Los procesos de influencia social en entornos virtuales y su incidencia sobre la eficacia grupal / Social influence processes in virtual environments and their influence on group efficacy

El estudio de la incidencia de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TICs)sobre los procesos de influencia social ha sido el objetivo de diversas investigaciones. En ellas,el papel de estos procesos en la relación entre la modalidad de comunicación y los resultados explogrupalesno queda definido. El objetivo del presente trabajo es clarificar el rol de los procesos de influencia en dicha relación, utilizando dos modalidades de comunicación: videoconferenciay comunicación mediada por ordenador. Para ello, se ha realizado un estudio de laboratorio con 44 grupos distribuidos aleatoriamente entre las dos modalidades de comunicación. Losresultados indican que los procesos de influencia social modulan la relación entre la modalidad de comunicación y la eficacia grupal.

Research has analyzed the effects of Communication and Information Technologies (TICs) on social influence processes in groups. In these studies, it is not clearly defined the role of those processes in the relationship between the communication modality and the results obtained by the groups. The aim of the present study is to clarify the role of social influence processes inthis relationship, considering two communication modalities: videoconference and computermediatedcommunication. A laboratory experiment was carried out with 44 groups randomly assigned to the two communication modalities. The results showed that social influence processes play a moderator role between communication modality and group effectiveness.

Diferencias individuales en la comparación social: propriedades de la escala española de orientación hacia la comparación social / Individual differences on social comparison: properties of the Orientation Spanish Scale towards Social Comparison

This paper describes the development and the properties of the INCOM-E, the Spanish language version of the INCOM, a measure to assess individual differences in social comparison orientation that was originally developed simultaneously in English and in Dutch. In both Study 1 (including 212 students), and Study 2 (including 782 employees from primary health care centers), the reliability of the INCOM-E was good (alpha = 0.80), and the factor structure was very similar to that of the English and Dutch versions. As in the American and Dutch samples, in Study 1 the scale had substantial positive correlations with interpersonal orientation, public and private self-consciousness, and neuroticism. Together these variables explained already 44% of the variance of the INCOM-E. There were weak negative correlations with self-esteem, optimism and subjective well-being, and a weak positive correlation with college stress. The scale did not correlated with social desirability. In Study 2, the test-retest reliability over a year was .57. As expected, the scale had low to zero correlations with burnout, psychological wellbeing, job satisfaction and team cohesion, but positive correlations with the frequency of social comparison at work. Possible uses of the INCOM-E, in basic and applied settings, are discussed.