MCAT Practice Problem Set Lecture: Social Processes, Attitudes, and Behaviors

hello everybody my name is Iman welcome back to my YouTube channel today we&#39;re going to be tackling a practice problem set that relates to our lecture on social processes attitudes and behaviors now before we get started a lot of you have been asking for MCAT resource recommendations and I want to point you to blueprint blueprint has customizable study schedules they have access to all of the aamc resources and they even have in-depth exam analytics in addition they have both free MCAT resources and paid MCAT resources some of my favorite free resources from blueprint are the MCAT question of the day their free downloadable equation sheets and the occasional free live classes that they hold I&#39;m going to leave a link to blueprint in the description box below so feel free to check it out if you&#39;re interested with that out of the way let&#39;s go ahead and get started with problem number one problem number one says the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment is best explained by which of the following terms the bystandard effect deindividuation internalization or social loafing what we&#39;re going to have to do here is first talk about the Stanford Prison Experiment in detail and then ref familiarize ourselves with these terms and hopefully connect itude to be able to answer this question so let&#39;s start with talking about the Stanford Prison Experiment this was a psychological study on the effects of perceived power and it really focused on the struggle between prisoners and prison officers it was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by psychology Professor Philip zimbardo at Stanford University the participants of this experiment were male college students and they were selected and randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners in a mock prison environment and this was set up in the basement of the Stanford psychology building now the guards they were instructed to maintain order without using physical violence they were also given uniforms whistles and sunglasses to establish a sense of authority and a sense of anonymity the prisoners were also set up in the same way they were actually fake arrested fingerprinted transported to the mock prison then they were strip searched and given prison clothes and numbers to really help them get into the role so what you can see here is that the environment was very much designed to simulate a real life prison experience and participants were instructed to behave as they believed their roles required now the experiment it quickly became intense some guards embraced their role very much and then they started to exhibit abusive Behavior enforcing arbitrary rules and subjecting the prisoners to psychological torture the participants adapted to their roles Way Beyond the researchers expectation with the guards becoming increasingly cruel and sadistic and the prisoners started showing extreme stress and emotional disturbance this Behavior happened despite the fact that they knew that they were just playing roles in an experiment now the experiment it was supposed to last 2 weeks but it was terminated after only 6 days because of the extreme and distressing reactions from the participants both the prisoners and the guards the conditions became so oppressive for some prisoners that they had to be released early and the well-being of all participants was very much put at risk now the Stanford Prison Experiment is widely cited as an example of the power of situational forces on individual Behavior and the ease with which Ordinary People can become complicit in or or victims of oppressive systems this experiment also raised significant ethical concerns because of the experimental setup especially regarding the well-being and informed consent of participants now that we understand the Stanford Prison Experiment let&#39;s look through these terms and start discussing them all right first choice we have is the bystandard effect this describes the observation that one in a group individuals are less likely to respond to a person in need this doesn&#39;t really describe the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment because we had two groups of people guards and prisoners each acting out their assigned role and it wasn&#39;t like there was one guard ganging up on one prisoner and everyone just watched and turned their head away not interjecting so really the bystandard effect is not a good option for this problem to describe the behavior of the individuals in the prison experiment so we&#39;re going to cancel out bystandard effect then we have deindividuation okay deindividuation this is the loss of selfawareness in large groups which can lead to drastic changes in Behavior so it really describes the erosion of personal standards in group situations now this this describes the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment so for the guards with their uniforms and their sunglasses and the roles that they were given the individual personalities of the guards were diminished and they became more likely to act in a way that they wouldn&#39;t normally behave showing aggression and abusive Behavior things that they assumed a prison guard would act like same goes with the prisoners they were dressed in identical uniforms and referred to by names by by numbers instead of names and so they began to lose their sense of individuality making them more likely to conform to the submissive role of prisoners so de individual deindividuation does describe the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment then we have internalization internalization refers to the process by which individuals adopt the beliefs attitudes values and behaviors of a particular group or society and integrate them into their own identity and self-concept we see a little bit of this in the context of the EXP experiment for the prisoners they began to accept their roles as actual prisoners adopting behaviors and attitudes that were submissive and passive some even began to believe in their own guilt as for the guards they started to see themselves as actual authority figures and they began to internalize the attitudes and behaviors expected of a prison guard including Dom and control of others the subjects prisoners and guards alike were so deeply immersed in their roles that they acted in accordance with them even when they weren&#39;t under direct observation even when they knew that this was just an experiment and that indicates that they very much internalized these roles so internalization very much describes the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison experience then last we have social loafing this refers to the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when in a group setting than individually and this really doesn&#39;t make sense in the context of the Stanford Prison Experiment because it wasn&#39;t a group project where only one person did the majority of the work and the others you know slacked off because they were part of a group so in short to summarize this when fulfilling particular rules an individual&#39;s Behavior can be very out of character and the changing of one&#39;s behavior and internal ideas to match a group is called internalization that was a key part of the experiment in addition the experiment very much involved deindividuation which is the loss of self-identity in the group setting that can lead to anti-normative or violent Behavior so we see both de individuation and internalization that&#39;s statements 2 and three and that makes the correct answer for one answer Choice C with that let&#39;s move into problem two problem two reads a jury member who initially feels that a strict penalty should be placed on the defendant votes for an even stricter penalty after deoration with the other jury members this behavior is best described by Which social phenomenon all right so we have social facilitation group polarization assimilation and socialization let&#39;s go over each of these terms and then answer the problem first social facilitation this describes the tendency of people to perform at a different level based on the fact that others are around it&#39;s been observed that people tend to perform better on simple tasks that they&#39;re good at when in the presence of others then we have group polarization this is the tendency toward making decisions in a group that are more extreme than the thoughts of the individual group members then we have assimilation this is the process by which a group or individual&#39;s culture begins to melt into another culture and then last we have socialization this is the process of developing and spreading Norms customs and beliefs now looking at this problem we have this jury member who listened to the case and was like the defendant deserves a strict penalty then they talk to the other jury members and they&#39;re like oh wow they deserve even stricter penalties than I had initially thought the fact that the in that individual&#39;s opinions became more extreme after a group discussion this is perfectly explained by group polarization the jury member felt that a strict penalty should be given and then that opinion became more extreme just with a conversation with the rest of the group so group polarization best describes this social phenomena the correct answer for two is B let&#39;s move on to three three says which of the following would decrease the likelihood of a bystandard lending Aid to a victim all right which of the following would decrease the likelihood all right that&#39;s very important we need to note that this is asking for decrease the likelihood of a bystandard helping a victim not increase this is going to require us to remind ourselves what the bystandard effect is and what are some of the rules that go along with it that tells us if somebody is more likely to intervene or less likely to intervene in different scenarios so the bystandard effect this is another observed phenomena that occurs in social groups where individuals do not intervene to help victims when others are present and it&#39;s been shown that the likelihood and timeliness of a response is inversely related to the number of byst standards in other words the more people standing by the less likely any one of those people is to help now there are several factors at play in the bystandard effect first when in groups people are less likely to notice danger or anything out of the ordinary this is thought to be due in part to social etiquette in that it can be considered rude to watch others and their surroundings additionally when in groups human take humans take cues from from other humans if other people are not responding to a situation then that individual is kind of less likely to perceive that a situation is an actual threat or an emergency and the degree of emergency or the degree of danger all right uh to the victim that plays a role in response so in low danger scenarios byst standards are less likely to provide aid but then in high danger scenarios by standards are more likely to intervene now another factor is the degree of responsibility that&#39;s felt by the bystandard this is determined by the competency of the bystandard his or her relationship to the victim and whether he or she considers the victim to be deserving of Aid and then finally the cohesiveness of the group has also been shown to influence the responsiveness of the bystandard so in groups made up of strangers the likelihood of response and the speed of the response is much slower than a group of well acquainted individuals or friends so considering all this let&#39;s read our answer choices and attempt to answer this question again which of the following would decrease the likelihood of a bystandard lending Aid to a victim a says increasing the number of people in the room B says increasing the degree of danger experienced by the victim C says making the victim an acquaintance instead of a stranger and D says being alone in the room with the victim now like we talked it&#39;s been observed that increasing the number of bystandard that&#39;s going to decrease the likelihood that any of them will Aid a victim and that means the correct answer here is going to be a looking at the other answer choices increasing the degree of danger experienced by the victim like Choice B says and making the victim an acquaintance instead of a stranger like Choice C says and being alone in the room with the victim as Choice D says these three things would increase the likelihood that the bystandard would help the victim so again that is why the correct answer to three is a let&#39;s go ahead and Tackle problem four problem four reads during group think members of the group do all of the following except blank a says stereotype members outside of the group b says withholding opposing views C says ignore warnings against the ideas of the group and D says create a sense of negativity against risk-taking now group think this refers to a social phenomena in which desire for harmony or conformity results in a group of people coming to an incorrect or poor decision in an attempt to eliminate or minimize conflict among the group members consensus decisions are reached without really considering any alternative ideas in these cases the desire to agree with the group it causes a loss of independent critical thinking and the group also begins to isolate and ignore external viewpoints seeing their own ideas as being Superior and as being correct without question now when we talked about group think we also examined eight factors that are indicative of group think I have them listed here as a reminder now let&#39;s go through the answer choices again and see which align with group think and try to find the one answer here that does not so a says stereotype members outside of the group this is a factor that defines group think stereo excessive stereotyping B says withholding opposing views likewise here this is a factor that describes group think self censorship the withholding of opposing views C says ignore warnings against the ideas of the group this is something members of the group during group think will also do it&#39;s called Collective rationalism ignoring ignoring warnings against the ideas of the group and then last create a sense of negativity against risk-taking this does not describe group think actually there is optimism and encouragement toward risk-taking in group think and that makes the correct answer for four here answer Choice D let&#39;s move on to problem five five says adult prison systems may attempt to change the behavior of inmates through all of the following mechanisms of socialization except blank we have primary secondary anticipatory and resocialization let&#39;s go over each one of these and then answer the question Primary socialization this occurs during childhood when we initially learn acceptable actions and attitudes in our society primarily through observation of our parents and any other adults that are in close proximity secondary socialization this is the process of learning appropriate behavior within smaller sections of the larger society this type of socialization occurs outside of the home and it&#39;s based on learning the rules of specific social environments anticipatory socialization is the process by which a person prepares for future changes in either occupation living situations or relationships then resocialization is another process by which one discards old behaviors in favor of new ones typically through some intensive retraining and this can have both positive or negative connotations now going over the answer choices for this problem and thinking about this problem all right adult prison systems let&#39;s think about this Primary socialization like we just disc discussed is teaching of acceptable actions and attitudes that happens during childhood that&#39;s the key factor here that is too early to be part of the adult prison system and indeed the correct answer is a now going through the other answer choices for example like resocialization this is the process by which one changes behaviors by discarding old routines and patterns and transitions to new behaviors for a life change the prison environment is very much designed to change bad behavior into desired behavior and so resocialization does happen in adult prison systems then when entering prison an inmate does undergo secondary socialization right because they&#39;re learning the rules of the specific social environment of the prison and then finally if the inmate is not incarcerated for life then there&#39;s attempts at anticipatory socialization because they need to prepare for life out outside of prison they have to be ready for Life a new life after they have served their sentence and then they leave so all three options b c d are things that you would expect in adult prison system but not a not Primary socialization this happens in childhood so the correct answer for five is a let&#39;s go ahead and move into six six says your neighbor asks you to check her mail while she is out of town and you agree later that day she asks you to water her plants as well which technique for compliance is she using in this scenario is it low ball that&#39;s not all foot in the door or door in the face technique so let&#39;s go over these techniques together the foot in the door technique this begins with a small request and after gaining compliance a larger request is made door in the face technique this is the opposite of the foot and the door technique where a large request is made at first and if refused then a second smaller request is made often the smaller request is the actual goal of the requestor then we have lowball technique in this technique the requestor will get an initial commitment from an individual and then raise the cost of the commitment it is important to note here that the cost need not only include money but it can also include effort eort and time and then last we have that&#39;s not all technique in this method an individual is made an offer but before making a decision is told that the deal is even better than she expected now what we&#39;re given here in this scenario is that your neighbor asks you can you just check the mail for me you agree and then later on she asks you to also water her plants this is a prime example of the foot in the door technique right they ask for a small favor at first and then after they received your commitment to it they ask for a larger favor and that makes the correct answer for six year C wonderful let&#39;s move into problem seven problem seven says which of the following statements represents the effective component of an attitude a says I love action movies B says I&#39;m going to go see a new action movie at the theater C says action movies are much better than comedies and D says tomorrow I&#39;m going to rent an action movie now when we talked about attitude we said that there are three primary components of attitude effective behavioral and cognitive the effective component of attitude this refers to the way a person feels towards something it is the emotional component of attitude the behavioral component of attitude is the way of a person acts with respect to something and finally the cognitive component of attitude is the way an individual thinks about something which is usually the justification for the other two components now we&#39;re being asked about the effective component and this is the emotional component which one of these statements feels like there is feelings and emotions behind the statement that&#39;s going to be answer Choice a I love action movies seven is a let&#39;s go ahead and move into problem eight problem eight reads after sitting in a lecture determining that a professor is a bad teacher based on his unprofessional attire and monotone speech is an example of which type of processing now this question requires us to discuss the elaboration likelihood model this states that attitudes are formed and changed through different routes of information process ing based on the degree of elaboration and here we can talk about Central route processing versus peripheral route processing now Central route processing this involves a person being persuaded by the content of the message itself using critical thinking and careful consideration individuals are influenced here by the strength and quality of the arguments presented and this route usually results in more enduring Attitude Change peripheral route processing this refers to when a person is persuaded by something other than the argument itself it could be the attractiveness or perceived authority of the speaker the number of arguments rather than the quality or other surface characteristics of the presentation this form of processing does not require deep thinking about the content of the message now in the scenario that&#39;s provided here the individual is judging the professor&#39;s ability as a teacher based on his unprofessional attire and monotone speech rather than the quality of his teaching or the substance of the lecture content this judgment is based on external cues that are not directly related to the professor&#39;s knowledge or teaching skills which is characteristic of peripheral route processing this person is using superficial factors rather than critically engaging with the actual information provided by the professor to form an opinion and so here the correct answer is going to be D let&#39;s move on to problem nine problem 9 says in the milgrim shock experiment many subjects were willing to give the maximum voltage shock because they were influenced by which psychological principle deviance obedience Conformity or compliance ience all right so let&#39;s first go over the mgrm shock experiment and then we&#39;ll be able to answer this question this was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram around 1961 and the experiments aimed to measure the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience participants they were initially told that they were part of a study on learning and memory and they were assigned the role of a teacher and then there was another individual this was an actor part of the research team who played the role of a learner now the teacher was instructed to administer electric shocks to the learner every time an incorrect answer was given to a series of questions these shocks were to increase in intensity with each wrong answer now now during the procedure of course there was some hesitance from the teacher to administer these doses of shocks when the teacher showed this reluctance to administer higher levels of shocks the experimentor who was acting as an authority figure would prod the participant to continue now here&#39;s something you should know there was no real shocks that were given to the actor that was part of the research group who was playing the learn learner instead there was pre-recorded sounds that were played to simulate the learner&#39;s reactions to the shocks but no real shocks were administered nevertheless the teacher didn&#39;t know that and they became reluctant however the experiment the authority figure would prod the participant to continue these prods ranged from asking the participant to continue to more explicitly saying that the experiment re quired that they had to continue all right and so of course some people obliged and mgm&#39;s results were shocking to many a significant majority of participants 65% in the original study continued to administer shocks up to the highest level which were 450 volts despite the apparent discomfort or potential harm to the learner they obeyed the instructions from the experimentor often despite their own personal distress and concern for the learner&#39;s wellbeing now this sparked intense discussions about the ethical treatment of participants in Psychology experiments and the nature of authority and obedience now let&#39;s attempt to answer this question by reminding ourselves of a couple of definitions from the answer choices a says deviance deviance refers to any violation of norms rules or expectations within a society then we have obedience this is a change in Behavior based on a command from someone seen as an authority figure then we have Conformity this is changing beliefs or behaviors in order to fit into a group or society and then we have compliance which occurs when individuals change their behavior based on the request of of others okay so considering all this the mgrm shock experiment it showed that individuals would obey orders from an authority figure even if they were not comfortable with the task at hand and in fact the correct answer here is B obedience now Conformity and compliance also deal with changes in individual Behavior but if if you remember from lecture they are not based on the requests of an authority figure hence why the correct answer is obedience and not Conformity or compliance nine is B let&#39;s go ahead and move into problem 10 10 says each individual in a group of teenagers is asked to estimate the height of a tree one individual estimates the height to be 25 ft but after discussing with the group is convinced that the height is likely closer to 40t which type of Conformity is seen here now Conformity is matching one&#39;s attitudes beliefs and behaviors to a group or societal Norms the pressure to conform it can be real or imagined it can be an actual pressure from others or a perceived pressure or expectation Conformity is also known as majority influence now when we talked about Conformity we said that there are are distinct types of Conformity including internalization and identification both which are options here now internalization involves changing one&#39;s Behavior to fit with a group while also privately agreeing with the ideas of the group identification refers to the outward acceptance of others ideas without personally taking on these ideas here what is being demonstrated is internalization because it refers to the type of conformity in which the individual changes their outward opinions to match the group but they also personally agree with those ideas and here the statement says but after discussing with the group is convinced that the height is likely closer to 40t so they not only outwardly agree with the other individuals the other teenagers who guess that the height of the tree is 40 feet but they also deeply believe it they&#39;re not just agreeing to agree they actually believe that the tree is more likely to be 4 feet and so the answer here to 10 is C internalization wonderful let&#39;s move into problem 11 problem 11 says which of the following is not a component of the functional attitude Theory the functional attitude theory states that there are four functional areas of attitudes that serve individuals in life they are knowledge ego expression adaptability and ego defense the one that is incorrect here is going to be answer Choice B acceptance is not a component of the functional attitudes Theory let&#39;s move on to 12 12 says the swimming times for all members of a swim team are tracked over a sink a six-month period in team only practices and at public meets for 14 of the 16 members top times were clocked at the meets which or what social phenomena does this evidence support all right we have social facilitation peer pressure identification or group polarization now we defined a term earlier on in this video that fits exactly into the premise of this question and that is social facilitation social facilitation here this refers to the observation that people tend to perform better on simple tasks or tasks that they have been practicing or are already good at better when in the presence of others and that&#39;s exactly what&#39;s Happening Here for 14 out of the 16 members the record times were obtained during public meets the fact that the team members performed better one in front of a uh in front of a crowd supports the notion of social facilitation and that makes the correct answer to 12 answer Choice a let&#39;s attempt problem 13 Now problem 13 says an 18-year-old man is completing his final months of high school and begins to wake up early each day to run five miles in preparation for joining the Army what type of socialization is this young man experiencing now earlier we talked about the different components of socialization and we specifically talked about anticipatory socialization this young man is preparing for life in the Army this is a new social setting that he will be joining and the process of preparing for future changes in environment is considered anticipatory socialization and that makes the correct answer here answer Choice D so 13 is D let&#39;s go on to problem 14 problem 14 says which of the following best reflects the difference between social action and social interaction now social action is defined mind as actions and behaviors that individuals are conscious of and Performing because others are around and that is contrasted with social interaction now social interaction describes how two or more individuals influence each other&#39;s Behavior including things like group polarization and group think which are two ideas that we discussed in great detail now looking at the answer choices we want and answer that aligns with that a says social action refers to positive changes one makes in society social interaction refers to the route by which these changes occur occur I&#39;m sorry for the mispronunciation there occur um that is not the correct answer B says social action refers to the effects of a group on an individual&#39;s Behavior social interaction refers to the effects that multiple individuals all have on each other that&#39;s exactly the definitions for Social Action and social interaction that is a correct answer C says social action refers to changes in Behavior caused by internal factors social interaction refers to changes caused by external factors that is also just not a true statement overall and that is not the definition of social action or the difference between social action and social interaction and then D says social action refers to change uh changes in behaviors that benefit only the individual social interaction refers to changes in beh behavior that benefit others that is also incorrect all right so again I just want to restate so that we&#39;re clear on the definitions the correct answer here is B social action is best described as the effects that a group has on individual behavior and this includes things like social facilitation deindividuation the bystandard effect and peer pressure social interaction describes two or more individuals influenc each other&#39;s be how how two or more individuals influence each other&#39;s behavior and it includes things like group polarization or group think all right let&#39;s move on to our last and final problem here problem 15 in the group setting the mentality of if you aren&#39;t with us you&#39;re against us is most representative of which factor of group think now here I have the eight factors that we discussed about group think all right and the answer choices are illusion of invulnerability Illusion of morality pressure for Conformity and self-censorship illusion of vulnerability is the creation of optimism and encouragement of risk-taking all right um illusion of morality this is the belief that the group&#39;s decisions are morally correct pressure for Conformity is the pressure put on anyone in the group who exper who expresses opinions against the group viewing the opposition as disloyal and self-censorship is the withholding of opposing views now placing spoken or unspoken expectations on individuals to just agree with the ideas of the group is best described under pressure for Conformity under this Factor the pressure put on anyone in the group who expresses opinions against the group they view that opposition as disloyal hence the mentality if you aren&#39;t with us you&#39;re against us and so the answer for 15 is going to be C and with that we have completed this practice problem set I hope that this was helpful again if you&#39;re looking for more MCAT resources I highly recommend checking blueprint other than that good luck happy studying and have a beautiful beautiful day future doctors

hello everybody my name is Iman welcome back to my YouTube channel today we&amp;#39;re going to be tackling a practice problem set that relates to our lecture on social processes attitudes and behaviors now before we get started a lot of you have been asking for MCAT resource recommendations and I want to point you to blueprint blueprint has customizable study schedules they have access to all of the aamc resources and they even have in-depth exam analytics in addition they have both free MCAT resources and paid MCAT resources some of my favorite free resources from blueprint are the MCAT question of the day their free downloadable equation sheets and the occasional free live classes that they hold I&amp;#39;m going to leave a link to blueprint in the description box below so feel free to check it out if you&amp;#39;re interested with that out of the way let&amp;#39;s go ahead and get started with problem number one problem number one says the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment is best explained by which of the following terms the bystandard effect deindividuation internalization or social loafing what we&amp;#39;re going to have to do here is first talk about the Stanford Prison Experiment in detail and then ref familiarize ourselves with these terms and hopefully connect itude to be able to answer this question so let&amp;#39;s start with talking about the Stanford Prison Experiment this was a psychological study on the effects of perceived power and it really focused on the struggle between prisoners and prison officers it was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by psychology Professor Philip zimbardo at Stanford University the participants of this experiment were male college students and they were selected and randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners in a mock prison environment and this was set up in the basement of the Stanford psychology building now the guards they were instructed to maintain order without using physical violence they were also given uniforms whistles and sunglasses to establish a sense of authority and a sense of anonymity the prisoners were also set up in the same way they were actually fake arrested fingerprinted transported to the mock prison then they were strip searched and given prison clothes and numbers to really help them get into the role so what you can see here is that the environment was very much designed to simulate a real life prison experience and participants were instructed to behave as they believed their roles required now the experiment it quickly became intense some guards embraced their role very much and then they started to exhibit abusive Behavior enforcing arbitrary rules and subjecting the prisoners to psychological torture the participants adapted to their roles Way Beyond the researchers expectation with the guards becoming increasingly cruel and sadistic and the prisoners started showing extreme stress and emotional disturbance this Behavior happened despite the fact that they knew that they were just playing roles in an experiment now the experiment it was supposed to last 2 weeks but it was terminated after only 6 days because of the extreme and distressing reactions from the participants both the prisoners and the guards the conditions became so oppressive for some prisoners that they had to be released early and the well-being of all participants was very much put at risk now the Stanford Prison Experiment is widely cited as an example of the power of situational forces on individual Behavior and the ease with which Ordinary People can become complicit in or or victims of oppressive systems this experiment also raised significant ethical concerns because of the experimental setup especially regarding the well-being and informed consent of participants now that we understand the Stanford Prison Experiment let&amp;#39;s look through these terms and start discussing them all right first choice we have is the bystandard effect this describes the observation that one in a group individuals are less likely to respond to a person in need this doesn&amp;#39;t really describe the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment because we had two groups of people guards and prisoners each acting out their assigned role and it wasn&amp;#39;t like there was one guard ganging up on one prisoner and everyone just watched and turned their head away not interjecting so really the bystandard effect is not a good option for this problem to describe the behavior of the individuals in the prison experiment so we&amp;#39;re going to cancel out bystandard effect then we have deindividuation okay deindividuation this is the loss of selfawareness in large groups which can lead to drastic changes in Behavior so it really describes the erosion of personal standards in group situations now this this describes the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment so for the guards with their uniforms and their sunglasses and the roles that they were given the individual personalities of the guards were diminished and they became more likely to act in a way that they wouldn&amp;#39;t normally behave showing aggression and abusive Behavior things that they assumed a prison guard would act like same goes with the prisoners they were dressed in identical uniforms and referred to by names by by numbers instead of names and so they began to lose their sense of individuality making them more likely to conform to the submissive role of prisoners so de individual deindividuation does describe the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison Experiment then we have internalization internalization refers to the process by which individuals adopt the beliefs attitudes values and behaviors of a particular group or society and integrate them into their own identity and self-concept we see a little bit of this in the context of the EXP experiment for the prisoners they began to accept their roles as actual prisoners adopting behaviors and attitudes that were submissive and passive some even began to believe in their own guilt as for the guards they started to see themselves as actual authority figures and they began to internalize the attitudes and behaviors expected of a prison guard including Dom and control of others the subjects prisoners and guards alike were so deeply immersed in their roles that they acted in accordance with them even when they weren&amp;#39;t under direct observation even when they knew that this was just an experiment and that indicates that they very much internalized these roles so internalization very much describes the behavior of the individuals in the Stanford Prison experience then last we have social loafing this refers to the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when in a group setting than individually and this really doesn&amp;#39;t make sense in the context of the Stanford Prison Experiment because it wasn&amp;#39;t a group project where only one person did the majority of the work and the others you know slacked off because they were part of a group so in short to summarize this when fulfilling particular rules an individual&amp;#39;s Behavior can be very out of character and the changing of one&amp;#39;s behavior and internal ideas to match a group is called internalization that was a key part of the experiment in addition the experiment very much involved deindividuation which is the loss of self-identity in the group setting that can lead to anti-normative or violent Behavior so we see both de individuation and internalization that&amp;#39;s statements 2 and three and that makes the correct answer for one answer Choice C with that let&amp;#39;s move into problem two problem two reads a jury member who initially feels that a strict penalty should be placed on the defendant votes for an even stricter penalty after deoration with the other jury members this behavior is best described by Which social phenomenon all right so we have social facilitation group polarization assimilation and socialization let&amp;#39;s go over each of these terms and then answer the problem first social facilitation this describes the tendency of people to perform at a different level based on the fact that others are around it&amp;#39;s been observed that people tend to perform better on simple tasks that they&amp;#39;re good at when in the presence of others then we have group polarization this is the tendency toward making decisions in a group that are more extreme than the thoughts of the individual group members then we have assimilation this is the process by which a group or individual&amp;#39;s culture begins to melt into another culture and then last we have socialization this is the process of developing and spreading Norms customs and beliefs now looking at this problem we have this jury member who listened to the case and was like the defendant deserves a strict penalty then they talk to the other jury members and they&amp;#39;re like oh wow they deserve even stricter penalties than I had initially thought the fact that the in that individual&amp;#39;s opinions became more extreme after a group discussion this is perfectly explained by group polarization the jury member felt that a strict penalty should be given and then that opinion became more extreme just with a conversation with the rest of the group so group polarization best describes this social phenomena the correct answer for two is B let&amp;#39;s move on to three three says which of the following would decrease the likelihood of a bystandard lending Aid to a victim all right which of the following would decrease the likelihood all right that&amp;#39;s very important we need to note that this is asking for decrease the likelihood of a bystandard helping a victim not increase this is going to require us to remind ourselves what the bystandard effect is and what are some of the rules that go along with it that tells us if somebody is more likely to intervene or less likely to intervene in different scenarios so the bystandard effect this is another observed phenomena that occurs in social groups where individuals do not intervene to help victims when others are present and it&amp;#39;s been shown that the likelihood and timeliness of a response is inversely related to the number of byst standards in other words the more people standing by the less likely any one of those people is to help now there are several factors at play in the bystandard effect first when in groups people are less likely to notice danger or anything out of the ordinary this is thought to be due in part to social etiquette in that it can be considered rude to watch others and their surroundings additionally when in groups human take humans take cues from from other humans if other people are not responding to a situation then that individual is kind of less likely to perceive that a situation is an actual threat or an emergency and the degree of emergency or the degree of danger all right uh to the victim that plays a role in response so in low danger scenarios byst standards are less likely to provide aid but then in high danger scenarios by standards are more likely to intervene now another factor is the degree of responsibility that&amp;#39;s felt by the bystandard this is determined by the competency of the bystandard his or her relationship to the victim and whether he or she considers the victim to be deserving of Aid and then finally the cohesiveness of the group has also been shown to influence the responsiveness of the bystandard so in groups made up of strangers the likelihood of response and the speed of the response is much slower than a group of well acquainted individuals or friends so considering all this let&amp;#39;s read our answer choices and attempt to answer this question again which of the following would decrease the likelihood of a bystandard lending Aid to a victim a says increasing the number of people in the room B says increasing the degree of danger experienced by the victim C says making the victim an acquaintance instead of a stranger and D says being alone in the room with the victim now like we talked it&amp;#39;s been observed that increasing the number of bystandard that&amp;#39;s going to decrease the likelihood that any of them will Aid a victim and that means the correct answer here is going to be a looking at the other answer choices increasing the degree of danger experienced by the victim like Choice B says and making the victim an acquaintance instead of a stranger like Choice C says and being alone in the room with the victim as Choice D says these three things would increase the likelihood that the bystandard would help the victim so again that is why the correct answer to three is a let&amp;#39;s go ahead and Tackle problem four problem four reads during group think members of the group do all of the following except blank a says stereotype members outside of the group b says withholding opposing views C says ignore warnings against the ideas of the group and D says create a sense of negativity against risk-taking now group think this refers to a social phenomena in which desire for harmony or conformity results in a group of people coming to an incorrect or poor decision in an attempt to eliminate or minimize conflict among the group members consensus decisions are reached without really considering any alternative ideas in these cases the desire to agree with the group it causes a loss of independent critical thinking and the group also begins to isolate and ignore external viewpoints seeing their own ideas as being Superior and as being correct without question now when we talked about group think we also examined eight factors that are indicative of group think I have them listed here as a reminder now let&amp;#39;s go through the answer choices again and see which align with group think and try to find the one answer here that does not so a says stereotype members outside of the group this is a factor that defines group think stereo excessive stereotyping B says withholding opposing views likewise here this is a factor that describes group think self censorship the withholding of opposing views C says ignore warnings against the ideas of the group this is something members of the group during group think will also do it&amp;#39;s called Collective rationalism ignoring ignoring warnings against the ideas of the group and then last create a sense of negativity against risk-taking this does not describe group think actually there is optimism and encouragement toward risk-taking in group think and that makes the correct answer for four here answer Choice D let&amp;#39;s move on to problem five five says adult prison systems may attempt to change the behavior of inmates through all of the following mechanisms of socialization except blank we have primary secondary anticipatory and resocialization let&amp;#39;s go over each one of these and then answer the question Primary socialization this occurs during childhood when we initially learn acceptable actions and attitudes in our society primarily through observation of our parents and any other adults that are in close proximity secondary socialization this is the process of learning appropriate behavior within smaller sections of the larger society this type of socialization occurs outside of the home and it&amp;#39;s based on learning the rules of specific social environments anticipatory socialization is the process by which a person prepares for future changes in either occupation living situations or relationships then resocialization is another process by which one discards old behaviors in favor of new ones typically through some intensive retraining and this can have both positive or negative connotations now going over the answer choices for this problem and thinking about this problem all right adult prison systems let&amp;#39;s think about this Primary socialization like we just disc discussed is teaching of acceptable actions and attitudes that happens during childhood that&amp;#39;s the key factor here that is too early to be part of the adult prison system and indeed the correct answer is a now going through the other answer choices for example like resocialization this is the process by which one changes behaviors by discarding old routines and patterns and transitions to new behaviors for a life change the prison environment is very much designed to change bad behavior into desired behavior and so resocialization does happen in adult prison systems then when entering prison an inmate does undergo secondary socialization right because they&amp;#39;re learning the rules of the specific social environment of the prison and then finally if the inmate is not incarcerated for life then there&amp;#39;s attempts at anticipatory socialization because they need to prepare for life out outside of prison they have to be ready for Life a new life after they have served their sentence and then they leave so all three options b c d are things that you would expect in adult prison system but not a not Primary socialization this happens in childhood so the correct answer for five is a let&amp;#39;s go ahead and move into six six says your neighbor asks you to check her mail while she is out of town and you agree later that day she asks you to water her plants as well which technique for compliance is she using in this scenario is it low ball that&amp;#39;s not all foot in the door or door in the face technique so let&amp;#39;s go over these techniques together the foot in the door technique this begins with a small request and after gaining compliance a larger request is made door in the face technique this is the opposite of the foot and the door technique where a large request is made at first and if refused then a second smaller request is made often the smaller request is the actual goal of the requestor then we have lowball technique in this technique the requestor will get an initial commitment from an individual and then raise the cost of the commitment it is important to note here that the cost need not only include money but it can also include effort eort and time and then last we have that&amp;#39;s not all technique in this method an individual is made an offer but before making a decision is told that the deal is even better than she expected now what we&amp;#39;re given here in this scenario is that your neighbor asks you can you just check the mail for me you agree and then later on she asks you to also water her plants this is a prime example of the foot in the door technique right they ask for a small favor at first and then after they received your commitment to it they ask for a larger favor and that makes the correct answer for six year C wonderful let&amp;#39;s move into problem seven problem seven says which of the following statements represents the effective component of an attitude a says I love action movies B says I&amp;#39;m going to go see a new action movie at the theater C says action movies are much better than comedies and D says tomorrow I&amp;#39;m going to rent an action movie now when we talked about attitude we said that there are three primary components of attitude effective behavioral and cognitive the effective component of attitude this refers to the way a person feels towards something it is the emotional component of attitude the behavioral component of attitude is the way of a person acts with respect to something and finally the cognitive component of attitude is the way an individual thinks about something which is usually the justification for the other two components now we&amp;#39;re being asked about the effective component and this is the emotional component which one of these statements feels like there is feelings and emotions behind the statement that&amp;#39;s going to be answer Choice a I love action movies seven is a let&amp;#39;s go ahead and move into problem eight problem eight reads after sitting in a lecture determining that a professor is a bad teacher based on his unprofessional attire and monotone speech is an example of which type of processing now this question requires us to discuss the elaboration likelihood model this states that attitudes are formed and changed through different routes of information process ing based on the degree of elaboration and here we can talk about Central route processing versus peripheral route processing now Central route processing this involves a person being persuaded by the content of the message itself using critical thinking and careful consideration individuals are influenced here by the strength and quality of the arguments presented and this route usually results in more enduring Attitude Change peripheral route processing this refers to when a person is persuaded by something other than the argument itself it could be the attractiveness or perceived authority of the speaker the number of arguments rather than the quality or other surface characteristics of the presentation this form of processing does not require deep thinking about the content of the message now in the scenario that&amp;#39;s provided here the individual is judging the professor&amp;#39;s ability as a teacher based on his unprofessional attire and monotone speech rather than the quality of his teaching or the substance of the lecture content this judgment is based on external cues that are not directly related to the professor&amp;#39;s knowledge or teaching skills which is characteristic of peripheral route processing this person is using superficial factors rather than critically engaging with the actual information provided by the professor to form an opinion and so here the correct answer is going to be D let&amp;#39;s move on to problem nine problem 9 says in the milgrim shock experiment many subjects were willing to give the maximum voltage shock because they were influenced by which psychological principle deviance obedience Conformity or compliance ience all right so let&amp;#39;s first go over the mgrm shock experiment and then we&amp;#39;ll be able to answer this question this was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram around 1961 and the experiments aimed to measure the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience participants they were initially told that they were part of a study on learning and memory and they were assigned the role of a teacher and then there was another individual this was an actor part of the research team who played the role of a learner now the teacher was instructed to administer electric shocks to the learner every time an incorrect answer was given to a series of questions these shocks were to increase in intensity with each wrong answer now now during the procedure of course there was some hesitance from the teacher to administer these doses of shocks when the teacher showed this reluctance to administer higher levels of shocks the experimentor who was acting as an authority figure would prod the participant to continue now here&amp;#39;s something you should know there was no real shocks that were given to the actor that was part of the research group who was playing the learn learner instead there was pre-recorded sounds that were played to simulate the learner&amp;#39;s reactions to the shocks but no real shocks were administered nevertheless the teacher didn&amp;#39;t know that and they became reluctant however the experiment the authority figure would prod the participant to continue these prods ranged from asking the participant to continue to more explicitly saying that the experiment re quired that they had to continue all right and so of course some people obliged and mgm&amp;#39;s results were shocking to many a significant majority of participants 65% in the original study continued to administer shocks up to the highest level which were 450 volts despite the apparent discomfort or potential harm to the learner they obeyed the instructions from the experimentor often despite their own personal distress and concern for the learner&amp;#39;s wellbeing now this sparked intense discussions about the ethical treatment of participants in Psychology experiments and the nature of authority and obedience now let&amp;#39;s attempt to answer this question by reminding ourselves of a couple of definitions from the answer choices a says deviance deviance refers to any violation of norms rules or expectations within a society then we have obedience this is a change in Behavior based on a command from someone seen as an authority figure then we have Conformity this is changing beliefs or behaviors in order to fit into a group or society and then we have compliance which occurs when individuals change their behavior based on the request of of others okay so considering all this the mgrm shock experiment it showed that individuals would obey orders from an authority figure even if they were not comfortable with the task at hand and in fact the correct answer here is B obedience now Conformity and compliance also deal with changes in individual Behavior but if if you remember from lecture they are not based on the requests of an authority figure hence why the correct answer is obedience and not Conformity or compliance nine is B let&amp;#39;s go ahead and move into problem 10 10 says each individual in a group of teenagers is asked to estimate the height of a tree one individual estimates the height to be 25 ft but after discussing with the group is convinced that the height is likely closer to 40t which type of Conformity is seen here now Conformity is matching one&amp;#39;s attitudes beliefs and behaviors to a group or societal Norms the pressure to conform it can be real or imagined it can be an actual pressure from others or a perceived pressure or expectation Conformity is also known as majority influence now when we talked about Conformity we said that there are are distinct types of Conformity including internalization and identification both which are options here now internalization involves changing one&amp;#39;s Behavior to fit with a group while also privately agreeing with the ideas of the group identification refers to the outward acceptance of others ideas without personally taking on these ideas here what is being demonstrated is internalization because it refers to the type of conformity in which the individual changes their outward opinions to match the group but they also personally agree with those ideas and here the statement says but after discussing with the group is convinced that the height is likely closer to 40t so they not only outwardly agree with the other individuals the other teenagers who guess that the height of the tree is 40 feet but they also deeply believe it they&amp;#39;re not just agreeing to agree they actually believe that the tree is more likely to be 4 feet and so the answer here to 10 is C internalization wonderful let&amp;#39;s move into problem 11 problem 11 says which of the following is not a component of the functional attitude Theory the functional attitude theory states that there are four functional areas of attitudes that serve individuals in life they are knowledge ego expression adaptability and ego defense the one that is incorrect here is going to be answer Choice B acceptance is not a component of the functional attitudes Theory let&amp;#39;s move on to 12 12 says the swimming times for all members of a swim team are tracked over a sink a six-month period in team only practices and at public meets for 14 of the 16 members top times were clocked at the meets which or what social phenomena does this evidence support all right we have social facilitation peer pressure identification or group polarization now we defined a term earlier on in this video that fits exactly into the premise of this question and that is social facilitation social facilitation here this refers to the observation that people tend to perform better on simple tasks or tasks that they have been practicing or are already good at better when in the presence of others and that&amp;#39;s exactly what&amp;#39;s Happening Here for 14 out of the 16 members the record times were obtained during public meets the fact that the team members performed better one in front of a uh in front of a crowd supports the notion of social facilitation and that makes the correct answer to 12 answer Choice a let&amp;#39;s attempt problem 13 Now problem 13 says an 18-year-old man is completing his final months of high school and begins to wake up early each day to run five miles in preparation for joining the Army what type of socialization is this young man experiencing now earlier we talked about the different components of socialization and we specifically talked about anticipatory socialization this young man is preparing for life in the Army this is a new social setting that he will be joining and the process of preparing for future changes in environment is considered anticipatory socialization and that makes the correct answer here answer Choice D so 13 is D let&amp;#39;s go on to problem 14 problem 14 says which of the following best reflects the difference between social action and social interaction now social action is defined mind as actions and behaviors that individuals are conscious of and Performing because others are around and that is contrasted with social interaction now social interaction describes how two or more individuals influence each other&amp;#39;s Behavior including things like group polarization and group think which are two ideas that we discussed in great detail now looking at the answer choices we want and answer that aligns with that a says social action refers to positive changes one makes in society social interaction refers to the route by which these changes occur occur I&amp;#39;m sorry for the mispronunciation there occur um that is not the correct answer B says social action refers to the effects of a group on an individual&amp;#39;s Behavior social interaction refers to the effects that multiple individuals all have on each other that&amp;#39;s exactly the definitions for Social Action and social interaction that is a correct answer C says social action refers to changes in Behavior caused by internal factors social interaction refers to changes caused by external factors that is also just not a true statement overall and that is not the definition of social action or the difference between social action and social interaction and then D says social action refers to change uh changes in behaviors that benefit only the individual social interaction refers to changes in beh behavior that benefit others that is also incorrect all right so again I just want to restate so that we&amp;#39;re clear on the definitions the correct answer here is B social action is best described as the effects that a group has on individual behavior and this includes things like social facilitation deindividuation the bystandard effect and peer pressure social interaction describes two or more individuals influenc each other&amp;#39;s be how how two or more individuals influence each other&amp;#39;s behavior and it includes things like group polarization or group think all right let&amp;#39;s move on to our last and final problem here problem 15 in the group setting the mentality of if you aren&amp;#39;t with us you&amp;#39;re against us is most representative of which factor of group think now here I have the eight factors that we discussed about group think all right and the answer choices are illusion of invulnerability Illusion of morality pressure for Conformity and self-censorship illusion of vulnerability is the creation of optimism and encouragement of risk-taking all right um illusion of morality this is the belief that the group&amp;#39;s decisions are morally correct pressure for Conformity is the pressure put on anyone in the group who exper who expresses opinions against the group viewing the opposition as disloyal and self-censorship is the withholding of opposing views now placing spoken or unspoken expectations on individuals to just agree with the ideas of the group is best described under pressure for Conformity under this Factor the pressure put on anyone in the group who expresses opinions against the group they view that opposition as disloyal hence the mentality if you aren&amp;#39;t with us you&amp;#39;re against us and so the answer for 15 is going to be C and with that we have completed this practice problem set I hope that this was helpful again if you&amp;#39;re looking for more MCAT resources I highly recommend checking blueprint other than that good luck happy studying and have a beautiful beautiful day future doctors

Transcript for:MCAT Practice Problem Set Lecture: Social Processes, Attitudes, and Behaviors

Transcript for:
MCAT Practice Problem Set Lecture: Social Processes, Attitudes, and Behaviors