quiz 8

Question 1

group

Answer 1

a collection of people who have something in common, and believe their commonality is significant. Groups have tremendous power and influence over us.

3 characteristics:

• Interact with one another
• Share goals, norms, interests (commonality)
• Sense of “we” awareness

Question 2

subgroups

Answer 2

create a buffer between us and the larger society (the largest group), fulfill sense of intimacy and integration. As society changes (because of technology), so does the nature and types of its subgroups

Question 3

primary groups

Answer 3

• Cooley
• small, informal social group.
• family is first primary group
• Brought together by personal, long lasting, and meaningful relationships and maintained through face-to-face interaction w/ significant others.
• Serve our expressive (psychosocial) needs
• They set foundation for sense of self, and we internalize the viewpoints/orientations of the primary group.

Question 4

secondary groups

Answer 4

• cooley
• Large, formal and goal-oriented groups that serve instrumental needs.
• Weaker emotional ties w/i these groups, more impersonal. Temporary relationships
• Spend most of our time w/ secondary groups. Because of our psychosocial/emotional needs, secondary groups tend to break down into primary groups

Question 5

George Simmel

Answer 5

Sociologist, studied effects of group size– group size effect, dyads, triads
the lower the group size -> lower stability, higher intimacy and vice versa

Question 6

group size effect

Answer 6

Simmel. the effects of group number on group behavior independent of the personality characteristics and opinions of the members themselves.

Question 7

triadic segregation

Answer 7

tendency for triads to segregate into a pair, or coalition of the dyad, against the isolate. if the isolate then chooses to form a coalition w/ one of the pair, that’s tertius gaudens, a Latin term meaning “the third one gains.”

Question 8

asch experiments

Answer 8

1952. There were lines on a card, and groups were asked which line is shorter. Even when the answer was obvious, when people gave the wrong answer, 1/3 to 1/2 would conform and adopt the wrong answer. showed power of group conformity/peer pressure

Question 9

milgram experiment

Answer 9

Looked at how people conform to authority. People volunteered to be teachers, and people who were “in” on the experiment would be the student. Teachers were instructed to administer an electrical “shock” the student when they got the answer wrong. Student would start screaming as voltage rose, but most “teachers” continued to increase bc Milgram in lab coat (status symbol as authority) encouraged them. Result: 50-65% of people are willing to inflict harm on others when instructed to do so by an authority, across race and gender

Question 10

reference groups

Answer 10

any group (to which one may or may not belong) used by the individual as a standard for evaluating her or his attitudes, values, and behaviors.

Question 11

attribution theory

Answer 11

• W.I. Thomas
• the principle that dispositional attributions are made about others (what the other is “really like”) under certain conditions, such as out-group membership
• people view in-group members favorably, and out-group favors unfavorably
• attribution error: error made in attributing the causes for someone’s behavior to their membership in a particular group, such as a racial group.

Question 12

origin of “six degrees of separation”

Answer 12

milgram ran an experiment where they asked a group of nebraskans to mail a document to a boston stockbroker (a specific one, but they didnt know who) by sending it to someone they might think know them. avg it took 6.2 ppl, hence we are all “6” degrees separated

Question 13

groupthink

Answer 13

the tendency for group members to reach a consensus at all costs.

Question 14

risky shift

Answer 14

the tendency for group members, after discussion and interaction, to engage in riskier behavior than they would while alone.

Question 15

deindividuation

Answer 15

• the feeling that one’s self has merged with a group.

- it’s a group size effect. As groups get larger, trends in risk-taking are amplified.

Question 16

normative orgs

Answer 16

an organization having a voluntary membership and that pursues goals; examples are the PTA or a political party. people often join for prestige, since there is no money to be made

Question 17

coercive organizations

Answer 17

organizations for which membership is involuntary; examples are prisons and mental hospitals.

Question 18

total institutions

Answer 18

goffman. an organization cut off from the rest of society in which staff exercises complete control over inmates/patients. basically a coercive org

Question 19

utilitarian organization

Answer 19

a profit or nonprofit organization that pays its employees salaries or wages.

Question 20

bureaucracy

Answer 20

• a type of formal organization characterized by an authority hierarchy, a clear division of labor, explicit rules, and impersonality.
• see: weber’s “ideal type” which also includes career ladders and efficiency

Question 21

bureaucracy’s other face

Answer 21

according to page, refers to the informal structure that bypasses formal structure, often developed by those who feel taken for granted in a bureaucracy, such as secretaries

Question 22

problems of bureaucracies

Answer 22

risky shift
group think
organizational ritualism: a situation in which rules become ends in themselves rather than means to an end.
alienation

Question 23

mcdonaldization

Answer 23

• Ritzer: the increasing and ubiquitous presence of the fast-food model in vast numbers of organizations.
• based on weber’s ideal type, has 4 dimensions: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control