Group Influences

The prisoners responded to guard treatment during the Stanford prison experiment in all of the following ways except ___________.

• rebelling against the guards

• displaying emotional disturbance

• becoming apathetic and demoralized

• maintaining a sense of mental stability

Many groups experience polarization, which is when opinions become more and more extreme.

• True

• False

Which of the following is not true concerning obedience studies?

• The obedience experiments were profound in learning the effects of authority demands on behavior.

• Some critics claimed that obedience experiments conducted by Milgram were unethical.

• The obedience experiments revealed that the tendency to obey decreased if the victim was depersonalized.

• The obedience experiments revealed that the tendency to obey increased if few other participants defied authority orders.

The Stanford prison experiment led researchers to conclude which of the following?

• External situations have no effect on one's personality characteristics.

• Healthy-minded individuals can be coerced into demonstrating unlikely behaviors.

• One's behavior is independent of societal expectations and roles.

• Human behavior is not easily changed by the expectations of others.

What is the effect of social facilitation on those performing a difficult task?

• Performance tends to improve.

• Performance tends to suffer.

• Performance tends to be average.

• Performance tends to be unaffected.

Solomon Asch showed that most people will reject and resist the efforts of an otherwise unanimously agreed group.

• True

• False

In Milgram's obedience studies, most people gave the most extreme shocks even though they thought the shocks would be deadly.

• True

• False

Groupthink tends to stimulate rational discussion within groups.

• True

• False

Which of the following researchers conducted the Stanford prison experiment in order to test the effects of social roles on behavior?

• B. F. Skinner

• Phillip Zimbardo

• Solomon Asch

• Stanley Milgram

Which of the following researchers conducted conformity studies in order to test the effects of group pressure on one's behavior?

• Carl Jung

• Solomon Asch

• Stanley Milgram

• Phillip Zimbardo