Social Effects on Behavior Flashcards
A baseball player pitches his best game when he is mildly stressed and when a small crowd is present. This is an example of
This is an example of Yerkes-Dodson law because the baseball player’s performance improved as a result of mild stress and NOT necessarily as a result of the presence of others. If this were an example of social facilitation, it would need to be demonstrated that when the player’s teammates are not around, he plays worse.
A student scores higher on digitally administered exams when in a classroom with other students present than when alone at home
This is an example of social facilitation, or the tendency for performance on difficult tasks to spontaneously improve when performing the task in the presence of others. In this instance, the presence of classmates is the only factor that changed, allowing the student to succeed on a difficult exam.
Julie plays lacrosse. She plays her worst games at unimportant scrimmages and at the playoffs, but plays her best games at normal games throughout the season. This is an example of…
The athlete performs best during moderately stressful matches (during the regular season) and worse during low and high stress matches (scrimmages and playoff matches, respectively). This reflects Yerkes-Dodson law, which suggests that performance on a task is improved by a moderate amount of arousal.
John, Jack, Jake, and Jim are running in a 4x100 relay race. They can each run a fast 100 m dash, but don’t run that same pace during the relay race. What could explain this?
Social Loafing. These track and field sprinters perform worse when they are on a team, versus when they are competing individually. This can be explained by social loafing – the sprinters are working less hard because they believe their teammates will pick up the slack.
Group members lack awareness of their own self-identity when they belong to a larger group.
Deindividuation
Group members believe that whether or not they take action, nobody will recognize their efforts because they belong to a crowd.
Anonymity
Group members attribute the negative consequences of inaction to other members of their group.
Diffusion of Responsibility
How does group size impact group psychology?
Group size is a characteristic of every group. Increasing group size will magnify several characteristics of individuals in groups – including feelings of anonymity and the diffusion of responsibility. Decreasing group size will minimize these characteristics. The larger a group gets, the more likely individuals are to experience deindividuation and lose awareness of their self-identity.
This graph demonstrates what aspect of group psychology:
The yerkes dodson
This graph demonstrates what aspect of group psychology:
Psychological arousal when performing a SIMPLE task
People perform tasks better in a group setting where psychological arousal is higher
Social Facilitation
Belief that others will pick up the slack and that you don’t have to work as hard are key traits of what?
Social Loafing
Kitty Genovese was murdered in NYC. Her neighbors heard her screams, but no one called the cops because they thought someone else would have. This is an example of…
The Bystander Effect
Loss of self awareness in a crowd, high psychological arousal, lower perceived responsibility, anonymity, diffused responsibility, and group size are all contributing factor to which phenomenon?
Deindividuation
The three members of the experiment were the experimenter, who represented an authority figure urging test subjects to carry on, the learner, a confederate (“in-the-know”) who pretended to experience excruciating pain, and the teacher, the test subject who was requested by an authority figure to carry out evidently immoral actions and cause pain to the learner.
The results of the experiment showed that while test subjects were uncomfortable and stressed by causing pain to others, if urged on by an authority figure they would comply to an extreme extent.
These famous experimental results have been extrapolated to explain real-world examples of obedience leading to negative outcomes – answering questions such as, “Why would a country’s citizens listen to an immoral leader?”
The Milgram experiment— a controversial experiment to determine the limits of what immoral actions humans could be persuaded to carry out as a result of obedience to an authority figure.
Experiment where test subjects were divided into ‘guards’ and ‘prisoners’. Test-subjects who were assigned to be ‘guards’ quickly internalized negative beliefs about the prisoners and treated them with genuine maliciousness and harshness. Dr. Zimbardo – the researcher in charge – did little to prevent these actions, and in fact encouraged the divide between the two groups.
While it remains questionable whether the Experiment’s results should be considered valid, it can be used as a case study for conformity. For example, prisoners in the experiment displayed obedience to authority figures such as the guards and Zimbardo. Guards, seeing their peers act in certain ways, conformed to their role.
Stanford prison experiment
Experiement where participants changed their answer to reflect wrong answers provided by confederates
Asch Experiement
Two subsets of conformity
Compliance and internalization
Behavioral change but no beleif adoption
Compliance
Behavorial change with beleif adoption
Internalization
What are the different compliance techniques
Foot in the door, Door in the face, and Low ball
Asking first for a really big donation and then lowering the request would be an expample of which technique?
Door in face
Getting someone interested in a cheaper car and then trying to get them interested in a larger sale would be which technique?
Low Ball
Experiement where students were assigned roles of prisoners and guards and people were shown to identify with their assigned role and actually felt hostile towards eachother
Stanford prison experiment
Rules, spoken or unspoken, that regulate behavior beliefs attitudes and calues of members of society
Social Norms
The way these norms are taught, enforced, and perpetuated
Social Control
When someone doesnt follow the norms
deviance
What is the difference between formal and informal norms?
Formal are written somewhere like in law or in employee handbook. Can have fixed consequences. Informal norms are not written and are expectations with no fixed penalties for violating them. Folkways are a subset of formal norms.
What are folkways?
Insignificant informal norms
What are mores?
significant informal normals eg cheating on a romantic partner
What are taboos?
Taboos may or may not be formal. Examples are canibalism and incest.
What are sanctions?
Punishment or negative consequences for violating social norms or rewards for following norms
Anomie
Term coined by Emile Durkheim that refers to a situation where there is a poor mathc between society’s stated norms and the norms and individual responds to.
Differential Association Theory
THeory that views deviance as a behavior that is socially learned.
Criminals become criminals by hanging out and learning from other ciminals is supporting which theory of deviance?
DIfferential association theory
Symbolic interactionism
Behaviors are learned phenomenom with socially learned significance
What is the labeling approach to deviance?
FOcuses on how behavior is affected by being labeled as deviant
What is primary and secondary deviance?
Primary deviance is the deviant acts comitted before being labled as deviant, secondary deviance are the deviant acts that are commutted after being labeled and their reaction to being labeled
True or false: symbolic interactionists would entertain stain thoery of deviance while functionalist would entertain labelling theory
False, otherway around
Strain Theory
Focuses on the role of social and economic pressures towards deviance. Deviant behavior is a way of acting out
WHat are the different theories of deviance?
Differential association, labeling, primary and secondary deviance, and strain theory
What are agents of socialization?
Family, education system, mass media , peers, workplace
How do you learn social norms?
Through socialization
In terms of significance, order the following from least to most significant: taboos, folkways, mores
Folkways, mores, taboos
True or False: Sanctions are used to decrease the frequency of a behavior that violates social norms, while rewards are used to increase the frequency of a behavior that aligns with social norms.
False: Sanctions can be used to increase or decrease the frequency of a behavior as it relates to social norms. Sanctions can be either positive or negative. Positive sanctions—which may include rewards—are used to reward individuals who behave in a socially acceptable way. On the other hand, negative sanctions are any negative consequence that follows a behavior which violates social norms, in order to reduce the frequency of that behavior.
Anomie
The basic premise of anomie is that as society changes and certain norms become outdated, individuals may begin to feel alienated from society.
Spontaneous episodes of civil disorder often accompanied by vandalism and violence
Riots
