According to Zajonc's drive theory of social facilitation, the presence of an audience will most likely:

Improve performance on a well-learned task and impair it on a new, complex task

Have no effect unless the audience evaluates the performer

Improve performance on a well-learned task and impair it on a new, complex task

Improve performance on all tasks

Impair performance on all tasks

In Heider's balance theory, P likes O, O dislikes X, and P dislikes X. The P–O–X triad is:

Balanced, because the product of the signs is positive

Imbalanced, because two relations are negative

Neither, because balance applies only to three positive relations

Imbalanced, because P and O disagree

Tajfel's minimal group experiments showed that:

Mere categorisation into trivial groups is enough to produce in-group favouritism

Competition for scarce resources is necessary for intergroup bias

Contact between groups always reduces prejudice

Mere categorisation into trivial groups is enough to produce in-group favouritism

Obedience to authority increases with proximity to the victim

In Sherif's Robbers Cave study, hostility between the Eagles and the Rattlers was reduced most effectively by:

Superordinate goals that required the groups to cooperate

Simple social contact at meals and films

Separating the two groups completely

Assertion (A): In Fiedler's contingency model, a task-oriented (low-LPC) leader is most effective in very favourable or very unfavourable situations. Reason (R): Transformational leadership involves idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which of the following are symptoms of groupthink described by Janis? Select all that apply.

Systematic search for alternative courses of action

Social Psychology II: Social Facilitation and Loafing; Conformity, Peer Pressure, Persuasion, Compliance, Obedience, Social Power and Reactance; Aggression; Group Dynamics and Leadership; Theories of Intergroup Relations; and Applied Social Psychology

The rest of Unit 8 reads: "Group and Social influence [Social Facilitation; Social loafing]; Social influence [Conformity, Peer Pressure, Persuasion, Compliance, Obedience, Social Power, Reactance]. Aggression. Group dynamics, leadership style and effectiveness. Theories of intergroup relations [Minimal Group Experiment and Social Identity Theory, Relative Deprivation Theory, Realistic Conflict Theory, Balance Theories, Equity Theory, Social Exchange Theory]. Applied social psychology: Health, Environment and Law; Personal space, crowding, and territoriality." This chapter gives each form of influence its classic experiment and figures, sets the theories of aggression and leadership side by side, and explains the six intergroup theories the document names — with a worked equity calculation and a balance-theory triad.

1. Social facilitation and social loafing

Social facilitation: the presence of others improves performance on some tasks and impairs it on others. Robert Zajonc (1965) resolved the contradiction with drive theory: the presence of others raises arousal, which strengthens the dominant response — correct on simple or well-learned tasks, incorrect on complex or new ones. Even cockroaches ran a simple runway faster, and a complex maze slower, with an audience of cockroaches (1969). Cottrell attributed the arousal to evaluation apprehension, and Baron to distraction–conflict.

Social loafing is the reduction of individual effort when working collectively. Max Ringelmann found that each person pulled less hard on a rope as the group grew, and Latané, Williams and Harkins (1979) found the same with clapping and shouting. Loafing falls when individual contributions are identifiable, the task is meaningful, the group is cohesive, and each member's input is seen as necessary (Karau and Williams's collective effort model, 1993); it is weaker in collectivist cultures (Earley, 1989), and some members show social compensation, working harder when they expect teammates to fail.

2. Social influence: conformity, compliance, obedience, power and reactance

Forms of social influence
Form	Classic evidence
Conformity	Sherif (1935): in the ambiguous autokinetic situation, individual estimates converged on a group norm (informational influence). Asch (1951, 1956): with an unambiguous line-judgement task and unanimous wrong confederates, participants conformed on about a third of critical trials, and about three-quarters conformed at least once; a single dissenting ally sharply reduced conformity, and group size mattered little beyond three or four. Deutsch and Gerard (1955) distinguished informational influence (wanting to be right) from normative influence (wanting to be liked).
Minority influence and peer pressure	Moscovici (1969): a consistent minority calling blue slides "green" shifted majority judgements and produced private conversion rather than mere public compliance. Peer pressure peaks in early and middle adolescence and drives both risky and prosocial behaviour.
Compliance	Foot-in-the-door (Freedman and Fraser, 1966): agreeing to a small request increases later agreement to a large one. Door-in-the-face (Cialdini, 1975): refusing an extreme request increases agreement to a moderate one. Low-ball: a commitment is secured, then its terms are worsened. Cialdini's principles: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.
Obedience	Milgram (1963): about 65 per cent of participants, instructed by an experimenter, continued to the maximum 450-volt "shock". Obedience fell when the victim was closer, the experimenter was absent or less legitimate, or peers refused. Hofling's hospital study (1966) found most nurses ready to give an overdose ordered by an unknown doctor by telephone.
Social power	French and Raven (1959): reward, coercive, legitimate, expert and referent power, with informational power added by Raven.
Reactance	Jack Brehm (1966): when a freedom is threatened, people are motivated to restore it, often by doing the forbidden thing — the "boomerang effect" of heavy-handed persuasion and censorship.

⚠️ Informational or normative?

In Sherif's ambiguous task people conformed because they did not know the answer (informational, producing private acceptance). In Asch's clear task they knew the answer and conformed to avoid standing out (normative, mostly public compliance). When participants answered privately in Asch-type studies, conformity fell sharply.

3. Aggression, group dynamics and leadership

Aggression is behaviour intended to harm another who wishes to avoid it; it is hostile (an end in itself, driven by anger) or instrumental (a means to another goal). Theories: instinct (Freud's death instinct; Lorenz's innate fighting instinct); the frustration–aggression hypothesis (Dollard and colleagues, 1939), revised by Berkowitz's cognitive neo-associationist model, in which frustration produces negative affect that primes aggression, strengthened by aggressive cues such as weapons (the "weapons effect"); social learning (Bandura's Bobo-doll studies); Zillmann's excitation transfer; and Anderson and Bushman's general aggression model. Biological contributors include testosterone, low serotonin and amygdala activity; situational ones include heat, alcohol, provocation and media violence. Catharsis — venting to reduce aggression — is not supported; venting tends to increase it.

Group development (Tuckman, 1965): forming, storming, norming and performing, with adjourning added in 1977. Groups have norms, roles, status and cohesiveness; communication networks (wheel, chain, circle) differ in speed and member satisfaction.
Groupthink (Janis, 1972): highly cohesive, insulated groups under a directive leader seek consensus at the cost of realistic appraisal — symptoms include the illusion of invulnerability, collective rationalisation, stereotyping of outsiders, pressure on dissenters, self-censorship, the illusion of unanimity and self-appointed "mindguards" (the Bay of Pigs). Group polarisation: discussion moves a group toward a more extreme version of its initial leaning (the "risky shift", Stoner, 1961). Deindividuation: anonymity in groups weakens self-restraint.

Leadership style and effectiveness
Approach to leadership	Key ideas
Styles (Lewin, Lippitt and White, 1939)	In boys' clubs, autocratic leadership produced high output under supervision but hostility and dependence; democratic leadership produced good output, originality and satisfaction; laissez-faire produced the least and poorest work.
Behavioural	Ohio State: initiating structure and consideration; Michigan: task- versus employee-oriented; Blake and Mouton's managerial grid (9,9 "team management" as the ideal; 1,1 impoverished; 9,1 authority–compliance; 1,9 country club; 5,5 middle of the road).
Contingency	Fiedler (1967): effectiveness depends on the match between the leader's style (the least-preferred co-worker, LPC, score) and situational favourableness (leader–member relations, task structure, position power) — task-oriented, low-LPC leaders do best in very favourable or very unfavourable situations, relationship-oriented, high-LPC leaders in moderate ones. Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership (telling, selling, participating, delegating by follower readiness); House's path–goal theory.
Transformational and indigenous	Burns and Bass: transformational leadership (idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration) versus transactional leadership (contingent reward); J. B. P. Sinha's nurturant-task leader, who combines task orientation with nurturance, suited to Indian organisations.

4. Theories of intergroup relations

The six intergroup theories named in the syllabus
Theory	Claim and evidence
Minimal group experiment and social identity theory	Tajfel and colleagues (1971) divided schoolboys into groups on a trivial basis (preference for paintings by Klee or Kandinsky); with no interaction or conflict of interest, they still favoured their in-group in allocating rewards, even sacrificing absolute gain to maximise the difference. Social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979): social categorisation, social identification and social comparison lead people to seek positive distinctiveness for their group; a threatened identity is handled by social mobility, social creativity or social competition.
Relative deprivation theory	Discontent depends on the gap between what people have and what they feel entitled to by comparison with others, not on absolute deprivation (Stouffer's The American Soldier, 1949: better-promoted air corps men were less satisfied with promotion than military police). Runciman distinguished egoistic (personal) from fraternalistic (group) deprivation — the latter drives collective protest; Davies's J-curve links revolution to a sudden reversal after rising expectations.
Realistic conflict theory	Intergroup hostility arises from competition for scarce resources. Sherif's Robbers Cave study (1954): two groups of boys (the Eagles and the Rattlers) became hostile during competitive games, and hostility was reduced not by mere contact but by superordinate goals that required cooperation.
Balance theory	Heider (1958): in a P–O–X triad (a person, another person and an object), the system is balanced when the product of the three relations' signs is positive, and imbalance motivates change. If P likes O (+), O likes X (+) but P dislikes X (−), the product is negative — imbalanced — and P will tend to change a relation. Newcomb's A–B–X model extended it to communication.
Equity theory	Adams (1965): people compare the ratio of their outcomes to inputs with that of others; inequity is distressing — the under-benefited feel anger, the over-benefited guilt — and people restore equity by changing inputs or outcomes, distorting perceptions or changing the comparison.
Social exchange theory	Homans, Blau, and Thibaut and Kelley (1959): relationships are maintained when rewards exceed costs. Satisfaction depends on outcomes relative to the comparison level (CL — what one expects), and staying depends on outcomes relative to the comparison level for alternatives (CL-alt).

🧠 Equity, worked

Asha works 8 hours and is paid ₹400, a ratio of ₹50 per hour. For Bina, who works 10 hours, to be treated equitably her pay should be 10 × 50 = ₹500. If Bina is paid only ₹400, she is under-benefited and, by Adams's theory, will feel angry and may reduce her effort. Allport's contact hypothesis adds that prejudice falls with contact under equal status, common goals, cooperation and institutional support — the principle of Aronson's jigsaw classroom.

5. Applied social psychology

Health: the health belief model and the theory of planned behaviour predict screening, vaccination and adherence; social support buffers stress; persuasive health messages are framed by gains (for prevention) or losses (for detection).
Environment: Hardin's "tragedy of the commons" (1968) and other social dilemmas; descriptive norms ("most guests reuse their towels") promote pro-environmental behaviour; feedback and commitment reduce energy use.
Law: eyewitness memory is malleable (Loftus); line-up procedures (double-blind administration, fair fillers) reduce mistaken identification; jury decisions show group polarisation and are influenced by defendants' attractiveness and pre-trial publicity.
Personal space (Edward Hall, 1966): the portable bubble around a person, in four zones — intimate (0 to about 45 cm), personal (about 45 cm to 1.2 m), social (about 1.2 to 3.6 m) and public (beyond about 3.6 m) — with cultural variation. Crowding is the subjective feeling of too little space, distinct from physical density (Stokols); Calhoun's overcrowded rats (1962) developed a "behavioural sink" of disrupted behaviour. Territoriality (Altman): primary (a home), secondary (a regular seat in class) and public territories (a park bench), defended with markers.

Key takeaways

Zajonc: the presence of others raises arousal and strengthens dominant responses; social loafing (Ringelmann; Latané) falls when contributions are identifiable and meaningful.
Sherif shows informational and Asch normative conformity; Moscovici minority influence; foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face and low-ball produce compliance; Milgram's 65 per cent obeyed to 450 volts; French and Raven list five (six) bases of power; Brehm's reactance restores threatened freedom.
Aggression is explained by instinct, frustration–aggression (Berkowitz's revision), social learning and the general aggression model; catharsis fails. Groups develop through Tuckman's stages and fall prey to groupthink and polarisation.
Leadership runs from Lewin's autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire styles through the Ohio State and grid models to Fiedler's contingency theory, transformational leadership and Sinha's nurturant-task leader.
Minimal groups and social identity (Tajfel), relative deprivation (Stouffer, Runciman), realistic conflict (Sherif), balance (Heider), equity (Adams) and social exchange (Thibaut and Kelley) explain intergroup relations; applied social psychology covers health, environment, law, personal space, crowding and territoriality.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

According to Zajonc's drive theory of social facilitation, the presence of an audience will most likely:
1. Have no effect unless the audience evaluates the performer
2. Improve performance on a well-learned task and impair it on a new, complex task
3. Improve performance on all tasks
4. Impair performance on all tasks
Show answer
Answer: B — Improve performance on a well-learned task and impair it on a new, complex task
Arousal from others' presence strengthens the dominant response: correct on easy, well-practised tasks and incorrect on difficult, unfamiliar ones. Evaluation apprehension is Cottrell's later refinement, not Zajonc's condition.
A salesperson first asks a customer to accept a free sample, then later asks her to buy a large pack. This compliance technique is:
1. Low-ball
2. Reactance
3. Door-in-the-face
4. Foot-in-the-door
Show answer
Answer: D — Foot-in-the-door
Securing agreement to a small request first and then making a larger one is the foot-in-the-door technique (Freedman and Fraser, 1966). Door-in-the-face starts with a large request that is refused; low-ball worsens terms after commitment.
Asha works 8 hours and is paid ₹400. According to equity theory, how much should Bina, who does the same work for 10 hours, be paid for the two to be treated equitably? Type a number in rupees.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 500
Equity requires equal outcome-to-input ratios: 400 ÷ 8 = ₹50 per hour, so Bina should receive 10 × 50 = ₹500. Paying her less would leave her under-benefited and, by Adams's theory, angry.
In Heider's balance theory, P likes O, O dislikes X, and P dislikes X. The P–O–X triad is:
1. Balanced, because the product of the signs is positive
2. Imbalanced, because two relations are negative
3. Neither, because balance applies only to three positive relations
4. Imbalanced, because P and O disagree
Show answer
Answer: A — Balanced, because the product of the signs is positive
The signs are +, − and −, whose product is positive, so the triad is balanced: P and the liked O agree in disliking X. A triad is imbalanced when the product is negative, for example one or three negative relations.
Tajfel's minimal group experiments showed that:
1. Competition for scarce resources is necessary for intergroup bias
2. Contact between groups always reduces prejudice
3. Mere categorisation into trivial groups is enough to produce in-group favouritism
4. Obedience to authority increases with proximity to the victim
Show answer
Answer: C — Mere categorisation into trivial groups is enough to produce in-group favouritism
Boys grouped by a trivial preference, with no interaction or conflict of interest, still favoured their own group — the basis of social identity theory. Realistic conflict theory, by contrast, locates bias in competition for resources.
Which of the following are bases of social power in French and Raven's original (1959) scheme? Select all that apply.
1. Expert power
2. Charismatic transformation
3. Social loafing
4. Referent power
Show answer
Answer: A — Expert power; D — Referent power
The original five bases are reward, coercive, legitimate, expert and referent power; informational power was added later by Raven. "Charismatic transformation" is not one of the bases, and social loafing is a group-performance effect.
In Sherif's Robbers Cave study, hostility between the Eagles and the Rattlers was reduced most effectively by:
1. More competitive games
2. Superordinate goals that required the groups to cooperate
3. Simple social contact at meals and films
4. Separating the two groups completely
Show answer
Answer: B — Superordinate goals that required the groups to cooperate
Mere contact at shared events often led to more conflict; only goals neither group could reach alone, such as repairing the water supply, reduced hostility — supporting realistic conflict theory.
Assertion (A): In Fiedler's contingency model, a task-oriented (low-LPC) leader is most effective in very favourable or very unfavourable situations. Reason (R): Transformational leadership involves idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both are true but R does not explain A. Fiedler's claim concerns matching LPC style to situational favourableness; the four components of transformational leadership (Bass) are a separate theory.
Which of the following are symptoms of groupthink described by Janis? Select all that apply.
1. Self-censorship of doubts
2. Systematic search for alternative courses of action
3. Illusion of invulnerability
4. Self-appointed mindguards
Show answer
Answer: A — Self-censorship of doubts; C — Illusion of invulnerability; D — Self-appointed mindguards
Invulnerability, self-censorship and mindguards are among Janis's symptoms. A systematic search for alternatives is exactly what groupthink suppresses, and is one of his recommended remedies.
According to Edward Hall, the distance of about 45 cm to 1.2 m, used for conversation with friends, is:
1. Personal distance
2. Public distance
3. Social distance
4. Intimate distance
Show answer
Answer: A — Personal distance
Hall's zones are intimate (up to about 45 cm), personal (about 45 cm to 1.2 m), social (about 1.2 to 3.6 m) and public (beyond about 3.6 m). Friends converse at personal distance.