Test: Social Influence and Group Processes- 2 - Humanities/Arts MCQ

The mere presence of others increases arousal, which facilitates dominant responses and inhibits non-dominant responses. The task performed, prior experience and group identity are not the primary motivating factors for the dominant response.

Three types of social process associated with helping behaviour include diffusion of responsibility, ignorance about how others interpret the event and feelings of unease about how our own behaviour will be evaluated by others present. The presence of authority figures is not a primary factor to explain bystander apathy.

Based on Milgram’s research, people will engage in high levels, not low levels, of destructive obedience when faced with strong situational pressures. People’s personality was not the primary indicator of obedience, and people did not demonstrate the willingness to challenge authority figures even when they expressed distress about giving the shocks to the learner.

Rusbult’s investment model identifies commitment to a relationship as the most important factor holding relationships together. Mutual support, being in love, and mutual understanding are important for general happiness versus distress experienced in a relationship, but they are not the key components to the investment model.

In the famous Stanford Prison Study (Zimbardo et al., 1982), researchers randomly assigned students to play the roles of prisoners or guards in a simulated prison. The ‘prison’ was located in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University. Before the study began, all participants were carefully screened to ensure they were psychologically stable. Zimbardo and his team planned to run the study for two weeks, while observing the participants. In fact, they had to terminate it after 6 days because the participants were conforming so extremely to their roles. The guards harassed, humiliated and intimidated the prisoners, often quite brutally, and the prisoners increasingly showed signs of individual and group disintegration, including severe emotional disturbance and some psychosomatic problems.

Group norms have been identified as a powerful determinant of the degree to which people will conform to the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of others. Group identity, individual norms and individual identity were not the primary factors tested in these famous studies. Social loafing refers to a reduction in a person’s work effort when working on a collective task.

The Challenger disaster is an example of groupthink, which refers to a mode of thinking in highly cohesive groups in which the desire to reach unanimous agreement overrides the motivation to adopt appropriate, rational decision-making procedures. Brainstorming refers to a technique where ideas are generated within a group in an uninhibited fashion to enhance group creativity.
Group polarization is the tendency for group discussion to produce more extreme group decisions than would be indicated by individual members’ opinions. Deindividuation is a psychological state in which rational control and adherence to norms is weakened, leading to greater readiness to respond in an extreme manner. Conversion refers to a change in one’s private opinion after exposure to others’ opinions.

Although the ‘personality’ approach to prejudice has now been largely discredited, one theory that still holds some truth is that of the authoritarian personality (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson & Sanford, 1950). According to this view, harsh family rearing strategies produce a love–hate conflict in children’s feelings towards their parents. The conflict is resolved by idolizing all power figures, despising weaker others and striving for a rigidly unchanging and hierarchical world order. People with this personality syndrome are predisposed to be prejudiced.

According to social identity theory, the groups we belong to comprise a large part of our identity and how we feel about these groups affects how we feel about ourselves and how we distinguish ourselves from others. Competition between groups is not considered part of our identity as stated by SIT, but is part of realistic conflict theory more directly. Where we were born and the amount of prejudice we have experienced may affect our identity, but these are not important components of SIT.

Storming is the stage when people struggle with each other over leadership and group definition. Forming is when people initially orient themselves to one another. Norming is when the norms and roles of the group are defined. Performing is when the group is functioning smoothly and things are cohesive internally. Adjourning is when issues of independence arise in the group and the group may possibly dissolve.