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Introduction
1. CARS
2. Psych/soc
2.1 Sensing the environment
2.2 Making sense of the environment
2.3 Responding to the world
2.4 Individual influences on behavior
2.5 Social processes and human behavior
2.5.1 How presence of others affects behavior
2.5.2 Agents of socialization
2.6 Attitude and behavior change
2.7 Self-identity
2.8 Psych/soc factors affecting interaction and perception
2.9 Elements of social interaction
2.10 Understanding social structure
2.11 Demographic characteristics and processes
2.12 Social inequality
3. Bio/biochem
4. Chem/phys
Wrapping up
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2.5.1 How presence of others affects behavior
Achievable MCAT
2. Psych/soc
2.5. Social processes and human behavior
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How presence of others affects behavior

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Social facilitation

Social facilitation describes improved performance in the presence of others, such as doing more pushups or running farther when someone is watching. However, this enhancement does not extend to complex tasks, since heightened nervousness can reduce effectiveness under pressure.

  • Conformity refers to altering one’s behavior to match a group, regardless of personal agreement.
  • Deindividuation occurs when someone feels anonymous among others, lowering accountability and self-awareness, often seen in mob or riot scenarios.
  • The bystander effect is when people witnessing an emergency fail to help, commonly due to diffusion of responsibility within the group.
  • Another phenomenon, social loafing, happens when individual efforts cannot be easily judged (as in a group project), causing a reduction in each person’s effort.

Social control

Social control involves ways society ensures most people follow rules, whether formally (through laws enforced by an authority) or informally (through norms like refraining from cutting in line).

  • Peer pressure occurs when individuals conform to peers for acceptance, while obedience means changing behavior to please an authority figure or avoid negative outcomes.

Group decision making

  • Group polarization leads to an intensification of a group’s initial stance, and groupthink involves members adjusting opinions to align with what they believe is the group’s consensus.

Social norms

Social norms are shared expectations about acceptable conduct, such as waiting your place in line, and are enforced by sanctions, which may be positive or negative (giving the stink eye or saying something to correct the linecutter).

Folkways are customary practices with no significant moral weight, such as whether to shake hands or bow when greeting, whereas mores embody a group’s core moral views, often upheld by formal policies or laws. Mores include universal concepts like not attacking or killing others, and sometimes culturally-specific guidelines like strictly regulated composting and recycling or men and women not shaking hands.Taboos are forbidden behaviors or topics, such as incest.

Anomie denotes a state in which societal norms weaken, leaving individuals socially and sometimes morally disconnected, such as during war or major natural disasters.

Deviance

Deviance is any departure from cultural or social norms, ranging from minor acts like nose-picking to severe offenses like homicide.

The differential association theory suggests people learn deviant acts from close associations, while the labeling theory proposes that reactions of others, rather than the actions themselves, define what is deviant.

Despite its negative connotation, deviance can catalyze social reform. According to the strain theory, when socially endorsed goals are unreachable by legitimate means, individuals may deviate.

Collective behavior

Collective behavior encompasses any group activities not dictated by formal structures, such as crowds, masses, or publics. An example of a mass is an online fan club with hundreds or thousands of members, defined by having a common interest rather than by being in close physical proximity. An example of a public would be people who believe in reincarnation or support euthanasia; there may be no networking or organization among these people, who are also very spread out across the globe but they share ideals.

Mass hysteria reflects widespread anxiety or rumors affecting a large number of people.

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