross-cultural generality, even though there are differences in eastern / western ways of expressing self-esteem. (KITAYAMA - 1997)
    1. SOCIOMETER MODEL OF SELF-ESTEEM - LEARY AND DOWNS - 1995 - self-esteem is a gauge of the degree to which one is being accepted versus rejected by others. In addition, self-esteem is a reflection of successful social connectedness. social exclusion from a group depressed participants self-esteem.
      1. ERIK ERIKSON - 1963 - SELF-DEVELOPMENT occurs during adolescence and is an ongoing process throughout life.
        self- knowledge comes from socialisation, reflected appraisal (observing the reactions others have to us), feedback from others, social comparison, envrionmenal distinctiveness, and social identity.
      2. the sociometer theory of self-esteem is a theory from an evolutionary perspective that states self-esteem is gauged by interpersonal relations. FOR EXAMPLE, the need for interpersonal relationships at the beginning of the human species as those in groups had higher survival. IN ADDITION - LEARY - 1999 - self-esteem is a gauge that monitors interactions between people and sends signals to tell the person how socially acceptable their behaviours are.
        THE NEED TO BELONG - BAUMEISTER AND LEARY rooted in evolution and natural selection.
        CROZIER - 2004 - BLUSHING - to show others that we have misstepped socially.
  2. LONELINESS - EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL - membership in groups reduces both types of loneliness
4. TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY - individuals are more likely to perceive members of their own group more favourably than members of other groups after reflecting upon their own death - SOLOMON ET AL., - 2004.
  1. NELSON ET AL - 1997 - MORTALITY SALIENCE (awareness of one's own eventual death) has been shown to amplify nationalism.
  2. JONAS ET AL., - 2011 - MORTALITY SALIENCE INCREASES IN-GROUP LOYALTY. for example, MORTALITY SALIENCE in university staff elicited positive evaluations of the university logo and slogan.
  3. RINDFLEISCH, BURROUGHS, AND WONG - 2009 - MORTALITY SALIENCE increases brand loyalty. asked to identify the brands they used and the degree of commitment to them, mortality salience increased brand commitment and loyalty to only those that valued materialism.
5. UNCERTAINTY IDENTITY THEORY - HOGG - 2000 - uncertainty motivates people to identify and defend their groups. social identify processes are motivated by uncertainty reduction. we need to know what to expect from other people in order to make life predictable. group identification is a highly effective way of reducing uncertainty. people do not identify with groups unless they are motivated to do so due to uncertainty - GRIEVE AND HOGG - 1999.
  1. SHERIF - 1936 - uncertainty translates into conformity and connection to groups. when people are uncertain about a task, they become more likely to comply with norms of a group.
  2. FESTINGER - 1954 - when people are uncertain, they look to others to determine reactions / performance - SOCIAL COMPARISON
  3. DEUTSCH AND GERARD - 1955 - groups reduce uncertainty, idea formulated first by these two.
  4. HOGG - 2007 - we can plan and predict our and others behaviours due to belonging in a group.
  5. MURRAY AND SCHALLER - 2012 - uncertainty increases conformity
  6. HOGG, ADELMAN, BLAGG - 2010 - religious affiliations are successful at reducing uncertainty. IN ADDITION - LAURIN, KAY AND MOSCOVITCH - 2008 - when people receive info that events are random, they are more inclined to believe events are controlled by a God.
6. SOCIAL OSTRACISM - WILLIAMS - 2000 - being ignored or excluded. OSTRACISM THREATENS four main needs, BELONGING, CONTROL, SELF-ESTEEM, MEANINGFUL EXISTENCE. there are several reactions to ostracism, immediate (pain), short-term (regain needs) and long-term (learned helplessness)

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Motivation in Groups

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	Created by becky.waine almost 11 years ago