1. What are the major factors underlying how groups make decisions? Illustrate your answer with respect to social loafing, group decision-making, group polarization/‘groupthink’ and brainstorming.

Key Points:

• Most groups exist to get things done, including making decisions and collaborating on group projects.
• Potential group gains in effectiveness and creativity seem to be offset by negative characteristics of group performance.

• Individual motivation can suffer in groups.
• The concept of social loafing and its characteristics.

• Reaching a collective decision.
• The type of rule that is adopted can affect both the group atmosphere and the decision-making process.
• Juries provide an ideal context for research on decision schemes.

• Popular opinion and research on conformity both suggest that groups are conservative and cautious entities, and that they exclude extremes by a process of averaging; two phenomena that challenge this view are group polarization and groupthink.

• A popular method of harnessing group potential is brainstorming; the lack of face-to-face interaction minimizes production blocking.
• Extra credit given for mention of Stroebe and Diehl’s 1994 research into brainstorming and ‘production blocking’.