| dc.description.abstract | Many groups require cooperation in order to efficiently complete tasks in a manner that
benefits all group members. The antecedents of cooperative and competitive behavior have
been well studied using a particular class of problems called social dilemmas. Cultural
variables, such as collectivism, are often thought to influence cooperative behavior in
groups, but experimental evidence has seen mixed results. The current study attempts to
add to our understanding of the effects of cultural variables on cooperative and competitive
behavior in groups by advancing two major ideas: (1) that the Input-Process-Output (I-PO)
framework-a theoretical framework of group functioning which proposes that group
members' individual characteristics, dispositions, etc. influence the processes of groups
when interacting which, in turn, impact the outcomes the group produces-can be used as a
conceptualization for understanding the impact of cultural variables on potential group
outcomes, provided that a distinction is made between potentially meaningful but taskunrelated
distal inputs such as collectivism and task-related proximal inputs, and (2) that
group process can be indexed using variance components calculated from the Social
Relations Model (SRM}-a statistical tool used to analyze dyadic data. Using two social
dilemmas as experimental media, participants were placed in groups of four and asked to
report what they expected each of their group members to do during the social dilemmas
and how much they trusted each of their fellow group members. Results demonstrate that
collectivism increases the tendency to expect similar behavior from fellow group members
and to trust fellow group members at similar levels when given little diagnostic information. In turn, more competitive behavior is demonstrated in groups that have
members who all expect similar behavior from each group member, but show variability
regarding what the behavior will be. The study demonstrates (1) a significant relationship
between collectivism and expectations of other group members' behavior, (2) expectations
will synthesize into meaningful variance components as calculated using SRM, (3) SRM
variance components serve as useful indicators of group process and, (4) SRM variance
components can be used to predict cooperative and competitive behavior in social dilemma
situations. This research demonstrates the value of using SRM variances as indices of
process and underscores the theoretical utility of the I-P-O framework as an explanatory
tool of group behavior. | en_US |
