Study Guide Final Exam
Individual and Society
Dr. Elizabeth Olson
Chapters 8, 11, 14, 15, 16
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
What is social influence? What is the difference between conformity, compliance, and obedience?
What are social norms? How do they influence our behavior? From your chapter: What are descriptive and
injunctive social norms? What is normative focus theory, and how does it explain why people follow social
norms?
Conformity:
 Know what conformity is. Why is conformity with social norms a good thing? A bad thing?
 Be familiar with the method and findings of Asch’s classic conformity experiments
 Be familiar with what makes people more likely to conform and less likely to conform
o Psychological reactance
o Normative social influence
o Informational social influence
Compliance:
 Know what compliance is
 Know the six compliance tactics. How might they be used to get you to buy something? How can
you guard against these compliance tactics?
o Friendship/Liking
o Commitment & Consistency
 How does effortful commitment increase compliance? —Be familiar with the Aronson
study. Why is hazing such a powerful thing?
o Scarcity
o Reciprocity
o Social Validation
o Appeals to Authority
Obedience:
 Know what obedience is
 Be familiar with the method and findings of Milgram’s classic obedience experiments
 What factors increase obedience? Why?
Minority Influence:
 How do minorities influence groups?
 Know when minority influence is effective
Group Influence:
 Social Facilitation
 Social Loafing
o Know the Ingham and the Latane, Williams, & Harking studies
 Deindividuation
o What factors affect the likelihood of deindividuated behavior?
 Group Polarization
 Groupthink
o What are the features of a group that make groupthink likely? How does groupthink lead to
faulty decisions?
PREJUDICE
Attitude: Know the ABCs of attitudes. How would prejudice be displayed in each of the ABCs?
What is discrimination, and how is it different from prejudice?
Be familiar with subtle forms of racial prejudice and gender prejudice.
Be familiar with the definitions of race, ethnicity, and minority group.
Be familiar with the continuum of intergroup relations (chapter 11).
What are stereotypes? How do stereotypes affect interactions? How do gender stereotypes contribute to
the ‘glass ceiling’?
What is ‘tokenism’?
Sources of Prejudice:
 Social Sources
o Social Inequalities
 Unequal status
o Self-fulfilling prophecies
 Word, Zanna, & Cooper (1974) self-fulfilling prophecy study (discussed in class)
o In-Group Bias
 Emotional Sources
o Realistic group conflict theory (scapegoating)
o Threats to self-esteem
 Cognitive Sources
o Categorization
 In-groups and out-groups
 Out-group homogeneity effect
o Distinctiveness
o Attributions
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 Group-Serving Bias
 Just World Phenomenon
Be familiar with methods of reducing prejudice, especially the jigsaw classroom and the in-group identity
model.
What is the minimal group paradigm?
RELIGION AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
What is the difference between morality and religion?
 Be familiar with the basic method of Kohlberg’s research
o What are the stages of moral development?
o What are some criticisms of Kohlberg’s approach?
o How can people disengage their morals in a situation?
 Be familiar with the elements religions have in common:
o Beliefs
 How are beliefs transmitted from one generation to the next?
o Rituals
 Be familiar with various types of religious rituals
 Periodic
 Life-cycle
 Pilgrimage
 Rituals of Inversion
 Sacrifice
o Religious Experiences
 Theories of the Development of Religion (why do we need it? why do we create it?)
o Magic: Imitative and Contagious
o Functionalist view: Durkheim
 Sacred vs. profane
o Conflict view: Marx
 Types of Religious Organizations: Established church, sect, cult, denomination
From your chapter: Be familiar with the beliefs of the world religions mentioned: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. How do world religions reflect globalization and localization?
What are revitalization movements?
What are some of the lessons Dave Stacy learned in the 30 Days video? How were stereotypes and prejudice
in evidence in the video? Why are followers of a different religion often viewed with suspicion?
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Globalization: What is it?
o What is political, economic, and cultural globalization? How are they different?
What drives globalization?
What are some benefits of globalization? What are some criticisms?
How does globalization affect societies that aren’t the U.S.? Recall examples from the 30 Days video
on outsourcing.