Topic 7B Flashcards
Social facilitation
improvement in individual performance when working with other people rather than alone, the opposite of social loafing.
activation theory
describes how our arousal relates to social facilitation.
evaluation theory
discusses how being assessed by an audience affects social facilitation.
attention theory
takes into account the effect of distractions in the environment on social facilitation.
Yerkes-Dodson law
when applied to social facilitation, states that “the mere presence of other people will enhance the performance in speed and accuracy of well-practiced tasks, but will degrade in the performance of less familiar tasks.”
Social loafing
the tendency for people to put forth less effort when working on a group task if the individual contributions aren’t evaluated.
Conformity
is the most common and pervasive form of social influence. It is informally defined as the tendency to act or think like members of a group. In psychology, conformity is defined as the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms.
Normative influence
occurs when an individual conforms to gain social acceptance and avoid social rejection.
Informational influence
occurs when individuals seek out members of their group to obtain and accept accurate information about reality.
Group polarization:
the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
Consensus decision-making
tries to avoid “winners” and “losers”. Consensus requires that a majority approve a given course of action, but that the minority agrees to go along with the course of action.
Range voting
lets each member score one or more of the available options. The option with the highest average is chosen.
Plurality voting
is where the largest block in a group decides, even if it falls short of a majority.
Groupthink
a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decisionmaking group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.
Social norms
define expected or acceptable behavior in particular circumstances. Social norms can also be defined as the shared ways of thinking and acting which are observable in regularly repeated behaviors and are adopted because they are assumed to solve problems.
Folkways and mores
informal norms that dictate behavior; however, the violation of mores carries more substantial consequences.
◦ Folkways are informal rules and norms that, while not offensive to violate, are expected to be followed.
◦ Mores (pronounced more-rays) are also informal rules that are not written, but, when broken, result in severe punishments and social sanction upon the individuals. Mores are often seen as taboos.
three major sociological paradigms:
functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory.
functionalist approach
views deviance as a key component of a functioning society.
◦ Strain theory, social disorganization theory, and cultural deviance theory represent three functionalist perspectives on deviance in society.
Strain theory
notes that access to socially acceptable goals plays a part in determining whether a person conforms or deviates.
Strain theory defines five ways people respond to this gap between having a socially accepted goal and having no socially accepted way to pursue it.
- Conformity: Those who conform choose not to deviate. They pursue their goals to the extent that they can through socially accepted means.
- Innovation: Those who innovate pursue goals they cannot reach through legitimate means by instead using criminal or deviant means.
- Ritualism: People who ritualize lower their goals until they can reach them through socially acceptable ways. These members of society focus on conformity rather than attaining a distant dream.
- Retreatism: Others retreat and reject society’s goals and means. Some beggars and street people have withdrawn from society’s goal of financial success.
- Rebellion: A handful of people rebel and replace a society’s goals and means with their own. Terrorists or freedom fighters look to overthrow a society’s goals through socially unacceptable means.
Social disorganization theory
asserts that crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control. Social disorganization theory points to broad social factors as the cause of deviance. A person isn’t born a criminal but becomes one over time, often based on factors in his or her social environment.
Cultural deviance theory
suggests that conformity to the prevailing cultural norms of lower-class society causes crime. It explores how socioeconomic status correlates to race and ethnicity resulting in a higher crime rate. The mix of cultures and values created a smaller society with different ideas of deviance, and those values and ideas were transferred from generation to generation.
Symbolic interactionism
is a theoretical approach that can be used to explain how societies and/or social groups come to view behaviors as deviant or conventional. Labeling theory, differential association, social disorganization theory, and control theory fall within the realm of symbolic interactionism.
