Social Influences on Behaviour Exam revision

Question 1

When an individual’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour are affected by the actions of others, then

_____________________ is said to have occurred.

• A. Role expectations

• B. Power of status

• C. Conformity

• D. Social influence

Three pedestrians arrive at a set of traffic lights. When the green man appears they cross together.

Would they be classified as a group?

• A. Yes, because they influenced each other by crossing the road.

• B. No because there were not enough people present.

• C. No, because they did not interact with each other.

• D. Yes, because they had a mutual goal of wanting to cross the road.

The Stanford prison experiments can be scrutinised for not following ethical guidelines. However, Zimbardo argues it was both ethical and unethical. He argues that participants, among other things, were informed of the roles that they could be assigned to and that their rights would be suspended if they were given the role of prisoners. In explaining this, Zimbardo ensured

• A. Informed consent.

• B. No deception.

• C. Voluntary withdrawal.

• D. Confidentiality.

Jasper is an Instagram influencer. His profile is full of depictions of socially desirable content. Several companies send him free products to post on his page. The companies are taking advantage of his __________________ power.

• A. Informational

• B. Reward

• C. Legitimate

• D. Referent

Power refers to

• A. The ability to enforce rules in a group.

• B. The ability to influence the thoughts and behaviour of another person.

• C. How important an individual’s position is in a group.

• D. Making decisions about how a group interacts and behaves.

At the conclusion of the obedience experiments, Milgram was required to follow ethical guidelines and inform participants of the true nature of the study. Which of the following processes would meet the ethical guidelines associated with this?

• A. Confidentiality

• B. Debriefing

• C. Informed consent

• D. Withdrawal rights

A university student seeks assistance from a librarian when they need to conduct research for an assignment. In this situation the librarian is a source of

• A. Reward power, because if the student gets a good mark, it is a positive consequence.

• B. Referent power, because the student finds the skills of the librarian desirable.

• C. Expert power, because the librarian has special knowledge that are needed by the student.

• D. Legitimate power, because the librarian has the ability to exercise power over the student.

Four friends were in the car singing to songs on the radio, and only one individual saw an elderly man sitting on the footpath clutching his chest. What factor would have influenced the decision to provide help?

• A. Situational factor of taking responsibility for helping

• B. Social factor of reciprocity norm

• C. Situational factor of noticing the situation

• D. Social factor of social responsibility norm

When a male employer views his female employees as a less important group, with the role of the male employees having higher value, then there is likely to be sustained prejudice because

• A. There is no equality of status.

• B. Females will use old fashioned prejudice in the workplace.

• C. The employer is indirectly discriminating against female employees.

• D. The male and female employees will not have a common goal to work toward.

Bella votes for the Australian Greens party because her parents voted for them. The acquisition of Bella’s attitude based on her parent’s voting preferences is best explained by

• A. Classical conditioning.

• B. Social learning.

• C. Operant conditioning.

• D. Repeated exposure.