A Primer of Social Decision Scheme Theory: Models of Group Influence, Competitive Model-Testing, and Prospective...

The basic elements of social decision scheme (SDS) theory are individual preferences, group preference compositions (distinguishable distributions), patterns of group influence (decision schemes, social combination rules), and collective responses (group decisions, judgments, solutions, and the like). The theory provides a framework for addressing two fundamental questions in the study of group performance: How are individual resources combined to yield a group response (the individual-into-group problem)? What are the implications of empirical observations under one set of circumstances for other conditions where data do not exist (the sparse data problem)? Several prescriptions for how to conduct fruitful group research are contained in the SDS tradition: make precise theoretical statements, provide strong and competitive tests of theories, and interpret empirical findings in the context of robust process models. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.