ABSTRACT
There are two basic theoretical assumptions that guide the interpretations of the various findings discussed in this chapter. The first serves as the cornerstone of Davis’ (1973) social decision scheme theory and has played an important role in small-group research since the early work of Lorge and Solomon (1955) and Taylor (1954). Social decision scheme theory starts with the assumption that small-group interaction can be seen as a combinatorial process, where task elements (be they ideas, task responses or preferences, resources, etc.) must be combined in such a way as to allow a group to reach consensus on a particular task (Davis, 1982). The theory then goes on to represent such processes in terms of a social decision scheme matrix, the elements of which represent conditional probabilities linking distinguishable preference distributions among the group members to particular group-level outcomes. (See Davis, 1973, 1982, or Stasser, Kerr, & Davis, 1989, for more complete descriptions of the theory.)
