Terrorism and Crime In the twenty-fi rst century. the United States and other nations are confronted with a difficult prospect: how to deal with terrorism. Terrorism is the calculated. unlawful use of physical force or threats of violence against persons or property in order to intimidate or coerce a government. organization. or individual for the purpose of gaining some political. religious. economic.…

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Formal Organizations  Global Perspective Over the past century, the number of formal organizations has increased dramatically in the United States and other industrialized nations. Previously, everyday life was centered in small, informal, primary groups, such as the family and the village. With the advent of industrialization and urbanization (as discussed in Chapter 1), people’s lives became increasingly dominated by large, formal secondary…

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Group think As we have seen, individuals often respond differently in a group context than they might if they were alone. Social psychologist Irving Janis (1972, 1989) examined group decision making among political experts and found that major blunders in U.S. history may be attributed to pressure toward group conformity. To describe this phenomenon, J ~ coined the term group think- the…

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Social Exchange/Rational Choice Theories Social exchange/rational choice theories focus on the process by which actors-individuals. groups. corporations. or societies, for example-settle on one The foundation of this approach is the doctrine of utilitarianism-a belief that the purpose of all action should be to bring about the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. An example of this belief is found in the assertion…

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Group Conformity and Sexual Harassment Let’s look at a more-contemporary example of how social science research can help us learn about the ways in which group conformity may contribute to a complex social problem such as sexual harassment, which consists of unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Psychologist John Pryor (Pryor…

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Milgram’S Research H ow willing are we to do something because someone in a position of authority has told us to do it? How far are we willing to go in following the demands of that individual? Stanley Milgram (J 963, 1974) conducted a series of controversial experiments to find answers to these questions about people’s obedience to authority. Obedience…

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Ash’s Research Pressure to conform is especially strong in small groups in which members want to fit in with the group. In a series of experiments” conducted by Solomon Asch (1955, 1956), the pressure toward group conformity was so great that participants were willing to contradict their own best judgment if the rest of the group disagreed with them. One of AJd\’s…

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Group And Organization  Okay, I think I’ll share why Facebook works for me and  keeps me coming back. I was hesitant to sign up in the first place, I was afraid it would be a lame fad …. Since college is fairly dynamic (new classes every quarter), a directory of friends and students remains very dynamic and gives me…

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Social Groups Three strangers are standing at a street corner waiting for a traffic light to change. Do they constitute a group? Five? hundred women and men are first-year graduate students at a university. Do they constitute a group? In everyday usage. we use the word group to mean any collection of people. According to sociologists. however. the answer to these…

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Group Conformity To what extent do groups exert a powerful influence in our lives? Groups have a significant amount of inti uence on our values, attitudes, and behavior. In order to gain and then retain our membership in groups, most of us are willing to exhibit a high level of conformity to the wishes of other group members. COllfimnlty I, the…

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