Module 9 Lesson 1 - Group Behavior

Question 1

Social Influence

Answer 1

How people interact with each other, and how group and individual behavior is influenced.

Question 2

Attribution Theory

Answer 2

Attempts to understand the thought process by which people make judgements about the causes of their own behavior

Refers to explanation of events through internal or external factors.

We sometimes view events inaccurately in terms of cause and effect relationships

When events occur, we may view, react, and process differently

Question 3

Attribution Theory example

Answer 3

Jill gets a speeding ticket.

Fundamental Attribution Error - someone who is familiar with Jill would blame Jill based on a real or perceived character flaw in Jill.

Perhaps Jill was the victim of a speed trap or pure accident?

Fundamental Attribution Error explains why people tend to judge others for errors instead of looking at the bigger picture of an event or situation.

Thus Jill was based on her character or personality, and not the situation in which she got a speeding ticket.

Question 4

Dispositional Attribution

Answer 4

When we judge someone based upon their personality

More likely to attribute behavior to internal causes (Fundamental Attribution Error)

Ex. If we don’t like someone’s personality, we most likely aren’t going to like the person.
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Question 5

Situational Attribution

Answer 5

When one is judged based upon their situation

Ex. An obese person is being judged because of his own actions such as laziness or poor self-control (dispositional attribution).

Ex. Phil is obese due to factors outside of his control such as living in a food desert (external attribution).

Question 6

Culture influences perceived success and failures.

Answer 6

Individualistic Cultures: attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors, causing a self-serving bias.

Collectivist Cultures: more likely to engage in self-effacing biases, meaning that successes are attributed to external factors and failures to internal factors.

Question 7

Social Context includes… (group behavior)

Answer 7

Real, imagined, or symbolic presence of other people

Activities and interactions that take place among people

Settings in which behavior occurs

Expectations and social norms governing behavior in a given setting.

Question 8

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 8

Developed by George Homans and proposes that social behavior is the result of an exchange process wherein a person weighs the potential benefits and risks of social relationships

Question 9

Deindividuation

Answer 9

Concept developed by Renee Grinnell that seeks to understand how a person in a group loses their sense of self-awareness, which usually results in a lessened responsibility for an individual’s actions.

Ex. When people riot after a big sports win.

Question 10

Group Polarization

Answer 10

A tendency for a group to make decisions that become more extreme over time than the initial decisions or inclinations of its members.

Question 11

Superordinate Goals

Answer 11

Goals that require the cooperation of two or more people or groups to achieve. Tends to lead to the cooperation or the creation of groups.

Question 12

Groupthink

Answer 12

The desire for harmony in a group which is achieved by the group overriding a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

In other words, the group makes a decision not grounded in reality but makes the decision that appeases the feelings of the group members.

Characteristics: invulnerability, rationalization, lack of introspection, stereotyping, pressure, lack of disagreement, self-deception, and insularity

Question 13

Characteristics of Groupthink

Answer 13

Invulnerability - members feel that they cannot fail.

Rationalization - away warning signs and help each other justify their decisions

Lack of introspection - members do not examine the ethical implications of decisions because they believe that they cannot make immoral choices.

Stereotyping - label their enemies as weak, stupid, or unreasonable in an attempt to weaken or dehumanize them.

Pressure - push each other not to question the prevailing opinion creating an atmosphere wherein nothing is questioned, only accepted.

Lack of disagreement - do not express opinions that differ from the group consensus.

Self-deception - share in the illusion (or delusion) that they all agree with group decisions.

Insularity - prevent the group from hearing disruptive but potentially useful information from people who are outside the group.

Question 14

Ways social influence impacts an individual

Answer 14

How an individual copes with conflict

Decorum - creating certain unwritten rules in society

Social-responsibility Norm - unwritten societal rules in which people must help out others

Question 15

How in individual copes with conflict:

Answer 15

There are three main ways to approach conflict:

Approach-Approach Conflict

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

Question 16

Approach-Approach Conflict

Answer 16

Describes the situation when a person is attempting to make a choice between two desirable options.

Ex. When an individual chooses a college, they generally have a lot of desirable options and is generally a fun decision

Question 17

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Answer 17

Describes the situation when a person is attempting to make a choice that has both positive and negative consequences.

Results in a goal or event being both appealing and unappealing simultaneously.

Ex. Getting married

Question 18

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

Answer 18

Describes the situation when a person must choose between two equally undesirable or unattractive goals.

Ex. For a typical student - going to school vs. going to work.

Neither is very desirable!

Question 19

Decorum

Answer 19

Decorum - Social influence creates certain unwritten rules in society

There exists differing decorum for differing events, and the expectation imposed by society is that the individual needs to be aware of the decorum for differing events and follow that decorum.

Ex. There are certain expectations for what people need to wear to go to church, to play a round of golf, to attend a wedding, to go to school, to attend a funeral, etc… These are expectations that have developed over time and have become socially accepted and expected by all.

Question 20

Social-Responsibility Norm

Answer 20

An unwritten societal rule that states that people should help others out even if it means that it is costly to themselves.

This implies that people should collectively work together to help out someone in need, despite any personal cost.

Question 21

How individuals react to social interactions or events:

Answer 21

Equity - Desire for a person to maintain a sense of fairness in their exchange of goods, services, time, and effort.

Ex. A bakery owner wants
to ensure fair business practices despite any social influence to the contrary.

Altruism - Extinction is the same idea as acquisition - we end a behavior through conditioning.

Question 22

Bystander Effect

Answer 22

Phenomenon wherein individuals are less likely to help someone in need when others are present.

Ex. If a car crash occurs on a busy street and if someone sees others near the car, they are less likely to help out the car crash victims.

Question 23

Social Development Theory

Answer 23

Developed by George Homans and proposes that social behavior is the result of an exchange process wherein a person weighs the potential benefits and risks of social relationships.

Ex. If an individual seeks to date someone, they weigh the pros and cons of dating that individual.

Question 24

Zimbardo Study Overview

Answer 24

Also known as the Stanford Prison Experiment

Studied human response to the effects of roles, labe;s, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment.

Conducted 1971 by Philip Zimbardo, this study examines Group Polarization, Groupthink, and Deindividuation

Question 25

Group Polarization

Answer 25

A phenomenon wherein the opinions or decisions of people in a group become more extreme than their actual, privately held beliefs.

Question 26

Groupthink

Answer 26

Is the desire for harmony in a group which is achieved by the group overriding a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Thus, the group makes a decision not grounded in reality but in appeasing the feelings of group members.

Question 27

Deindividuation

Answer 27

An individual loses one’s self-awareness and self-restraint within a group, which often results in them engaging in group behavior that they otherwise would not perform on their own.

The three important factors for this are anonymity, diffused responsibility, and group size.

Question 28

Factors of deindividuation

Answer 28

Anonymity - An individual cannot be directly identified

Diffused Responsibility - An individual is not directly at fault for their actions

Group Size - The larger a group, the more anonymity and diffused responsibility increase.

Question 29

Zimbardo Study Purpose

Answer 29

Sought to understand whether or not reported prison guard brutality was the result of the dispositional sadistic personality of the guards, or the situational prison environment itself

Zimbardo had studied Nazi atrocities in World War II, and struggled to understand how the defense of war criminals at the Nuremberg trials was, “I was just following orders.”

This experiment was a way for him to study the effects and impact of group behavior on the individual.

Was so brutal that it ended in just 6 days, not 2 weeks.

People played the roles they were expected to play (stereotyping), guards became more authoritarian and assertive while prisoners became more submissive.