A quick revision summary of Chapter 7: Social Influence and Group Processes. Read the full notes separately for detailed explanations and examples. Scope: the topics CBSE’s 2026-27 curriculum lists for Unit VII (nature and formation of groups, type of groups, influence of group on individual behaviour: social loafing, group polarisation).
1 What Is a Group?
| Group | Team |
|---|---|
| Performance depends on individual contributions | Both individual + team contribution matter |
| Leader/head holds responsibility | Members hold themselves responsible |
Fig 7.1: football team = group; its audience = mere collection of people.
2 Why Groups Form, and How
| Why people join groups (6) |
|---|
| Security · Status · Self-esteem · Psychological/social needs · Goal achievement · Knowledge and information |
| Group-formation conditions (3) |
|---|
| Proximity · Similarity (2 explanations: consistency-preference, opinion-validation) · Common motives and goals |
3 Tuckman’s 5 Stages
| Stage | One line |
|---|---|
| 1. Forming | Uncertainty about group/goal; excitement + apprehension |
| 2. Storming | Conflict over goal/control/tasks; hierarchy emerges |
| 3. Norming | Shared norms develop; positive group identity |
| 4. Performing | Structure accepted; group moves toward goal |
| 5. Adjourning | For some groups (e.g. a school-function organising committee): may be disbanded once the work ends |
Not always strictly sequential: stages can run together, reverse, or be skipped.
4 Group Structure & Groupthink
| Groupthink (Irving Janis) |
|---|
| What: unanimity overrides realistic appraisal → irrational decisions |
| Favoured by: homogeneous, cohesive, isolated groups; no tradition of alternatives; a decision with high costs or failures |
| Example: Vietnam War, 1964-67, Lyndon Johnson: 56,000 American + 1 million+ Vietnamese lives lost |
| 4 remedies: reward critical thinking · present alternatives · invite outside experts · seek feedback from trusted others |
5 Types of Groups
| Pair | Distinction |
|---|---|
| Primary / Secondary | Given (family, caste, religion) vs joined by choice (political party) |
| Formal / Informal | Rule/law-based, explicit roles (university) vs no rules, close ties |
| Ingroup / Outgroup | “We” (favourable) vs “they” (often negative): a social categorisation, not real |
Tajfel’s Minimal Group Paradigm: British boys grouped by Kandinsky/Klee painting preference chose from 13 paired columns (ingroup 7-19 paired with outgroup 1-25) and, despite this flimsy criterion with no past history or future, still favoured their own group.
6 Influence on the Individual
Latané’s experiment: group sizes alone/2/4/6: total noise rose, per-person noise dropped.
5 causes of loafing: less felt responsibility · individual contribution not evaluated separately · no inter-group comparison · poor coordination · membership not important.
5 remedies: identifiable effort · pressure to perform · task’s apparent importance · individual contribution matters · stronger cohesiveness.
3 reasons for polarisation: new supporting arguments · bandwagon validation · ingroup identification/conformity.
- Group ≠ crowd/audience/mob; group vs team differences
- 6 reasons to join a group; 3 conditions of formation
- Tuckman: forming → storming → norming → performing → adjourning
- 4 structure elements; groupthink (Janis, Vietnam War example, 4 remedies)
- Primary/secondary, formal/informal, ingroup/outgroup; Tajfel’s experiment
- Social facilitation and social loafing: the two key influences of groups (Latané, 5 causes, 5 remedies); group polarisation (3 reasons)