Psy 457/557

Winter 1997

Midterm Study Questions

  • 1. Compare the influence that reference groups and membership groups have on attitudes and beliefs.
  • 2. Discuss the experimental research on how norms develop and are transmitted across generations.
  • 3. As an assistant to the governor, you have been asked to make a recommendation concerning whether or not she should sign a bill seeking to decrease the size of all criminal juries in the state from 12 to 6 and to make it necessary for only 4 of the 6 jurors to agree in order for a "guilty" verdict to be returned. How would you advise the governor? Discuss the relevant theory and research.
  • 4. What would you do to take full advantage of social facilitation effects while avoiding the problems of social loafing (broadly defined) in an athletic team. Be sure to explain what social facilitation is and discuss the theory and research about why it occurs. Also describe the two components of "social loafing" and discuss the theory and research concerning why they occur.
  • 5. Discuss the causes of groupthink and how a problem-solving group can avoid it.
  • 6. Under what conditions would a group utilizing a centralized communication network be expected to perform better than a group using a decentralized communication pattern? Why?
  • 7. Discuss the analytical stages that (according to Forsyth) college frosh are likely to go through in developing friendship groups.
  • 8. Discuss group polarization. What is the group polarization effect? How does it differ from the risky-shift phenomenon? What causes group polarization?
  • 9. What is the basic theoretical concept underlying consistency theories? What is cognitive dissonance? How has cognitive dissonance been studied in the laboratory?
  • 10. How would a consistency theory explain why someone chooses to join a fraternity or sorority? How does this explanation differ from that given by an exchange theory?
  • 11. Discuss the different ways in which problem solving tasks can be classified and how treating a problem as if it belonged to a different type can affect a group's performance.