Download chapter 5: groups and organizations

CHAPTER 5: GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Recall and summarize the Chapter 4 definition of groups and the interplay between
and influences of the individual and group, and the group and culture/society.
2. Explain how the group influences the individual’s beliefs, attitudes, values, and
behavior.
3. Differentiate between a dyad and a triad by listing the essential characteristics of
each. Give at least one example of each.
4. Describe what happens when a third party is introduced to a dyad.
5. By describing the dynamics of dyads and triads, discuss which group is more socially
stable and which is less stable.
6. Discuss primary and secondary groups.
7. Provide an example that demonstrates when a street gang is a primary group. Include
the types of influence a gang has over the individual.
8. Differentiate between expressive needs and instrumental needs and give examples of
each.
9. Explain reference groups, illustrating both their positive and negative influences on
the individual and on the collective. An example of these influences is when a
minority group and a majority group are integrated as in multi-educational
educational program.
10. Discuss whether a reference group can be an in-group or whether it is always an outgroup using the definitions provided by W.I. Thomas of in- and out- groups.
11. Explain what Robert Wuthnow discovered about increases in small group
participation in a post-modern society (see p. 125).
12. Explain how attribution theory applies to in-groups and out-groups. What kinds of
attribution errors are most common, and what groups are most affected?
13. Explain the importance of social networks as links between individuals and
demonstrate how and why they are important to the individual and to the society.
14. Describe and discuss the influence that group(s) have upon the individual, the culture,
and the society. Include in your discussion both the Asch conformity experiment and
the Milgram obedience studies.
15. Give examples from your own life of how you have complied with others because
you were influenced by a group even when you personally opposed the group’s
values, attitudes, and/or behavior.
16. Give examples from your own life of when you obeyed a higher authority because
that was the proper, or normative, thing to do.
17. Relate a situation when you deliberately caused harm to another even when you knew
better, as participants did in the Milgram and Iraq prison guards studies.
18. Define the concept groupthink described by I. L Janis and show how groupthink
influences, religious, political, and other social behavior.
19. List the four common patterns of misguided thinking demonstrated by Janis in his
study of presidential decisions.
20. Describe what is meant by risky shifts and what contributes to them occurring.
Explain the concept of deindividualization and show how it leads to risk-taking
behavior.
21. Elaborate on this concept as you apply it to your own life and describe how it
operates within your family or other close social networks.
22. Define and give examples of the three types of formal organization (normative,
coercive and utilitarian). Differentiate among them based on their membership
affiliation patterns.
23. List and discuss the six ideal-type characteristics of bureaucracy as outlined by Max
Weber in mid-20th century.
24. Discuss and give examples of both the negative and the positive functions and
consequences of bureaucratization on the individual and on the institution.
25. Explain how the problems of ritualism and alienation arise in bureaucracies.
26. Describe what George Ritzer meant by the McDonaldization of society.
27. List the four common characteristics of the McDonaldization process.
28. Discuss both the positive and negative impact of the McDonald organizational model
on society.
29. Discuss the status of women and members of ethnic and racial minorities within
formal organizations and bureaucracies generally.
30. Discuss organizations from the perspective of the three major schools of sociological
thought.
31. Discuss your personal thoughts on these formal institutional group structures and
their influence on the individual and on the culture.