Social Influence and Socialization Flashcards
(25 cards)
What does social facilitation theory suggest?
-When other people are around, we experience physiological arousal, and experience a state of heightened alertness and nervous system activity.
-That arousal enhances the likelihood of you performing your dominant response, the behaviour you’re most likely to perform in that situation.
-On well mastered or simple tasks, your dominant response is usually correct, so arousal improves performance.
-However, on difficult or complex tasks, your dominant response if often incorrect, so arousal impairs performance.
What are the six ways people and situations interact to shape behaviour?
1) Different people respond differently to the same situation
-People bring their unique personalities, experiences, and traits to a situation.
-E.g. one person sees a party as a fun social opportunity, while another finds it stressful and overwhelming.
2) Situations choose the person
-Not everyone has equal access to all environemnts
-E.g. A tall person may be encouraged to join basketball, while a short person may be steered towards gymnastics.
3) People choose their situations
-Individuals seek out environments that align with their preferences or tendencies.
-E.g. The instigator of the Stanford Prison experiment would have chosen to be the guard.
4) Different situations prime different parts of the person
-The same person behaves differently depending on the context.
5) People change the situation
-Our presence and behavior can alter the tone or outcome of a setting.
-E.g. an extrovert may turn a dull party into a lively one, influencing others’ moods and interactions.
6) Situations change the person
-Long-term exposure to certain environments can reshape values, skills, and identity.
-E.g. after years in university, students typically develop critical thinking skills and broader perspectives.
What is the bystander effect? What are the four key causes of the bystander effect?
-The bystander effect states that the more bystanders there are, the less likely any one of them will help a person in need.
-The four key contributing factors are as follows:
1) Diffusion of Responsibility: Each bystander assumes someone else will act.
2) fear of Making Social Blunders: People hesitate to intervene in case they misread the situation and embarass themselves. They also don’t want to involve themselves in a complicated relationship between two people.
3) Anonymity: Being in a group reduces personal accountability.
4) Cost-Benefit Trade-off: People weight the potential costs (which includes danger) against the benefits of helping.
What does Asch’s conformity research suggest?
-Asch’s conformity research suggests that people faced with strong group consensus sometimes may go along with something, even though they think the others may be wrong.
-This is the research where there is one test subject, and the rest of the room are paid participants, paid to intentionally all say the wrong answer.
-The study found that individuals are more likely to disagree with the group when their answer is written on a sheet of paper(even after hearing everyone say the wrong answer).
-The study found that when there’s someone else who disagrees with the group, even if it’s just one person, the research participant is far more likely to say the correct answer.
-Over time, the participant will look to see what the other person who goes against the group says, and if they agree with the wrong answer, the research participant will also be more likely to say the wrong answer.
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What are the three key types of conformity, and how do they differ from one another?
1) Compliance Conformity: Conformity to a social norm prompted by the desire to acquire rewards or avoid punishment. Although complying individuals may adjust their behaviour to the norm, they do not really subscribe to the beliefs, values, and attitudes that underlie the norm.
2) Identification Conformity: This occurs when individuals adopt behaviors to be like someone they admire or relate to. They conform because they see the influencer as attractive or similar to themselves.
3) Internalization Conformity: This is the most deeply rooted form of conformity, which occurs when individuals genuinely accept the beliefs, values, and norms as their own.
What is socialization?
Socialization is the process by which people learn the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors that are necessary to function in a group or organization.
What are the four C’s of social impact theory?
1) Consolidation: Over time, the majority grows in size and the minority dwindles in size.
2) Clustering: People are more infleunced by their closest neighbours, and so clusters of group members with similar opinions emerge in groups.
3) Correlation: Over time the group members’ opinions on other issues converge, so that their opinion on a variety of matters are correlated.
4) Continuing Diversity: Because of clustering, members of minorities are often shielded from the influence attempts of the majority, and their beliefs continue on within the group.
What did Milgram’s shock experiment show?
-Despite the fact that many participants were deeply uncomfortable shocking the peson, over 60% of participants obeyed the authority figure fully, administering the highest level of shock.
-There were five key reasons why people obeyed:
1) Norm of obedience to authority: The experimenter was regarded as an authority figure.
2) Experimenter’s Calm Authority: They displayed confidence and took responsibility, saying: “this must happen in the experiment, it’s not on you, it’s on me.”
3) Physical Proximity of Authority and Distance from the Victim: Participants were in the same room as the experimenter, but the person they were shocking was in the other room. The closer they were to the victim, and the farther they were from the experimenter, the more the results shifted.
4) Lack of an Alternative Role Model: It was just them and the experimenter in a room together, so they did not see anyone else modelling defiance.
5) Incremental Escalation: Gradual increases in shock made it easier to justify continuing. Because they already made the shock, it felt more natural to continue shocking the person.
What is socialization?
Socialization is the process by which people learn the norms and roles that are necessary to function in a group or organization.
What are psychological contracts? What is a psychological contract breach? What follows that breach?
-Psychological contracts include expectations about what the job will be like, and what employees will receive for their efforts.
-These expectations are often unrealistic, and can lead to a reality shock for employees.
-A psychological contract breach occurs when employees perceive that their organization has failed to fulfill one or more of its promises or obligations in the psychological contract.
-A psychological contract breach can lead to negative emotions and mistrust, as well as lower innovation and customer satisfaction.
What must an organization do in order to give employees a realistic job preview?
-Realistic job previews are tools used during recruitment to provide applicants with an honest and balanced view of both the positive and negative aspects of a job.
-This helps to correct erroneous anticipatory socialization (false expectations formed before starting the job).
-this also helps to avoid psychological contract breaches (when expectations don’t match reality).
What are the pros and cons of offering a realistic job preview?
-A realistic job preview will often increase job satisfaction, because employees expectations will be lowered, and so the discrepancy between their outcomes and expectations will be decreased as well.
-As a result of their increased job satisfaction, their job performance will be higher as well.
-Turnover will be lower as well because fewer employees will be dissolutioned.
-However, realistic job previews will decrease the likelihood of applicants accepting the offer. Employers may say “we really want this candidate but they may not join if they know certain things about the job.” However, the challenge is that employee they really want may quit, or they may get frustrated and decrease their performance. So overall, realistic job previews is good.
What are the stages of socialization?
1) Pre-arrival: During this stage, employees experience anticipatory socialization. In this process the employee develops an idea of what that company or job is like, and this occurs through: the formal process of skill acquisition which involves developing a skill anticipating a job that follows(being in university), or it may be informal, and it could occur through a series of summer jobs, or watching tv shows or movies. Some organizations even socialize job candidates before they are hired, at recruitment events.
2) Encounter: Armed with expectations of organizational life, the recruit encounters the day to day reality of the work. Formal aspects of this job may include orientation programs and rotation through various parts of the organization. Informal aspects of this stage may include getting to know and understand the style and personality of one’s boss and coworkers. The individual will look for an acceptable degree of conformity in this stage.
3) Role Management: Following conformity to group norms, the recruit may be in a position to modify the role to serve the organization. This can also be known as metamorphosis. From there follows three potential outcomes: productivity, commitment, and turnover.
What are the six key socialization tactics(identified by John Van Maanen and edgar Schein)?
Institutionalized Socialization
1) Collective Formal… this is a context tactic
2) Sequential Fixed… this is a content tactic
3) Serial Investiture… this is a social tactic
Individualized Socialization
4) Individual Infomal… this is a context tactic
5) Random Variable… this is a content tactic
6) Disjunctive Divestiture… this is a social tactic
How is a collective socialization tactic different from an individual socialization tactic?
-The collective tactic consists of a number of new members being socialized as a group, going through the same experiences and facing the same challenges. Army boot camps and fraternity pledge classes are common examples.
-Individual tactics consist of socialization experiences designed specifically for each new member. An example would be an apprenticeship to develop skilled craftspeople.
How are formal tactics different from informal tactics?
-Formal tactics involve segregating newcomers from regular organizational members and providing them with formal learning experiences during the period of socialization.
-Informal tactics do not distinguish a newcomer from more experienced members and rely more on informal and on-the-job learning.
How are sequential and random tactics different?
-The sequential tactic involves a fixed sequence of steps or stages leading to the assumption of the role.
-On the other hand, with the random tactic, there is an ambiguous or changing sequence.
How are fixed and variable tactics different?
-The fixed tactic consists of a timetable for the newcomer’s assumption of the role.
-If the tactic is variable, then there is no time frame to indicate when the socialization process ends and the newcomer assumes their new role.
How are serial and disjunctive tactics different?
-The serial tactic refers to a process in which newcomes are socialized by experienced members of the organization.
-The disjunctive tactic refers to a socialization process where role models and experienced organization members do not groom new members or “show them the ropes.”
How are investiture and divestiture tactics different?
-Divestiture tactics involve putting new members through a series of experience designed to humble them and strip away their self-confidence and change their attitudes and beliefs. After being humbled, members are said to be ready to learn the norms of the organization.
-The investiture socialization tactic affirms the incoming identity and attributes of new hires rather than denying them and stripping them away. Organizations that carefully select new members for certain attributes and characteristics would be more likely to use the investiture tactic.
What is a mentor? What are the key benefits of mentorship?
-A mentor is an experienced or more senior person in the organization who provides a junior person with guidance and special attention, such as by giving advice and creating opportunities for assistance, especially during the early stages of the junior person’s career.
-The key benefits of mentorship include: higher salaries, increased likelihood of promotion, and increased satisfaction.
What are the two key functions of mentoring?
1) Career Functions: This can lead to the following things:
-Sponsorship: The mentor may nominate the newcomer for advantageous transfers and promotions.
-Exposure and visibility: The mentor may provide opportunities for the newcomer to work with key people and see other parts of the organization.
-Coaching and feedback: The mentor may suggest work strategies and identify strengths and weaknesses in the newcomer’s performance.
-Developmental Assignments: The mentor can provide challenging work asignments that help the newcomer develop key skills and knowledge that are crucial to career progress.
2) Psychosocial Functions: This can be done in the following ways:
-Role modelling: This provides a set of attitudes, values, and behaviours for the newcomer to imitate.
-Providing acceptance and confirmation: this provides encouragement and support and helps the newcomer gain self-confidence.
-Counselling: this provides an opportunity to discuss personal concerns an anxieties concerning career prospect, work-family conflicts, and so on.
What are formal mentoring programs?
Formal mentoring programs occur where seasoned employees are recruited as mentors and matched with newcomers as part of an organization sponsored program.
What do formal orientation programs seek to do?
-Formal orientation programs introduce employees to their job, coworkers, organization, and coping strategies.
-Formal orientation programs increases knowledge, positive job attitudes, and retention.
