Social influences on human behavior and development

Social Influences

How behavior differs according to the social situation within the same group of high school seniors

Senior students preparing to enter college become competitive with one another, as to what colleges they are applying to and ultimately are accepted into.

Social facilitation: Students apply themselves to their schoolwork to a greater degree than they might otherwise, in a desire to compete with their friends, b.

Co-actors: People who are work on the same noncompetitive task at the same time may be defined as coactors, such as persons on the same sports team, thus fellow students might be said to be coactors in the task of getting into college, for although they might feel academically competitive, the same students in the same classes can get As or get into the same college.

c. Social loafing: social loafing, for example, coasting along in class discussions by not speaking, is reduced during this hyper-competitive period.

A d.

Groupthink: Groupthink is manifest in that students feel success is measured by the schools they are accepted to, because everyone else seems to think so, and different schools' merits are determined based on ratings and difficulty of admittance, rather than by suitability to specific student educational needs.

A e.

Attribution: A person's worth and intelligence is correlated to his or her acceptance at particular college.

A f.

Prejudice and discrimination: Minority students who get into good schools might be assumed to do so because of affirmative action g.

Diversity and ethnocentrism: Students from the same ethnic groups may compete with one another, assuming that there is a finite number of slots for Asians / Caucasians/African-Americans, etc., at the top colleges h.

Attraction and prosocial behavior: students who gain acceptance to competitive schools gain in social attractiveness.

Precursors, or conditions that allow influence from social factors: A competitive, diverse and affluent student body with high community standards for upward mobility

What happened? Some students were successful at gaining admittance to top schools others were not.

Was anyone harmed? Students may have been socially marginalized because of excessive academic competitiveness

Was there any abnormal behavior that warrants therapeutic intervention? Students who become depressed or suicidal because they felt that they were not good enough to compete

Were there any cultural factors that limit or encourage group influence? Diversity intensifies the sense of 'group' in terms of students competing for the same perceived slots, or the sense that certain ethnic minorities 'may' have an advantage, even if they have the same academic qualification.

Example

The same group of competitive students, after college acceptance letters have been mailed, goes together on a senior trip, for one last time.

A a.

Social facilitation: Students are on their best behavior for the period before the trip, because they know that any infraction may result in its cancellation, which will injure the entire group.

A b.

Co-actors: The student senior class as a whole feels a sense of unity, because it is their last event together.

A c.

Social loafing: Students go on the trip, which is expensive and required many fundraising efforts, who did not participate in those efforts, but no one rebukes them because they are seniors.

A d.

Groupthink: All students feel sentimental about leaving school, because everyone is crying and acting nostalgic, even students who disliked the school.

A e.

Attribution: Students feel a sense of 'class togetherness' because they are commonly labeled as seniors.

A f.

Prejudice and discrimination: Seniors draw away from their junior friends, even though they may have felt less close to their senior friends, during the competitive earlier part of the year.