Social Influence and Group Processes Notes in English Class 12 Psychology Chapter-7 Book-1
0Team Eklavyaजुलाई 09, 2025
Introduction
In our daily life, we interact with different groups—family in the morning, classmates and teachers at school, and friends after school. Each of these groups gives us support, comfort, and helps us grow as individuals. But when we are away from these groups, we often feel something important is missing. This shows how deeply our lives are shaped by the groups we belong to. Being part of positive and supportive groups is important because they help us become better individuals and responsible citizens. While groups influence us, we also have the power to influence others and bring about change in society. This chapter helps us understand what groups are and how they shape our behavior.
NATURE AND FORMATION OF GROUPS
What is a Group?
Groups play an important role in our lives, but not every collection of people is a group. For example, people watching a cricket match or attending a school function are not a group, as they don’t share roles, interdependence, or common goals. In contrast, your family, class, or sports team are true groups. A group is defined as an organized set of two or more individuals who interact, are interdependent, share common goals, have role relationships, and follow group norms.
Groups differ from crowds, audiences, and mobs. A crowd gathers by chance (e.g., at an accident) and lacks structure or shared purpose. An audience is passive and gathers for a specific event, like a movie. A mob is a highly emotional and impulsive crowd with a common purpose. A team is a special type of group where members have complementary skills, share accountability, and work together with synergy towards a common goal. Unlike groups, where responsibility often lies with a leader, in teams, all members share responsibility for outcomes.
Why Do People Join Groups?
We all belong to multiple groups like family, friends, and school. Each group serves different purposes and fulfills various needs, which is why people join and stay in groups. However, being part of many groups can sometimes lead to pressure due to conflicting expectations, but most people learn to manage this. People join groups for several reasons:
Security: Being with others makes us feel safe and protected.
Status: Membership in respected groups boosts our sense of pride and importance.
Self-esteem: Belonging to groups helps us feel valued and improves our self-image.
Psychological and social needs: Groups provide a sense of belonging, love, and attention.
Goal achievement: Groups make it easier to achieve goals that are difficult to reach alone.
Knowledge and information: Being in a group gives access to more ideas, experiences, and learning.
Group Formation
Groups are formed when people come into contact and interact with each other. This interaction happens more easily when certain conditions are met:
Proximity: We tend to form groups with people who are physically close to us — like classmates, neighbors, or teammates — because we meet them often and get to know their interests and attitudes.
Similarity: We like people who are similar to us in hobbies, opinions, or values. Similarity creates a sense of comfort and consistency. For example, if you both like football or share the same opinion about TV violence, you’re more likely to become friends.
Common Goals: People with shared goals often form groups to achieve them together. For instance, if you want to teach poor children but can’t manage alone, you may team up with friends to make it possible.
These shared connections help build strong group bonds.
Stages of Group Formation
Groups do not form instantly; they develop gradually over time. According to Tuckman, group formation happens in five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. In the forming stage, members come together for the first time, and there is excitement as well as uncertainty. They try to understand the group’s goal and assess if they fit in. After this, in the storming stage, conflicts arise among members over responsibilities, leadership, and how to achieve the group’s goal. As the group works through these conflicts, a clear structure and leadership develop. Next comes the norming stage, where group members accept certain rules and standards of behaviour (norms), leading to a positive group identity. In the performing stage, the group becomes stable and focused on achieving its goals. Some groups stop here, while others move to the adjourning stage, where the group disbands after completing its task (e.g., after organizing an event). However, not all groups follow these stages step-by-step; they may repeat, skip, or overlap stages.
As a group develops, it also builds a structure, which includes roles, norms, status, and cohesiveness. A role is a set of expected behaviours based on one’s position in a group (e.g., being a son or daughter involves respecting elders and studying responsibly). Norms are unspoken rules or shared expectations that guide how group members behave. Status refers to the social position or importance given to group members, either by birth (ascribed) or through achievement (earned by skill or effort). People tend to prefer being part of groups that have higher status. Cohesiveness means the sense of togetherness or strong bonding among group members. When cohesiveness is high, members feel a strong “we feeling” and don’t want to leave the group. While group cohesiveness usually strengthens unity, too much of it can lead to groupthink, where members stop thinking critically and just agree with the group—even if it's wrong.
TYPE OF GROUPS
Groups vary in many ways — some are large (like a country), some small (like a family), some are temporary (like a committee), while others last for years (like religious groups). Some groups are highly organised (like the army or police), and others are informal (like a crowd at a sports match). People can be part of many groups at once. The main types of groups include:
Primary and Secondary Groups
Formal and Informal Groups
Ingroup and Outgroup.
Primary and Secondary Groups
Primary and secondary groups differ mainly in how they are formed and the nature of relationships within them. Primary groups like family, caste, and religion are usually pre-existing and not chosen by the individual. They involve close, face-to-face interactions, emotional bonding, and play a vital role in shaping a person’s values during early development. On the other hand, secondary groups like political parties are chosen voluntarily. Relationships in secondary groups are usually impersonal, indirect, and less frequent. Also, while it's hard to leave a primary group, secondary group membership is more flexible and can be changed easily.
Formal and Informal Groups
Groups can be formal or informal, and they differ based on how clearly their functions and roles are defined. In formal groups, like an office or a university, the roles and responsibilities of members are clearly stated, and the group is formed based on specific rules or laws. There are fixed norms to maintain order. In contrast, informal groups are formed naturally, without any rules or structure. Members in informal groups usually share close personal relationships and interact more freely.
Ingroup and Outgroup
People often compare themselves with others and also compare their own group (called the ingroup) with other groups (called the outgroup). We use words like "we" for our own group and "they" for other groups. This creates a sense of similarity with ingroup members and difference from outgroup members. People usually see their own group more positively and assume it has better qualities, while viewing the outgroup in a more negative way. These attitudes affect how we interact with others. Psychologist Tajfel’s experiments showed how easily such group differences can be created, even when the group division is meaningless. However, it's important to remember that these group labels are socially created, not naturally fixed. In India, for example, diversity is celebrated, and our composite culture is reflected in everyday life, art, music, and architecture.
INFLUENCE OF GROUP ON INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR
We have seen that groups are powerful as they are able to influence the behaviour of individuals. What is the nature of this influence? What impact does the presence of others have on our performance? We will discuss two situations : (i) an individual performing an activity alone in the presence of others (social facilitation), and (ii) an individual performing an activity along with the others as part of a larger group (social loafing).
Social Loafing
Social loafing happens when people put in less effort while working in a group compared to when they work alone, especially if individual contributions are not tracked. For example, in tug-of-war, it's hard to know how much each person is pulling, so some may not try hard. Studies show that as group size increases, each person’s effort often decreases. This happens because people feel less responsible, their work isn’t judged individually, coordination may be poor, and they may not feel connected to the group. To reduce social loafing, it's important to make individual efforts visible, increase task value, motivate members to work hard, help them see their contribution matters, and build strong team spirit.
Group Polarisation
Group decisions often become more extreme than individual decisions—a phenomenon called group polarisation. This occurs when discussions within a group strengthen the group’s initial position. For example, if members already support capital punishment, talking to like-minded people may intensify that belief. This happens because: (1) members hear new supportive arguments, (2) the group consensus gives a sense of social validation (bandwagon effect), and (3) individuals identify with the group and conform, strengthening their own stance. While group decisions are important, group polarisation can sometimes lead to extreme or risky outcomes.
