class 12 notes

Class 12 Physology Notes Chapter 7 (Social influence and group processes) – Physocology Book

Philoid

Philoid

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Physocology
Detailed Notes with MCQs of Chapter 7: Social Influence and Group Processes. This is a crucial chapter, not just for your Class 12 understanding, but also because concepts related to group dynamics, influence, and behaviour frequently appear in various government exams, especially in sections dealing with general awareness, social issues, or even ethics. Pay close attention to the definitions and the factors influencing these processes.

Chapter 7: Social Influence and Group Processes - Detailed Notes for Exam Preparation

1. Introduction: Nature and Formation of Groups

  • What is a Group?
    • A group consists of two or more individuals who interact with and influence one another, perceive themselves as "us," and are interdependent (their needs and goals cause them to influence each other).
    • Key characteristics: Interaction, interdependence, mutual influence, shared identity ("we-feeling"), common goals/motives, structure (roles, norms).
    • It's more than just a collection of people (aggregate). E.g., people waiting at a bus stop are an aggregate, but a committee working on a project is a group.
  • Why Do People Join Groups? (Functions/Benefits)
    • Security: Reduces insecurity; feeling stronger, fewer self-doubts.
    • Status: Membership in prestigious groups confers recognition and status.
    • Self-esteem: Provides feelings of self-worth; positive social identity.
    • Goal Achievement: Some goals cannot be achieved individually (need for collective effort).
    • Knowledge and Information: Provides information not available individually.
    • Satisfaction of Psychological and Social Needs: Need for affiliation, attention, affection, power.
  • Group Formation (Stages - Tuckman's Model)
    • Forming: Initial stage; high uncertainty, members try to understand the group and each other. Polite interactions.
    • Storming: Intragroup conflict; disagreements about leadership, control, and procedures. High emotionality. Crucial stage for group development.
    • Norming: Conflict resolved; group develops cohesion, shared identity, norms, and expectations. Clear roles emerge.
    • Performing: Group structure is functional; energy directed towards task performance and goal achievement. Mature stage.
    • Adjourning: (Added later by Tuckman) Task completed; group disbands. May involve feelings of accomplishment or loss.

2. Group Structure

  • The stable pattern of relationships among group members. Key elements:
    • Roles: Socially defined expectations about how specific members ought to behave (e.g., leader, follower, information-gatherer).
      • Role Conflict: When expectations associated with different roles clash.
      • Role Ambiguity: Uncertainty about role expectations.
    • Norms: Shared standards of behaviour expected of group members. Unwritten rules that guide conduct (e.g., dress code, communication style, effort level). They enforce conformity.
    • Status: Socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others. Can be achieved (earned) or ascribed (given based on factors like age, caste, etc.). High-status members often have more influence and freedom to deviate from norms.
    • Cohesiveness: The degree to which members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay in the group. The "we-feeling" or team spirit.
      • Factors increasing cohesiveness: Member similarity, group success, external threats, smaller size, difficult entry.
      • Consequences: Higher satisfaction, more communication, greater influence, potentially groupthink (if too high).

3. Types of Groups

  • Primary vs. Secondary Groups:
    • Primary: Small, face-to-face interaction, strong emotional ties, long-lasting (e.g., family, close friends). Crucial for socialization.
    • Secondary: Larger, more formal, impersonal, goal-oriented, often temporary (e.g., work team, class).
  • Formal vs. Informal Groups:
    • Formal: Defined by an organization's structure, designated tasks/roles (e.g., department, committee).
    • Informal: Formed naturally based on social needs, friendships, common interests (e.g., lunch group, friends within an office).
  • Ingroup vs. Outgroup:
    • Ingroup: The group with which an individual identifies ("Us"). Often viewed positively.
    • Outgroup: Any group other than one's own ("Them"). Often viewed negatively or stereotypically.

4. Social Influence: How Others Affect Our Behaviour

  • The process whereby the actions of an individual or group affect the behaviour of others.
  • Conformity:
    • Changing one's behaviour or beliefs to align with group standards or norms, often due to real or imagined group pressure. No direct request is made.
    • Sherif's Autokinetic Effect Experiment: Demonstrated norm formation and convergence of estimates in ambiguous situations.
    • Asch's Line Judgment Experiment: Showed conformity even in unambiguous situations (yielding to a clearly wrong majority).
    • Determinants/Factors Influencing Conformity:
      • Group Size: Conformity increases up to a point (3-4 members), then levels off.
      • Unanimity of the Majority: A single dissenter significantly reduces conformity.
      • Nature of the Task: More conformity on ambiguous or difficult tasks.
      • Public vs. Private Response: More conformity when responding publicly.
      • Personality: Individuals low in self-esteem or high in need for social approval may conform more.
      • Group Cohesiveness: Higher conformity in cohesive groups.
    • Why Conform?
      • Informational Influence: Desire to be correct; accept others' views as evidence about reality (occurs in ambiguous situations).
      • Normative Influence: Desire to be liked and accepted; avoid disapproval or rejection (occurs even in clear situations).
  • Compliance:
    • Responding favourably to an explicit request made by another person or group. The request can be subtle or direct.
    • Techniques used to gain compliance:
      • Foot-in-the-Door Technique: Gaining compliance with a small request first makes people more likely to agree to a subsequent larger request. (Based on consistency).
      • Door-in-the-Face Technique: Making a large, unreasonable request first (which is refused) increases the likelihood of compliance with a smaller, more reasonable follow-up request. (Based on reciprocity/concession).
      • Deadline Technique: Setting a limited time to take advantage of an offer increases compliance. (Based on scarcity).
  • Obedience:
    • Performing an action in response to a direct order or command, usually from a person in a position of authority.
    • Milgram's Obedience Experiment: Demonstrated that ordinary people are capable of obeying authority figures, even when asked to perform actions that harm others (administering 'shocks').
    • Why Obey?
      • Legitimacy of authority figure.
      • Gradual escalation of commands (foot-in-the-door).
      • Diffusion of responsibility (authority takes responsibility).
      • Lack of clear alternative/disobedience model.
      • Situational factors often override personality factors.

5. Cooperation and Competition

  • Cooperation: Behaviour where individuals work together to achieve mutual goals. Group members benefit collectively. Based on interdependence.
  • Competition: Behaviour where individuals strive to achieve a goal that only one or a few can attain. Mutually exclusive goals. Can lead to conflict but also motivation.
  • Determinants:
    • Reward Structure: Cooperative structure promotes cooperation; competitive structure promotes competition.
    • Interpersonal Communication: Better communication facilitates cooperation.
    • Reciprocity: Tendency to respond in kind (cooperation breeds cooperation, competition breeds competition).
    • Group Size: Smaller groups often cooperate more easily.
    • Personality: Some individuals are inherently more cooperative or competitive.

6. Group Influence on Individual Behaviour

  • Social Facilitation:
    • The tendency for people to perform simple or well-learned tasks better in the presence of others, BUT perform complex or new tasks worse.
    • Explanation (Zajonc): Presence of others leads to physiological arousal. Arousal enhances the dominant (most likely) response.
      • Easy task -> Dominant response is correct -> Performance improves.
      • Difficult task -> Dominant response is often incorrect -> Performance worsens.
    • Evaluation Apprehension: Concern about how others are evaluating us contributes to arousal.
  • Social Loafing:
    • The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working collectively towards a common goal compared to when they are individually accountable.
    • Reasons: Diffusion of responsibility, reduced evaluation apprehension, feeling dispensable, "sucker effect" (not wanting to do more than others).
    • Reducing Social Loafing: Make individual contributions identifiable, increase task importance, increase group cohesiveness, make individuals feel their contribution is unique.
  • Group Polarisation:
    • The tendency for group discussion to strengthen the initial, dominant point of view held by group members, leading to a more extreme decision or attitude after discussion than the average of individual pre-discussion views.
    • Reasons: Persuasive arguments (hearing more supporting arguments), social comparison (wanting to be perceived favourably, slightly more extreme than average).
  • Groupthink:
    • A mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony or conformity in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Leads to poor decision-making.
    • Antecedent Conditions: High group cohesiveness, insulation from outside views, directive leadership, high stress, lack of methodical procedures.
    • Symptoms: Illusion of invulnerability, collective rationalisation, belief in inherent morality, stereotyping outgroups, direct pressure on dissenters, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity, mindguards (protecting group from adverse info).
    • Preventing Groupthink: Impartial leadership, assign a 'devil's advocate', subdivide the group, seek outside opinions, secret ballots.

7. Social Identity

  • The aspect of our self-concept that comes from our membership in social groups. We categorize, identify, and compare ourselves based on group memberships. Contributes to self-esteem. Can lead to ingroup bias.

8. Intergroup Conflict

  • Conflict between different groups ("us" vs. "them").
  • Sources: Competition for scarce resources, perceived injustice, social categorization (ingroup/outgroup bias), threats to group identity.
  • Resolution Strategies: Superordinate goals (shared goals requiring cooperation), intergroup contact (under optimal conditions: equal status, common goals, institutional support), negotiation, structural solutions (redistribution of resources, policy changes).

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

  1. Which of the following is NOT a key characteristic of a group?
    a) Interaction among members
    b) Mutual interdependence
    c) A collection of people in the same place
    d) A sense of shared identity ("we-feeling")

  2. In Tuckman's stages of group development, the stage characterized by intragroup conflict and disagreements over control is known as:
    a) Forming
    b) Storming
    c) Norming
    d) Performing

  3. Shared standards of behaviour expected from group members are referred to as:
    a) Roles
    b) Status
    c) Norms
    d) Cohesiveness

  4. Solomon Asch's experiments primarily demonstrated the phenomenon of:
    a) Obedience to authority
    b) Social loafing
    c) Groupthink
    d) Conformity to group pressure

  5. Asking for a small favour first to increase the chances of someone agreeing to a larger favour later is known as the:
    a) Door-in-the-face technique
    b) Deadline technique
    c) Foot-in-the-door technique
    d) Low-ball technique

  6. Stanley Milgram's experiments, involving participants administering supposed electric shocks, studied:
    a) Compliance
    b) Conformity
    c) Obedience
    d) Social facilitation

  7. The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working collectively compared to when working alone is called:
    a) Social facilitation
    b) Group polarisation
    c) Social loafing
    d) Groupthink

  8. Group discussion often strengthens the initial dominant viewpoint of the members, leading to more extreme decisions. This phenomenon is known as:
    a) Social loafing
    b) Group polarisation
    c) Conformity
    d) Obedience

  9. Which factor is most likely to decrease conformity?
    a) High group cohesiveness
    b) The presence of a dissenter (ally)
    c) An ambiguous task
    d) Public response requirement

  10. A mode of thinking where the desire for group harmony overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, often leading to poor decisions, is termed:
    a) Group polarisation
    b) Social facilitation
    c) Groupthink
    d) Social loafing

Answer Key:

  1. c) A collection of people in the same place (This describes an aggregate, not necessarily a group)
  2. b) Storming
  3. c) Norms
  4. d) Conformity to group pressure
  5. c) Foot-in-the-door technique
  6. c) Obedience
  7. c) Social loafing
  8. b) Group polarisation
  9. b) The presence of a dissenter (ally)
  10. c) Groupthink

Make sure you understand the definitions, the key experiments (Asch, Milgram, Sherif), and the factors that influence each of these social processes. Knowing the differences between conformity, compliance, and obedience is particularly important. Good luck with your preparation!

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