AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION

MID-CAREER PROGRAM
Social Psychology and
Group Dynamics

[AgEx 3042]

Gebrecherkos Gebregiorgis(MA, Sociology)

Getachew Shambel (MA, Regional and Local
Development Studies)
Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Sasakawa Africa for Extension Education for covering the cost of
these module preparation and other supports they provided us. Special thanks also go to
Dr. Jeff Mutimba who always inspired us to put our unlimited efforts during the
preparation of this distance learning material.

We also like to extend our gratitude to Dr. Tesfaye Semela who gave us the training in
preparation of the distance learning material and also for his constructive comments on
the earlier version of this distance learning material.

Last but not least, we extend our acknowledgement to those whose books and articles
have been used in this distance teaching material.

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 Table of Contents
Course Introduction....................................................................................................................................VI

Assessment...............................................................................................................................................VII

Methods....................................................................................................................................................VII

Learning journal........................................................................................................................................VII

Self- Assessment Questions.......................................................................................................................VII

About the study guide...............................................................................................................................VII

Icons/Symbols.............................................................................................................................................X

PART ONE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY.................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................1

UNIT ONE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – Concept and Nature.............................................................................3

1.1 Psychology-Concept and Nature........................................................................................................4

1.2 Schools of thought in psychology......................................................................................................5

1.3 Psychology as a science.....................................................................................................................7

1.4 Social psychology: Concept and nature.............................................................................................8

1.5. Definitions of Social Psychology........................................................................................................9

1.6 Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behavior and Thought.......................10

1.7 Social Psychology in the new Millennium........................................................................................13

1.8 Social Psychology and Extension......................................................................................................15

UNIT TWO: UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSES OF OTHERS BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL COGNITION: THINKING
ABOUT THE SOCIAL WORLD......................................................................................................................19

2.1 Definitions on Attribution................................................................................................................21

2.2 Theories of Attribution....................................................................................................................21

2.3. Errors in Attribution........................................................................................................................24

2.4 Self – Awareness..............................................................................................................................25

2.5 Cultural differences..........................................................................................................................26

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 2.6 Impression Formation and Management.........................................................................................26

2.7 Minimizing the Impact of Attribution Errors....................................................................................30

2.8 Social Cognition: Thinking about the social world...........................................................................31

2.9 Schemas: Mental Framework for Organizing and using Social Information.....................................32

2.10 Heuristics, the Mental short cuts...................................................................................................33

UNIT THREE: ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR....................................................................................................40

3.1 Definition of Attitudes.....................................................................................................................41

3.2 Forming Attitudes............................................................................................................................42

3.3 Social Learning.................................................................................................................................43

3.4 Genetic Factors................................................................................................................................45

3.5 Attitudes Influence on Behavior.......................................................................................................46

3.6 Persuasion: Changing the Attitudes.................................................................................................48

3.7 Resistance to Persuasion..................................................................................................................49

3.8 Cognitive Dissonance.......................................................................................................................50

UNIT FOUR: SOCIAL IDENTITY....................................................................................................................54

4.1 Social Identity..................................................................................................................................55

4.2 Self-Concept.....................................................................................................................................56

4.3 Self – Efficacy...................................................................................................................................57

4.4 Self – Esteem...................................................................................................................................58

4.5. Self-Serving Bias..............................................................................................................................60

4.6. Gender Identity...............................................................................................................................61

UNIT FIVE: PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION AND INTER PERSONAL ATTRACTION.........................................67

5.1. Nature and Origin of Prejudice.......................................................................................................68

5.2 Discrimination..................................................................................................................................73

5.3 Techniques for countering the effects of Prejudice..........................................................................75

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 5.4 Interpersonal Attraction...................................................................................................................79

5.5 Interdependent Relationships with Family and Friends...................................................................84

5.6 Relationship beyond Friendship/Family and Close Relationship......................................................87

5.7 Loneliness: Life without Close Relationship.....................................................................................88

UNIT SIX: SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND CONFORMITY......................................................................................95

6.1. Conformity......................................................................................................................................96

6.2 Factors of conformity.......................................................................................................................99

6.3 Role of Culture in Conformity........................................................................................................102

6.4 Compliance and Ingratiation..........................................................................................................102

6.5. Foot in the door Technique...........................................................................................................104

6.6 Door in the face Technique............................................................................................................105

UNIT SEVEN: PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR........................................................................................................108

7.1. Prosocial Behavior........................................................................................................................109

7.2 Reasons for Helping.......................................................................................................................109

7.3. Bystander effect............................................................................................................................110

7.4 Personality Traits in Helping Behavior............................................................................................110

7.5 Increasing Helping.........................................................................................................................112

7.6 Conflict...........................................................................................................................................113

7.7 Reasons for Conflict.......................................................................................................................113

PART TWO................................................................................................................................................118

GROUP DYNAMICS...................................................................................................................................118

Introduction.........................................................................................................................................118

UNIT EIGHT: INTRODUCTION TO GROUP DYNAMICS...............................................................................119

8.1 Concept of Group Dynamics..........................................................................................................120

8.2 Defining Groups.............................................................................................................................121

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 8.3 Describing Groups/ the Nature of Groups.....................................................................................124

8.4 The Nature of Group Dynamics......................................................................................................131

UNIT NINE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN GROUP DYNAMICS.............................................................137

9.1 Psychological Perspectives.............................................................................................................138

9.2 Sociological Theories.....................................................................................................................142

UNIT TEN: FORMATION, COHESION AND DEVELOPMENT OF GROUPS....................................................148

10.1 Formation....................................................................................................................................149

UNIT ELEVEN: LEADERSHIP AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION....................................................159

11.1 Introduction: Leadership..............................................................................................................160

11.2 Interpersonal Communication.....................................................................................................182

11.3 Preparing, Delivering a Speech and Stage Management.............................................................195

Answer keys for Self-Assessment Questions............................................................................................201

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Course Introduction
Welcome to the course Social Psychology and Group Dynamics. This course is intended
to let you know the behaviours of individuals in groups and the groups’ dynamics. The
Course has two interrelated parts; Social psychology and Group Dynamics. Social
Psychology deals with the behavior of individuals in groups. Related to this it looks to the
attitudes, personal identity and attraction, discrimination and so on. The second part-
Group Dynamics- deals with groups and leadership. When you look groups you find
them having different facets and roles in the rural community. The type of groups is many
so does to their roles. Hence, hear this will be dealt. Individuals have impact on groups
when they are involved and the groups also influence the behavior of members. All these
kinds of group dynamics will be dealt in this part. As you are working in rural
environment, knowledge of behaviours of people and rural groups is of a paramount
importance. First you will learn about what Social Psychology is and various concepts
related to that so that you will not waste your time finding the meanings of concepts
when you are reading the other units.

As interpersonal Communication is most important for extension workers, concepts and

skills related to personal communication are also part of the course.

In the module, you also find self- check exercises with their answers and activity
questions. You are advised to try all the self test questions and activities. If you have any
question, feel free to ask your tutor during face to face tutorial session.

We hope you will learn a lot from this module.

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 Assessment
The module is divided into eleven units. Each unit has its own objectives. In order to
check whether the objectives are met, various questions and activities are given. You are
expected to do all the questions and activities.

Methods
Your performance in relation to this module will be assessed in the following ways:

 An assignment that you will be done by you and returned back to your tutor which
accounts for 40% of your total mark
 Final examination (60%)

Learning journal
Having a learning journal is important to record your performance of this course. It can
help you to jot down the most important points that need to be revised, questions that you
do not understand while reading. You can also use the journal to give answers to self-help
exercises and activities.

Self- Assessment Questions

Self-test exercises are intended to assess your understanding about the topics under
discussion. You are advised to give answers to these questions.

About the study guide

Each unit of the module provides you with notes, self-help questions, activities and
readings. They are intended to let you achieve the objectives set at the beginning of each
unit.

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Activities, self-help questions and case studies

In the module, activities, self-help questions and case studies are found. They help you to
actively involve in the teaching learning process. The approximate time needed for the
activities are mentioned. It may take some minutes more or less. You have to pay special
attention in accomplishing the activities. They could make you master the concepts under
discussion very well. Self-help questions should also be done. Use your learning journal
to write down the answers you try. Case studies are the other components you will find in
this module.

Readings

In addition to the references that you read for further knowledge, articles that are related
to the ideas discussed are found at the end of the module under the heading Readings.

Unit summaries

A brief summary of the contents is found at the end of each unit. They can help you
summarize what you have learnt. If you are not sure that you have not captured the ideas,
refer back to the details of the unit.

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Course Title: Social Psychology and Group Dynamics

Credit hours: 2hrs

Course Objectives:
By the end of this course students should be able to:

 Understand the general meaning concept and Nature of Psychology in general

and social psychology in particular
 Know the nature of human personality and personality development
 Understand the nexus between Social psychology and Agricultural Extension
 Conceptualize about the nature of attention and nature of sensation and
perception
 Learn about learning and behavioral psychology(theories and forms of learning)
 Understand about Motivation, Emotion and frustration(theories)
 Know about attitude and the various theories of Attitude change
 Understand about the nature and determinants of Group dynamics
 Understand the influence of groups on individual and vice versa
 Analyze the relationship between group dynamics, leadership and decision
making
 Coordinate group actions and group meetings

Icons/Symbols

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The following are icons/symbols used in this distance module. Given below are the
meanings given to the respective icons/symbols:

Refers to Objectives. These appear at the start of the course

and at the start of every unit. The objectives help you to focus
on the expected outcomes of each lecture. Please read each
objective carefully and check on them again and again
throughout the lecture to find out if you are able to do what the
lecture is intended to enable you do.
Refers to Take Note. It helps to highlight significant points
that you need to keep in mind. When making your study
notes, take down these points as well.
Refers to In-text Question(s). These are questions that are
interspersed within the text of the lecture to help you review
and master small chunks of knowledge, skills and values.
They are helpful for the mastery of your lessons; please
respond appropriately to each one of them (preferably in
writing) before you move on.
Refers to Activity. The activities are also interspersed
throughout the lectures to encourage group discussions, open-
ended learning, project work, et cetera. Please endeavour to
carry out all the suggested activities individually and in
groups, as required. This will help you to master what you are
learning.
Refers to Summary. Summaries are included at the end of
every lecture to assist to quickly recapitulate what you have
just learnt in the lecture. You will find summaries also useful
when making your personal notes as you study, and when
preparing for examinations. Study them keenly.
Refers to Self-assessment Question(s). These are tasks set to
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 cover work done in the entire lecture. The set tasks provide
summative evaluation of what you have learned in the lecture.
If answers to self-assessment questions are provided, do not
check on the answers before attempting the questions yourself.
Where answers are not provided, check your answers against
the relevant portions of the text. Where the text does not
provide satisfactory answers to the self-assessment questions,
raise these questions in your discussion group and/or during
the face-to-face tutorial session.
Refers to Further Reading. Although attempts have been
made to make every study material as inclusive as possible, it
is also true that no single lecture can purport to say the last
word on any given topic. It is therefore vital for you to study
the additional materials cited in the Further Reading section.
This will broaden and deepen your understanding of the
subject under discussion.

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 PART ONE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
This module has two parts. The first part of this module deals with Social Psychology.
This part alone has seven chapters out of the total eleven chapters. The First unit briefly
introduces the concept of Psychology in general and social Psychology in particular. The
Second unit is about understanding the causes of others behavior and social cognition.
This unit stipulates the importance of understanding the current mood and feelings of
individual in any interaction. The third unit is about attitude and behavior. This section
makes an attempt to link the importance of proper understanding of individual’s attitude
and behavior for in rural development and agricultural extension profession specifically
and in day to day living in general. The fourth unit of the first part of this module is
about social identity. It is about our personal identity and how we define, evaluate and see
ourselves as part of the community. The fifth unit is about prejudice, discrimination and
interpersonal attraction. The sixth unit is about Social influence and conformity. The unit
thoroughly discusses how our actions, movements, judgments and decisions are affected
by the actions of other members of the community. The seventh unit is about prosocial
behavior. Actions that provide benefit to others but that have no obvious benefits for the
person who carries them out. We wish you all the best and enjoy reading the rest of the
module.

Unit Content outline Page

1. Social Psychology: concept and Nature 3
2. Understanding the causes of other behavior and 19
social cognition
3. Attitude and Behavior 40
4. Social identity 54
5. Prejudice, discrimination and interpersonal 67
attraction
6. Social influence and conformity 95
7. Prosocial Behavior 108

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 UNIT ONE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – Concept and Nature

Introduction
Dear learner, in this particular unit, before starting to discuss the concept and nature of
social psychology, you will study about the general meaning, concept and nature of
Psychology in general at a glance. First, we will see about the various definitions
attributed to psychology including the literal and scientific meanings followed by the
different school of thoughts in psychology in general and the concept and nature of social
psychology in particular. Furthermore, you will be taught about the role of psychology in
agricultural extension and the different methods of psychology.

Objectives
By the end of this unit students are expected to;

 Explain the concept of Psychology in general

 Differentiate the different schools of thoughts in psychology
 Define and explain social psychology.
 Explain the factors that affect social interaction of individuals
 Describe the various perspectives of social psychology.
 List the five goals of the study of Psychology as a science
 Explain the role of Psychology in Agricultural Extension
 Recognize the different Methods of Psychology

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1.1 Psychology-Concept and Nature

Dear learner, the word psychology is one of the most frequently said terms in
day to day life but do you know what exactly does it mean?

You might have tried to explain in your own way however the quest for the formal
definition of psychology can be illustrated as follows.

Psychology has been defined in various ways, depending on the inclination of researchers
at the time when the definition was formulated. It has been variously defined as ' the
study of the mind', 'the study of behavior', “the study of human experience" and "the
study of mental life". It is difficult to produce a definition which will satisfy everyone,
although we can state that it involves the study of human and animal behavior and
experience, examined from a number of different viewpoints and using a variety of
techniques, most of which emphasize the importance of empirical evidence in support of
explanatory theory.

The term 'psychology', literally means the science of the soul and derived from two Greek
words (Psyche=soul; logos=science). Formerly, psychology was a part of metaphysics,
and dealt with the nature, origin, and' destiny of the soul. It was called rational
psychology. But modern psychology is empirical, and does not deal with the problems
relating to the soul. It deals with mental process apart from the soul or mental substance.
It is the science of experience and behavior, which tells us how the mind works and
behaves. It can predict the behavior of an individual, and control it to a certain extent by
putting him/her under proper conditions. It seeks to discover the laws of mind.

Psychology is defined as the science of behavior. Behavior is, in turn, a most

comprehensive term that refers to everything we do. Although we often make
observations of behavior and attempt to understand the behavior of others, the casual

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observations are usually distinguished from those of the professional psychologist. The
psychologist's method of inquiry is both objective and systematic. He stands back from
the behavior he studies, calmly and dispassionately makes carefully planned ob-
servations, and considers alternatives in a detached manner.

Psychology is the study of cognitions, emotions, and behavior. Psychologists are involved
in a variety of tasks. Many spend their careers designing and performing research to
better understand how people behave in specific situations, how and why we think the
way we do, and how emotions develop and what impact they have on our interactions
with others.

Psychology emerged as a science relatively recently in the history of man. Prior to that
time, psychology was largely in the domain of philosophy. Many of the philosophical
conclusions about the nature of man stemmed from basic assumptions rather than from
the study of man as an object of scientific inquiry. With the spectacular successes of the
physical sciences during the Renaissance period, philosophers began to look at
experience as a means of gaining insight into the nature of the world. A new school of
thought emerged, empiricism (based on experience), which maintained that man might
best be understood by observing him and his behavior. However, this school led im-
mediately to a great deal of armchair speculation about man, mostly based upon casual
observations.

1.2 Schools of thought in psychology

Dear learner, do you know what we mean by school of thought? Like other
subjects you have taken before, psychology as a subject also has different schools of
thought. Can you try some?

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Studies in the middle 1800's concerned largely with man's sensory capabilities paved the
way for the scientific study of man. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt established the first
laboratory for the scientific study of psychology. Wundt's position, known as
structuralism, defined psychology as the science of conscious experience. Employing the
method of introspection (the process of looking inward at one's own consciousness),
efforts were made to discover the basic building blocks of conscious experiences and the
laws that bind these elements together into complex experiences.

William James expanded the definition of psychology to include more than conscious
experience, delving into such phenomena as learning, motivation, and emotions.
Objecting to the private nature of conscious experiences and contending that psychology
must deal with publicly observable events, J. B. Watson redefined psychology as the
science of behavior. The school Watson founded is known as behaviorism.

The Gestalt school of psychology objected to both structuralism and behaviorism,

maintaining that complex behavior cannot be analyzed into simple parts which are then
combined together to produce a whole. They placed great emphasis on studying behavior
as organized wholes rather than as discrete, independent, individual parts.

Quite apart from the movements that were proposed in academic settings, Sigmund Freud
developed a position, Psychoanalysis, which was at once a theory of personality, a
philosophical view of the nature of man, and a method for treating disturbed individuals.
Psychoanalytic theory stresses unconscious determinants of behavior.

Activity 1.1

Dear learner, we are pretty sure that now you have understood the meaning of psychology
in the formal sense. Now it is your turn to go and ask your colleagues about their
understanding of the subject and correlate with your new understanding of psychology.

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1.3 Psychology as a science

Dear learner, do you know that psychology is within the domain of science? If
you say so, what is science and what makes psychology a science?

Have you tried? Excellent

Dear learner, we will start our discussion by defining science. Science is systematically
organized body of verified knowledge about certain facts or events, and psychology deals
with human behavior and all activities including feelings, thoughts, emotions etc. It
contains facts and principles related to each other. The facts of science are obtained
through careful observation. Scientific principles are universal and generalizations are
made based on theories. Psychology, like any other science, is also definite, accurate,
reliable and verifiable. The traits in psychology can be quantified and measured.
Psychology explains, predicts and controls human behavior.

The study of psychology has five basic goals:

1. Describe – The first goal is to observe behavior and describe, often in minute detail,
what was observed as objectively as possible

2. Explain – While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go

beyond what is obvious and explain their observations. In other words, why did the
subject do what he or she did?

3. Predict – Once we know what happens, and why it happens, we can begin to speculate
what will happen in the future. There’s an old saying, which very often holds true: "the
best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."

4. Control – Once we know what happens, why it happens and what is likely to happen
in the future, we can excerpt control over it. In other words, if we know you choose

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abusive partners because your father was abusive, we can assume you will choose
another abusive partner, and can therefore intervene to change this negative behavior.

5. Improve – Not only do psychologists attempt to control behavior, they want to do so

in a positive manner, they want to improve a person’s life, not make it worse. This is not
always the case, but it should always be the intention.

Dear learner, Can you list the goals of Psychology now?

Well done!

1.4 Social psychology: Concept and nature

Dear learner, by relying on the concept of psychology which we already have

discussed at a glance above, would you please try to take a guess to define and briefly
reflect upon the concept of social psychology specially its merits and relation with
extension.

Well done!

Dear learner, human life, in fact, is connected by thousands of invisible threads. The
places that people live, the situations they meet are all continuously and consistently
shape them as well as get shaped by them. The situations an individual meet creates a
good number of possibilities for him/her to behave. Specifically in the field of
Agricultural extension, the impact is visible. One of the ultimate objectives of an
extension agent is to bring about a positive/desirable change in the life of the farming
community and thereby attain sustainable development on a long lasting basis. The role
of social psychology in this regard is immense. Dear learner, as you move on through this

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module, you will see and capitalize on the overall concepts, rationale and application of
the subject of social psychology.

Social psychology is a specific branch in psychology that scientifically tries to understand

how people influence as well as gets influenced by one another.

It is a systematic body of knowledge focusing on the social thinking, social influence and
social relations. A fundamental theme of social psychology is to discover how a social
situation leads very different people to act very similarly. As well as how very similar
people act very differently.

Social Psychology is a scientific discipline. It is deeply committed to understand the

nature of social behavior and social thought. For this reason it makes sense to describe
the field as a scientific in orientation. Such rich field has a systematic development over
the periods of history. And as the field progressed the focusing of its area also get
changed. All these processes are presented in this lesson. A fundamental theme of social
psychology is to discover how a social situation leads very different people to act very
similarly. As well as how very similar people act very differently.

1.5. Definitions of Social Psychology

The study of Social psychology is found to have been carried out from the very beginning
of the scientific study of psychology was born. The history of the subject matter of social
psychology seems to be continuously undergoing change adapting to the changing needs
of the society. The present day science and technology, specifically, the information arena
is getting new shapes and heights, which in turn, brings enormous change in the behavior
patterns of every individual. Hence, coming out with a formal definition of social
psychology is really a complex task. Every person gets chance to play various types of
activities. Due to this everyone has to mix with or has to live among the midst of different

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types of people. In this context, so many physical, social and environmental factors
necessarily influence human behavior. Reflecting on the above facts, social psychology
can be comprehensively defined as, the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature
and causes of individual’s behavior and thought in social situations Baron and Byrne
(2006). But, the annals of the history of social psychology bring the following definitions
as well. Social psychology is an attempt to understand and explain how the thought,
feeling and behavior of individuals is influenced by the actual, imagined or implied
presence of others (Allport, 1985).

1.6 Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social

Behavior and Thought

Dear learner, human thoughts are dynamic. This dynamic nature of human
behavior and thoughts can be explained by a number of factors. So much so that human
behavior can be shaped and altered by a number of circumstances. Would you please try
some of the factors affecting social interaction and shape human behavior?
Good!

Dear learner, Social psychologists are primarily, interested in understanding the many
factors and conditions that shape the social behavior and thought of individuals. Mainly,
how individuals form ideas relating to the actions, feelings, beliefs, memories and
inferences concerning other persons. A huge number of different factors play a role in this
regard.

The factors affecting social interaction fall into five major categories. They are the
actions and characteristics of others, basic cognitive processes, ecological variables,
cultural context and biological factors.

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1.6.1 The Actions and Characteristics of Others
One person’s behavior and their characteristics expressed in the behavior directly
influence other person’s feeling and action. For example, suppose you are standing on the
railway reservation line. If a stranger goes to the counter straightly without standing on
the line, it will defiantly create different types of feelings and as well action from the
people who are already waiting in the line. It is clear that the actions of others affect
everyone. The behaviors of other persons often exert powerful effects on the behaviors
and social thoughts of every individual. For example, when many people are attending a
concert in a theatre when a person seated nearby receives a call on his cell mobile phone
and begins a loud conversation about very private topics what happens to the people
around him? The next idea in this line is that, the behavior of a person often affected by
others appearance. For example, People normally feel uneasy in the presence of a person
with a physical disability. People differently behave towards highly attractive person than
toward less attractive person.

1.6.2 The Cognitive Processes

The Cognitive processes such as, perception, memory and inferences play a key role on
the understanding and behavior of every individual in the society. Reactions to a certain
situation by an individual strongly depend on the memories of others past behaviors and
the inferences an individual formed about these behaviors. If anybody wants to clearly
understand the causes of others behavior in a social situation it is a must that one should
understand what went on in the thinking pattern and understanding process of those
people when they behaved in a particular social situation. For example, if your friend
fixes an appointment with you in a particular time. You are waiting for him at a particular
point in a particular time, if he comes late what would be your reaction. In such a
situation, cognitive process plays a crucial role in the social behavior and social thoughts
of every individual. A study of how people perceive, think bout and remember
information about others are really have a contributing effect of human social behavior.
Social cognition is a growing area of social psychology.

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1.6.3. The Environmental Factors
The weather and the climate a person experiences has a say in his/her behavior. The
findings of research indicate the physical environment necessarily influences the feelings,
thoughts and behavior of everyone. The climatically conditions make a person either
happy or sad. For example, if there is a continuous rain for a few days most of the
people’s day to day life gets disturbed. Another example is that people become more
irritable and aggressive when the weather is hot and steamy than when it is cool and
comfortable. The environmental factors create different types of impact on the perceptual
experiences of individuals. The cognitive, affective, interpretive, and evaluative
responses of individuals change drastically. Further, if a person is exposes to a particular
environment for a long time he or she will adapt to that environment and will feel
habituated for that condition. The environmental stimulations facilitate physical and
psychological arousals. The increased arousals will either improves or impairs individual
performances. Hence, role of environment on the social behavior of individual has
become one of the very important factors of study in social psychology.

1.6.4. The Cultural Context

People live in different cultural settings. Each culture comes out with its own rules and
norms to be systematically followed in different facets of human life cycle. The practices
followed in one culture will be different than the other cultures. If a person is belongs to a
particular culture, he/she has to adapt appropriately the behavioral patterns accepted by
his/her culture. In all these process an individual is continuously influenced by the culture
from which he/she is hailing. Social behavior and social thoughts are often strongly
affected by the cultural norms and factors. For example, there are cultural specific
behavior patterns exist for the birth of a newborn, the age attainment ceremony, the
marriage ceremony, and finally, the funeral ceremony. These are some of the specific
cultural behaviors expressed by every culture.

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The cultural ideas also get changed by the passage of times. For example, previously love
marriages were viewed in negative terms as drastic action but now the cultural beliefs and
values about it have changed greatly. But, whatever the changes takes place in a culture,
person living in anyone of the cultures is expected to follow the practices of that culture.

1.6.5 The Biological/Evolutionary Factors

This is a new branch of social psychology that seeks to investigate the potential role of
genetic factors in various aspects of human behavior. It is also called as genetic factors.
According to this view as any other species human beings also have a process of
biological, evolution throughout history. This evolutionary process takes three basic
components. They are of the view that man is getting emancipated as the generation
processed by. Every time man is getting a new height in all his endeavors. This has lead
to the possible difference in body shapes and structures, the improved inheritance
qualities and better selection of passing the genetic variation to the coming generations.
Since the individuals evolutionarily differ on their biological structures their social
interactions will also gets varied in nature. The biological inheritance usually affect ones
preferences, behaviors, emotions and attitudes. For example, hair color, skin color body
structure gets changed from person to person in a long run.

1.7 Social Psychology in the new Millennium

Dear learner, as the Social Psychology tries to understand the individuals’ thoughts and
behaviors in social settings, the subject matter of Social Psychology goes on changing as
the years passes by. Due to the tremendous changes happening in the fields, the present
day human beings are well advanced in every sphere. The speedy growth found in every
areas of human life, the present day subject matter of the social psychology found to
incorporate the latest developments into its subject matter. This has led to the changing
and formulating of new perspectives in the study of social psychology. Mainly, cognitive

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perspective, application perspective, multicultural perspectives and evolutionary
perspectives have become the focus of research on social psychology.

1.7.1. Cognitive Perspective

Social psychology is the field that studies both social behavior and social thought. The
definition reflects the fact that both social psychologist have always been interested in
how individuals think about other person and about social situations. The cognitive side
of social psychology has grown dramatically in importance. Most social psychologists
believe that how people act in various situations are strongly decided by their thoughts.

The cognitive perspective and recollected in social psychological research in many ways,
but two are most important. First, social psychologists have attended to apply basic
knowledge about memory, reasoning and decision making to various aspects of social
thought and behavior.

For instance, within this context, researchers have sought to determine whether prejudice
stems, at least in the part from our tending to remember only information consistent with
stereotypes of various groups, or tendencies to process information about one’s own
social group differently from interaction about other social groups; secondly there has
been growing interest in the question of how one process social information.

1.7.2. Multicultural Perspective

As recognition of the importance of cultural, ethnic and gender differences has grown, the
field of Social Psychology has a adopted an increasingly multicultural perspective, an
approach that pays careful attention to the rate of culture and human diversity as factors
that influences social behavior and social thought.

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1.7.3. Evolutionary Perspective
An important trend in the modern social psychology is the increasing influence of a
biological or evolutionary perspective (Buss,1999). Evidence suggests that biological and
genetic factors play a role in many forms of social behavior. Mueller and Mazur (1996)
predicted that men who looked dominant would attain higher military rank in their
careers than would men who would did not look dominant. In general, studies conducted
from the evolutionary perspective suggest that biological and genetic factors play some
role in many aspects of social behavior.

1.7.4. Application Perspective

A major theme in social psychology today is growing concern with the application of the
knowledge gathered by social psychology. An increasing number of social psychologist
have turned their attention to question concerning personal health, the legal process,
social behavior in work settings, environmental issues and the study of entrepreneurship.

1.8 Social Psychology and Extension

Dear learner, as you know you are a student of Rural Development and
Agricultural extension. However, you are taking the course of social Psychology. Can
you explain its significance for your profession?

Different authors define extension in different ways, however, according to Van den Ban
and Hawkins, the common meaning for the term Extension is that it involves the
conscious use of communication of information to help people form sound opinions and
make good decisions.

Rural extension work demands knowing the clients well, establishing good rapport,
making them involved in planning, execution and evaluation of the development projects,
and helping them to build up their capacity. It involves empathy, modifying attitudes and

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skills, motivating to change, bringing about behavioral changes in desired directions, and
helps them derive satisfaction from the change process. Understanding human behavior is
of prime importance for rural extension work in these respects. Hence, study of social
psychology has been found as vital to learn and practice professional extension work.

Farmers' behavior is complex and influenced by a number of factors as their attitudes,

cognitions, traditions, beliefs and value systems as well as by the influence of the
community in which they are a part. The personality of the client is also a determining
factor in her/his decision making process. The methods and techniques used by the
change agency in catching the attention and helping the comprehension of the change
message and improving the knowledge and skills have relevance to know the behavioral
traits of the client. A good understanding on the perceptual process and learning of ideas
and skills will help the change agent to device appropriate methods.

Social psychology is important in rural extension in terms of maintaining good

interpersonal relations with the clients as well as colleagues in the development
organization. It has to discuss the individual and group behavior in response to the given
stimuli of the surrounding environment. The dynamics of the community action will be
highly affected by group thinking and interpersonal influence in the community, which
have profound basis on individual behavior and personality of the community members.

Activity1.2
Workout the following questions either in group or individually and relate with the
lessons you have learnt in this unit.
1. Define psychology and discuss the different school of thoughts in psychology.
2. Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behavior and Thought-
Discuss.
3. Define Social Psychology? Describe the various perspectives in social psychology.
Summary
4. Elaborate the current perspectives of social psychology?

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The term 'psychology', literally means the science of the soul and derived from two Greek
words (Psyche=soul; logos=science). However, psychology is defined as the science of
behavior.
Social psychology is the study of human behavior in social situation. It seeks, mainly, to
understand the causes of individual’s social behavior and social thought by identifying
the factors that shapes human feelings, behaviors and thoughts in social situations. It tries
to accomplish this goal through the use of scientific methods. Social psychology takes
careful notice of the facts that a wide range of social, cognitive, environmental, cultural
and biological factors influences social thoughts and actions of individuals. Speculation
about social behavior and thought has continued since antiquity, however, a scientifically
oriented field of Social Psychology emerged only during the twentieth century. Once the
subject got established it grew rapidly. And Social Psychology currently investigates
every conceivable aspect of social behavior and social thought with the help of the
cognitive, multicultural, evolutionary and applied perspectives.

Self-Assessment Questions 1.1

Give Short answer to the following questions and cross check your answer with the
answer key given at the back of this module.
1. Define Psychology.
2. Define Social Psychology.
3. List the five basic goals of Psychology.

Further Reading Materials

1. Babbie, Earl. (1992) "Conceptualization and Measurement," Chapter 5 in The
Practice of Social Research, 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. [CFH] Cook,

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 2. Karen S., Gary Alan Fine, and James S. House. 1995. Sociological Perspectives
on Social Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (Abbreviated on reading list as
CFH.)

3. [JT] Turner, Jonathan H.( 2003). The Structure of Sociological Theory, 7th edition.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (Abbreviated on reading list as JT.)

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 UNIT TWO

UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSES OF OTHERS

BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL COGNITION:
THINKING ABOUT THE SOCIAL WORLD
INTRODUCTION
Dear learner, in this particular unit you will see about the importance of understanding
the current mood and feelings of individual in any interaction. In doing so, this topic will
show you the way how individuals, in their attempt to understand the current state and
behavior of others collect information (Attribution and theories of attribution). On the
second topic, social cognition and thinking about the social world, you will see about
how human mind continuously collects every bit of information from the social world
and interprets, analyzes, remembers and use it in his own way in his personal quest to
better understand the social world and to give reasons why things are happening in a way
they happened.

Objectives

After studying this unit you should be able to

• Define and explain the theories of Attribution
• Explain errors in Attribution
• Explain impression formation and management.
• Describe schemas, Heuristics and errors in social cognition.
• Understand causes of errors in social cognition

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Dear learner, the foundation of extension work is highly determined by proper
communication with the extension clientele and the formation of good rapport with them.
If extension and /or development agents fail to establish proper communication and
understanding with the farmers, this will lead to a catastrophic impact on the
effectiveness of the work. One of the most important component extension agents need to
understand prior to any activity with the clientele is the proper understanding of feelings
and current moods of the farmer as this will lead to the smooth functioning of the system.

Dear learner, why do you think is this sort of understanding is so important in

extension work and in day to day life and interaction with people in general? Would you
please try some and discuss.

Good!
In day to day life, the accurate knowledge of the current moods or feelings of other
persons will be highly beneficial for the smooth functioning of an individual. Human
beings usually use various methods to understand the lasting traits or characters of the
every individual whom they interact. They also show interest to know the causes of other
person’s behaviors. The interest people show in such an understanding stems from the
basic desire of human beings to understand the cause-and –effect relationships of the
social world. In other words, people not only want to know how others have behaved, but
they want to understand why they have behaved so. Because, knowing about others
behavior will help people predict the way the other persons will behave in future. This
awareness about other persons’ behavior will enable an individual to have effective and
appropriate interaction with others.

Further, Social psychologists they also analyze and discuss why things happen as they do,
especially when to experience something negative or unexpected from others, etc. Studies

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on attribution have been carried out for many years in the field of Social Psychology.
Hence, a good number of theories and explanations are available on the topic attribution.
They are presented below.

2.1 Definitions on Attribution

Dear learner, would you please define attribution the way you understand it?

Since lot of research has been carried out on attribution, the literature carries different
types of definition on attribution. A more clear definition is stated by Baron in 2007 is,
“the process through which an individual seeks to identify the causes of others behavior
and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions. Attribution is referred as an
individual’s efforts to understand the causes behind others behavior on some occasions.
The theories of attribution analyses how people explain other persons behavior.

2.2 Theories of Attribution

Dear learner, as you have seen it above, attribution carries significant contribution in an
attempt of understanding the causes of behavior. The meaning and definition of
attribution is such a complex one and different persons have come up with various kinds
of theories to elaborate attribution. Dear learner, please go through these theories as much
as possible and practice and reflect upon them in your day to day activities and work and
see how significant they are in extension work in particular.

People tend to attribute someone’s behavior or the outcome of an event either to internal
factors or to external factors. The internal factor means dispositional factors such as the
particular person’s biological or psychological causes. On the contrary the external factor
means situational factors such as, environment and other persons are the causes.

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2.2.1 Dispositional Attribution
It refers to attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits. For example, the
motivation, the intelligence and the effort of the individual are considered as dispositional
factors.

2.2.2 Situational Attribution

It refers to attributing behavior to the environment. For example, good weather, parental
support, god friends and effective teacher are considered as situational factors. The
following interesting example will clearly explain the dispositional and situational factors
people use in understanding the causes of other’s behavior. A teacher may wonder a
child’s underachievement is due to lack of motivation and ability (a dispositional
attribution) or to physical and social circumstances (a situational attribution).

2.2.3 Jones and Davis (1965) theory of correspondence interference

This theory tries to explain the specific traits or dispositions that remain fairly stable over
time in an individual, which are the causes for that person’s behavior in day-to-day life
situations. The authors emphasize that by observing others behavior directly for a quite
some time people come to a conclusion for the reasons other’s behavior. This idea may
seem to be a very easy one but it is not so. The reason is that every individual come out
with complex of behavioral patterns every time. A person may act in a particular manner
not because of his or her own preferences but may also be due to external pressure. For
example, if a child is crying, it doesn’t mean that it needs sweet but it may be due to his
mother might have gone to next room leaving her/him alone. The child may behave calm
and quite in general the crying behavior may be rare occurrence. Situations like this are
quite common in a family. If one doesn’t know the child’s normal behavior he/she may
misleading the attribute the reasons.

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Jones and Davis have explained that using certain specific types of information people
normally attribute or otherwise understand or explain the causes of others behavior. Both
of them have found out that the following three specific types of information’s people use
in understanding other’s behavior.

A. Non-common effects: This is a specific factor, which leads to a particular

behavior from an individual, which cannot be found in any other persons.
B. Low Social desirability: This is the behavior expressed by the individual in a
particular situation is a peculiar one which other individual in the same situation
will not express such behavior.

According to the theory proposed by Jones and Davis it is evident that others behavior
reflects their normal, stable traits. That is, people arrive correspondent inferences
regarding other’s behavior when that person’s behavior is freely chosen, comes out
distinctive non-common effect and is in fact low in social desirability.

2.2.4. Kelly’s (1972) Theory of Casual Attribution

This theory attempts to explain why people behave in a particular manner and what the
major reasons for their behavior are. Everyone wants to know why other persons have
behaved in a particular way? Unless a person is able to understand the causes behind
others behavior he/she may not be able to manage the social world appropriately. To
understand others behavior, generally, persons think either the other person behaves
mainly from his/her internal causes such as traits motives and intentions or from external
causes such as physical world society norms etc. At times, people may also think both
causes in combination might have contributed for a particular behavior. Kelly explains
people using three major sources of information in order to understand the causes of
others behavior. They are:

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 A. Consensus: The extent to which other persons react to some stimulus or even in
the same manner as the person we are considering
B. Consistency: The extent to which an individual responds, to a given stimulus or
situation in the same way on different occasions.
C. Distinctiveness: The extent to which an individual responds in the same manner
to different stimuli or events.

These three factors – consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness – influence whether to

attribute someone’s behavior to internal or external causes. For example, If Jemal and
many others criticize Daniel (with consistency) and if Jemal is not critical of other’s (high
distinctiveness) then to make an external attribution (it’s something about Steve). If Jemal
alone (low consensus) criticize Daniel, and if he criticizes lots of other people, too (low
distinctiveness) then to draw to an internal attribution (it’s something about Jemal).

2.2.5. Commonsense Attribution

Commonsense psychology often explains behavior logically. But Kelly also found that
people often discount a contributing cause of behavior if other plausible causes are
already known.

2.3. Errors in Attribution

The attribution researchers have found a common problem with our attributions, when
explaining someone’s behavior, too often underestimate the impact of the situation and
overestimate the extent to which it reflects the individual’s traits and attitudes.

2.3.1. Fundamental Attribution Error

This implies the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and
overestimate dispositional influences upon others behavior. This type of error is also

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called as correspondence bias, because often people see the behavior as corresponding to
a disposition only.
The fundamental attribution error in everyday life;
• His own behavior people often explain in terms of the situation. For example, X
was angry because everything was going angry.
• When inferring individual’s behavior typically people use the verbs that describe
his or her own actions and reactions.
• In real life, these with social power usually initiate and control conversations,
which often lead underlines to overestimate their knowledge and intelligence. For
example, Medical Doctors are often presumed to be experts on all sorts of
questions related to medicine.
• To illustrate the fundamental attribution error most of the people need look no
further than their own experiences.
• Attributions of responsibility are of the heart of many judicial decisions.

2.3.2. Perspective and situational awareness on Attributional Errors

• An actor observer difference: attribution theorists point out that to observe others
from a different perspective than to observe ourselves.
• When to act the environment commands our attention: When to watch another
person act, that person occupies the center of our attention and the environment
becomes relatively invisible.
• The camera perspective bias in some experiments, people have viewed a videotape
of a suspect confessing during a police interview. The camera perspective
influenced people’s guilt judgments even when the judge instructed them not to
allow it to.

2.4 Self – Awareness

Circumstances can also shift our perspectives on ourselves. Seeing ourselves on
television redirects our attention to ourselves, seeing ourselves in a mirror, hearing our

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tape – recorded voices, having our pictures taken to focus the attention inward, making us
self – conscious instead of situation – conscious. A self – conscious state is a situation
when attention focuses on oneself. It makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes
and dispositions.

2.5 Cultural differences

Cultures also influence the attribution error. A western worldwide predisposes people to
assume that people, not situations, cause events internal explanations are more socially
approved. The fundamental attribution error occurs all cultures studied. Some languages
promote external attributions in collectivist cultures; people less often perceive others in
terms of personal dispositions. Psychology students explain behavior less simplistically
than similarly intelligent natural science students (Fletcher & others, 1986). So,
remembering this overriding aim heaps us developing our capacity for critical thinking.

2.6 Impression Formation and Management

The old saying, “first impression is the best impression” has an effective meaning even in
today’s social world. When one meets a person first time whatever the person says,
behaves or even the silent language has an influencing effect on the way he or she
behaves with that person.

The first impression the person makes shapes the entire future interaction with that
person. Social Psychologists have come out with interesting research findings to explain
the role of impression formation on human social behavior. They’re of the opinion that a
cognitive process plays an important role in the process of impression formation. The
impression formation and management becomes an important topic of study in social
psychology.

2.6.1. Impression Formation

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It is a process through which an individual forms impressions about others. Every
individual organizes information about another person to form an overall impression of
that person. Impression formation focused on the way in which people pay particular
attention to certain unusually important traits – known as central traits – to help them to
form an overall impression of others.

2.6.2. Asch’s Experiment

Solomon Asch (1976) has presented an interesting note regarding forming first
impressions. He says that, “we look at that person and immediately certain impression of
his character forms in us. A glance, a few spoken words are sufficient tell us a story about
a highly complex matter”.

According to him everyone collects pieces of information and forms a full picture of
others. During the time of Asch’s research, gestalt psychologist came up with an idea of
“the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. That is gestalt psychologist suggest that
people interpret and understand the world only in terms of its relationships to other part
of the world. Taking the lead from the gestalt psychologist Asch states that people do not
form impressions simply by adding together all of the characters or traits they observe in
other persons but they perceive this characters and traits in relation to one another. People
understand other person as integrated dynamic whole rather than single characters or
traits. To explain this idea, Asch has conducted a novel technique. He simply gave
individuals list of characters or traits supposedly possessed by an unknown person and
asked them to indicate their impression of that person. For example, he gave the
following to lists of characters to the subjects:

 Intelligent- Skillful – Industrious- Warm- Determined- Practical- Cautious

 Intelligent- Skillful – Industrious- Cold- Determined- Practical- Cautious

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The differences between the above two lines are the words warm and cold. Other
characters remaining same, anyone will feel that any subject in this experiment will give
same type of assessment regarding these two sentences. But, on the contrary, subjects
who read the list containing the word warm indicated that the stranger is a generous,
happy, good nurtured, sociable, and popular. The subjects who have read the list
containing the word cold rated the stranger as just opposite. Asch concluded his research
stating that certain traits normally called as central traits strongly shaped overall
impressions of the stranger and colored the other adjectives in the list as well. Hence,

Asch has summarized forming impression of others involves more than simply adding
together individual characters or traits. He further, states that information received tends
to be weighted more heavily than information received later. This idea is known as
primacy effect.

2.6.3. Central Traits

A set of major characteristics that makes up the core of a person’s personality it
considered in forming impressions of others. In one classic study, students were told that
they were about to hear a guest lectures. One group of students was told the lecturer was
“a rather warmer person, industrious, critical, practical, and determined”, while the
second group was told that he was “rather cold person, critical, practical, and
determined”. The simple substitution of “cold” for “warm” was responsible for drastic
differences in the way of the students in each group perceived the lecturer even though he
gave the same talk in the same style in each condition. Students who had been told he
was “warm” rated him considerably more positively than students who had been told he
was “cold”.

The findings from this experiment led to additional research on impression formation that
focused on central traits. According to this work, the presence of a central trait alters the
meaning of other traits. The schemas to employ are susceptible to a variety of factors that

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affects the accuracy of our judgments. For example; our mood affects how to perceive
others. People, who are happy from more favorable impressions and make positive
judgments those people who are in a bad mood.

Even when schemas are not entirely accurate, they serve an important function. They
allow us to develop expectations about how others will behave, permitting us to plan our
interactions with others more easily and serving to simplify the complex world.

2.6.4 Impression Management

Self – presentation refers to one wanting to present a desired impact both to an external
audience (other people) and to an internal audience (ourselves). To work at managing the
impressions to create, to excuse, justify, or apologize as necessary to shore up our self –
esteem and verify our self – images. People, in general, use lot of techniques, either
directly or indirectly, to manage their impression to others. The reason is that the early
impressions decide whether a social interaction is positive or negative. Favorably
impressing other person will create a cordial relationship between two individuals.
Hence, people spent lot of time on this issue

2.6.5 The Fine Art of Looking Good

Presenting oneself good or positive, gains important advantage in many situations. There
are number of techniques people use to manage their impressions. Mainly two major
categories get the attention of the social psychologists.
A. Self-Enhancement: Efforts to boost one’s own image
B. Other-Enhancement: Efforts to make the other person feel good in his presence.

A. Self- Enhancement: It includes efforts made by a person his own appearance. This
can be achieved through changing the dress style, grooming personal appearance for
this people use things such as cosmetics, hairstyles, use of perfume or cologne.

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 Further judiciously using the nonverbal cues or their mannerism people try to achieve
self enhancement.

Research carried out by Forsythe, Drake and Cox (1985) showed that women who
dress in a professional manner where often evaluated for management positions than
women who dress in a more traditionally feminine manner. People even take risks in
the self-enhancement process. The findings of the study Sharp and Getz (1996) found
that some people who drink alcohol as a technique to impress others.

B. Other-Enhancement: In order to impress others people at times use flattering as a

technique that is agreeing every views of the other person, showing high interest
doing small favors to them, asking their advice and feedback. In total using verbal and
nonverbal methods to create they like the other person.

A systematic research on this topic showed that if these techniques are used with skill and
care all the techniques can bring favorable help to the person who uses them.

2.7 Minimizing the Impact of Attribution Errors

Attribution at times generates errors in perception. The net result will be very costly.
Hence, it is better to avoid attribution are minimize the errors in attribution. Social
Psychologists come out with three methods to minimize the attribution errors they are:
 The Correspondence Bias otherwise termed the fundamental attribution error.
There is a strong tendency to attribute other’s behavior to internal causes even
though strong external factors might have contributed to such behavior. To reduce
this type of errors social psychologist have suggested that try to put yourself in the
shoes of the person whose behavior you are explain. This is nothing but trying to
see the world through the other person’s eyes.

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  The actor-observer effect; People have strong tendency to attribute their own
behavior to external cause but of others to internal causes. This will lead to false
generation about other. To minimize this type of error individuals should raise
questions in their mind why would they have acted in that way. Asking such a
question will bring out the internal causes for their own behavior.
 The self-serving bias; this is nothing but attributing positive outcome to internal
causes such as the persons own abilities or efforts. On the contrary, negative
happenings to external factors such as luck or chance.

To minimize these type of error person’s must be simply be aware that all the good
happenings are not his/her own contribution all the times at the same time negative
happenings may also be caused by his/her own actions.

2.8 Social Cognition: Thinking about the social world

Dear learner, understanding others behaviors and the social events are highly useful for
the better social living. Human mind continuously collects every bit of information from
the social world and tries to know why this happens. In fact, every human being in his or
her own way interprets, analyzes, remembers, and uses the information regarding the
social world.

Do you know what this is called and how important this phenomenon is for a better
living and working environment? Would you please reflect upon it?

Excellent!

If you have reflected on the above question, these qualities, otherwise, are called as social
cognition. There are several points about human cognition. It is the essence of the human

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mind, how it works and how one understands the world around him. This forms the basis
of social cognition. Social Psychologists use this term to refer to the ways one interprets,
analyze, remember and use information about the social world. In short how one thinks
about others. Social cognition is the manner in which one interprets analyzes and uses
information about the social world.

Social cognition is a very important area of research in Social Psychology. To get familiar
with some of the truly fascinating aspects of social thought, a detailed understanding of
the following terms are essential. Firstly, a basic component of social thought is the
Schemas. These are mental frameworks that allow the individual to organize large
amount of information in an efficient manner. That is, human mind in order to have easy
functioning simplifies the information and makes it meaningful representation of every
event. Once schemas are formed these frameworks exert strong effects on social thought,
effect that are always not beneficial from the point of view of accuracy. Secondly, the
Heuristics, otherwise called as mental shortcuts; the techniques people use to reduce the
cognitive effort. The study on social cognition brings out another interesting finding, that
is, as people use the above two types of methods to understand the behavior and the
social events there is a possibility of committing errors. They are called as Errors in
Social Cognition. Finally, the social cognition is directly influenced by another
psychological factor called effect or feelings or emotions. All these points are narrated in
this lesson.

2.9 Schemas: Mental Framework for Organizing and using Social

Information

Activity 2.1

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Dear student, would you please discuss what schemas are and their relationship with
attention? Where do you think are our judgments about other people in the social
environment come from?

Schemas are mental frameworks centering on a specific theme that help the individual to
organize social information. Once schema is formed, they exert powerful effects on
several aspects of social cognition and social behavior. Research findings suggest that
schemas exert strong effects on three basic processes. Attention, encoding and retrieval.

Attention refers to the processes through which one notices, encoding refers to the
processes through which information one notices get stored in the memory. Finally,
retrieval refers to the processes though which one recovers from memory in order to use
in some manner, for example in making judgments about other people. Schemas have
found to influence all of the basic aspects of social cognition. Sometimes schemas
produce effects, which are described as self-fulfilling prophecy predictions that make
themselves come true.

2.10 Heuristics, the Mental short cuts

The sense organs are always alert and receive information. At times, this will lead to a
state of information overload which cannot be handled by the individual’s cognitive
system. Such a situation may arise very often to every individual. Every individual adopts
various strategies to stretch the cognitive resources. To be successful, such strategies
must meet two requirements. They must provide a quick and simple way of dealing with
large amount of social information and they must work, reasonable accurate much of the
time. Many potential shortcuts for reducing mental effort exist but among these the most
useful are heuristics. Heuristics are simple rules for making complex decisions or
drawing inferences in a rapid and seemingly effortless manner. There are different types
of heuristics. They are:

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  Representative Heuristics: Strategy for making judgments based on the extent to
which current stimuli or events resemble other stimuli or categories.
 Availability Heuristics: Strategy for making judgments on the basis of how easily
specific kinds of information can be brought to mind.
 False Consensus Effect: The tendency to assume that others behave or think as
people do to a greater extent than is actually true.
 Priming: Effect that occurs when stimuli or events increase the availability of
specific types of information in memory or consciousness.
 Automatic Priming: Effect that occurs when stimuli of which individuals are not
consciously aware alter the availability of various traits or concepts in memory.

2.11 Errors in Social Cognition

Everyone in his or her own way uses certain methods to understand the information that
he or she receives from the social world. This process normally facilitates errors in the
mental process or social cognition. One point everyone should keep in mind is that
though there is a possibility of committing error in our mental processes, social cognition
is help everyone to concentrate on important points and leaves the rest. The errors or tilts
in social cognition formed in different ways. They are presented below.

2.11.1 Negative and Optimistic Bias

The Negativity bias refers to the fact that one shows greater sensitivity to negative
information than to the positive information. Negative reflection reflects features of the
external world that may be threatening to the safety and security of the individual.
Several research findings offer support for this reasoning. For example, the ability to
recognize facial expression of others at times people focus only on the negative features
of the face. The results of many studies indicate that individuals are faster and more
accurate in detecting negative facial expressions than positive facial expressions.

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The Optimistic bias refers to the predisposition to expect things to turn out well overall.
This tendency is seen in many different contexts, most people believe that they are more
likely than others to get a job, happy marriage and live to a ripe old age., but less likely to
experience negative outcomes such as being fired, getting seriously ill or being divorced.
(Schwarzer, 1994). Yet another example is with respect to planning fallacy. The tendency
to believe that one can get more done in a given period of time than one actually can.
Research suggests that another factor can play an important role in planning fallacy. It is
referred to as motivation to complete a task. When predicting what will happen
individuals often guess that what will happen is what they want to happen. In cases in
which they are strongly motivated to complete a task they make overoptimistic
predictions concerning when this desired state of affairs would occur.

2.11.2 Cost of Thinking Too Much

Dear student, people say thinking too much has costs. Even medical practitioners
and researchers in the field say that thinking too much and stress in thinking may lead to
different diseases including gastric ulcer, diabetes, blood pressure and etc. What do you
think about it?

There are many instances in which the individual adopts an intuitive approach to thinking
about the social world. Yet there are other instances in which one tries to be as rational
and systematic as possible in the thought despite the extra effort this involves. To
determine, if this actually happens, Wilson and Schooler (1991) compared the judgments
made by the participants who analyzed the reasons behind their ratings, and the
judgments made by those who did not with ratings by a panel of experts persons who
make their living comparing various products. Participants who simply rated the jams
agreed much more closely with the experts than did participants who tried to report the
reasons to the various jams. Similar findings have been obtained in several related

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studies, so there appear to be strong grounds for concluding that, thinking too much can
get in to serious trouble.

2.11.3 Counterfactual Thinking

Thoughts such as counterfactual thinking occur in a wide range of situations not just the
ones in which one-experience disappointments. Counterfactual thinking is the tendency
to imagine other outcomes in a situation than the ones that actually occurred to think
about. “What might have been”. Counterfactual thinking involves imaging better
outcomes than actually occurred and is closely related to the experience of regret. These
regrets seem to be more intense when they involve things that the individual did not
doubt or wish he/she had rather than things the individual did do that turned out poorly.

Neal Roese(1997) a social psychologist who had conducted many studies on

counterfactual thinking, engaging in such thought can yield a wide range of results. Some
of which are beneficial and some are costly to the persons involved. An effect of
counterfactual thinking, is anticipating that the individual will engage in it, known as
inaction inertia. This occurs when an individual has decided not to take some action and
loses the opportunity to gain a positive outcome.

Recent research findings revealed that human beings are susceptible to magical thinking.
These are thinking involving assumptions that don’t hold up rational scrutiny, the belief
that things that resemble one another share fundamental properties. One principle of
magical thinking is the law of contagion. It holds that when two objects touch, they pass
properties to one another and the effects of that contact may last well beyond the end of
the contact between them. Another is the law of similarity, which suggests that things that
resemble one another share basic properties. In short, thinking about many situations
including social ones is influenced by magical thinking.

2.11.4 Thought Suppression

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At some time or the other, everyone has tried to suppress certain thoughts to keep ideas
and images from coming in to the consciousness. Basically, this is referred to as thought
suppression, which simply means efforts to prevent certain thoughts from entering the
consciousness.

According to Daniel Wegner a social psychologist that has studied thought suppression,
efforts to keep thoughts out of consciousness involve two components. Firstly, there is an
automatic monitoring process, which searches for evidence that unwanted thoughts are
about to intrude. Secondly, is the operating process involves effortful conscious attempts
to distract oneself by finding something else to think about. Under normal circumstances,
the two processes do a good job of suppressing unwanted thoughts. When information
overload occurs or when individuals are fatigued, the monitoring process continues to
identify unwanted thoughts but the operation process is no longer has the resources to
keep them from entering consciousness. The result is the individual experiences a
pronounced rebound effect in which the unwanted thoughts occur at even higher rate than
was true before efforts to suppress them.

Activities 2.2
1. Write an essay on Social Cognition.
2. Describe the role of Heuristics in the individual’s social world.
3. Narrate the various errors in Social cognition.
4. Briefly discuss the role of attribution in Agricultural extension and causes of errors of
attribution.

Summary

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Two major points have been discussed in this lesson. The first one is understanding the
causes of others behavior that is attribution. The second one is impression formation and
impression management. By attributing ideas or information people understand the
causes of other’s behavior. Just by observing the verbal and nonverbal information people
try to attribute others behavior. Even though it helps in understanding other’s behavior it
also brings the wrong idea on others. In the same way just with few information people
try to form impression on others, here again both correct as well as incorrect impressions
people get. The first impression creates a wonderful understanding on others; people use
lot of methods for impression management. In all these activities there is a possibility of
errors in judgment. To minimize the mistakes, social psychologists have brought out
effective strategies.

Human beings always notice the surrounding, interpret them and remember them for later
use. The executions of all these things are carried out by social cognition. Social
Psychologists view that people use mental frameworks and mental models to understand
their social world. Since enormous information’s are continuously received by the human
mind, people use shortcuts to process the information’s.

Self-Assessment Questions
The following sentences are incomplete fill in the blank Spaces with the appropriate
phrases or word.
1. Attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits is called_____________.
2. An event referring to the extent to which an individual responds, to a given
stimulus or situation in the same way on different occasions is _____________.
3. When an individual responds in the same manner to different stimuli or events it is
known as___________________.
4. ______________refers to attributing behavior to the environment.

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 Further Reading
1. [JD] Delamater, John, ed. (2003). Handbook of Social Psychology. New York:
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. ISBN 0-306-47695-9. (Abbreviated on
reading list as JD.)

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 UNIT THREE

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR

Introduction
Dear learner, in this unit you will be learning about attitude and behavior. Specifically for
you, student and practitioner of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, whose
job is to help farmers make a sound decision and bring about a concrete behavioral and
attitudinal change, this topic is of a paramount importance. In the ever changing and
developing the world, leading a successful and meaningful life, in fact, is a difficult task
for anyone. But, the human mind uses a unique way to solve this problem. Every
individual tries to form his or her lasting evaluations of every aspects of the social world.
The past experiences and present learning helps in a big way to understand clearly the
various happenings of an individual’s social life. This lesson clearly brings out the related
topics on attitude formation, changing attitudes and its related points.
Enjoy reading.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to;
• Define attitude
• Describe the various learning principles
• Explain attitudes and attitudinal change
• Describe persuasion and the theory of cognitive dissonance

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 Dear learner, would you please define attitude. Do you think a farmer with
negative/unfavorable attitude towards a certain technology will adopt it no matter how
you keep convincing and persuading him about its merits? Have you had such exposures
before? Then what did you do finally to convince him or to change his attitudes about the
technology?
Please discuss this point with your colleagues as you definitely have these exposures
from your experiences.

3.1 Definition of Attitudes

Social Psychologists refer attitude to people’s evaluation of virtually any aspect of the
social world. People can have favorable or unfavorable reactions to issues, ideas, specific
individuals, entire social groups or objects. Yet again, individuals may form mixed
attitudes – i.e. both positive and negative attitudes towards things or people. The
definitions of attitudes are many but some of the important ones are presented below.
Attitudes are enduring “residues of experience” or “acquired behavioral disposition”
(Donald Campbell, 1963). Another definition is that Attitudes are best described as
determinant or consequences of beliefs and behavioral intentions (Fishbein, 1980). Some
other psychologists have defined Attitudes as associations between attitude objects
(virtually any aspect of the social world) and evaluations of those objects.

Attitude is also defined as the degree of positive or negative affect towards some
psychological object. It is the mental disposition towards persons, situations or any
environmental stimulus around an individual.

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Attitude is the liking or disliking of something or somebody that will affect the behavior
towards that thing or person. It is always influenced by a cognitive, an affective and a
behavioral component. Attitudes influence behavior, and unless one has a favorable
attitude towards something, the normal tendency will be to avoid it as much as possible.
In the case of a student with negative attitude towards a learning situation or subject, the
performance will be naturally bad, and a farmer with unfavorable attitude towards
modern technology will not normally try to adopt it even if he is persuaded by extension
functionaries.

Creation of favorable attitudes is the most important task for any promotional effort to
have desirable behavioral changes. Formation of attitude is preceded by knowledge and
followed by action and hence the cognitive, affective and cognitive (psycho-motor
components are involved in it).

3.2 Forming Attitudes

Attitude is considered to be the central theme in social Psychology. Generally, it refers to
an individual’s evaluation about the social world. It also refers to the extent to which
people have favorable or unfavorable reactions to any issues, ideas, persons, social
groups or objects.

Attitude is one of the seriously researched topics in social psychology. The reason is that
attitudes strongly influence human thoughts, feelings and behaviors. The evaluation an
individual makes about his or her world is very important one. It forms the basis of social
cognition. Social thoughts are slowly and steadily build by attitudes. Attitudes are
learned. Some evidence suggests that attitudes may be influenced by genetic factors too.

For example, an individual may like vegetarianism another may like non-vegetarianism.
One may have a positive attitude to a certain agricultural technologies presented to
him/her by the extension agent on the contrary, another farmer may not have the same
attitude towards the technology. Certain Social Psychologists of view that at times people

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take neither positive nor negative stand instead they take a middle stand, otherwise called
ambivalent. It is also an important point that people find it very difficult to change any
attitude.

3.3 Social Learning

Dear learner, would you please try answering what social learning is and some of
the principles employed by psychologists in an attempt of better understanding, learning
and acquiring others behavior?

Most of human behaviors are acquired or learned from the new information, the patterns
of behaviors in social situation or the attitudes of other persons only. While interacting
with others as well as by observing or watching the behaviors expressed by the people
around everyone, people learn the style of behaving in such situations. In short, this
process is called as social learning. Psychologists have also given various methods of
learning principles people use in acquiring others behavior. They are presented below.

3.3.1 Classical Learning: Learning based on Association

Basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to
evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus. Studies indicate that
classical conditioning can occur below the level of conscious awareness – even when
people are not aware of the stimuli that serve as the basis for this kind of conditioning.

In yet another study (Krosnick, et al., 1992) students saw photos of a stranger engaged in
routine daily activities such as shopping in a grocery store or walking into her apartment.
While these photos were shown, other photos, known to induce either positive or
negative feelings, were exposed for very brief periods of time – group of participants was
exposed to photos that induced positive feelings (e.g., a bridal couple, people playing

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cards and laughing) while another was exposed to photos that induced negative feelings
(open-heart surgery, a werewolf). Later, both groups expressed their attitudes toward the
stranger. Results indicate that even though participants were unaware of the photos, these
stimuli significantly affected their attitudes toward the stranger. Those exposed to the
positive photos reported more favorable attitudes toward this person than those exposed
to the negative photos.

These findings suggest that attitudes can be influenced by Subliminal Conditioning –

classical conditioning that occurs in the absence of conscious awareness of the stimuli
involved.

3.3.2 Muscle Movements and Attitudes Formation

Studies indicate an even more surprising mechanism for the conditioning and hence
formation of Attitudes. This mechanism involves the movement of certain muscles and
appears to involve a very basic fact: we draw things we like toward ourselves by flexing
our arm muscles, but push thins we do not like away by extending our arm muscles.
Apparently, the association between these muscle movements and positive and negative
feelings can serve as the basis for attitude conditioning.

3.3.3 Instrumental Conditioning: learning to state the “Right” views

This is a basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that
permits avoidance of negative outcomes is strengthened. By rewarding children with
smiles, approval, or hugs for stating the “right” views - the ones they themselves favor
parents and other adults play an active role in shaping youngsters’ attitudes.

3.3.4 Modeling: Learning by Example

Individuals also learn many things and new forms of behaviors merely through observing
the actions of others. One important thing is that with regard the formations of different
types of attitudes, mainly everyone uses modeling. Through this process only children

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form attitudes even when parents have no desire to transmit specific views to their
children. For example, if a parent who smokes tells his son not to smoke, the children
learn to do what their parents do and not what they say.

3.3.5 Social Comparison and Attitude Formation

The process through which individuals compare themselves with others in order to
determine whether their view of social reality is or is not correct. On some occasions,
moreover, the process of social comparison may contribute to the formation of new
attitudes, one’s that individuals didn’t previously hold.

3.4 Genetic Factors

Activity 3.1
Dear student, from the above lessons you have learnt that several factors contribute to the
formation and development of our attitude. Would you please give a try the relationship
between genetic factors and the formation of our attitude?

Genetic factors can influence our height, eye color, and physical characteristics, the idea
that they might also play a role in our thinking seems strange, to say the least. In fact, a
small but growing body of empirical evidence indicates that genetic factors may play
some small role in attitudes.

Most of this evidence involves comparisons between identical and non-identical twins.
Because identical twins share the same genetic inheritance while non-identical twins do
not, higher correlations between the attitudes of the identical twins would suggest that
genetic factors play a role in shaping such attitudes. This is precisely what has been
found: the attitudes of identical twins do correlate more highly than those of non-identical
twins.

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3.5 Attitudes Influence on Behavior

Do you think a person’s attitude has an impact on his behavior and how? Would
you please discuss this with your colleague or friend?
Good! Now read the following statement.

Social psychologists came up with lot of research evidences that attitudes influence
human behavior. For example, if one believes that a person is threatening, he may feel
dislike and therefore act unfriendly with that person. It seems several factors determine
the extent to which attitudes influence human behavior. To say a few, the situation,
features of the attitude and strength of the attitude decides the effect of influence on
behavior.

3.5.1. Attitudes, Reasoned Thought, and Behavior

The first of these mechanisms seems to operate in situations where to give careful,
deliberate thought to our attitudes and their implications for our behavior. For example, in
their theory of planned behavior, Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) suggest that the best
predictor of how to act in a given situations is the strength of our intentions with respect
to that situation.

Perhaps a specific example will help illustrate the eminently reasonable nature of this
assertion. Suppose a student is considering body piercing – for instance, wearing a nose
ornament. According to Ajzen and Fishbein, these are strongly influenced by three key
factors.

The first factor is the person’s attitude toward the behavior in question. If the student
really dislikes pain and resist the idea of someone sticking a needle through his nose, his
intention to engage in such behavior may be weak.

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The second factor relates to the person’s beliefs about how others will evaluate this
behavior (this factor is known as subjective norms). If the students think that others will
approve of body piercing, his intention to perform it may be strengthened. If he believes
that others will disapprove of it, his intention may be weakened.

Finally, intentions are also affected by perceived behavioral control – the extent to which
a person perceives a behavior as hard or easy to accomplish. If it is viewed as difficult,
intentions are weaker than if it is viewed as easy to perform. Together, these factors
influence intentions; and these, in turn, are the predictor of the individual’s behavior.

3.5.2. Attitudes and Immediate Behavioral Reactions

The model described above seems to be quite accurate in situations where to have the
time and opportunity to reflect carefully on various actions. But in some situations to
have to act quickly. For example, a panhandler approaches on a busy street, in such
situations; attitudes seem to influence behavior in a more direct and seemingly automatic
manner.

According to one theory – Fazio’s attitude to behavior process model – the process goes
something like this. Some event activates an attitude; the attitude, once activated,
influences our perceptions of the attitude object. At the same time, our knowledge about
what’s appropriate in a given situation (our knowledge of various social norms) is also
activated. Together, the attitude and this stored information about what’s appropriate or
expected shape our definition of the event; and this definition or perception, in turn,
influences our behavior. Let’s consider a concrete example.

Imagine that a panhandler does approach a person on the street. This event triggers his
attitudes toward panhandlers and also his understanding about how people are expected
to behave on public streets. Together, these factors influence the definition of the event,

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which might be “Oh no, another one of those worthless bums!” This definition of the
event then shapes our behavior

In short, it appears, that attitudes affect our behavior through at least two mechanisms,
and that these operate under somewhat contrasting conditions. When to have time to
engage in careful, reasoned thought, it can weigh all the alternatives and decide, quite
deliberately, how to act. Under the hectic conditions of everyday social life, however, to
often don’t have time for this kind of deliberate weighing of alternatives; in such cases,
our attitudes seem to shape our perceptions of various events, and hence our immediate
behavioral reactions to them.

3.6 Persuasion: Changing the Attitudes

Dear learner, would you please define persuasion and its significance in your
profession and day to day interaction with people. What mechanisms/techniques you
usually use to persuade farmers regarding the adoption of a new technology?

We hope you have answered. Please read the entire statements as given herein regarding
the topic and correlate it with what you thought about it and think about its significance
for extension.

Persuasion is a process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or

behaviors. Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s minister of “popular enlightenment” and
propaganda from 1933 to 1945, understood the power of persuasion. Given control of
publications, ratio programs, motion pictures, and the arts, he undertook to persuade
Germans to accept Nazi ideology. Julius Streicher, another member of the Nazi group,
published “Der Sturmer”, a German weekly anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) newspaper with a

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circulation of 500,000 and the only paper read cover to cover by his intimate friend,
Adolf Hitler. Streicher also published anti- Semitic children’s books and, with Goebbels,
spoke at the mass rallies that became part of the Nazi propaganda machine.

3.6.1. Cognitive Approach

Understanding the entire process of persuasion – is really a cognitive one. Process of
persuasion contain in two distinct ways.

First of these is known as systematic processing or the central route, and it involves
careful consideration of message content and the ideas it contains. Such processing is
quite effortful, and absorbs much of our information – processing capacity.

The second approach, known as heuristic processing or the peripheral route, involves the
use of simple rules of thumb or mental shortcuts – such as the belief that “experts
statements can be trusted” to the idea that “if it makes me feel good, I’m in favor of it.”
This kind of processing is much less effortful and allows us to react to persuasive
messages in an automatic manner. It occurs in response to cues in the message or
situation that evoke various mental shortcuts (e.g., beautiful models evoke the “What’s
beautiful is good and worth listening to” heuristic.) Modern theories of persuasion such
as the elaboration likelihood model and the heuristic – systematic model provides the
effortful type of processing (systematic processing) when our capacity to process
information relating to the persuasive message is high.

3.7 Resistance to Persuasion

Changing the existing attitudes is not such a easy task. One formed the attitudes is
strongly gets into out thought processes. Hence, several factors, together, enhance the
individual’s ability to resist even highly skilled efforts at persuasion. They are
summarized below.

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3.7.1 Reactance
Negative reaction threatens to one’s personal freedom. Reactance often increases
resistance to persuasion. Research findings indicate that in such situations, often really do
changes on attitudes in a direction exactly opposite to that being urged – an effect known
as negative attitude change.

3.7.2 Forewarning
Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion.
Forewarning often increases resistance to the persuasion that follows. First forewarning
provides more opportunity to formulate counter arguments that can lessen the message’s
impact. In addition, forewarning also provide more time in which to recall relevant facts
and information that may prove useful in refuting a persuasive message.

3.7.3 Selective Avoidance

It refers to a tendency of an individual to direct hi/her attention away from information
that challenges existing attitudes. Such avoidance increases resistance to persuasion.
These tendencies to ignore or avoid information that contradicts our attitudes while
actively seeking information consistent with two sides of what make the focus of
attention helps ensure that our attitudes remain largely intact for long periods of time.

3.8 Cognitive Dissonance

It refers to an unpleasant internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency
between two or more of their attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior.

3.8.1 Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger

Cognitive Dissonance theory proposes that an individual faces dissonant state of mind
when incoming information is not in line with the values or thoughts. But s/he will have

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the innate tendency of regaining the balance state as soon as possible by ‘homeostasis’
and the mental balance is obtained by resorting to any of the following measures.

1. Changing a cognitive element related to environment

2. Adding a new cognitive element to the environment
3. Changing the behavior

This theory has wider applications in attitude change. Slight cognitive dissonant state is
favorable for easy attitude change of an individual, and inducing this for achieving the
goal of attitude change is a strategy. A stable mind is less prone to change of attitudes.

Activities 2.2
Try answering the following questions and crosscheck your answers by referring
your module.
1. What is attitude? Identify the factors contributing for the formation of attitudes.
2. Elaborate the attitude behavior relationships.
3. Can we change attitudes? State the process of attitude change.
4. Resistance to change attitude – Discuss.
5. Describe the factor of Cognitive Dissonance.

Summary
Everyone evaluates everything in the social world. The evaluations, though, relatively
permanent are stormed in memory for the day-to-day usage. This forms the attitudes of
the individuals. These lasting evaluations of the attitudes are learned through social
experiences, from other person’s behavior and genetic factors. The individuals use all
types of learning principles for this purpose. Once attitudes are formed they directly
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influence human behavior. Of course, various factors give strength for the attitude
behavior relationships. The attitudes once formed also as already stated get changed
through the process of persuasion. But changing attitudes receives resistance as well by
the individuals. In this course, if people face inconsistency between their attitudes and
behavior then they face a psychological disturbance, called cognitive dissonance.
Whatever be the problems involved, attitudes are considered as a hinge on which human
behavior revolves.

Self-Assessment Questions 3.1

The following questions carry some statements which are true and some wrong
statements. Please, write “True” if the statement is correct and write “False” if
otherwise
1. Attitude refers to the extent to which people have favorable or unfavorable
reactions to any issues, ideas, persons, social groups or objects.
2. Cognitive dissonance refers to an unpleasant internal state that results when
individuals notice inconsistency between two or more of their attitudes or between
their attitudes and their behavior.
3. Persuasion is a process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or
behaviors

Further Reading Materials

1. Rosenberg, Morris, and Ralph H. Turner, eds. (1981) Social Psychology:
Sociological Perspectives. N.Y.: Basic Books. (Abbreviated on reading list as
R/T.)

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 2. [S/C] Shaw, Marvin E., and Philip R. Costanzo. (1982) Theories of Social
Psychology, 2nd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. (Abbreviated on reading list as
S/C.)

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 UNIT FOUR

SOCIAL IDENTITY
Introduction
Dear learner, now we are on the fourth unit which deals with social identity. Issues like
self-concept, self-definition, self-efficacy, and self-esteem will be presented in detail. It is
about our personal identity and how we define, evaluate and see ourselves as part of the
community. Dear learner, Human beings as they mature begin to learn who they are.
Individuals develop a social identity or a self-definition that includes how one
conceptualizes and evaluates oneself. For every individual identity includes unique
aspects such as one’s name and self-concept and aspects shared with others. For example,
ones gender and relationships such as woman, man, daughter, son, divorced person. Ones
Vocation such as, farmer, lecturer, student, psychologists, extension or development
agent. These categories mentioned above are tied with the interpersonal world. When a
person’s social context changes, it places a strain on his/her social identity that requires a
degree of coping. This lesson describes two of the major components of social identity.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to;
• Describe the major components of social identity.
• Describe self-concept, self-efficacy and self-esteem

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4.1 Social Identity

By relying on the introduction I gave you above, can you try explaining social
identity and further elaborate the relevance of learning this topic? What are the
components of social identity?

We hope you have tried. Good! If so, now take a look at the concepts presented below
and check with your answers.

A person’s definition of who he or she is; includes personal attributes (self – concept)
along with membership in various groups (aspects shared with others). There are two of
the major components of social identity. First, describe some of the crucial elements of
the self, including self-concept, self-esteem, self-focusing, self-monitoring, and self-
efficacy. Second examine gender, especially the social determinants of gender identity,
gender roles, and the way behaviors influenced by these attributes.

4.1.1 The Self: Components of one’s identity

The self is the center of each person’s social universe. Self – identity, or self – concept is
acquired primarily through social interactions that begin with immediate family and
continue with the other people to meet throughout life. The self- concept is an organized
collection of beliefs and feelings about oneself – in other words, it is a schema that
functions like other schemas. Self – concept is a special framework that influences how
to process information about ourselves – such as our motives, emotional states, self –
evaluations, abilities, and much else.

4.1.2 Self – reference effect

The greater efficacy of cognitive processing of information relevant to the self compared
to processing of other types of information. Self-relevant information is most likely to
catch attention, to be retained in memory, and to be recalled easily. Psychologists have

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pursued the question of how information relevant to the self is processed more efficiently.
Klein and Loftus devised a very clever experiment to determine whether either or both of
these types of processing are involved when people deal with self – relevant material. In
effect, they compared recall of material relevant to the self with recall of material that
was primarily processed elaborative or primarily processed categorically. Research
participants were shown a series of words and asked either to think of a definition of each
(to encourage categorical processing), or to think about whether each word reminded
them of an important personal experience (to encourage self – relevant processing).

Afterward, individuals in each group were asked to write down as many of the words as
they could remember. By comparing performance on different word lists and the different
kinds of processing cues, the investigators were able to show that recall of self – relevant
material is most efficient because it is based on both elaborative and categorical
processing.

4.2 Self-Concept

Dear learner, what is self concept?

Each person’s self – concept, is acquired through interaction with others. The self
operates as a schema that determines how we process information about the world around
us and about ourselves. The self – reference effect means that we process information
about ourselves better than any other kind of information. The self – concept is not a
fixed entity. Self – concept changes with age and in response to situational changes. The
elements of self-concept, the specific beliefs by which individuals define themselves are
self-schemas. Schemas are mental templates by which individuals organize the social
world. Self-schemas are beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-

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relevant information. The self-schemas that make up the self-concepts help catalogue and
retrieve the experiences.

4.2.1 Self-Reference
A phenomenon when information is relevant to the self-concept. Individuals process it
quickly and remember it well. The self-reference effect illustrates a basic fact of life. The
sense of self is the center of the social world. Individuals tend to see themselves on center
stage; underestimate the extent to which other’s behavior is aimed at. Often human
beings see themselves responsible for events in which they played a small part.

When judging someone else behavior or performance individuals spontaneously compare

it with his or her own, and if talking with another person if someone mentions an
individual’s name the individuals auditory radar shifts his/her attention.

4.3 Self – Efficacy

Dear learner, what is self-efficacy and try its difference from self-esteem?

The term self-efficacy was coined by Psychologist Albert Bandura (1997-2000). It refers
to a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, one’s sense
of self-worth. In everyday life, self-efficacy leads us to set challenging goals and to
persist in the face of difficulties. Literature on self-efficacy predicts that when problems
arise, a strong sense of self-efficacy leads individuals to keep calm and seek solutions.
Competence and persistent striving equals accomplishment, with accomplishment self
confidence grows.

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4.3.1 Self Efficacy and Performance
The appropriate type of self-efficacy enhances performance in both physical and
academic tasks. For example, those high in athletic self – efficacy are able to continue
longer at exercise requiring physical endurance than those low in such self – efficacy.
One reason for this ability is that feelings of high self – efficacy for physical tasks
stimulates the body to produce endogenous opioids, and these function as natural
painkillers that it possible for a person to continue a physical task. Also, high self –
efficacy concerning physical ability leads to perceived success at an exercise task and
attributions of personal control over this behavior.

4.3.2 Self – Efficacy in Social Situations

Interpersonal behavior is also affected by feelings of self – efficacy with respect to social
interactions. Among the reasons for low social self – efficacy is the lack of social skills,
and the consequences include anxiety and avoidance of such situations. Attributions
about social failure are affected by social self – efficacy. When provided with negative
feedback about the outcome of a given social behavior, high – efficacy individuals
perceive the cause as external (something unique to a given situation), while those low in
efficacy make internal attributions (lack of ability).

4.3.3 Increase a person’s feelings of self – efficacy

Self – efficacy is by no means fixed and unchanging. When a person receives positive
feedback about his or her skills (even false feedback), self – efficacy is likely to rise.

4.4 Self – Esteem

Perhaps the most important attitude each person holds is his or her attitude about self, an
evaluation that can label Self -Esteem. A person with high self – esteem perceives himself
or herself as better, more capable, and of greater worth than does someone with low self –
esteem. Self – evaluations based in part on the opinions of others and in part on how to

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perceive specific experiences. Interestingly, negative self – perceptions lead to more
predictable behavior than positive self – perceptions. Presumably, this happens because
negative self – views involve more tightly organized schemas than positive ones; as a
result, someone with low self – esteem can interpret a success in a variety of ways, but
someone with low self – esteem tends to over generalize the implications of a failure.

Though most of the research on self – esteem is focused on a global indication of self –
evaluation, it is also clear that people subdivide aspects of their self. A slightly different
approach to assessing self – esteem is to compare a person’s self – concept with his or her
conception of an ideal self. The greater the discrepancy, the lower the self – esteem.

4.4.1 Self – Esteem and Social Comparison

These social comparisons are a major determinant of how to evaluate us. This fact
explains some research findings that might otherwise seem surprising. For example,
given the very real problems of racism and sexism, we might expect women and minority
group members to be low in self- esteem. Instead, women and minorities tend to express
higher self – esteem than white males. Clearly, social comparisons must differ for these
different groups of people.

Several lines of research help clarify some of the ways in which these complex social
comparisons operate. To compare oneself to others, his esteem goes up when he perceive
some inadequacy in them.
A contrast effect: This kind of comparison with someone who is worse off (a downward
comparison) arouses positive feelings and raises his self – esteem. When, however, the
comparison with someone to whom he feels close, he perceives something very good
about feel close.

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4.5. Self-Serving Bias

Dear learner, would you please try to explain the reason why people usually
attribute their weaknesses/failures to external causes or factors and success to internal
causes? What is self serving bias?

Good! For your curiosity, please keep reading the following and mach you answers with
it.

It refers to the tendency to attribute our own positive outcomes to internal causes (e.g.,
our own traits or characteristics) but negative outcomes or events to external causes (e.g.,
chance, task difficulty). Whatever the precise origins of the self-serving bias, it can be the
cause of much interpersonal friction. It often leads person who works with others on a
joint task to perceive that they, not their partners, have made the major contributions.
Similarly, it leads individuals to perceive that while their own successes stem from
internal causes and are well deserved, the success of others stem from external factors
and are less merited.

Also, because of the self-serving bias, many persons tend to perceive negative actions on
their own part as reasonable and excusable, but identical actions on the part of others as
irrational and inexcusable. Thus, self – serving bias is clearly one type of Attributional
error with serious implications for interpersonal relations.

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4.6. Gender Identity

Dear learner, gender is the most frequently heard and said term of our days. Would
you please define what gender is? And also make a clear cut demarcation between gender
and sex.

Every human being has a gender identity. That simply means a labeling as male or
female. Between the ages of four and seven, children gradually acquire the concept of
gender consistency. It refers to the concept that gender is the basic enduring attribute of
each individual. Children accept the principle that a gender is a basic attribute of each
person. As soon as these cognitions are firmly in place, the perceptions are affected by
what the children believe about gender. According to Bem (1981-1983) who formulated
the Gender Schema theory, children have a “generalized readiness” to organize
information about the self in a way that is based on cultural definitions of what is
appropriate behavior for each sex. Once a young child learns to apply the label “girl” or
“boy” to herself or himself, the stage is set for the child to learn the “appropriate” roles
that accompany these labels. As childhood progresses sex typing occurs wherein children
learn in detail the stereotypes associated with maleness and femaleness in their culture.

Bem views that up to the 1970’s psychologists, along with people in general tended to
think of masculinity and femininity as lying at the two ends points of a single continuum.
Every individual was either masculine or feminine and there was no way to be both
highly masculine and highly feminine. A question to which psychologist wanted an
answer was what if the varied personal characteristics associated with masculinity and
femininity lie on independent continuums that range from low to high masculinity and
from low to high femininity? The answer to this question was Androgyny. An
androgynous person is one who combines traditional masculine and traditional feminine
behavioral characteristics. In order to measure the gender-related characteristics the Bem

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Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was developed. Research evidence indicates that 30 percent
of males adhere to the masculine gender type and a similar percentage of females to the
feminine gender type, while about one-third of each sex is androgynous.

4.6.1. Gender Stereotypes

Dear learner, would you please make some points regarding the position of male
and female in our society and the expectation and the status given to them. Are they
equally treated? Would you please make a mention of some of problems women farmer
face in your locality because of their sex?

Living indifferent cultural background for long years, people have formed certain gender
specific characteristics. This is insisted as well as expected by everyone. Such a
stereotypes, concerning the traits supposedly possessed by females and males, which
distinguish the two sexes from each other is called as gender stereotypes. When a male or
a female does not keep up to the expectation or preconceived types of behavior they have
to face the wrath of that society. For example, in many cultural societies males are
expected to behave decisively, forcefully, confidently, ambitiously, and rationally. On the
contrary, the females are expected to behave passively, submissively, indecisively,
emotionally and dependably. But, nowadays there may be difficult to find out these types
of gender stereotypical behavior, among the males and the females of different cultures.
However, the existing evidences present following findings: First, in the ability to send
and read nonverbal messages both males and females differ to some extent.

Second, in expressing and experiencing aggression various among the sex is noticed to
certain extent. And, the third, in having same sex friends slight variations were found
among males and females.

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 4.6.2. Gender role behavior

Dear student, please define and discuss with your colleagues what gender role
is? Is gender role natural or artificial? Why?
Though there is no strong clear cut specific gender role behavior exists in society, due to
the natural as well by practicing certain types of behaviors continuously for long time
people learn certain specific pattern of gender relevant behavior characteristics. People
expect these types of characteristics from every one and consider these as appropriate
behaviors. Social psychologists have come out with four patterns of gender role behavior.
They are: masculine, feminine, androgynous and none of these. Everybody knows
masculine and feminine characteristics. But, Androgyny is the tendency to report having
both traditionally “masculine” and traditionally “feminine” characteristics. An
androgynous person is one who combines traditional masculine and traditional feminine
behavioral characteristics in his behavior. Sandra Bem (1970) explained these
androgynous types of behavior patterns in individuals. Androgyny is also found to be
good for people who use in their day-to-day interaction with others. Major. et. al., (1981)
revealed that androgynous men and women were liked by others better; there were found
to be better adjusted in life; they were found to be more adaptable to situational demands;
they were found to be more comfortable with their sexuality; they were found to be more
satisfied in their interpersonal relations; and they showed high flexibility in coping with
stress: The androgynous elderly showed more satisfaction with their lives. Married
couples having androgynous characteristics reported happiness in their marriage life.

Another point to be kept in mind is that, adhering strongly to any type of the traditional
gender role creates problem to the individual. A strong tradition male gender role person
seems to behave more violently than men who have certain type of feminine characters as
well. Females and males who have higher levels of feminine characteristics are found to
have low self-esteem than masculine as well as androgynous individuals. As a final note
on gender role behavior it could be stated that the gender roles still influence on the

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 behavior of individuals in home as well as in work place. Whatever is nature of job
husbands and wives do, even today, the males perform garbage cleaning, repairing things,
and yard cleaning; while the women clean the house, cooking and engage in child caring.
In fact, women spend more time doing housework than men invariably of their gender
characteristics. Gender also affects the expectancies of individuals.

Research findings revealed that men take up even unknown fields for their job than
women. And with all the modern development women still are discriminated in many
places. But the trend of present day research reveal that the stereotypes related to gender
gets diminished day by day.

Activities 4.1
Please look into the following questions and try answering them as correctly as possible.
1) Explain social-identity. Elaborate various factors determining social identity.
2) What is Gender-identity? Bring out the salient features of Gender-identity.
3) Critically analyze the Gender stereotypes.
4) Narrate the Gender role on human behavior.

Summary
People by interacting with other people develop their social identity. The self-concept and
other related ideas remain relatively permanent in individuals. They have the tendency to
get modified by new information and new type of interaction. The maleness and
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femaleness have a strong influence on the behavior of individuals. The strong traditional
gender roles do have a special place even in to-days world. But, apart from these gender
roles, an androgynous character seems to increase the effective of the individuals.
Whatever be the characters of individuals, the gender role has its own effect in human
social life.

Self-Assessment Questions 4.1

The following sentences are incomplete; please, complete them by writing the most
appropriate word or phrase in the blank space provided

1. A sense that refers to one is competent and effective distinguished from self-
esteem, one’s sense of self-worth.
2. ________________ refers to the tendency to attribute our own positive outcomes
to internal causes (e.g., our own traits or characteristics) but negative outcomes or
events to external causes (e.g., chance, task difficulty).
3. ____________refers to a person’s definition of who he or she is.

Further Reading Materials

1. Stryker, Sheldon. (1977) "Developments in 'Two Social Psychologies': Toward an

Appreciation of Mutual Relevance," Sociometry 40: 145-160.
2. House, James S. (1977) "The Three Faces of Social Psychology," Sociometry
40: 161-177.

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 3. Sewell, William H. (1989) "Some Reflections on the Golden Age of
Interdisciplinary Social Psychology," Social Psychology Quarterly 52: 88-97.
(And the Introduction by Duane F. Alwin on pp. 85-87.)

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 UNIT FIVE

PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION AND INTER

PERSONAL ATTRACTION

Introduction
Dear learner, the social life of an individual depends on interacting, influencing and
interchanging information between him and others. When an individual engages in this
type of processes, it becomes inevitable that he or she forms certain types of prejudgment
about the person’s whom they come across. This has a strong and systematic effect
among the behavioral patterns among individuals. Social Psychologists have studied such
a phenomenon from the very beginning of the study of human behavior. The terms used
by the social psychologists to denote such a phenomenon is prejudice and discrimination.
This lesson brings out the origin, nature and conceptual details on these topics.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to;
• Define and describe the nature, origin and sources of prejudice.
• Describe the technique for countering the effects of prejudice.
• Describe the concepts on interpersonal attraction namely proximity, emotions, friendship and
interdependent relationships.

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5.1. Nature and Origin of Prejudice

Dear student, despite the fact that prejudice and discrimination are used
interchangeably often times, they are different in meaning. Define prejudice and tell its
difference from discrimination. What do you think is the relevance of learning about this
topic? Discuss.

Prejudice and discrimination are normally used interchangeably in the literature. But,
both of them have separate and clear cut meanings. Baron and Byrne (2006) state that
prejudice is an attitude, usually negative, toward the members of some group, based
solely on their membership in that group. A person who is prejudiced toward some social
group tends to evaluate its members in a negative manner merely because they belong to
that group. The individuals’ traits or behaviors are not counted to understand them instead
they are often disliked, simply because they belong to a specific group. Gordon Allport
(1954) explained the term prejudice as an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible
generation. If an individual prejudiced or forms negative evaluation on someone or a
group of persons he will normally dislike the person or persons because they are different
from him and will behave discriminatively believing that they are either dangerous or
ignorant. Further, prejudice also involves negative feelings or emotions on the part of
prejudiced persons when they are in the presence of, or merely think about members of
the group they dislike.

The main causes for forming negative evaluation and leading to negative behavior
towards other person or persons are varied in number. Though the prejudice springs from
different sources, social psychologists have classified them in to three sources. They are
social sources, motivational sources and cognitive sources of prejudice. Mainly, by social
learning and by the support of social institutions prejudice are acquired and preserved in
the society.
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5.1.1 The Social sources of prejudice

Activity 5.1
Try explaining some of the Social sources of prejudice before reading the paragraph
beneath. Research findings reveal that one of the reasons contributing for dwindling food
security and agricultural production and productivity in our country, Ethiopia is said to be
caused by high level of prejudice and discrimination of the resource poor, small holder
farmer from accessing basic agricultural services attributed to various reasons. As a
practitioner of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, is it real? Discuss the
causes and think over the way forward with your colleagues

Social inequalities, scarcity of goods and services, acquired value systems; religious
practices conformity and institutional support are found to contribute for the formation of
prejudice based on social sources.

Social Inequalities: Social inequalities give strength for the emergence of prejudice. An
old principle states that unequal status brings prejudice. Allport has brought out that
wherever imperial expansions have taken place, the colonized people where considered
as inferior, needs protection and in a long run burden to be tackled. People normally
respect those who are high in status but dislike them very clearly. A study conducted by
Fiske and her coworkers concluded that Asians, Jews, Germans, non-traditional women,
assertive African and American and gray man were tend to be respected well but they
were not liked so well.

Scarcity of goods and services: It is a fact that the things people want and value most
are good jobs, nice homes, high status which are always in short supply. According to this
view, prejudice stems from competition among social groups over valued commodities or
opportunities. If the competition continues for a long time, the members of the groups
involved come to view each other in increasingly negative terms. They label each other as

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“us” and “them”. People will view their own groups as morally superior and draw the
boundaries between themselves and their opponents more and more firmly. The result is
that what starts out as simple competition relatively free from hatred gradually develops
in to a full scale, emotion-laden prejudice.

Acquired value systems: Researchers carried out to find out the psychological causes of
killing millions of Jews by the Nazi Germans and making millions of Europeans in to
indifferent spectators revealed that hostility toward Jews co existed with hostility towards
other minorities as well. It means, prejudice appeared to be less an attitude specific to one
group than the way of thinking of those who are different (Theodor and et., al., 1950).
This is otherwise called as ‘ethnocentric’. The ethnocentric refers to the belief in the
superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group, and having a corresponding inferiority
for all other groups. When an individual is on the state of ethnocentric will have
intolerance for weakness, a punitive attitude and a submissive respect for the in-group’s
authorities. They will go in line with the common saying “Obedience and respect for
authority are the most important virtues children should learn”. Further, people having
high in social dominance orientation and ethnocentric personality are among the most
prejudiced persons in any society.

Religious Practices: There are two types of views regarding the relationship between
religion and prejudice William James noted, “Piety is the mask” that is, the leaders
invoke religion to accept the inequality prevailing in the society. Number of researchers
on the role of religion on prejudice emphasis the same findings. These findings leads to
the conclusion that there may not be correlation between religion and prejudice in casual
manner, instead, people with less education may seems to have more fundamental attitude
as well as prejudice. Further, religious belief system may make people to believe that all
people possess free will; hence, minorities have to be blamed for their own lower status.
The studies carried out revealed that serious faithful believers are found to be less
prejudiced, those for whom religion is an end in itself express less prejudice than those

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for whom religion is a means to other ends reveal more prejudice, people who have high
spiritual commitment welcome and accept any person openly, the religious priests and
ministers gave more support to civil rights movement than the common man and during
the Nazis regime many clergy’s in Germany opposed the Nazi regime. All these have lead
to the idea that the role of religion is paradoxical. It makes prejudice and it unmake
prejudice as well.

Conformity: Negatively viewing others, forming prejudice, is accepted as a social

practice many people will accept and confirm to this idea. In fact, out of need the people
will hate others Thomas Pettigrew (1958) found out that those people who conformed to
the social norms were found to be most prejudiced. Minard, (1952) and Reitzes (1953)
showed that in the mills and the mines, workers accepted integration but in their
neighborhoods the norms was rigid segregation. This has lead to the idea that prejudice
was clearly not a manifestation of personal characteristics but simply of the social norms.
Institutional Support: The schools, colleges and other social institution facilitate cultural
attitude. Though the institutional support for prejudice or not deliberate attempts they
simply reflect cultural assumptions. If an institution enjoys social and economical
superiority will facilitate the prejudicial belief systems among its members.

A second possible explanation of prejudice suggests that prejudice is learned and it

develops in much the same manner and the same mechanisms as attitudes. According to
social learning view, children acquire negative attitudes toward various social groups
because they hear such views expressed by parents, friends and teachers and others and
because they are directly rewarded. The tendency to divide the social world in to two
separate categories is called as categorization, which is the byproduct of an individual’s
thinking process. Similarly, the tendency to make more favorable and flattering
attribution about members of one’s own group than about members of other groups is part
of the process.

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5.1.2 Motivational (Psychological) sources of Prejudice

What do we mean by Psychological (motivational) sources of prejudice?

Motivation plays a double role. It aggravates/facilitates prejudice as well as reduces it.
The scapegoat theory explains the motivational sources of prejudice. The pain and
frustration evoke hostility when the causes of pain and frustration is unknown the anger is
or the motivational produced is often redirected to hostile objects. Anybody whom people
hate will be the target of their prejudiced belief system. Allport in 1958 quoted that “ The
Jew is just convenient…if there were no Jews, the anti-Semites would have to invent
them”. Further, dissatisfaction will trigger prejudice. Nietzsche, (1887) has put forth the
idea that “However is dissatisfied with himself is continuously ready for revenge”.

Social Identity: People live in groups. They found happiness in their groups, kill for their
groups and die for their groups as well. The groups in which he has membership identify
every individual. This is otherwise called as social identity. The social identity theory put
forward by Turner and Tajfel observed that people categorize, that is, people find it useful
to be in one group due to that different categories emerge. For example stating one as
teacher, policeman or bus driver is an easy way to identify a person. People identify that
is people associate themselves with certain groups and gain self-esteem. This is otherwise
called as in-group, which is a group of people who share a sense of belonging and a
feeling of common identity. Finally, people compare that is one group of people compare
with other groups of people in all respects. This is otherwise called as out-group, which is
a group people perceive as distinctively different from apart from their in-group. People
evaluate themselves partly by their group membership. Thus, many youths find pride,
power identity in gang affiliations.

In-group Bias: There is a tendency to define one’s own group positively in order to
evaluate oneself positively. The mere experience of being formed in to groups may
promote in-group bias. Those who are living nearer showed lesser racial differences.

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Further, an individual’s group is small and lower in status relative to status in-group bias
emerges. Due to the social identification people confirm to their group norms. Hence it is
clear in-group bias results as much or more from perceiving that one’s own group is
good.

Need for Status Self-regard and belonging: Status is a relative term. Feeling superior
or inferior initiates prejudicial ideas. A man who doubts his own strength will identify
women as dependent and will boost his masculine image. An experiment by Randy and
Kathleen showed that men with low self-acceptance strong non-traditional women. On
the other hand, men with high self-acceptance preferred them. It shows that self-image
and self-regard has a relationship with prejudice. The sense of comradeship among the
workers is often when they all feel difference of opinion toward their management. This
has lead to the idea that the need to belong is a prerequisite for in-group activities.

5.1.3 Cognitive Sources of Prejudice

The way one thinks about the world as well as remembers about the events that takes
place have a contributing role in establishing the role of cognitive sources on prejudice.
The perceptual illusions have an effective part in making a person prejudiced.

5.2 Discrimination
Discrimination refers to harmful or negative behaviors directed toward people who are
the object of prejudice. Discriminatory behavior often has its root in prejudicial attitudes.
Gordon Allport came out with two basic types of discrimination. The one is blaming
oneself. That is, withdrawal, self-hate and aggression against one’s own group. The
second one is blaming external causes. That is, fighting back, suspiciousness and
increased group pride. Whatever be the types, the net result are negative it is a typical
example of discrimination. In the present world scenario, due to government laws, it
becomes difficult to express negative action towards a single person or group of persons.

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On the other hand, subtle form of discriminations is found in society. Mainly,
discrimination based on gender could be traced in social living.

Fisher (1992) showed that females continue to occupy a relatively disadvantaged position
in many societies. They were given mainly low-paying, low status jobs. Though the
literature brings out different types of reason s for the lower status of women in society, it
is a clear manifestation of discrimination. Another type of subtle discrimination is the
sexual harassment. Social psychologists clearly researched the presence of discriminate
behavior. The prominent types of discrimination are presented below.

5.2.1 Reverse Discrimination giving with one Hand taking with the other
This type of discrimination occurs in situations in which persons holding at least some
degree of prejudice toward the members of social group lean over backward to treat
members of that group favorably, more favorably that they treat other persons. Reverse
discrimination refers to the tendency to evaluate or treat persons belonging to certain
groups (especially ones that are the object of ethnic or racial prejudice) more favorably
than members of other groups. Reverse discrimination might be beneficial for the person
it affects. On one level this is certainly true, people exposed to reverse discrimination do
receive raises, promotion and other benefits. On the other level, it may prove harmful
also.

5.2.2 Tokenism

Dear learner, What is Tokenism?

This refers to instances in which individuals or groups perform trivial positive action for
people toward whom they feel prejudice and then use these actions as an excuse for
refusing more meaningful and beneficial behavior. A person will feel disturbed when he
is treated or accepted in a company or in a group because he hails from a specific group

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or community. Further, if the fellow members came to know that so and so is hired since
he has been a token of representative from a particular ethnic, racial, community or
religious group there is a possibility of perceiving him negatively.

5.2.3 Subtle forms of discrimination

Due to the advancement of science and technology and as well due to the multicultural
set up prevailing in today’s society, overt discrimination seems to be reduced. Instead a
subtle form of discrimination still remains. For example treating the females, children and
minorities as lower in job market, workplace and in official environment.

5.3 Techniques for countering the effects of Prejudice

Prejudice is an inevitable part of human societies. But, it is negative in nature. It creates
damaging effects both to the person who is prejudiced and discriminated as well as the
groups that get affected. Hence, social psychologist lot of time and energy to evolve
certain effective strategies in order to curtail the ill effect of prejudice. They are
systematically presented below.

5.3.1 Learning Not to Hate

The answer to the question that whether children are born with prejudice is still
answered. Social psychologists are of the view that children acquire prejudice from their
parents, adults and their peers. A technique of compacting this would be to introduce
parents’ attention to their own prejudice. Once they come face to face with their own
prejudices they, modify their words and behavior so as to encounter lower levels of
prejudice among their children. Persons who are prejudiced appear to live in dangerous
social groups and they experience anger, anxiety and fear. In short, it is clear that persons
holding intense racial and ethnic prejudices suffer many harmful effects. Many parents
want to do everything they can to further their children’s well-being calling these costs to

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their attention may be effective in discouraging them from transmitting prejudiced views
to their offspring.

5.3.2 Direct Inter Group: The Potential Benefits of Acquaintance

In order to understand direct inter group prejudice; a common idea is the contact
Hypothesis. This theory is that increased contact between the members of various social
groups can be effective in reducing prejudice. It also seems to be valid only when contact
takes place under specific favorable conditions. There are several reasons to predict that
the above hypothesis may prove effective. Firstly, increased contact between persons
from different groups can lead to growing recognition of similarities between them.

Secondly, stereotypes are resistant to change; they can be alerted when sufficient
information inconsistent with them is encountered, or when individuals meet a sufficient
number of expectations to their stereotypes. Thirdly, increased contact may help counter
the illusions of out-group homogeneity. In sum, when used with care; direct intergroup
contact can be effective tool for combating cross-group prejudice. When people get to
know one another it seems, many of the anxieties, stereotypes and false perceptions that
have previously kept them apart can melt in the face of new information and the warmth
of new friendships.

5.3.3 Recategorization
In daily life situations, individuals sometimes tend to have a situation where there is a
shift between “us” and “them”. These shifts are termed by social psychologists as
Recategorization. This refers to the shifts in the boundary between an individual’s in-
group (“us”) and various out-groups (“them”) causing persons formerly viewed as out-
group members now to be seen as belonging to the in-group. A theory proposed by
Gaertner, Dovidio, and their colleagues suggests a concept called Common.

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In-group Identity Model, which emphasizes that when people belonging to different
group jointly start working for a specific goal, in due course, they start viewing
themselves as one group or single social entity. The negative evaluation gets reduced and
positive regards get increased. This in turn, promotes positive contacts between the
groups. The psychological dynamism involved in this situation is that eliminating the idea
of “us” and “them” enables the persons from various groups to reduce the prejudice and
hostility towards each other. This change in mind is beneficial and useful for social
living.

Now comes the question, how to bring such a change in a specific groups. Answer to this
question is also available in the literature. The experience an individual gets when he is
working together cooperatively with others enables him to get reduced the differences.
They emphasize that when individuals initially belonging to distinct groups work
together toward shared goals, they come to perceive themselves as a single social entity.
In due course, the feelings of bias or hostility towards the out-group gets gradually fade
away along with the prejudice. An ample support for this view has been noticed in a field
study carried out by Gaertner, Dovido, and their associates (1993). The study was
conducted among the 1,300 multicultural high school students who came from many
different backgrounds namely, African, American, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese,
Vietnamese and Caucasian. The results revealed that the perception of cooperative
interdependence between students from different groups was positively related to the
students’ belief that the students as a whole are a single group. In other words, the greater
the students felt they belonged to a single group; the more positive was their feelings
toward out-group members. As a final note, Recategorization seems to reduce prejudice
to a considerable extend.

5.3.4 Cognitive Intervention

This is the fourth technique social psychologists suggest to minimize the effect of
prejudice among different groups of people. One of the ways prejudice emerges could be

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attributed to the tendency to think about others in terms of their membership in various
groups or categories. Using cognitive factor, otherwise called, category-driven processing
to reduce the effect of prejudice and discrimination the following methods were
formulated by the researchers.

(1) By paying attention to the unique characteristic features of the individuals, instead
of their membership in different groups reduces the effect of prejudice. This idea
emphasizes the role of attribute-driven processing. In this process individuals are
informed that their own outcomes or rewards in a situation will be affected by
other person’s performance. And again, telling them that it is very important to be
accurate in informing an impression of another person. Here, the important factor
is that individuals are motivated to be accurate which in turn will reduce the
stereotypical tendencies.

(2) Using the principle of attribution the impact of stereotypes can be reduced.
Allison, et, al., (1990) found out that individuals make inferences about others on
the basis of their outcomes while ignoring the factors that might have produced
these outcomes. For example, a person came to know that a woman was promoted
to a higher-level managerial job in his company. And the person understands that
the company has a strong affirmative action program and actively seeks to
promote women and minorities. He will start reducing his stereotypical tendencies.
Though this type of procedures found to be little complex, they are effective in
reducing the prejudice and stereotypes. Number of studies proved this procedure
very effect. This technique promoted the affirmative action programs to reduce
prejudice.

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5.4 Interpersonal Attraction

Dear student, what make some individuals to be attracted by others and while not
for others? Would you please briefly explain the reason with living examples? Discuss its
implication in your professional life.
Forming attitudes is a continuous process in human life. People go on evaluating
everyone with whom they interact, the ideas they share and the events they meet.
Psychologists opine that individuals evaluate every word, sound, picture and persons as
soon as he or she perceives the other person. The evaluation of other people with respect
to how much one likes or dislikes them is termed as interpersonal attraction. Generally,
people make positive evaluations when their feelings are positive and form negative
evaluations when their feelings are negative. That is, the types as well as levels of
emotions mainly determine the interpersonal likes and dislikes. Hence, anything that
influences or affects emotions has a direct link in influencing or affecting the
interpersonal attraction. Thus, attraction begins when people come in to contact with one
another.

Attraction towards each other, normally, breeds friendship in due course. With all these
effects, some people either avoid the relationships or do not even get one. It is also a fact
that everyone experiences loneliness in some point of his or her lifetime. On the other
hand, some people extend their relationships beyond the friendship level and enter into
conjugal relationship. All these related concepts on interpersonal attraction are elaborated
in detailed manner in this lesson.

5.4.1 Proximity and Emotions

Though six billion people live in the planet earth, everyone interacts only with a very
small percentage of that. Many persons remain strangers for every individual. The reason
for this type of behavior is nothing but the nearness and regular persons along with the
feeling everyone exerts seems to play the role. Repeated contact, repeated exposure,

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closeness or proximity, positive feelings or mood are found to be the crucial factors in
interpersonal attraction.

5.4.2. Physical Surroundings: Repeated Interpersonal Contact Leads to

Attraction
Physical surroundings, that is, if individuals’ regularly meet, they tend to get attracted to
each other. Evidences suggest that when two strangers regularly pass the same place or
meet in the same time, these casual unplanned contacts lead to mutual recognition. In due
course they may even exchange the greetings such as, “hai” and continue even to share
their ideas and things. Repeated exposure to a new stimulus - frequent contact with that
stimulus - leads to more and more positive evaluation of the stimulus. In one research
conducted by Moreland and Beach asked one female research assistant to attend a college
class fifteen times during the semester, another one ten times, the third one five times and
the fourth one not to attend at all. Then at the end of the semester all four individuals
came to the classroom and the experimenter asked the students to indicate how much they
liked each one on a rating scale. The assistants were fairly similar in appearance and none
interacted with any of the class members during the semester. But, the attraction between
these assistance and the students increased as the number of classroom exposures
increased. In short, it is clear that repeated exposure improved the liking.

The repeated interpersonal contact, otherwise, termed as proximity. In normal social

living, it is inevitable that people has to remain close to each other due to their residences,
classroom seats, work areas, etc. The greater their closeness the better will be their
interpersonal attraction. Brooks-Gunn and Lewis found out that infants tend to smile at a
photograph of someone they have seen before but not at a photograph of someone they
are seeing for the first time. The reason would be that repeated exposure decreases the
feelings of anxiety and makes the person or object familiar. Further, the repeated
exposure breeds’ familiarity even when one is not consciously aware of it. It is due to
subliminal conditioning.

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People living in same area develop positive relationship. Evans and Wilson (1949) found
that two thirds of students developed friendship from among the students living in the
same floor in their hostels.

5.4.3 Emotions: Positive and Negative Affect

Emotions are mixed in our day-to-day behavior. Emotions influences perception,
motivation, cognition, decision-making and even interpersonal attractions. The intensity
or the strength of the emotions and the direction or the positive/negative emotions plays
the role in liking or disliking the individual. The positive and negative emotions are two
separate independent dimensions. Experiments conducted by Dovidio, et, al., (1995)
consistently indicated that positive feelings or emotions lead to positive evaluations of
others while negative feelings or emotions lead to negative evaluation of others.
Normally people feel good towards those who do good things to them and feel bad about
those who bad things about them. It becomes clear that people prefer or like the persons
who brighten their day by giving sincere compliment to them. People also like someone
when they are in positive state and dislike a person when they are in negative state.

Further, Kleinke, Meeker and Staneski (1986) in their study revealed that if a person
positively interacts with a stranger the stranger will start liking the person positively. This
idea emphasizes that if a positive climate is initiated people who are involved in the
circumstances will start liking each other and vice versa.

5.4.4 Becoming Acquainted: The Need to Affiliate

Psychologists’ state that human behavior is also gets triggered by a number of need
patterns. One of the prominent need patterns is the need for affiliation. The need for
affiliation refers to the motive to seek interpersonal relationships. Individuals spend a
good part of their lives in interacting with other people. This tendency to affiliate seems
to have a neurobiological basis. The need to affiliate with others is similar to the

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psychological needs, such as, hunger and thirst. Without it individuals will feel they are
not safe as well their survival is at stake. The affiliation improves the chances of survival
for the pre-historic ancestors. Individuals who have strong affiliative need found to
interact more with other persons and they start developing close relationship with others
as well.

Hill brought out four basic motives for making a person to get affiliated with others. They
are positive stimulation, emotional support, social comparison and attention. Individuals
seek the company of others because it is very interesting and lively. This is nothing but
positive stimulation. People want the company of others whenever a problem arises. This
is to get emotional support whenever a crisis comes. People also get motivated to reduce
uncomfortable feelings of uncertainties of what is going on through social comparison.

Finally, everyone interested in receiving praise and acceptance by others. This is called as
attention motive. The literature on need for affiliation also brings out affiliation need is a
state of mind. Sehachter(1959) investigated the effect of affiliation need as a state and
explained that whenever a critical situation occurs even the strangers get affiliated.
Human infants are born with the motivation and the ability to seek understanding of their
interpersonal world and even newborns are predisposed to look toward faces in
preferences to other stimuli.

5.4.5 Dispositional Differences in the Need to Affiliate

One of the leading psychologists on motivation and motivational aspects of personality
Murray put forth a good number need patterns. Wherein he emphasized the need for
affiliation as one of the dispositional factors of individuals, which shapes their behavior.
Investigations on this line showed that behavioral differences exist between those high
and those low in the need to affiliate. Using both self-report measures and the projective
measures the levels of need for affiliation of individuals have been assessed by the
scientists. College students scoring high on an explicit measure were found to be very

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sociable, and they interacted with multiple people, whereas those scoring high on implicit
measure were likely to interact in two-person situations involving close relationship.

5.4.6 Moving toward Friendship: Similarity and Mutual Liking

In order to form any kind of relationship two people must come in to contact. This is
facilitated by physical proximity. Once the contact has occurred, this in turn will pave the
way to increase the positive relationship between those two persons. The next step
towards interpersonal closeness involves communication. The two steps in
communication are the degree to which the interacting individuals discover areas of
similarity and the extent to which they indicate mutual liking by what they say and what
they do.

5.4.7 Similarity: Birds of the same feather really do flock together

Dear student, what is your understanding about the saying “Birds of the same
feather flock together?”

The role of similarity in fostering interpersonal attraction is quite common one. This
phenomenon has been observed and discussed for over a two thousand years beginning
with Aristotle’s (330.B.C./1932) essay on friendship. Research findings from Sir Francis
Galton(1870/1952) obtained correlational data on married couples and found that spouses
resembled one another in many respects. In the first half of the twentieth century
correlational studies continued to find that pairs of friends and spouses revealed a greater
than chance degree of similarity.

5.4.8 Mutual Liking: Likeness begets liking

Once two people discover that they are sufficiently similar to be able to move toward
establishing a friendship, one additional step is crucial. Each individual must somehow
communicate liking and a positive evaluation of the other. Most people are pleased to

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receive positive feedback and displeased to receive negative evaluations. Though liking
and positive evaluations are often expressed in words, at times, the first sign of attraction
may be non verbal cues. For example, when two persons enter into a long discussion of
politics or religion or any common idea and share the likes and dislikes on these matters,
they will start discovering that they both agree on almost everything each one starts liking
the other. The more the persons come to know that both have same attitudes, the more
they will like each other.

5.5 Interdependent Relationships with Family and Friends

The binding force in every close relationship is interdependence. That is, interpersonal
associations in which two people consistently influence each other’s lives focus their
thoughts and emotions on one another and regularly engage in joint activities whenever
possible. Close relationships with friends, family members and one’s spouse include an
element of commitment. Interdependence occurs across age groups and across quite
different kinds of interaction.

5.5.1 Family: The First Relationships

The Parent-child interactions have important implications in the family setting in which
the individual learns, how to deal with other people. An individual comes in to the world
ready to interact with other human beings. During the first year of life, when the range of
possible behaviors is limited, human infants are extremely sensitive to certain sounds,
facial expressions and bodily events.

5.5.2 The Interactions of Parents and their Offspring

The study of family relationship extends beyond the boundaries of Social Psychology.
Research evidences suggests that men and women show consistent patterns in their
relationship with mothers, fathers and romantic partners. According to researchers,
adolescents are found to love parents to the extent that they like them and to the extent

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that the adolescents are a decent person who behaves in a moral and ethical way. Most
teenagers feel that such love toward their mother and father and feel loved in return. This
kind of happy and satisfying relationship within a family is associated with the ability to
experience empathy, high self-esteem and interpersonal trust.

5.5.3 The Factors influencing Close Relationships

Dear students, before looking into the discussion presented below, would you
please mention some factors influencing close relationships?

Attachment Styles: It is an infant’s degree of security in mother-infant interactions,

believed to result in secure, avoidant, or ambivalent attachment style, which affects
interpersonal behavior throughout life. It is a fact that sensitive, responsive parenting
during the child’s first year’s leads to secure attachment otherwise it would be avoidant or
ambivalent relationship between the child and the mother and also with others. If a child
is secure, it will trust and love another person. If not secure it will develop mistrust and
will avoid everyone. And if the child experiences a mixed response of neither secure nor
insecure, it will neither trust nor mistrust. Certain characteristic features to explain the
secure relationship. They are the amount of physical contact, visual contact, verbal
contact and the mother’s awareness of and responsiveness to the infant’s needs. The
following table presents neatly these effects.

The attachment formed during the infancy stage seems to determine the nature of adult
relationships. The secured individuals seek closeness and comfortable in having to
depend on the partner. Further, they are not worried about losing the partner. On the other
hand, avoidant individuals are uncomfortable about intimacy and closeness. They don’t
even trust the other partner. The ambivalent individual will seek the relationship but will
have fear attitude. Because, he will perceive his partner as distant, unloving, and likely to
break off the relationship any time. The secure individuals will be able to form long-

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lasting, committed, satisfying relationships. Other studies in the same line also confirm
the fact that secure individuals form warm parental relationships, while avoidant and
ambivalent individuals form cold or inconsistent relationships.

Furthermore, the role of discipline, that is, the way of making the child follow the rules.
Instead if the parents are harsh, excessively lenient and inconsistent the child may
become aggressive or delinquent. Psychologist John Bowely succinctly stated that,
“Intimate attachments to other human beings are the hub around which a person’s life
revolves…. From these intimate attachments people draw strength and enjoyment of
life.”

Equity: It is a condition in which the outcomes people receive from a relationship are
proportional to what they contribute to it. Again equitable outcomes needn’t always be
equal outcomes. In the normal sense, if two persons contribute equally in their
relationship they will expect equal outcome. If one of them does not contribute equally
the other will feel it, generally, unfair. But, those who are in enduring relationship,
including room-mates and those in love instead of checking whether each one is equally
contributing will feel freer to maintain equity by exchanging a variety of benefits and
eventually to stop keeping track of who owes whom.

Margaret Clark and Judson Mills presented that people even take pains to avoid
calculating any exchange benefits. When the reciprocation is not possible at times, the
true friends get along well. In fact, close friendship emerges when sharing is unexpected.
Happily married couples never notice how much they give and how much they get. Other
researchers put forth the idea that People having an equitable relationship are more
content. There is also a study that emphasizes the role of equity even in the marital
relationships. For example, when one of the spouse felt unfair because the other partner
contributed little to the cooking, housekeeping, parenting; perceiving inequity triggers

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marital distress. Hence, whatever be the form equity has a direct influence on the close
relationships between individuals.

Self-Disclosure: Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others is termed as self

disclosure. In a good relationship or in a good marriage this delicious experience is
possible. Due to the trusting of each other the anxiety between them gets displaced. Then
both of them will openly share everything without the fear of losing the affection. As the
close relationship grows, the partners go on revealing their inner selves to each other and
both them gain more information about each other. In normal situation, people tend to
like those who disclose more information about them. After liking such a person the first
person will start disclosing his or her details to the liked person. When a person starts
revealing or unmasking him to the other person love gets nurtured. Intimate self-
disclosure brings happiness in companionate love. Marriage is such a type of friendship
sealed with commitment.

5.6 Relationship beyond Friendship/Family and Close Relationship

Beginning with childhood, every individual establishes casual friendships with peers who
share common interests. Having friends is positive because they boost ones’ self-esteem
and help in coping with stress, but friends have a negative effect if they are antisocial,
withdrawn or unstable

5.6.1 Close Friends versus Other Friendly Relationships

Individuals when they grow in maturity develop close friendships, which have several
distinctive characteristics. For example, people tend to engage in self-enhancing behavior
with non-friends but they are more likely to exhibit modesty when interacting with
friends. Friends avoid lying to one another unless the purpose of the lie is to make the
other person feel better. Once close friendships are established individuals spend more
time together, self-disclosing, providing mutual emotional support. A casual friend is

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someone who is fun to be with while a close friend is valued for his or her generosity,
sensitivity and honesty.

5.7 Loneliness: Life without Close Relationship

Though there may be a biological need to establish relationships and though the rewards
of relationship are rewarding to human life people also remain lonely. This is one of the
byproduct of social living. Loneliness is an emotional and cognitive reaction to having
fewer and less satisfying relationship that one desires. An individual who doesn’t want
friends is not lonely, but someone who wants friends and doesn’t have them is lonely.
Here, it is also to be noted that many people prefer solitude-they may be alone, but not
lonely. Loneliness appears to be a common phenomenon. People who are lonely tend to
spend their leisure time in solitary activity and are found to have casual friends rather
than close friends. Loneliness, generally, is accompanied by negative effect, including
feelings of depression, anxiety, unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Research findings also
confirm that loneliness brings negative effect in the individual. It is also proved that a
failure to develop appropriate social skills in childhood results in unsuccessful
interactions with peers and thus leading to loneliness.

Normally, lonely persons feel they are left out and they do not have anything common
with others. Again the lonely people are found to have less interpersonal trust. Duggan
and Brennan tried to find answer for the question why some people desire relationship
but are unable to establish it? They are of opinion that dismissing and fearful individuals
are found to have hesitance to develop close relationship. Another reason is that if a child
fails to develop appropriate social skills he or she may not have the capacity to have close
relationship, which then lead to loneliness.

Furthermore, a withdrawn or aggressive child will get rejected by their playmates. Due to
that they may face loneliness in their life. Third reason is social phobia. During the
adolescence period most of the young ones distance themselves from their parents and

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family. The adolescents may feel that the social situations is frightening due to that he/she
may totally avoid the social situations in order to protect himself or herself from
embracement or humiliation. The fourth point is hopelessness. Some teenagers may feel
the life is hopeless because they may not have the capacity, ability to reach the highest
position in the society. This tendency may develop a feeling of desire, which may lead
some of the teenagers to the state of suicide.

5.7.1 Reducing Loneliness

The loneliness phenomenon will not get alright just by passing of time. Since, so many
factors either contribute or facilitate loneliness an active and systematic intervention
programs alone will reduce the extent of loneliness of individuals. A negative models to
reduce their loneliness for example, retreating in to wish-fulfilling fantasies, too much
involvement in work or resort to alcohol and drugs to reduce their pain of loneliness. The
positive interventions are cognitive therapy and social skill training.

The cognitive abilities of lonely and non-lonely people are found to be differing. Mainly,
self-schema and self concept of non-lonely people will be always positive. On the other
hand lonely persons will be negative in nature. Hence, a systematic cognitive
reconstructing has to be initiated and proper positive training has to be practiced to
reduce the loneliness. The next strategy would be exposing the lonely people to observe
interpersonal successful role models either through videotapes or through real life
situations. This type of exercises by the lonely person may make him acquire social
skills, which will make them appropriate in social interaction, ultimately will reduce the
loneliness. Of course, a third method has also been available, that is, music. Listening to
music may reduce loneliness. But on the contrary, if a lonely person listens to music
related to separation, heartache, and sadness, feeling of loneliness will get increased.

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5.7.2 Marriage: The Ultimate Close Relationship
Apart from attraction, friendships, selecting a marital partner are also important for the
individual. Marriage is found to be one of the ultimate aims of interpersonal attraction in
the society. Marriage is a unique social event most of the persons face in their social life.

From time immemorial marriage has undergone various changes in its meaning,
definition and nature. The Compact Oxford Reference Dictionary (2001) states that
marriage is the formal union of a man and a woman, by which they become husband and
wife. Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopedia (2004) defines marriage as legally and
socially sanctioned union, usually between a man and a woman, that is regulated by laws,
rules, customs, beliefs and attitudes that prescribe the rights and duties of the partners and
accords status to their offspring, if any. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current Eighth
Edition (1990) defines marriage as, (1) the legal union of a man and a woman in order to
live together and often to have children (2) an act or ceremony establishing this union (3)
one particular union of this kind (by a previous marriage) and (4) an intimate union (the
marriage of true minds). Jim Tally (1991) a marriage counselor described marriage as the
union of two people in an emotional, moral, and legal conventional agreement.

5.7.3. Marital Love, Careers, Parenthood and the Changing Composition of

Families
The reality of marriage entails much more than falling in love, having a wedding
ceremony and then experiencing unending bliss. Then the two partners interact with each
other on a daily basis and find ways to deal with a multitude of challenges, such as
deciding on household chores, dealing with ups and downs of daily life and meeting
demands of outside jobs. Any married individual who is employed faces a potential
conflict between the motivation to do a god job at work and the motivation to engage in
family activities. These two motivations can easily lead to conflict, alienation, and
eventually to emotional exhaustion. If both the spouses work outside the home the

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potential conflict becomes even more intense. A major task for two employed spouses is
to discover how best to adjust to the demands of a two-career family (Gilbert, 1993).

5.7.4 The Psychology of Marriage

The institution of marriage is both extremely important to individual’s well-being and is
at the same time very fragile. Married individuals are happier, healthier, and longerlived
than unmarried individuals. In the late 1970s Glenn and Weaver Revealed that married
persons had considerably higher levels of overall happiness than divorced, separated,
widowed, and never-married persons. Although there existed a strong positive
relationship between marital status and happiness, the quality of marriage was an
important contributor to a person’s level of overall happiness.

5.7.5. Married Relationship

Whatever is said about interpersonal attraction and attachment, and close friendship holds
good for marital relationship. Similarity factor establishes a strong connection for marital
relationships. Spouses similar in their attitudes, values, interests, and other attributes
found to contribute for the positive marriage relationship. A study conducted from the
time of engagement to two decades of marriage showed the coupes remained similar in
all their characters. Though similarity is an important factor in cherishing and sustaining
married relationship, it becomes very difficult to find such a perfect match. Hence,
people, in general, make compromises. People find someone with more positive than
negative qualities. But, one thing is certain that numerous studies conducted by the
researchers confirmed the role of similarity and happiness positively.

5.7.6 Trouble in Marital Relationships

Remaining in intimate relationship involves certain degree of compromise. In their day
to- day activities taking decisions are very important. In such situations one of the
spouses has to come in line with the other for so many reasons. Otherwise, differences
crops, yielding trouble in family relations. Couples, in general, report that conflicts arise

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often. Most of the spouses overestimate how much they agree on most matters. They
even don’t realize that their views differ even when they believe they are communicating.

One of the major problems arises when spouses respond to the negative words or deeds
of the other in an equally negative way. The reaction stems from the characteristics
features found in spouses, especially, such as, hostility, defensiveness, and depression
(Newton, et. a., 1995). Other reasons for conflicts between spouses are dissimilarity in
various aspects of life, for example, neatness; Spending money, saving, how best to
respond to child’s misbehaviors and dealing with aged parents; Unfulfilled sexual
satisfaction; Negative feeling due to conflicts and disagreement and expressing mutual
negative feelings.

Activity 5.1
Would you please critically look into the following questions and answer them
as they may revise you what you have learnt in this chapter.

1. Define prejudice and describe the causes of prejudice?

2. Discuss the nature of discrimination?
3. Critically analyze the role of prejudice and discrimination in social living?
4. Bring out the salient features of interpersonal attraction.
5. Discuss the friendship and relationship factors in interpersonal attraction.
6. Describe the role of relationship with reference to loneliness.
.

Summary
Prejudice and discrimination go hand in hand in many situations. Negative thoughts
initiates negative behavior. The above presentation highlighted different reasons for
prejudice and discrimination. Though the factors contributing for prejudice and
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discrimination are seems to be interrelated, their very complex ones. At the same time,
the researchers have come out with lot of methods to reduce prejudice and in turn
minimize the discriminate actions.

Interpersonal attraction brought out the likes and dislikes of human attitudes. Proximity
or the closeness of propinquity and the emotions, either positive or negative directly
influence interpersonal attractions. The likeness begets likeness and paves way for
friendships, close friendships and makes people go beyond friendship. It makes people to
enter into conjugal relations. In marital life various factors contribute for its success.
Mainly, openness, commitment, love and positive thinking and action all facilitate
effective marital relationships.

Self-Assessment Questions 5.1

The following questions carry some statements which are true and some wrong
statements. Please, write “True” if the statement is correct and write “False” if
otherwise.

1. Prejudice is an attitude, usually negative, toward the members of some group,

based solely on their membership in that group.
2. A tendency to define one’s own group positively in order to evaluate oneself
positively refers to in group bias.
3. Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others is termed as self closing.
4. Equity refers to condition in which the outcomes people receive from a
relationship are proportional to what they contribute to it.

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 Further Reading Material
1. Myers. D.G (1997). Social Psychology, Tata Mc. Graw Hill Publishing.

2. Baron, R.A & Byrne, D (1991). Social Psychology, New Delhi: Prentice Hall of
India

3. Stryker, Sheldon. (1977) "Developments in 'Two Social Psychologies': Toward an

Appreciation of Mutual Relevance," Sociometry 40: 145-160.
4. House, James S. (1977) "The Three Faces of Social Psychology," Sociometry 40:
161-177.

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 UNIT SIX

SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND CONFORMITY

Introduction
Dear learner, in this unit you will be learning about two crucial concepts, conformity and
social influence. The unit thoroughly discusses how our actions, movements, judgments
and decisions are affected by the actions of other members of the community. Further, the
unit deals with the importance of going along with others and respect to the norms and
values of others. As you move on through this unit, you will be exposed to meaning
definition of conformity, different studies on conformity, and determinants of conformity
and roles of culture on conformity. This unit starts its discussion by putting questions to
you.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to;
• Define and describe the studies on conformity.
• Describe the predicators of conformity.
• Explain the techniques used by people for influencing others.

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 Dear learner, have you ever thought about the reason why you are doing what you
are doing? Do you think going along with others and accepting the norms and values of
your community and abide by them is a sign of weakness? What do you think is the
relevance of conformity for extension work? Please reflect upon the questions before
reading further.

6.1. Conformity
Conformity is not just acting as other people act; it is being affected by how they act. It is
acting differently from the way to would act alone. Thus conformity is a change in
behavior or belief to accord with others. There are several varieties of conformity (Nail &
Others, 2000). Consider two: compliance and acceptance. Sometimes to conform to an
expectation or request without really believing in what we are doing. To put on the
necktie or dress, though to dislike doing so. This outward conformity is compliance. To
comply primarily implies to reap a reward or avoid a punishment. If our compliance is to
an explicit command, we call it obedience. Sometimes genuinely believe in what the
group has convinced us to do. Joining millions of others in drinking milk because we are
convinced that milk is nutritious. This sincere, inward conformity is called acceptance.
Acceptance sometimes follows compliance.

Extension as a profession is an art of working with people. As we have seen it

in our former discussions, extension is a professional intervention which requires good
communication skill and an ability to build rapport with the clientele. Obedience, respect
to the norms and values of the society you are working with and a down to earth
character will help the agent win the hearts and minds of the intervention subjects/the
community. This indeed is the beginning of any intervention activity by the agent.

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Extension agents who are lacking this social and communication skills and unable to
comply and act in accord of the societies culture and norms, the probability of success in
their intervention objectives is meager. It is a general fact that it is relatively difficult to
work with communities of different culture than working with communities similar to
your culture. Extension strongly advises its agents to properly understand the culture of a
certain community and get to know them very well before going for any intervention
activity because the profession highly requires winning trust of the farming community as
this will help the agent to have a strong domain of positive influence towards the farmers.

The following topics deals with some of the studies conducted on conformity. Enjoy
reading them.

6.1.1 Sheriff’s studies on conformity

Muzafer Sheriff (1935, 1937) wondered whether it was possible to observe the
emergence of a social norm in the laboratory. Like biologists seeking to isolate a virus so
they can then experiment with it, Sherif wanted to isolate and then experiment with norm
formation.

As a participant in one of Sheriff’s experiments, one might have found his-self seated in a
dark room. Fifteen feet in front of him a pinpoint of light appears. At first, nothing
happens. Then for a few seconds it moves erratically and finally disappears. Now he must
guess how far it moved. The dark room gives him no way to judge distance. So he offer
an uncertain “Six inches”. The experimenter repeats the procedure. This time he says,
“Ten inches,” With further repetitions, he estimates continue to average about eight
inches.

The next day he returns, joined by two others who the day before had the same
experience. When the light goes off for the first time, the other two people offer their best
guesses from the day before. “One inch,” says one. “Two inches,” says the other. A bit

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taken aback, he nevertheless say, “Six inches,” With successive repetitions of this group
experience, both on this day and for the next two days, will his responses change? The
Columbia university men whom Sheriff tested changed their estimates markedly. Sheriff
had taken advantage of an optical illusion called the autogenetic phenomenon. Sheriff and
others have used this technique to answer questions about people’s suggestibility.
Remarkably, they continued to support the group norm.

Struck by culture’s seeming power to perpetuate false beliefs, Robert Jacobs and Donald
Campbell (1961) studied the transmission of false beliefs in their Northwestern
University laboratory. Using the auto kinetic phenomenon, they had a confederate give
an inflated estimate of how far the light moved. The confederate then left the experiment
and was replaced by other real participant, who was in turn replaced by a still newer
number. The inflated illusion persisted (although diminishing) for five generations of
participants. These people had become “unwitting conspirators in perpetuating a cultural
fraud.” The lesson of these experiments: Our views of reality are not ours alone.

In everyday life the results of suggestibility are sometimes amusing. One person coughs;
laughs, or yawns, and others are soon doing the same. Comedy show laugh tracks
capitalize on our suggestibility. Just being around happy people can help us feel happier,
a phenomenon that Peter Totterdell and his colleagues (1998) call “mood linkage.” In
their studies of British nurses and accountants, people within the same work groups
tended to share up and down moods. Another form of social contagion is what Tanya
Chartrand and John Bargh (1999) call “the chameleon effect.” Suggestibility can also
occur on a large scale.

In real life, suggestibility is not always so amusing. Hijackings, UFO sightings, and even
suicides tend to come in waves. Sociologist David Phillips and his colleagues (1985,
1989) report that known suicides, as well as fatal auto accidents and private airplane
crashes (which sometimes disguise suicides), increase after well – publicized suicides.

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For example, following Marilyn Monroe’s August 6, 1962, suicide, there were 200 more
August suicides i8n the United States than normal. Moreover, the increase happens only
in areas where the suicide story is publicized. The more publicity, the greater the increase
in later fatalities. Although not all studies have found the copycat suicide phenomenon, it
has surfaced in Germany, in a London psychiatric unit that experienced 14 patient
suicides in one year, and in one high school that, within 18 days, suffered two suicides,
seven suicide attempts, and 23 students reporting suicidal thoughts. In both Germany and
the United States, suicide rates slightly following fictional suicides on soap operas, and,
ironically, even after serious dramas that focus on the suicide problem. Phillips reports
that teenagers are most susceptible, a finding that would help explain the occasional
clusters of teen copycat suicides.

6.2 Factors of conformity

Dear learner, there are a number of factors contributing for people to go in line
with others or existing norms and values, would please try mentioning some before
reading the discussion presented below?
Good!

Many factors contribute for people to go in line with others or existing norms and rules.
Personality and culture play key roles in making people adhere to the prevailing systems
in the society. The characteristics of the individuals are shaped and formed continuously
by his experiences, expectations and evaluations of the society and the people in the
society. Every society consists of various cultural patterns in their normal behaviors. All
these have a say in the formation of the personality of the individuals. This in turn
decides how an individual behave in a given situations. Apart from these factors various
others factors make a person get along with others in the same line. They are;

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6.2.1 Group Size
In laboratory experiments, a group need not be large to have a large effect. Asch and
other researchers found that three to five people will elicit much more conformity than
just one or two. Increasing the number of people beyond five yields diminishing returns.
The way the group is “packaged” also makes a difference. Rutgers University researcher
David Wilder (1977) gave students a jury case. Before giving their own judgments, the
students watched videotapes of four confederates giving their judgments. When the
confederates were presented as two independent groups of two people, the participants
conformed more than when the four confederates presented their judgments as a single
group. Similarly, two groups of three people elicited more conformity than one group of
six, and three groups of two people elicited even more. Evidently, the agreement of
several small groups makes a position more credible.

6.2.2 Unanimity
It’s difficult to be a minority of one; few juries is hung because of one dissenting juror.
These experiments teach the practical lesson that it is easier to stand up for something if
you can find someone else to stand up with you. Many religious groups recognize this.
Observing someone else’s dissent – even when it is wrong – can increase our own
independence. Charlan Nemeth and Cynthia Chiles discovered this after having people
observe a lone individual in a group of four misjudge blue stimuli as green. Although the
dissenter was wrong, observing him enabled the observers to exhibit their own form of
independence – 76 percent of the time they correctly labeled red slides “red” even when
everyone else was calling them “orange”. Others, lacking this model of courage,
conformed 70 percent of the time.

6.2.3 Cohesion
The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains over its members. In college
sororities, for example, friends tend to share binge – eating tendencies, especially as they
grow closer. People within an ethnic group may feel a similar “own group conformity

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pressure” or Whites “act black” may be mocked by their peers. In experiments, too, group
members who feel attracted to the group are more responsive to its influence. They do not
like disagreeing with other group members. Fearing rejection by those they like, they
allow them, especially those who most typify the group, a certain power. In his Essay
Concerning Human Understanding, the seventeenth century philosopher John Locke
recognized the cohesiveness factor: “Nor is there one in ten thousand who is still and
insensible enough to bear up under the constant dislike and condemnation of his own
club”.

6.2.4 Status
Higher status people tend to have some impact on lower status people. Sometimes people
actually avoid agreeing with low status or stigmatized people. Studies of Jay walking
behavior conducted with unwitting aid of merely 24000 pedestrians reveal that the base
line jaywalking rate of 25 percent decreases to 70 percent in the presence of non jay
working confederate and increases to 44 percent in the presence of another jay walker.

6.2.5 Role of Personality in Conformity

During the late 16 &17 effects to link personal characteristics with social behavior such
as conformity found only weak connections. In contrast to the demonstrable of situational
factors, personality scores where poor predictors of individuals behavior. During the
1980’s the idea that personal disposition make little difference prompted personality
researchers to pinpoint the circumstances under which traits to predict behavior.
Personality also predicts behavior better when social influences are weak.

Attitudes researcher consider clarifying and a reaffirming the connection between

personality and what we are and what we do. Every psychological event depends upon
the straight of the person and the same time on the environment, although their relative
importance is different cases.

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6.3 Role of Culture in Conformity

Discuss the role of culture in conformity?

James Whitteaker and Robert Meade (1967) repeated Asch’s conformity experiments in
several countries and found similar confirmative rates in most of the countries. The fact is
that culture may change. Replication of Asch experiment with university in Britain,
Canada and United states triggers less conformity than Asch observed two or three
decades earlier thus conformity and obedience are universal phenomena vary across
cultures from in across countries.

6.4 Compliance and Ingratiation

Well known social psychologist (Robert cialdini) decided that the best way to find out
about compliance was to study what he termed compliance professionals – people whose
success (financial or otherwise) depends on their ability to get others to say yes. They
include salespeople, advertisers, political lobbyists, fund raisers, con artists and – one
might argue – trail attorneys, professional negotiators, and politicians. Cialdini’s
technique for learning from these people was straightforward: he temporarily concealed
his true identity and took jobs in various settings in which gaining compliance is a way of
life. In other words, he worked in advertising, (direct door to door) sales, fund raising,
and other compliance-focused fields. On the basis of these first hand experiences, he
concluded that although techniques for gaining compliance take many different forms,
they all rest to some degree on six basic principles.

6.4.1 Friendship liking

In general, we are more willing to comply with requests from friends or from people we
like than with requests from strangers or people we don’t like.

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6.4.2 Commitment consistency
Once we have committed ourselves to a position or action, we are more willing to comply
with requests for behaviors that are consistent with this position or action than with
requests that are inconsistent with it.

6.4.3 Scarcity
In general, we value, and try to secure, outcomes or objects that are scare or decreasing in
their availability. As a result, we are more likely to comply with requests that focus on
scarcity than whit ones that make no reference to this issue.

6.4.4 Reciprocity
We are generally more willing to comply with a request from someone who has
previously provided a favor or concession to us than to oblige someone who has not. In
other words, we feel compelled to pay people back in some way for what they have done
for us.

6.4.5 Social validation

We are generally more willing to comply with a request for some action if this action is
consistent with what we believe persons similar to ourselves doing for thinking. We want
to be correct, and one way to do so is to act and think like others.

6.4.6 Authority
In general, we are more willing to comply with requests from someone who holds
legitimate authority – or who simply appears to do so. According to Cialdini (1994), these
basic principles underlie many techniques used by professionals – and ourselves – for
gaining compliance from others.

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6.4.7 Tactics based on Friendship or Liking: Ingratiation
A technique for gaining compliance in which requesters first induce target persons to like
them, then attempt to change their behavior in some desired manner. There are effective
ingratiation techniques. Under the heading of self – enhancing tactics are such procedures
as improving one’s appearance, emitting many positive nonverbal cues (e.g., smiling, a
high level of eye contact), and associating oneself with positive events or people the
target person already likes. In contrast, other – enhancing tactics include flattery, agreeing
with target persons, showing interest in them, and providing them small gifts or flavors.

6.5. Foot in the door Technique

A technique for gaining compliance in which requesters first induce target persons to like
them attempts to change their behavior in some desired manner.

6.5.1 The low ball technique

As observed by Cialdini (1994), experts in compliance – salespersons, advertisers, fund
raisers – often their campaigns for gaining compliance with a trivial request. The results
of many studies indicate both that the foot – in – the –door techinique really works and
that its effectiveness stems, at least in part, from the operation of the consistency
principle. The first of these conclusions – that the foot in the door really works – is
supported in a fairly dramatic way by a famous study conducted by Freedman and Fraser
(1966).

The foot in the door technique is not the only one based on the consistency \ commitment
principle, however. Another is the lowball procedure. In this technique, which is often
used by automobile salespersons, a very good deal is offered to a customer. After the
customer accepts, however, something happens advantageous for the customer – for
example, an “error” in price calculations is found, or the sales manager rejects the deal.
The totally rational reactions for accept the less desirable arrangement.

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6.6 Door in the face Technique
A procedure for gaining compliance in which requesters begin with a large request and
then, when this is refused, retreat to a smaller one (the one they actually desired all
along).

6.6.1 And that is not all technique

Negotiators, who may begin with a position that is extremely advantageous to them, often
use the same tactic but then back down to a position much closer to the one they really
hope to obtain. Similarly, sellers often begin with a price they know that buyers will
reject, and then lower the price to a more reasonable one – but one that is still quite
favorable to them. In concession after their first request or proposal is rejected; then
target persons feel obliged to make a matching concession in return – a concession that
may end up giving the request what she or he wanted all along.

A related procedure is known, as that’s not – all technique. Here, an initial request is
followed, before the target person can make up her or his mind to say yes or no, by
something that sweetens the deal – a small extra incentive from the person sing this
tactic. For example, auto dealers sometimes decide to throw in a small additional option
to the car in the hope that this will help them close the deal; and often, it really does!

Persons on the receiving end of the that’s not – all technique view this small extra as a
concession on the part of the other person, and so feel obligated to make a concession
themselves. Several studies indicate that this technique, too, really works: throwing in a
small “extra” before people can say no does indeed increase the likelihood that they will
say yes.

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A third procedure for increasing compliance involves a more subtle use of the reciprocity
principle. When people feel that they are in a relationship with another person – no matter
how trivial – they often feel that they owe this person some consideration simply because
the relationship exists. For example, friends help friends when they need assistance, and
persons who perceive themselves as similar in some manner may feel that they should
help one another when the need arises, this subtle use of the reciprocity principle
underlies what social psychologists term the foot – in – the – mouth technique.

Activity 6.1
1) Elaborate the role of Conformity in social life of individuals and in
extension work.
2) Narrate the various classical experiments carried out on Conformity.
3) Narrate the techniques people use for influencing others.

Summary
People are not individual entities, they are sensitive to every other persons as well as
every happening in and around them. Again, for the smooth relations and acceptance of
the others many a time people go in with the ideas of other individuals. The social
Psychologists, Sherrif, Solomon Asch and Miligrams classic experiments are
categorically emphasized in this view. Many other researchers also confirmed these
findings. People in general use lot of techniques to influence other persons. All these
techniques are well documented in the above presentations.
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 Self-Assessment Questions 6.1
The following sentences are incomplete. Would you please complete them by filling the
space left blank with appropriate word or phrase?

1. _____________________ is a change in behavior or belief to accord with others.

2. ______________________ refers to the state or condition of joining or working

together to form a united whole.
3. A procedure for gaining compliance in which requesters begin with a large
request and then, when this is refused, retreat to a smaller one (the one they
actually desired all along) refers to________________.

Further Reading Materials

1. Sewell, William H. (1989) "Some Reflections on the Golden Age of
Interdisciplinary Social Psychology," Social Psychology Quarterly 52: 88-97.
(And the Introduction by Duane F. Alwin on pp. 85-87.) Fine, House, and Cook.
"Invitation to Methodology," CFH: 601-603.
2. Babbie, Earl. (1992) "Conceptualization and Measurement," Chapter 5 in The
Practice of Social Research, 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
3. Stephan, Cookie White, and Walter G. Stephan. (1990) "Methods in Social
Psychology," Chapter 3 in Two Social Psychologies, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.

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 UNIT SEVEN

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Introduction
Dear student, in this section we will be introducing you with the concept of Prosocial
behavior. Actions that provide benefit to others but that have no obvious benefits for the
person who carries them out. Prosocial behavior can sometimes involve risk for the one
who helps. Helping behavior, charitable behavior, and volunteerism are also used to
describe the “good” things that people do to provide needed assistance to others.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to;
 Understand about Prosocial behavior
 Learn about reasons for helping others
 Understand and define bystander effect
 Conceptualize the relationship between personality traits and helping behavior
 Learn about conflict and reasons for conflict and ways of coping with it

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7.1. Prosocial Behavior

Dear student, would you please define Prosocial behavior and discuss its relevance
for your professional life?

Prosocial behavior became a topic of major interest to social psychologists in the 1960s. a
widely publicized event helped motivate a number of social psychologists to create
theories and design experiments to explain why bystanders sometimes do and sometimes
do not respond to an emergency. The daily news provides many examples of people
helping one another, sometimes even acting as heroes who risk their lives to aid a
stranger in distress. Consider the following newspaper stories.
1. A sixty – year – old man was driving a delivery truck on a highway in Harar when
he he\ad a cardiac arrest. His heart had dropped beating and his lungs were no
longer functioning when two passing motorists stopped and began
cardiopulmonary resuscitation on this stranger. An ambulance came and took the
truck driver to the hospital, and he survived
2. Early one morning in Harar, a man stopped at a newsstand to help a friend unite
newspapers. As they saw someone being stabbed after obtaining money from an
ATM in the lobby of a bank that was not yet open. The wounded victim stumbled
out of the door calling for help as the criminal gathered the bills that were
scattered on the floor. The two men at the newsstand rushed over and blocked the
door so the criminal could not get out. Other strangers stopped to help, and one of
them called the police. The assistant was arrested, and the victim was rushed to the
hospital, where he received treatment.

7.2 Reasons for Helping

There are so many reasons advocated by social psychologists to explain why and when
people render help to others. Social exchange theory states that human interactions are

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transactions that aim to maximize one’s rewards and minimize one’s costs. Human beings
exchange not only materials goods and money but also social goods, such as, love,
services, information and status. Again helping brings enormous internal rewards to the
helper, for an example, helping reduces distress. Again the reciprocity norm and social
responsibility norms facilitate helping behavior. Apart from these reasons, gender,
evolutionary perspectives, genuine altruism are all influence the helping behavior of
human beings.

7.3. Bystander effect

Activity 7.1
Dear learner, would you please guess what by stander effect means before reading the
paragraph below?

The finding that as the number of bystanders’ increases, the likelihood of any one
bystander helping decreases and more time passes before help does occur. Darley and
Latane labeled the inhibiting effect of additional witness to an emergency the bystander
effect. This insight about the effect of multiple bystanders makes it clear why the
newspaper stories of helpfulness most often involve only one or two bystanders, and also
why thirty-eight bystanders could be expected not to respond when Kitty Genovese was
being assaulted.

7.4 Personality Traits in Helping Behavior

The above presentations give an idea that either internal or external causes contribute
helping behavior. But, the helper’s dispositions such as personality as well as religiosity
too play specific roles in the helping behavior. They are presented below.

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 Activity 7.2
Dear student, do you think personality trait has something to do with the development of
a helping behavior? Discuss with your colleagues.

7.4.1 Personality Traits

Surely some traits must distinguish the Mother Teresa types. Faced with identical
situations, some people will respond helpfully, others won’t bother. For many years social
psychologists were unable to discover a single personality trait that predicted helping
with anything close to the predictive power of the situation, guilt, and mood factors.
Modest relationships were found between helping and certain personality variables, such
as a need for social approval. But by and large, the personality tests were unable to
identify the helpers. Studies of rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe reveal a similar
conclusion: although the social context clearly influenced willingness to help, there was
no definable set of altruistic personality traits. Personality researchers have responded to
the challenge.

First, they have found individual differences in helpfulness and shown that these
differences persist overtime and are noticed by one’s peers. Some people are reliably
more helpful. Second, researchers are gathering clues to the network of traits that
predispose a person to helpfulness. Those high in positive emotionality, empathy, and self
– efficacy are most; likely to be concerned and helpful. Third, personality influences how
particular people react to particular situations. Those high in self – monitoring are attuned
to others’ expectations and are therefore helpful if they think helpfulness will be socially
rewarded. Others opinions matter less to internally guided, low self – monitoring people.

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7.5 Increasing Helping
People are not equal in their helping behavior. Of course, various factors facilitate
helping behavior. When people are low in their helping it reduces the social relations and
social harmony. Hence, it is important that people should be enabled to increase their
levels of helping behavior. Psychologists have come with certain techniques to increase
the helping behavior of individuals. They are summarized below.

7.5.1 Undoing the restraints on helping

In order to increase the helping behavior people should reduce the opposite behavior in
all possible ways. Encouraging people to shift their attention to themselves to other’s
selves. Apart from these the following are certain specific points, if considered will
increase helping behaviors.

7.5.2 Reduce ambiguity, increasing responsibility

Robert Foss (1978) surveyed several hundred-blood donors and found that neophyte
donors, unlike veterans, were usually thee at someone’s personal invitation. Leonard
Jason and his collaborators (1984) confirmed that personal appeals for blood donation are
much more effective than posters and media announcements – if the personal appeals
come from friends. Nonverbal appeals can also be effective when they are personalized.
Mark Snyder and his co – workers have found that hitchhikers doubled the number of
ride offers by looking drivers straight in the eye and that most AIDS volunteers got
involved via someone’s personal influence. A personal approach, as my panhandler knew,
makes one feel less anonymous, more responsible.

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7.6 Conflict

Activity7.3
Dear learner, what is your understanding about conflict? Do you think the presence of
conflict always non-productive and its absence necessarily productive? Please critically
think over this issue and discuss with your colleagues around.

Conflict is a perceived incompatibility of actions or goals. The elements of such conflict

are similar at all levels, from nations in an arms race, to conflicted Middle Easterners, to
cooperate executives and workers disputing salaries, to a feuding married couple.
Whether their perceptions are accurate or inaccurate, people in conflict sense that one
side’s gain is the other’s loss. A relationship or an organization without conflict is
probably apathetic. Conflict signifies involvement, commitment, and caring, if conflict is
understood, if recognized, it can end oppression and stimulate renewed and improved
human relations. Without conflict, people seldom face and resolve their problems.

7.7 Reasons for Conflict

Activity7.4
Dear learner, everything has potentially justifiable cause/s. So do conflict. What types of
conflicts do you know/ have you came across? Please do reflect on the causes of those
conflicts you have come across?

Social – Psychologists studies have identified several ingredients of conflict. What’s

striking (and what simplifies our task) is that these ingredients are common to all levels
of social conflict, whether international, intergroup, or interpersonal.

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7.7.1 Social Dilemmas
Several of the problems that most threaten our human future – nuclear arms, global
warming, overpopulation, and natural resource depletion – arise as various parties pursue
their self – interests, ironically, to their collective detriment. In some societies individuals
benefit by having many children who, they assume, ca assist with the family tasks and
provide security in the parents, old age. But when most families have many children, the
result is the collective devastation of overpopulation. Choices that are individually
rewarding become collectively punishing. We therefore have an urgent dilemma:

To isolate and illustrate this dilemma, social psychologists have used laboratory games
that expose the heart of many real social conflicts. By showing us how well – meaning
people become trapped in mutually destructive behavior, they illuminate some
fascinating, yet troubling, paradoxes.

Social psychologists who study conflicts are in much the same position as the
astronomers,” noted conflict researcher. We cannot conduct true experiments with large –
scale social events. But we can identify the conceptual similarities between the large
scale and the small, as the astronomers have between the planets and Newton’s apple.
That is why the games people play as subjects in our laboratory may advance our
understanding of war, peace, ad social justice.” Consider two examples; the Prisoners
Dilemma and the Tragedy of the commons.

7.7.2 The Prisoners Dilemma

One dilemma derives from an anecdote concerning two suspects questioned separately by
the district attorney (DA). They are jointly guilty; however, the DA has only enough
evidence to convict them of a lesser offense. So the DA has only enough evidence to
convict them of a lesser offense. So the DA creates an incentive for each to confess
privately:

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  If one confesses and the other doesn’t, the DA will grant the confessor immunity
(and will use the confession to convict the other of a maximum offense).
 If both confess, each will receive a moderate sentence.
 If neither confesses, each will receive a light sentence.
In some 2,000 studies (Dawes, 1991), university students have faced variations of the
Prisoners’ Dilemma with the outcomes not being prison terms but chips, money, or course
points.

7.7.3 The tragedy of the commons

Many social dilemmas involve more than two parties. Global warning stems from
deforestation and from the carbon dioxide emitted by cars, furnaces, and coal – fired
power plants. Each gas – guzzling Suva contributes infinitesimally to the problem, and
the harm each does is diffused over many people. To model such social predicaments,
researchers have developed laboratory dilemmas that involve multiple people.

A metaphor for the insidious nature of social dilemmas is what ecologist Garrett Hardin
(1968) called the Tragedy of the commons. He derived the name from the centrally
located pasture in old English towns, but the “common” can be air, water, whales,
cookies, or any shared and limited resource. If all use the resource in moderation, it may
replenish itself as rapidly as it’s harvested. The grass will grow, the whales will
reproduce, and the cookie jar gets restocked. If not, there occurs a tragedy of the
commons. Many real predicaments parallel this story. Internet congestion occurs as
individuals, seeking to maximize their own gain, surly the Web, filling its pipelines with
graphical information. Likewise, environmental pollution is the sum of many minor
pollutions, each of which benefits the individual polluters much more than they could
benefit themselves (and the environment) if they stopped polluting. We litter public
places – dorm lounges, parks, and zoos – while keeping our personal spaces clean. We
deplete our natural resources because the immediate personal benefits of, say, taking a
long, hot shower outweigh the seemingly inconsequential costs. Whales knew others
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would exploit the whales if they did not and that taking a few whales would hardly
diminish the species. Therein lies the tragedy. Everybody’s business (conservation)
becomes nobody’s business.

Activities 7.5
1. Discuss in detail the nature of Prosocial behavior.
2. Explain the personality and religiosity in helping behavior.
3. Bring out the contributing factors of peace making.
4. How to reduce conflict and enhance peace?

Summary
Prosocial behavior is an act of helping others in which the helper does not get any
benefits. But various aspects of social life either encourage or even discourage such a
helping tendencies. The mere presence of others either motivates are hinders helping.
Apart from these factors personality and religiosity also plays roles in increasing the
helping behavior of individuals. With all these dynamics still people have conflicts.
Reducing the conflicts and increasing the peace among people and nations use various
methods by social psychologists.

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 Self-Assessment Questions 7.1

Give Short answer to the following questions.

1. Define Prosocial behavior
2. What are the major reasons for helping others?
3. Define conflict and its causes.

Further Reading Materials

1. Sewell, William H. (1989) "Some Reflections on the Golden Age of
Interdisciplinary Social Psychology," Social Psychology Quarterly 52: 88-97.
(And the Introduction by Duane F. Alwin on pp. 85-87.) Fine, House, and Cook.
"Invitation to Methodology," CFH: 601-603.

2. Babbie, Earl. (1992) "Conceptualization and Measurement," Chapter 5 in The

Practice of Social Research, 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

3. Stephan, Cookie White, and Walter G. Stephan. (1990) "Methods in Social

Psychology," Chapter 3 in Two Social Psychologies, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.

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 PART TWO

GROUP DYNAMICS
Introduction
This is the second part of the module which deals with the subject of group dynamics.
This part has four well written and detailed units. It starts from chapter eight which deals
with introduction to group dynamics. It puts light on the meaning of group and group
dynamics in more advanced manner. Unit nine of this module is about theoretical
perspectives in group dynamics. This section introduces the learner with major theories of
group dynamics. The tenth unit of this second module is about formation, cohesion and
development of groups. Special emphasis will be given to group development and what is
required for group development. The final unit of this module deals with leadership and
interpersonal communication. This unit has two broad concepts; one is the leadership in
groups, and the other one is interpersonal communication and what it takes for
interpersonal communication.

Unit Content outline Page

8. Group dynamics 119
9. Theoretical perspectives in group dynamics 137
10. Formation, cohesion and development of groups 148
11. Leadership and interpersonal communication 159

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 UNIT EIGHT

INTRODUCTION TO GROUP DYNAMICS

Introduction

Dear learner, in this unit, you will be taught about groups and group dynamics. The latter
units will concentrate on the other aspects of the groups and group dynamics. But here, u
will be introduced with the concepts and meanings of groups and group dynamics. First,
you will see the nature and concept of groups, group types and also the roles of groups.
And then it will be followed with the nature and concept of group dynamics. In this part
you will look to the idea of dynamics and the practicability of group dynamics.

There are so many types of people who have been concerned about groups. Sage/wise
persons, scholars, and laypersons have been puzzling over group dynamics—the actions,
processes, and changes that occur within groups and between groups—for centuries.
Why, they asked, do humans so frequently join with others in groups? How do members
coordinate their efforts and energies? What factors give rise to a sense of cohesion, esprit
de corps, and a marked distrust for those outside the group? And how do groups and their
leaders hold sway over members? Their inquiries into such questions provide the
scientific basis for the field of group dynamics, which is the scientific discipline devoted
to studying groups and group process.

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 Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to
 Explain the concept of groups
 Explain the concept of group dynamics
 Differentiate the type of groups
 Examine the dynamics of groups
 Identify roles of groups
 Examine the practicality of group dynamics

Brainstorming

Dear Learner, have you heard about Groups? What about group dynamics? Try to explain
the concept here.

8.1 Concept of Group Dynamics

A group can be defined as several individuals who come together to accomplish a
particular task. Group dynamics can be defined as an interaction of complex intra-and
inter-personal forces operating in a group which determines its character, development
and long term survival. It refers to the attitudinal and behavioral characteristics of a
group. Group dynamics is concerned with how groups are formed, their structure and
process and how they function. Group dynamics is relevant in both formal and informal
groups of all types.

The social process by which people interact and behave in a group environment is called
group dynamics. Group dynamics involves the influence of personality power and
behaviour on the group process. Is the relationship between individuals conducive to
achieving the group goals? Is the structure and size of the group an asset in pursuing both

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task and maintenance functions of the group? How is formal and informal power used to
build consensus or reach decisions? Does the combination of individuals produce the
right culture? How does individuals, cultures and internal forces interact? All these and
others are embedded in group dynamics.

8.2 Defining Groups

What is a Group? Take a moment and make a mental list of all the groups of which
you are part of. Would you include? your family? The people you work or study with?
How about your neighbors or people who used to be neighbors but moved away? If you
use the Internet, do you consider the people you text message, email, or “friend” in Face
book to be a group? How about people of your same sex, race, and citizenship, and those
who share your political beliefs? Are African American men, Canadians, and Republicans
groups? Are you in a romantic relationship? Did you include you and your partner on
your list of groups? Which collections of humans are groups and which are not? Dear
learner, try to explain these all questions and write the answers in a your learning journal.

Well Done. Now you can see the discussions in a more formal way.

Theorists are not of one mind when it comes to defining the word group. Some stress the
importance of communication between members; others highlight the key role played by
mutual dependence. Still others suggest that a shared purpose or goal is what turns a mere
aggregate of individuals into a bona fide group. Most, however, would agree that a group
requires at least two people. With the exception of individuals with extremely rare
psychological disturbances, it takes two people to make one group: you cannot be a group
until you join with another person. Second, groups connect people to one another. We
understand intuitively that three persons seated in separate rooms working on a long list
of math problems can hardly be considered a group; they are not linked in any way to

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each other. If, however, we create a connection among them, then these three individuals
can be considered a rudimentary group. Third, in most cases the connection is a socially
meaningful one. Members of a group are not linked by surface similarities or their
accidental gathering in a specific location but by relatively enduring personal
relationships that enfold the members within a collective. A consanguine family is a
group because the members are connected, not just by genetic similarities but also by
social and emotional bonds that are personally meaningful to each member. People who
work together are linked not only by the collaborative tasks that they must complete
collectively but also by friendships, alliances, and inevitable antagonisms. Students in a
class all recognize that they are members of a smaller subset within the larger educational
community and that those who are not in their class are outsiders. Thus, a group is two
or more individuals who are connected by and within social relationships.

Group dynamics is the influential actions, processes, and changes that occur
within and between groups over time; also, the scientific study of those processes. Thus, a
group is two or more individuals who are connected by and within social relationships.
A group can range in size from two members to thousands of members. Very small
collectives, such as dyads (two members) and triads (three members) are groups, but so
are very large collections of people, such as mobs, crowds, and congregations (Simmel,
1902).On average, however, most groups tend to be relatively small in size, ranging from
two to seven members (Mullen, 1987).

The members of any given group are networked together like a series of interconnected
computers. These connections, or ties, may be based on strong bonds, like the links
between the members of a family or a clique of close friends. The links may also be
relatively weak ones that are easily broken with the passage of time or the occurrence of
relationship-damaging events. Even weak ties, however, can create robust outcomes, such

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as when a group member you hardly know provides you with critical information that is
common knowledge in that person’s social circles (Granovetter, 1973).

They are connected: The larger the group, the more ties are needed to join members to
each other and to the group. The maximum number of ties within a group in which
everyone is linked to everyone else is given by the equation n(n-1)/2, where n is the
number of people in the group. Only one relationship is needed to create a dyad, but 10
ties would be needed to join each member of a 5-person group to every other member, 45
for a 10-person group, and 190 relationships for a 20-person group.

By and within social relationships: Definitions of the word group vary, but many stress
one key consideration: relationships among the members. Thus, “a group is a collection
of individuals who have relations to one another” (Cartwright & Zander, 1968, p. 46); “a
group is a social unit which consists of a number of individuals who stand in (more or
less) definite status and role relationships to one another” (Sherif & Sherif, 1956, p. 144);
and a group is “a bounded set of patterned relations among members” (Arrow, McGrath,
& Berdahl, 2000, p. 34). Just as people who are friends are joined in friendship, or all the
senior members of a law firm are part of a partnership, people in a group are said to be
linked by their membership. Membership is he state of being a part of, or included within,
a social group. Network is a set of interconnected individuals or groups; more generally,
any set of social or nonsocial objects that are linked by relational ties. Social identity is
the aspects of the self-concept that derive from relationships and memberships in groups;
in particular, those qualities that are held in common by two or more people who
recognize that they are members of the same group or social category.

What is the difference between groups and group dynamics?

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8.3 Describing Groups/ the Nature of Groups
The nature of groups varies from what is visible to different qualities that are subtle to
differentiate. Let’s now look at the nature of groups.

Interaction. Robert F. Bales pursed for the answer for the question “what do people do
when they are in groups?” he classified the bulky answers into two broad ones:
Relational interaction (socioemotional interactions) and Task interactions. Relational
interactions are concerned with giving and receiving both supports when not in good
conditions. Relational interactions also include criticizing group members when needed.
On the other hand, group`s interactions are about what, how, when, etc to do tasks or
goals of the group.

Goals. Groups become together to achieve a certain goal. Joseph McGrath (1984)
developed the circumplex model of group tasks that are goals achieved by groups. In his
circumplex model of group tasks has four goals (two types each) based on the
cooperative-competition and conceptual-behavioral aspect: Generating ideas (type 1:
planning tasks, and type 2: creativity tasks); Choosing a solution of tasks (type 3:
intellective tasks, and type 4: decision making tasks); Negotiating solutions for conflicts
(type 5: cognitive conflict tasks, and type 6: mixed motive tasks); and Executing tasks
(type 7: contests/battles/ competitions, and type 8: performance/psychomotor tasks).

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Some of the tasks need to take interaction (tasks 1, 6, 7 and 8) and others need conceptual
review (task 2, 3, 4 and 5). Some of the tasks are purely collaborative or need cooperation
(tasks 1, 2, 3 & 8) and on the other tasks, individuals or groups go against each other
(tasks 4, 5, 6 & 7).

Interdependence. The other quality of groups is that they are interdependent to each other.
Interdependence is the state of being dependent to some degree on other people, as when
one’s outcomes, actions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences are determined in whole or
in part by others. Interdependence shows the extent to which group members are going to
influence each other: Equally (mutual) reciprocal interdependence, unequal reciprocal
interdependence, unilateral influence (interdependence) and sequential interdependence.
Look at the following graphic representations.

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Group structure. The interactions in group members are determined by the group
structure comprising roles and norms. Group structure is the underlying pattern of roles,
norms, and relations among members that organizes groups. Role is a coherent set of
behaviors expected of people who occupy specific positions within a group. Norm is a
consensual and often implicit standard that describes what behaviors should and should
not be performed in a given context.

Unity. The other quality of groups is unity. This unity could also be described as
groupness, cohesiveness, or entitativity. Group cohesion is the strength of the bonds
linking individuals to and in the group. Entitativity, as described by Donald Campbell, is
the extent to which an assemblage of individuals is perceived to be a group rather than an
aggregation of independent, unrelated individuals; the quality of being an entity.

Activity 8.1
Dear learner, you visit to the nearby rural community. Try to observe the community in
detail. You may find the community organized in different ways. Hence,
 Describe the community in detail
 Identify and list the groups existing in the community
 Classify the groups in type
Dear learner, this exercise will help you to understand the idea of groups particularly in
the rural areas. Write your answers in detail in your learning journal also.

8.3.1 Types of group and Group Structure

Certain activities that could improve the development of rural communities cannot be
done successful by an individual but in groups. Group and group formation therefore
have some specific inherent characteristics that enable them to function towards
achieving stated goals. There are therefore many groups which you will learn about in
this unit.
Broadly Groups may be classified into two;
(i) Formal group
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 (ii) Informal group

(i) Formal groups – groups are structured to pursue a specific task, they are established
by an organization to achieve organizational goals. Formal groups may take the form of
command groups, tasks groups and functional groups. Command group consists of a
supervisor and the subordinates, task groups consist of people who work together to
achieve a common task within a specified period of time, examples of task groups are,
ad-hoc committees project groups, and standing committees. Functional groups are
created by the organization to accomplish specific goals within unspecified time frame.
Functional groups remain after the achievement of their current goals and objectives.

(ii) Informal groups – Groups are formed naturally and in response to the common
interests and shared values of individuals. They are established for the accomplishment of
organizational goals and do not have specified time frame, examples of informal groups
are, interests group, friendship groups and reference groups.

8.3.2 Types of Groups

There are four types of groups as identified by theorists in the area of group dynamics.
a. Primary group. A small, long-term group, such as families and friendship cliques,
characterized by face-to-face interaction, solidarity, and high levels of member to
group interdependence and identification; Charles Cooley believed such groups serve
as the primary source of socialization for members by shaping their attitudes, values,
and social orientation. Examples include Close friends, families, gangs, military
squads.
b. Social group. A relatively small number of individuals who interact with one another
over an extended period of time, such as work groups, clubs, and congregations.
Examples are Coworkers, crews, expeditions, fraternities, sports teams, study groups,
task forces

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c. Collective is a relatively large aggregation or group of individuals who display
similarities in actions and outlook. Aggregations of individuals that form
spontaneously, last only a brief period of time, and have very permeable boundaries
are collectives including audiences, bystanders, crowds, mobs, waiting lines (queues)
d. Category is an aggregation of people or things that share some common attribute or
are related in some way. Aggregations of individuals who are similar to one another in
some way, such as gender, ethnicity, religion, or nationality such as Tigrians, Oromo,
Amhara, physicians, Ethiopian citizens, women, etc.

Dear learner you may understand now, there are different gatherings other than
groups such as categories and aggregates. Now try to explain and show their
differences by giving examples from your observation of the rural community.

8.3.3 Group structure

Group structure is a pattern of relationships among members that hold the group together
and help it to assigned goals. Structured group can be described in a variety of ways, such
as group size, group roles, group norms and group cohesiveness.

Group size – Group size may vary from 2 people to a very large number of people. Small
groups are between 2-10 people, it has an advantage of quick decision and are more
effective while large groups may waste time by deciding on processes and trying to
decide who should participate next, but also have advantages on numbers of people to
interact with. It is difficult for members of large groups to identify with one another and
experience cohesion.

Group roles – In formal groups roles are usually assigned to members. Group roles can
be classified into work roles, maintenance roles and blocking roles.

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(i) Work roles: are task oriented activities that involve accomplishing the group goals.
They involve a variety of specific roles such as initiator, informer, clarifies, summarizes
and reality tester.

ii. Maintenance roles: are social emotional activities that help members maintain their
involvement in the group and raise their personal commitment to the group. The
maintenance roles are harmonizer, gatekeeper, consensus tester, encourager and
compromiser. Harmonizers reduce tension in the group and reconcile difference and
explore opportunities. Gatekeepers keep communication channels open and make
suggestions that encourage participation. The concensus tester will task if the group is
hearing a decision and test possible conclusion. Encouragers are friendly warm and
responsive to other group members while the compromiser modifies decisions, offers
compromises and admitting errors.
(iii) Blocking roles: – Are activities that disrupt the group. They may take the form of
dominating discussions. Verbally a tackling other group members and distracting the
group with trivial information or unnecessary humor.

Group Norms
Norms are acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by members
of the group. Norms define the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
They are created in order to facilitate group survival, make behavior more predictable,
avoid embarrassing situations and express the values of the group. Groups exert pressure
on members to force them to conform to the group’s standard.

Group cohesiveness

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Cohesiveness refers to the bonding of the group members and their desire to remain part
of the group. Groups tend to be more cohesive when they are in intense competition with
other groups or face a serious external threat to their survival. Smaller groups and those
that spend time together also tend to be more cohesive.

The advantages of cohesiveness are workers satisfaction, low turnover and absenteeism
and higher productivity, however, highly cohesive groups may be detrimental to
organizational performance if their goals are misaligned with organizational goals; they
are also liable to group think. Group think occurs when members exert pressure on each
other to come to a consensus in decision making. Group think results into careless
judgments, unrealistic appraisal of alternative courses of action and lack of reality
thinking.

Dear learner, we hope that you understand about groups and their roles. Hence,
list below the roles of groups using your learning journal.

8.4 The Nature of Group Dynamics

8.4.1 Are groups real?

Dear learner, in this topic you will see the pragmatic aspect of groups as the topic itself
shows. There are controversies and debates over the nature of and if groups exist at all.
This controversy or debate runs through the idea that there is no such a thing called as
group that studying the individual in the group means studying the group. In 1924,
Allport wrote that “nervous systems are possessed by individuals; but there is no nervous
system of the crowd” (p. 5). He added, “Only through social psychology as a science of
the individual can we avoid the superficialities of the crowd mind and collective mind
theories” (p. 8). Because Allport believed that “the actions of all are nothing more than
the sum of the actions of each taken separately” (p. 5), he thought that a full
understanding of the behavior of individuals in groups could be achieved by studying the

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psychology of the individual group members. Groups, according to Allport, were not real
entities.

On the other hand, however, they claim that there are differences in groups and
individuals as individuals will think, behave and act differently when they are in a group
and when they are not. There is a condition called as a group think or collective
consciousness- is a hypothetical unifying mental force linking group members together;
the fusion of individual consciousness or mind into a transcendent consciousness. This
shows that there are different levels of analyses of studying groups. Level of analysis
means the specific focus of study chosen from a graded or nested sequence of possible
foci. An individual-level analysis examines specific individuals in the group, a group-
level analysis focuses on the group as a unit, and an organizational level examines the
individual nested in the group, which is, in turn, nested in the organizational context.

When studying the levels of analyses of groups, we can use the nested ecological levels
developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner which are:

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Are Groups More Than the Sum of Their Parts? The debate between individual-level
and group-level approaches waned, in time, as theorists developed stronger models for
understanding group-level process. Kurt Lewin’s (1951) theoretical analyses of groups
were particularly influential. His field theory is premised on the principle of
interactionism, which assumes that the behavior of people in groups is determined by the
interaction of the person and the environment.

The formula B = ƒ(P,E) summarizes this assumption. In a group context, this formula
implies that the behavior (B) of group members is a function (ƒ) of the interaction of their
personal characteristics (P) with environmental factors (E), which include features of the
group, the group members, and the situation. Lewin believed that, because of
interactionism, a group is a Gestalt— a unified system with emergent properties that
cannot be fully understood by piecemeal examination. Adopting the dictum, “The whole
is greater than the sum of the parts,” he maintained that when individuals merged into a
group something new was created and that the new product itself had to be the object of
study.

8.4.2 Are groups dynamic?

Kurt Lewin (1943, 1948, 1951), who many have argued is the founder of the movement
to study groups experimentally, chose the word dynamic to describe the activities,
processes, operations, and changes that transpire in groups. This word suggests that
groups are powerful and influential: they change their members and society-at-large.

a. Groups influence their members

b. Groups influence society
c. Groups are living systems; a case in point is Tuckman’s group development where
groups go through the dynamics of five stages: forming stage, storming stages,
formation stage, performing stages, and adjourning stages.

8.4.3 The Multilevel Perspective

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In time the rift between individual-level and group-level researchers closed as the unique
contributions of each perspective were integrated in a multilevel perspective on groups.
This approach, suggests that group dynamics are shaped by processes that range along the
micro-meso-macro continuum. Micro-level factors include the qualities, characteristics,
and actions of the individual members. Meso-level factors are group-level qualities of the
groups themselves, such as their cohesiveness, their size, their composition, and their
structure. Macro-level factors are the qualities and processes of the larger collectives that
enfold the groups, such as communities, organizations, or societies. Groups, then, are
nested at the meso-level, where the bottom-up micro-level variables meet the top-down
macro-level variables.

8.4.4 The Practicality of Group Dynamics

A multilevel perspective makes it clear that many of the most important aspects of human
existence—including individuals, organizations, communities, and cultures—cannot be
fully understood without an understanding of groups. But, practically speaking, why
study groups when one can investigate brain structures, cultures, biological diseases,
organizations, ancient civilizations, or even other planets? In the grand scheme of things,
how important is it to investigate groups?

The application of group dynamics to practical problems is consistent with Lewin’s call
for action research. Lewin argued in favor of the intertwining of basic and applied
research, for he firmly believed that there “is no hope of creating a better world without a
deeper scientific insight into the function of leadership and culture, and of other essentials
of group life” (1943, p. 113). To achieve this goal, he assured practitioners that “there is
nothing so practical as a good theory” (1951, p. 169) and charged researchers with the
task of developing theories that can be applied to important social problems (Bargal,
2008).

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 Summary

Groups are the most visible social phenomena in our world. A group can be defined as
several individuals who come together to accomplish a particular task. Group dynamics
can be defined as an interaction of complex intra-and inter-personal forces operating in a
group which determines its character, development and long term survival. Groups are
not the same everywhere. There are different types of group: formal and informal groups.
Groups also can be primary or secondary. Groups have structure. Their structure is
affected by different factors such as size of the group, group roles, group norms and
group cohesiveness.

There are arguments about that weather the group is real or not. Although some scholars
argued that groups are artificial by saying “the actions of all are nothing more than the
sum of the actions of each taken separately,” the sociologists and social psychologists are
in different opinions; groups are more than the sum of the individual members. They also
add to their explanations that there are differences in groups and individuals as
individuals will think, behave and act differently when they are in a group and when they
are not.

Groups are dynamic. Groups are powerful and influential. They change their members,
the group and the society at large. Group dynamics are shaped by processes that range
along the micro-meso-macro continuum.

Self-Assessment Questions 8.1

Give short answers to the following questions and refer for the answers using the
answer key given at the end of this module.

1. Define group dynamics.

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 2. Define group cohesion.

3. Define group norm.

4. What do we mean by group think or collective consciousness?

Further Reading Materials

1. Johns, Gary. (1996) Concordia University. “Social Behaviour and Organizational
Processes”. Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at
Work. Harper Collins College Publishers, 1996
2. Olujide, M.G.(undated) Advanced Rural Sociology-Teaching material. National
Open University of Nigeria, School of science and technology. Leadership and
Rural Development.

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 UNIT NINE

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN GROUP

DYNAMICS

Introduction

Dear learner, in this unit you will be introduced with the different types of theoretical
perspectives of groups and group dynamics. Here, the perspectives are provided here
dividing into two broad categories: Psychological Theories and Sociological Theories.
The first part deals with the psychological perspectives on groups and these are
motivational and emotional perspectives, behavioural perspectives, system theory
perspectives, cognitive perspectives and biological/evolutionary perspectives. At the last
it will deal with the sociological theories and these are such as classical theory, social
exchange theory and social identity theory. Hence, this unit in general focuses about the
explanation of groups and group dynamics from different perspectives.

Researchers have developed many theories about groups and their dynamics. Some of
these theories are relatively narrow, for they focus on some specific aspect of groups.
Others, in contrast, are far broader in scope, for they offer general explanations for groups
across a wide variety of times and contexts. It is to mean that some of them are very
specific and others are too abstract. These theories, despite their variations, often share
certain basic assumptions about what processes are more important than others, the types
of outcomes they explain, and the variables that are most influential. Under here, we are
going to discuss the following five theoretical perspectives.

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 Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to;
 Understand theories of groups
 Identify the different types of perspectives
 Explain groups and group dynamics from different perspectives
 Examine the reliability of the perspectives in explaining groups

9.1 Psychological Perspectives

Dear student, one of the perspectives of group dynamics is the psychological one,
would you please discuss the perspective?

9.1.1 Motivational and Emotional Perspectives

Why do some groups struggle against adversity, whereas others give up after the first
setback? Why do some people shy away from groups, whereas others join dozens of
them? The answers to these “why” questions often lie in people’s motivations and
emotions. Motivations are psychological mechanisms that give purpose and direction to
behavior. These inner mechanisms can be called many things—habits, beliefs, feelings,
wants, instincts, compulsions, drives—but no matter what their label, they prompt people
to take action. Emotions often accompany these needs and desires; feelings of happiness,
sadness, satisfaction, and sorrow are just a few of the emotions that can influence how
people act in group situations. The words motivation and emotion both come from the
Latin word movere, meaning “to move.”

There is the concept of group affective mode. Jennifer George’s (1995) theory of group
affective tone takes a more emotion-focused approach to explaining group behavior.
George posits that groups, over time, develop a tendency to display collective mood
states. This general affective tone is not tied to any specific aspect of the group’s

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activities or to any one individual, but rather pervades all the group’s day-to-day
activities.

9.1.2 Behavioral Perspectives

Dear learner we have seen the very first component of group dynamics, what about
the behavioral perspectives?

Many theories about groups draw on the seminal work of psychologist B. F. Skinner
(1953, 1971). Skinner’s behaviorism was based on two key assumptions. First, Skinner
believed that psychological processes, such as motives and drives, may shape people’s
reactions in groups, but he also believed that such psychological processes are too
difficult to index accurately. He therefore recommended measuring and analyzing how
people actually behave in a specific context rather than speculating about the
psychological or interpersonal processes that may have instigated their actions. Second,
Skinner believed that most behavior was consistent with the law of effect—that is,
behaviors that are followed by positive consequences, such as rewards, will occur more
frequently, whereas behaviors that are followed by negative consequences will become
rarer.

John Thibaut and Harold Kelley’s (1959) social exchange theory extended Skinner’s
behaviorism to groups. They agreed that individuals hedonistically strive to maximize
their rewards and minimize their costs. However, when individuals join groups, they
forego exclusive control over their outcomes. Groups create interdependence among
members, so that the actions of each member potentially influence the outcomes and
actions of every other member.

9.1.3 Systems Theory Perspective

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A systems theory approach assumes groups are complex, adaptive, dynamic systems of
interacting individuals. The members are the units of the system, who are coupled one to
another by relationships. Just as systems can be deliberately designed to function in a
particular way, groups are sometimes created for a purpose, with procedures and
standards that are designed with the overall goal of the system in mind. Groups can,
however, be self-creating and self-organizing systems, for they may develop
spontaneously as individuals begin to act in coordinated, synchronized ways. Just as a
system receives inputs from the environment, processes this information internally, and
then outputs its products, groups gather information, review that information, and
generate products. Groups are also responsive to information concerning the context in
which they operate and their impact on that context, and will adapt in response to
feedback about the efficacy of their actions.

Systems theory provides a model for understanding a range of group-level processes,

including group development, productivity, and interpersonal conflict. Input–process–
output models of group productivity, or I–P–O models, are systems theories that
emphasize inputs that feed into the group setting, the processes that take place within the
group as it works on the task, and the outputs generated by the system.

9.1.4 Cognitive Perspectives

A group’s dynamics, in many cases, become understandable only by studying the

cognitive processes that allow members to gather information, make sense of it, and then
act on the results of their mental appraisals. When people join a group for the first time,
they immediately begin to form an impression of the group. This perceptual work
prompts them to search for information about the other group members, rapidly
identifying those who are outgoing, shy, and intelligent. Group members also search their
memories for stored information about the group and the tasks it must face, and they must
retrieve that information before they can use it. A group member must also take note of

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the actions of others and try to understand what caused the other member to act in this
way. Thus, group members are busy perceiving, judging, reasoning, and remembering,
and all these mental activities influence their understanding of one another, the group,
and themselves.

John Turner’s (1991, 1999) self-categorization theory, or SCT, offers a cognitive

explanation for a range for group processes, including intergroup perception and
stereotyping. This theory explains the cognitive mechanisms that work to align people’s
self-conceptions with their conception of the groups to which they belong.

9.1.5 Biological Perspectives/Evolutionary Perspective

One biological perspective—evolutionary psychology—argues that these processes may

be genetically determined; part of the species’ biological programming that has evolved
through natural selection. This perspective argues that in the last 15 million years, the
human species has evolved socially as well as physically. Those individuals who were
even slightly genetically predisposed to engage in adaptive social behaviors tended to
survive longer, so they were more successful in passing their genes along to future
generations.

Evolutionary psychology offers insight into a range of group processes, including

affiliation, intergroup conflict, and aggression. For example, why do so many groups
include the role of leader, even when the group members are fully capable of organizing
themselves? Evolutionary psychology suggests that leadership, as a process, likely
evolved over time to help relatively small groups of people cope with extremely difficult,
life-threatening circumstances. Facing problems of survival, group members needed a
way to coordinate their activities and manage the inevitable conflicts that erupt in any
group.

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9.2 Sociological Theories
Man is a social animal; it is not possible for him to live in isolation. He needs people
around and hence lives in a society. When he lives in a society he follows some rules and
regulations and norms of the society. In this scenario general sociology comes into being.
Sociology is very closely related to Psychology though they differ in some areas. What
makes sociology a science was its scientific research focus on humanity.

Sociology may be defined as the study of social relationships, social action and social
culture. Areas of study in general sociology ranges from the analysis of brief contents
between an individual on the street to the study of global social process. Sociology is
classified as a behavioural science in academic discipline

Theories of social change in general, are concerned with the explanation on the sources
of social change, the time span of the change and the effect of the change on the changing
unit. Theories in rural sociology were all concerned with the problems of social order and
social change. Based on the above, different schools of thought emerged which were later
grouped into two large camps; consensus or equilibrium school (comprises of
evolutionary and functional theories) and conflict camps. Social change is the process by
which attraction occurs in the structure and function of a social system. Social system, in
this definition, may be a group, a community, a city, a region or a nativity. Social changes
affect the society as well as the individual. At individual level, it is concerned with how
individual learns of innovation, what motivates him to change, how to adjust to change
and the societal personal factors affecting social change. It is
on these premises that various schools of thoughts and theories emerged as theories of
social change.

As applied to group development, group dynamics is concerned with why and how
groups develop. Theories of group development.

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9.2.1 Classic Theory
This theory was developed by George Homans and he posited that groups develop based
on activities, interactions and sentiments. The theory indicates that, when individuals
share common activities, they will have more interaction and will develop attitudes
towards each other.

9.2.2 Social exchange theory

This theory stipulates that individuals form relationship based on the implicit expectation
of mutually beneficial exchanges based on trust and felt obligation. Thus, a perception
that exchange relationships will be positive is essential if individuals are to be attracted
and affiliate with a group.

9.2.3 Social identity theory

Simply put, this theory suggests that individuals get a sense of identity and self esteem
based upon their membership in salient groups. The group may be demographically
based, culturally based or organizational based. Individuals are motivated to belong to
and contribute to identity groups because of the sense of belongingness and self worth
membership.

Dear learner, the above theories are all explanations about groups. Some of them
are sociological and the others are psychological theories. Using your learning material,
compare and contrast the theories/perspectives and discuss in detail here.
Stages of group development

Please discuss some of the stages of group development before getting into the
discussion below.

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Like other creatures of the world the groups also have their own stage of development.
Many scholars have their own explanations of stage of group development. But the most
influential one is Tuckman Each of these stages presents the members with different
challenges that must be overcome before they can move on to the next stage.

1. Forming - At this stage of development, the members familiarize themselves with the
task and with other members of the group. This is the dependent stage as members tend to
depend on outside expertise for guidance, job definition and task analysis.
2. Storming – At this stage, the group encounters conflict as members confront and
criticize each other. Issues arising in this stage include identification of roles and
responsibilities, operational rules and procedures, and the individual need for recognition.
This stage is also referred to as counter dependent stage where members flex muscles in
search for identity. In some cases, the group may have problems getting through this
stage as a result of encountered difficulty in clarifying their task, agreeing on their
mission or mandate, or deciding how they will proceed. Lack of skills, ability or aptitude
can also contribute to their inability to get beyond this stage.
3. Norming – At this point the members start to resolve the issues that are creating the
conflict and begin to develop their social agreements. The members begin to recognize
their interdependence, develop cohesion and agree on the group norms that will help
them to function effectively in the future.
4. Performing – Occurs when the group has sorted out its social structure and
understands its goals and individual roles. It will move toward accomplishing its task.
Mutual assistance and creativity become prominent themes at this stage. The group
sensing its growth and maturity becomes independent, relying on its own resources.
5. Adjourning – During this stage the group resort to some form of closure. Not all
groups experience this stage of development because it is characterized by the
disbandment of the group. Some groups are relatively permanent.

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 Activity 9.1
Dear learner, take one group in your locality and observe for long period of time. Try to
explain/identify the stages in which the group has passed the stages. Again explain about
each stapes of the development.

Summary
Perspectives are like windows by which the scholars try to see the social groups. There
are different perspectives which are broadly categorized into Psychological and
Sociological perspectives. The psychological perspectives are the following;

 Motivational and Emotional Perspectives- Motivations are psychological

mechanisms that give purpose and direction to behavior. These are inner
mechanisms, no matter what their label is, that prompt people to take action. On
the other hand there are emotions that can influence how people act in group
situations. These are the forces they believe as explanations to group.
 Behavioral Perspectives-this theory focuses on the behavior. It stipulates that
measuring and analyzing how people actually behave in a specific context rather
than speculating about the psychological or interpersonal processes that may have
instigated their actions.
 Systems Theory Perspective- assumes groups are complex, adaptive, dynamic
systems of interacting individuals. The members are the units of the system, who
are coupled one to another by relationships. Systems theory provides a model for
understanding a range of group-level processes, including group development,
productivity, and interpersonal conflict. This theory explains that groups are
influenced by the environment where they live.
 Cognitive Perspectives-this theory explains the cognitive mechanisms that work to
align people’s self-conceptions with their conception of the groups to which they

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 belong. It also perceives individual members join groups by having information
which they need for the matter.
 Biological Perspectives/Evolutionary Perspective- argues that these processes may
be genetically determined; part of the species’ biological programming that has
evolved through natural selection.

The second one is that the Sociological Perspective/Theories.

There are about three sociological theories more concerned about groups. These are:

 Classic Theory- This theory assumes that groups develop based on activities,
interactions and sentiments.
 Social exchange theory- this theory stipulates that individuals form relationship
based on the implicit expectation of mutually beneficial exchanges based on trust
and felt obligation.
 Social identity theory- this theory suggests that individuals get a sense of identity
and self esteem based upon their membership in salient groups.

Self-Assessment Questions 9.1

The following questions carry some statements which are true and some wrong
statements. Please, write “True” if the statement is correct and write “False” if
otherwise
1. Emotions are psychological mechanisms that give purpose and direction to
behavior.
2. A systems theory approach assumes groups are complex, adaptive, dynamic
systems of interacting individuals.

3. Sociological theory is based on the assumptions that when individuals share

common activities, they will have more interaction and will develop attitudes
towards each other.

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 4. Social Exchange theory stipulates that individuals get a sense of identity and self
esteem based upon their membership in salient group.

Further Reading Materials

1. Johns, Gary. Concordia University. “Social Behaviour and Organizational
Processes”. Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at Work.
Harper Collins College Publishers, 1996

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 UNIT TEN

FORMATION, COHESION AND DEVELOPMENT

OF GROUPS

Introduction
Dear learner, in this unit more focus is given to the group development. Hence, you will
be taught about the formation, cohesion and development of groups. Within this major
concepts, there are some other concepts will be discussed. The following concepts are
seen; formation-which focuses how the groups started to be formed, affiliation- what
makes the members to be affiliated with specific groups, social support-what support
groups do have and what is the source of social support, principles of attraction-what
makes people to be attracted to some groups and what principles do the groups have to
attract members, cohesion and group development. Furthermore, in this unit, the
functions of groups will be discussed in detail.

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 Objectives
By the end of this unit, students will able to;
 Understand the formation of groups
 Examine the sources of social support in groups
 Know the principles of attraction
 Examine the cohesion and development of groups
 Identify the functions of groups

10.1 Formation

Dear learner, here we are going to discuss about how groups are formed. Hence,
before you read your learning journal, explain here, how groups are formed. What makes
them to join groups?

10.1.1 Joining groups

Well, now we can see here the factors make them join groups in the human society. There
are many different factors that determine if individuals are to join groups.

i. Personality. Personality is the unique, stable and enduring characteristics of

individuals` ways of thinking, behaving and feeling. There are different personality
traits that determine or set conditions for joining groups including the BIG five
personality traits. Extraversion is one of the BIG five personality traits that make
people to join groups. Big Five theory A conceptual model of the primary dimensions
that underlie individual differences in personality; the five dimensions are
extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to
experience; different theorists sometimes use different labels. Extraversion is the
degree to which an individual tends to seek out social contacts. Introverts are oriented

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 primarily toward inner perceptions and judgments of concepts and ideas, whereas
extraverts are oriented primarily toward social experiences.

The other personality variable that makes individuals join groups is relationality.
Relationality is the degree to which one’s values, attitudes, and outlooks emphasize, and
facilitate establishing and maintaining, connections to others. In terms of relationality,
women are more relational than men, and women are also more extraverts than men.

ii. Social Motivation. Social motivations, unlike the more biologically based motivations
such as hunger and thirst, influence people’s interpersonal behaviors, and include the
need for affiliation, intimacy, and power. Need for affiliation is the dispositional
tendency to seek out others. Need for intimacy is the dispositional tendency to seek
warm, positive relationships with others. Need for power is the dispositional tendency
to seek control over others.

Need for Intimacy Individuals who have a high need for intimacy, like those who have a
high need for affiliation, prefer to join with others. Such individuals, however, seek close,
warm relations and are more likely to express caring and concern for other people.

Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO) is a theory of group

formation and development proposed by William Schutz that emphasizes compatibility
among three basic social motives: inclusion, control, and affection.

iii. Anxiety and Attachment. Attachment style is one’s characteristic approach to

relationships with other people; the basic styles include secure, preoccupied, fearful,
and dismissing, as defined by the dimensions of anxiety and avoidance. Social
anxiety is a feeling of apprehension and embarrassment experienced when
anticipating or actually interacting with other people.

IV. Experience and Preferences. Experience matters in joining groups as those with
negative experiences and deviant preferences from collectives are less likely to join

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 groups. On the other hand people with positive previous experiences join groups more
easily.

Dear learner, list out the factors that determine joining groups.

10.1.2 Affiliation

Why do people join together with others in groups? In part, the motivation comes from
within the members themselves, for people’s personalities, preferences, and other
personal qualities predispose them to affiliate with others. But the tendency to affiliate
with others also comes from without—from the situation itself. People often seek the
company of others when they need information, social support, or companionship.

10.1.3 Social comparison

Leon Festinger (1950, 1954) maintained that people often rely on others for information
about themselves and the environment. Physical reality is a reliable guide in many cases,
but to validate social reality people must compare their interpretations to those of other
people. Festinger called this process social comparison, and suggested that it begins
when people find themselves in ambiguous, confusing situations. Such situations trigger
a variety of psychological reactions, most of which are unsettling, and so people affiliate
with others to gain the information they need to reduce their confusion. Social
comparison is evaluating the accuracy of personal beliefs and attitudes by comparing
oneself to others.

Misery Loves Company. How do people react when they find themselves in an
ambiguous, and possibly dangerous, situation? Stanley Schachter (1959) believed that
most people, finding themselves in such a predicament, would chose to join with other
people to gain the information they need to allay their anxiety. To test his idea he
recruited young women college students to meet at his laboratory. There they were
greeted by a researcher who introduced himself as Dr. Gregor Zilstein from the Medical

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School’s Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry. In serious tones, he explained that he
was studying the effects of electric shock on human beings. In one condition (low
anxiety), the room contained no electrical devices; the experimenter explained that the
shocks would be so mild that they would “resemble more a tickle or a tingle than
anything unpleasant” (p. 14). Participants assigned to the high-anxiety condition,
however, faced a vast collection of electrical equipment and were informed, “These
shocks will hurt, they will be painful . . . but, of course, they will do no permanent
damage” (p. 13). The researcher then asked the participant if she wanted to wait for her
turn alone or with others. Approximately two-thirds of the women in the high-anxiety
condition (63%) chose to affiliate, whereas only one-third of the women in low-anxiety
condition (33%) chose to wait with others. Schachter’s conclusion: “misery loves
company” (1959, p. 24).

Misery Loves Miserable Company. The majority of the women Schachter studied chose
to affiliate, but what was their primary motivation for joining with others? Did they wish
to acquire information through social comparison, or were they just so frightened that
they did not want to be alone? Schachter examined this question by replicating the high-
anxiety condition of his original experiment, complete with the shock equipment and Dr.
Zilstein.

Schachter’s second conclusion: “Misery doesn’t love just any kind of company, it loves
only miserable company” (Schachter, 1959, p. 24). Schachter, by suggesting people love
“miserable company,” meant they seek out those who face the same threat and so are
knowledgeable. So how would people respond if offered the chance to wait with someone
who had participated in the study the previous day? Such individuals would be ideal
sources of clarifying information, for they not only faced the same situation; they had
survived it.

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Embarrassed Misery Avoids Company. Even when people need information about a
situation, they sometimes refrain from joining others because they do not wish to
embarrass themselves. When alone, people might feel foolish if they do something silly,
but when they are in a group foolishness turns into embarrassment. In some cases, this
fear of embarrassment can be stronger than the need to understand what is happening,
resulting in inhibition instead of affiliation.

10.1.3.1 Upward and Downward comparison

Downward social comparison is comparing oneself to others who are performing less
effectively relative to oneself. Upward social comparison is comparing oneself to others
who are performing more effectively relative to oneself. Self-evaluation maintenance
(SEM) model is a theory proposed by Abraham Tesser which assumes that individuals
maintain and enhance self-esteem by associating with high-achieving individuals who
excel in areas that are not relevant to their own sense of self-esteem and avoiding
association with high-achieving individuals who excel in areas that are important to their
sense of self-esteem.

Activity 10.1

Dear learner, we hope that you understand for the factors that determine formation of
groups. Now you go to your community and find a group. After finding the group
observe and ask the members what factor made them to be member of the group
particularly for the affection factor. And also try to look how it works with them the idea
of Schachter “Misery loves Company.”

10.1.4 Social Support

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Social support is sense of belonging, emotional support, advice, guidance, tangible
assistance, and spiritual perspective given to others when they experience stress, daily
hassles, and more significant life crises.

Stress and Affiliation. College students who are experiencing problems, academically or
socially, spend between 28% and 35% of their time interacting with people they feel are
supportive (Harlow & Cantor, 1995). Individuals experiencing work related stress, such
as the threat of layoffs, time pressures, or inadequate supervision, cope by joining with
coworkers. Individuals who have been reminded of their own mortality are more likely to
sit closer to other people, even if these other individuals do not share their opinions on
important social issues.

10.1.5 Companionship
Memberships are not static. At some point in his or her life, an individual may find that
he or she belongs to many groups. At other times, however, people may feel that their
relationships with others are too few or too superficial. In such situations, people often
experience loneliness, and to escape it they turn to groups for companionship. Loneliness
is feelings of desperation, boredom, self-deprecation, and depression experienced when
individuals feel their personal relationships are too few or too unsatisfying.

Types of Loneliness. Loneliness is not the same as being alone, for in some situations
people are not troubled by isolation or a relative paucity of relations with others.
Loneliness, instead, is an aversive psychological reaction to a lack of personal or social
relations with other people. Emotional loneliness occurs when the problem is a lack of a
long-term, meaningful, intimate relationship with another person; this type of loneliness
might be triggered by divorce, a breakup with a lover, or repeated romantic failures.
Social loneliness, in contrast, occurs when people feel cut off from their network of
friends, acquaintances, and group members. People who have moved to a new city,
children who are rejected by their peers, and new employees of large companies often
experience social loneliness, because they are no longer embedded in a network of

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friends and acquaintances. Both types of loneliness create feelings of sadness, depression,
emptiness, longing, shame, and self-pity.

Groups Alleviate Loneliness. Groups can provide the antidote to loneliness by (1)
organizing and integrating connections with other individuals, and (2) promoting the
development of warm, supportive, intimate relationships between members. College
students who belonged to a cohesive, satisfying group reported much less loneliness than
students who belonged to poorly integrated groups.

10.1.6 Attraction
Affiliation may set the stage for a group to form, but attraction transforms acquaintances
into friends.

10.1.6.1 Principles of attraction

The Proximity Principle. Group members often assume that their groups result from
rational planning or common interests. But the proximity principle suggests that in some
cases, people join groups that just happen to be close by. Newcomb’s groups, for
example, conformed to this elaboration principle, for cliques usually evolved from
smaller, dyadic pairings. The first friendships were two-person pairs—usually roommates
or people living in adjoining rooms who became friends. Elaboration principle is the
tendency for groups to expand as members form dyadic associations with someone who
is not in the group and thereby draw the nonmember into the group. Newcomb had found
strong evidence for the similarity principle: People are attracted to those who are similar
to them in some way. Similarity principle is the tendency to affiliate with or be attracted
to similar others; this tendency causes groups and other interpersonal aggregates to be
composed of individuals who are similar to one another rather than dissimilar. As a result,
homophily—similarity of the members of a group in attitudes, values, demographic
characteristics, homophily The tendency for group members to display certain affinities,
such as similarities in demographic background, attitudes, values, or so on; the overall

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degree of similarity of individuals within the same group, and so on—is common in
groups.

The Complementarity Principle. In most cases similarity trumps dissimilarity when it

comes to attraction. People generally associate with similar others, and they are repulsed
by those who are dissimilar to them. In one-on-one relations, people are sometimes
attracted to individuals who have very desirable personal qualities, but when evaluating
groups people base their preferences on the degree of similarity between the group and
themselves. Complementarity principle is the tendency for group members to like people
who are dissimilar to them in ways that complement their personal qualities.

Interchange compatibility As described by William Schutz, compatibility between group

members based on their similar needs for inclusion, control, and affection. Originator
compatibility, as described by William Schutz, is compatibility between group members
that occurs when individuals who wish to express inclusion, control, or affection within
the group are matched with individuals who wish to receive inclusion, control, or
affection from others.

Reciprocity principle is the tendency for liking to be met with liking in return; if A likes
B then B will tend to like A. minimax principle is the tendency to prefer relationships
and group memberships that provide the maximum number of valued rewards and incur
the fewest number of possible costs.
Comparison level (CL), In John Thibaut and Harold Kelley’s social exchange theory is
the standard by which the individual evaluates the quality of any social relationship. In
most cases, individuals whose prior relationships yielded positive rewards with few costs
will have higher CLs than those who experienced fewer rewards and more costs in prior
relationships.

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 Dear learner, both affiliation and attraction are elements of formation of groups.
Can you distinguish what differences do these elements have? Explain here.

Activity 10.2
Dear learner, we request you to go the rural community and identify the existing groups
there. And then try to examine the functions of the group to their members as well as to
their community. Hence, how do you see their function by comparing to the functions
listed in your learning material? Is there any function which is not listed here? Explain
here in detail.

Summary

Groups start by formation and the first thing to happen is that joining of individuals to
groups. There are factors that determine for individuals to join groups and these are
personality, social motivation, anxiety and attachment, and experience and preferences.
Formation of groups is again happen through different factors such as affiliation-
individuals are affiliated to some individuals, social comparison, companionship, social
support-when they look for support, and attraction-when individuals are attracted by
some aspects of being together.

Other aspect of group discussed in this unit is that the group functions. Groups as one of
the social phenomena create by the society have three functions to perform for their
members and the society at large. These functions are task function, maintenance
function and self-interest function.

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 Self-Assessment Question(s) 10.1

Give Short Answer for the following questions and refer for the answer at the back of
this module

1. List reasons that determine if individuals have to join groups.

2. Define social support.

3. List the principles of attraction.

Further Reading Materials

1. Forsyth, Donelson R.. Group Dynamics. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

2. Johns, Gary. Concordia University. “Social Behaviour and Organizational
Processes”. Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at Work.
Harper Collins College Publishers, 1996
3. Olujide, M.G. Advanced Rural Sociology-Teaching material. National Open
University of Nigeria, School of science and technology. Leadership and Rural
Development, 1996
4. Ladele, Ademola A. Leadership and Group dynamics -Teaching material. National
Open University of Nigeria, School of science and technology, 1996.

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 UNIT ELEVEN

LEADERSHIP AND INTERPERSONAL

COMMUNICATION

Introduction

Dear learner, in this unit you will be introduced with the idea of leadership and
Interpersonal communication. This unit has two broad concepts; one is the leadership in
groups, and the other one is interpersonal communication. First, in the unit, it will be seen
that the meaning of leadership, importance of leadership, qualities of leaders, role of a
leader, leadership approaches, leadership in group actions and other related concepts. And
second, it will deal with the interpersonal communication, functions of interpersonal
communication and nature of interpersonal relationship.

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 Objectives
By the end of this unit, students will be expected to;

 Understand the meaning of leadership

 Identify the characteristics of leadership
 Explain the leadership approaches
 Examine leadership in group actions
 Understand interpersonal communications
 Identify the characteristics of interpersonal communication
 Examine the nature of interpersonal relationships

Brainstorming

Dear learner, we believe that the idea of leadership and communication are not new for
you. You could see them in other previous courses. Think about the concepts and come
with your own definitions and explanations about the issue. You can do this again by
discussing with your friends. And then you can go to the discussion below.

11.1 Introduction: Leadership

The role of leaders in extension intervention is very important and it hinges on several
extension principles you should be familiar with. For, instance a principle says; the
extension worker should not do all the work alone but rather should impart the requisite
knowledge on contact persons or local leaders who could further influence those within
his influence domain. I hope you remember the principle of teach one teach all? Local
leaders command the respect of the rural folks who have so much trust in their leadership.
By using local leaders, the extension worker is able to accomplish much more in a
sustainable manner. However, effective leadership is not a common place thing, though
the qualities could be learnt.

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11.1.1 Definition of Leadership
What is Leadership?
The concept of leadership is always at the heart of groups. Any group, weather it is
formal or informal it has leaders. Hence, discussing about leadership here is very
important. Many scholars define leadership in different ways. We will discuss here the
most common explanations of leadership,

Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the
behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given
situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with
confidence and zeal.

Leadership is the potential to influence behaviour of others. It is also defined as the

capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders are required to
develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational members to want to achieve the
visions.

According to Keith Davis, “Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined
objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and
motivates it towards goals.”

1. Contrary to common myths pertaining to leadership, leadership is neither power over

group members nor resisted by them.
 Certain personality variables are associated with effective leadership, but
leadership is not an inborn trait.
 Not all groups have leaders, but as groups increase in size and complexity,
most select someone to lead. The power in all-male groups is more likely to be
centralized.
 Most people prefer to be led rather than be leaderless.
 Leaders make a difference, for groups prosper when guided by good leaders.

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  People sometimes assume that leaders are so influential that they, and they
alone, determine their group’s outcomes (the romance of leadership).
2. Leadership is the process by which an individual guides others in their pursuits, often
by organizing, directing, coordinating, supporting, and motivating their efforts. This
process can be characterized as reciprocal, transactional, transformational,
cooperative, and adaptive.
3. Kelly’s theory of followership suggests that followers vary along two dimensions:
active/ passive and independent/dependent. He identifies five types of followers:
conformist, passive, pragmatic, alienated, and exemplary.
4. The task-relationship model identifies two basic sets, or clusters, of leadership
behavior:
* Task leadership focuses on the group’s work and its goals.
* Relationship leadership focuses on the interpersonal relations within the group.
* The Ohio State University Leadership Studies identified these clusters, and the

Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) assesses both task and

relationship leadership.
5. Leadership substitutes theory suggests that certain features of the situation can fulfill
critical interpersonal and task functions and so reduce the need for a leader.
6. Men tend to be more agentic and task oriented in groups, whereas women are more
communal and relationship oriented. The sexes differ only negligibly, however, in
their emphasis on task versus relationship leadership when they occupy positions of
leadership.

Dear learner, here we want you to explain/answer two broad questions.

1. As mentioned above any type of group, be it formal or informal, small or large,

has leaders. So why they have leaders? Why the leadership is an accepted
phenomenon in every type of groups/society?
2. What are the theories of leadership? How they fit with your previous
conceptualization of leadership?

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 To answer the questions you can use any material in addition to your learning
journal. You can also write in the detailed way in your learning journal.

11.1.2 Characteristics of Leadership

A. It is a inter-personal process in which a manager is into influencing and guiding

workers towards attainment of goals.
B. It denotes a few qualities to be present in a person which includes intelligence,
maturity and personality.

C. It is a group process. It involves two or more people interacting with each other.

D. A leader is involved in shaping and moulding the behaviour of the group towards
accomplishment of organizational goals.

E. Leadership is situation bound. There is no best style of leadership. It all depends

upon tackling with the situations.

11.1.3 Importance of Leadership

Leadership is an important function of management which helps to maximize efficiency

and to achieve organizational goals. The following points justify the importance of
leadership in a concern.

1. Initiates action- Leader is a person who starts the work by communicating the
policies and plans to the subordinates from where the work actually starts.
2. Motivation- A leader proves to be playing an incentive role in the concern’s
working. He motivates the employees with economic and non-economic rewards
and thereby gets the work from the subordinates.

3. Providing guidance- A leader has to not only supervise but also play a guiding role
for the subordinates. Guidance here means instructing the subordinates the way
they have to perform their work effectively and efficiently.

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 4. Creating confidence- Confidence is an important factor which can be achieved
through expressing the work efforts to the subordinates, explaining them clearly
their role and giving them guidelines to achieve the goals effectively. It is also
important to hear the employees with regards to their complaints and problems.

5. Building morale- Morale denotes willing co-operation of the employees towards

their work and getting them into confidence and winning their trust. A leader can
be a morale booster by achieving full co-operation so that they perform with best
of their abilities as they work to achieve goals.

6. Builds work environment- Management is getting things done from people. An

efficient work environment helps in sound and stable growth. Therefore, human
relations should be kept into mind by a leader. He should have personal contacts
with employees and should listen to their problems and solve them. He should
treat employees on humanitarian terms.

7. Co-ordination- Co-ordination can be achieved through reconciling personal

interests with organizational goals. This synchronization can be achieved through
proper and effective co-ordination which should be primary motive of a leader.

Dear learner, we hope that you understand from the above explanations that
how leadership is important. So, what about in agricultural extension? Are the leaders
of the group delivering as significant as mentioned above/here? Try to compare the
theories explained here and with the practices happening in the community. Hope, you
tried it well.

11.1.4 Qualities of a Leader

A leader has got multidimensional traits in him which makes him appealing and effective
in behavior. The following are the requisites to be present in a good leader:

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 1. Physical appearance- A leader must have a pleasing appearance. Physique and
health are very important for a good leader.
2. Vision and foresight- A leader cannot maintain influence unless he exhibits that he
is forward looking. He has to visualize situations and thereby has to frame logical
programmes.

3. Intelligence- A leader should be intelligent enough to examine problems and

difficult situations. He should be analytical who weighs pros and cons and then
summarizes the situation. Therefore, a positive bent of mind and mature outlook is
very important.

4. Communicative skills- A leader must be able to communicate the policies and

procedures clearly, precisely and effectively. This can be helpful in persuasion and
stimulation.

5. Objective- A leader has to be having a fair outlook which is free from bias and
which does not reflects his willingness towards a particular individual. He should
develop his own opinion and should base his judgement on facts and logic.

6. Knowledge of work- A leader should be very precisely knowing the nature of

work of his subordinates because it is then he can win the trust and confidence of
his subordinates.

7. Sense of responsibility- Responsibility and accountability towards an individual’s

work is very important to bring a sense of influence. A leader must have a sense of
responsibility towards organizational goals because only then he can get maximum
of capabilities exploited in a real sense. For this, he has to motivate himself and
arouse and urge to give best of his abilities. Only then he can motivate the
subordinates to the best.

8. Self-confidence and will-power- Confidence in himself is important to earn the

confidence of the subordinates. He should be trustworthy and should handle the

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 situations with full will power. (You can read more about Self-Confidence at : Self
Confidence - Tips to be Confident and Eliminate Your Apprehensions).

9. Humanist-This trait to be present in a leader is essential because he deals with

human beings and is in personal contact with them. He has to handle the personal
problems of his subordinates with great care and attention. Therefore, treating the
human beings on humanitarian grounds is essential for building a congenial
environment.

10. Empathy- It is an old adage “Stepping into the shoes of others”. This is very
important because fair judgement and objectivity comes only then. A leader should
understand the problems and complaints of employees and should also have a
complete view of the needs and aspirations of the employees. This helps in
improving human relations and personal contacts with the employees.

From the above qualities present in a leader, one can understand the scope of leadership
and it’s importance for scope of business. A leader cannot have all traits at one time. But
a few of them helps in achieving effective results.

Dear learner, you are requested to list the characteristics of leadership in your
learning journal.

Well!

11.1.5 Role of a Leader

Following are the main roles of a leader in an organization:

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 1. Required at all levels- Leadership is a function which is important at all levels. In
the top level, it is important for getting co-operation in formulation of plans and
policies. In the middle and lower level, it is required for interpretation and
execution of plans and programmes framed by the top management. Leadership
can be exercised through guidance and counseling of the subordinates at the time
of execution of plans.
2. Representative of the organization- A leader, i.e., a manager is said to be the
representative of the enterprise. He has to represent the concern at seminars,
conferences, general meetings, etc. His role is to communicate the rationale of the
enterprise to outside public. He is also representative of the own department which
he leads.

3. Integrates and reconciles the personal goals with organizational goals- A leader
through leadership traits helps in reconciling/ integrating the personal goals of the
employees with the organizational goals. He is trying to co-ordinate the efforts of
people towards a common purpose and thereby achieves objectives. This can be
done only if he can influence and get willing co-operation and urge to accomplish
the objectives.

4. He solicits support- A leader is a manager and besides that he is a person who

entertains and invites support and co- operation of subordinates. This he can do by
his personality, intelligence, maturity and experience which can provide him
positive result. In this regard, a leader has to invite suggestions and if possible
implement them into plans and programmes of enterprise. This way, he can solicit
full support of employees which results in willingness to work and thereby
effectiveness in running of a concern.

5. As a friend, philosopher and guide- A leader must possess the three dimensional
traits in him. He can be a friend by sharing the feelings, opinions and desires with
the employees. He can be a philosopher by utilizing his intelligence and

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 experience and thereby guiding the employees as and when time requires. He can
be a guide by supervising and communicating the employees the plans and
policies of top management and secure their co-operation to achieve the goals of a
concern. At times he can also play the role of a counselor by counseling and a
problem-solving approach. He can listen to the problems of the employees and try
to solve them.

Activity 11.1

Dear learner, now we hope that you are clear with the idea of leadership at least
theoretically. Now we request you to go to the nearby community or you can use the
groups you visited previously. Observe the groups deeply particularly their leaders at
different levels. Do the leaders have the quality of leadership as mentioned above?

What roles the leaders of the groups you visited do play in the groups and to their
members as well?

11.1.6 Leadership and management- Relationship and differences

Leadership and management are the terms that are often considered synonymous. It is essential
to understand that leadership is an essential part of effective management. As a crucial
component of management, remarkable leadership behaviour stresses upon building an
environment in which each and every employee develops and excels. Leadership is defined as
the potential to influence and drive the group efforts towards the accomplishment of goals.
This influence may originate from formal sources, such as that provided by acquisition of
managerial position in an organization.

A manager must have traits of a leader, i.e., he must possess leadership qualities. Leaders
develop and begin strategies that build and sustain competitive advantage. Organizations

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require robust leadership and robust management for optimal organizational efficiency.

Differences between Leadership and Management

Leadership differs from management in a sense that:

1. While managers lay down the structure and delegates authority and responsibility,
leaders provides direction by developing the organizational vision and
communicating it to the employees and inspiring them to achieve it.
2. While management includes focus on planning, organizing, staffing, directing and
controlling; leadership is mainly a part of directing function of management.
Leaders focus on listening, building relationships, teamwork, inspiring, motivating
and persuading the followers.

3. While a leader gets his authority from his followers, a manager gets his authority
by virtue of his position in the organization.

4. While managers follow the organization’s policies and procedure, the leaders
follow their own instinct.

5. Management is more of science as the managers are exact, planned, standard,

logical and more of mind. Leadership, on the other hand, is an art. In an
organization, if the managers are required, then leaders are a must/essential.

6. While management deals with the technical dimension in an organization or the

job content; leadership deals with the people aspect in an organization.

7. While management measures/evaluates people by their name, past records, present

performance; leadership sees and evaluates individuals as having potential for
things that can’t be measured, i.e., it deals with future and the performance of
people if their potential is fully extracted.

8. If management is reactive, leadership is proactive.

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 9. Management is based more on written communication, while leadership is based
more on verbal communication.

Leaders and Managers can be compared on the following basis:

Basis Manager Leader

A person becomes a manager by A person becomes a leader on

Origin
virtue of his position. basis of his personal qualities.

Manager has got formal rights in an Rights are not available to a

Formal Rights
organization because of his status. leader.

The group of employees whom

The subordinates are the followers
Followers the leaders leads are his
of managers.
followers.

A manager performs all five Leader influences people to work

Functions
functions of management. willingly for group objectives.

A leader is required to create

A manager is very essential to a
Necessity cordial relation between person
concern.
working in and for organization.

Stability It is more stable. Leadership is temporary.

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Mutual
All managers are leaders. All leaders are not managers.
Relationship

Manager is accountable for self and

Leaders have no well defined
Accountability subordinates behaviour and
accountability.
performance.

A manager’s concern is A leader’s concern is group goals

Concern
organizational goals. and member’s satisfaction.

People follow manager by virtue of People follow them on voluntary

Followers
job description. basis.

A manager can continue in office

A leader can maintain his
Role till he performs his duties
position only through day to day
continuation satisfactorily in congruence with
wishes of followers.
organizational goals.

A leader has command over

Manager has command over
different sanctions and related
Sanctions allocation and distribution of
task records. These sanctions are
sanctions.
essentially of informal nature.

Dear learner, you may understand the difference between leadership and
management. Which one do you think more appropriate to the rural extension works and
rural groups? Have you tried? Well

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Eight Ways Leaders Can Motivate Employees Beyond Money

1. Energize your team. Instead of being the type of leader who sucks the energy away
from others, resolve to be the kind of leader who strives to bring passion and
positive energy to the workplace every day. Your employees have just helped you
pull your company through one of the nation’s worst economic periods. It’s time
they had a source of positive energy.

2. There’s more to life than work. Great leaders have deep reserves of physical,
spiritual, and emotional energy, and that energy is usually fueled by a strong and
supportive relationship with the people they love, regular exercise, a healthy
lifestyle, and setting aside time for reflection.

3. Put your people first. No organization is better than the people who run it. The fact
is that you are in the people business—the business of hiring, training, and
managing people to deliver the product or service you provide. If the people are
the engine of your success, to be a great leader you need to attend to your people
with a laser-like focus.

4. Act with integrity. In a time when news reports are filled with the stories of private
and public leaders who’ve acted inappropriately and have gone against the best
interests of their employees or constituents, showing your employees that you
value integrity can help motivate them and create a sense of pride for your
organization.

5. Be a great communicator. Leadership is influencing others, and this cannot be

achieved without effective communication. If you’re struggling with

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 communicating to your employees, first work on your ability to influence
individuals by choosing words that are impactful to carry your message. Then you
need to figure out how to communicate to a larger audience.
6. Be a great listener. The most effective leaders are the ones who take the time to
listen not just to their team members’ words but to the priceless hidden meaning
beneath them. Remember that during good times and bad, sometimes your
employees just need someone to talk to. Communicate to them that you are always
waiting with open ears.

7. Be a problem solver. Post a sign above your office door that reads, “Don’t Bring
Me Problems. Bring Me Solutions.” Then set about the task of guiding each
person on your team toward the goal of becoming a top-notch problem solver
during this crucial period.

8. Lead through experience and competence, not through title or position. Mentor
your employees, encourage them, make partners out of them, and your
organization is sure to benefit. If you want to survive the tough economy, that’s
exactly the kind of leadership motif you need for your organization.

The fundamentals of leadership don’t change between good times and bad. But when
money is in short supply, these principles can be the difference between success and
failure. Now is the time to start motivating your employees by applying these principles
and your team will lead you through the hard times.

11.1.7 Basic elements of Leadership Relationships

If leadership is the act of leading others towards a common goal, four basic elements
could be identified: The leader, the followers, the situation, and the task.

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The leader: This implies a role relationship with others the group and interaction over a
varying period of time, when the leader repeatedly performs functions and acts of
leadership in the group. Such acts may be shared with other group members; however, the
buck rests on the leader.

The followers: Followers also have role to play under the direction of the leader.
Followers are not mere aggregation but people in constant active interaction in direction
toward desired goals.

The situation: It refers to a set of values and attitudes that have to be faced by group
members wherein activity for achievement of goals has to be planned and implemented
[Chitambar, 1973]. The situation includes:
a) Interpersonal relationships within the group,
b) Characteristics of the group as a unit,
c) Characteristics of the culture within which the group exists and from which
members have been drawn,
d) Physical conditions within which the group is to act, and
e) The perceptual representation of these elements and the attitudes and values held by
the members, within the group and among themselves.

The task: The task defines the activities which are to be performed in common
movement and achievement of desired goals by the group. The task sets varying demands
and requirements for leadership and hence their nature is of importance and significance
to the motivation of leaders.

Dear learner, can you see the above mentioned basic elements of leadership
relationship in the rural agriculture extension? Please explain here.

11.1.8 Leadership Styles [House]

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Dear learner, we feel that you are clear with what we mean by leadership, its significance
and the role it plays in any aspects. But leadership is not in the same style, it is to mean
that the leadership styles are different. However, the most common styles categorized into
four and this is as per House classification. You can read from below.

According to House, there are four leadership styles:

1. Directive leadership: The leadership that gives specific guidance to the subordinates.
2. Supportive leadership: The leader is friendly and show concerns for the subordinates.
3. Participative leadership: The leader consults with the subordinates and considers their
suggestions.
4. Achievement-oriented leadership: The leader sets high goals and expects subordinates
to have high-level performance.

Dear learner, we hope that you understand the leadership styles. So which style do
you think more appropriate in the agricultural extension? At what situation do you think
directive leadership is more appropriate in rural extension? Explain this by giving
examples. Have you tried? Good

Who will lead?

1. Paralleling Carlyle’s great leader theory and Tolstoy’s zeitgeist theory, early analyses
of leadership emergence adopted either a trait model or a situational model. Most
modern theories are interactional models that base predictions on the reciprocal
relationships among the leader, the followers, and the nature of the group situation.
2. Certain personal qualities (traits) are associated with the rise to a position of
leadership, including:
* Personality traits, such as extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness. Studies

using rotational designs, such as those conducted by Zacarro, suggest that

leadership is partly based on personal skills and qualities.

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 * Intelligence (with groups preferring leaders who are somewhat more intelligent

than the average group member) and emotional intelligence (degree of social
skill).
* Expertise, skill, and experience.
* level of participation in discussion, for people who speak more in groups are likely

to emerge as leaders (the babble effect), although work by Jones and Kelly
suggests that quality of comments is more influential than sheer quantity.
3. Leadership is also associated with demographic variables:
* Leaders tend to be older, taller, and heavier than the average group member.
* Ethnic minorities and women are less likely to be selected as leaders in groups.
* The bias against women is ironic because, in general, women possess more of the

skills needed to be a successful leader.

4. A number of theories offer an explanation for leadership emergence processes.
* Lord’s implicit leadership theory suggests that individuals who act in ways that

match the group members’ leader prototypes are likely to emerge as leaders.
* Hogg’s social identity theory predicts that leaders will closely match the group

members’ shared prototype of a member.

* Eagly and her colleagues’ social role theory maintains that stereotypes of sex roles

and leadership roles can create negative expectations for women leaders.
* Terror management theory, like Freud, suggests that individuals may have a deep-

seated need for leaders, particularly in times of crisis, when mortality is salient.
* Evolutionary theory suggests that leadership is an evolutionary adaptation that

improves the fitness of both leaders and followers.

Why do some leaders succeed and others fail?

1. Fiedler’s contingency theory suggests that leadership effectiveness is determined by

the leader’s motivational style and the favorability of the situation.
* The leader’s motivational style can be either task motivated or relationship

motivated, as measured by the Least Preferred Co-Worker Scale (LPC).

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 * Situational favorability is determined by leader–member relations, the task

structure, and the leader’s power.

* Fiedler’s theory predicts that task-motivated (low-LPC) leaders will be most

effective in situations that are either extremely unfavorable or extremely favorable,

whereas relationship-motivated leaders are most effective in intermediate
situations.
2. Leadership style theorists assume that effectiveness depends on the leader’s task and
relationship behaviors.
* The Leadership Grid, proposed by Blake and Mouton, assumes that people vary in

their concern for results and in their concern for people, and that individuals who
are high on both dimensions (9, 9) are the best leaders.
* The situational leadership theory, proposed by Hersey and Blanchard, suggests

that groups benefit from leadership that meshes with the developmental stage of
the group.
3. Leader–member exchange theory (LMX) focuses on the dyadic relationship linking
the leader to each member of the group and notes that in many cases, two subgroups
of linkages exist (the inner group and the outer group). Groups with more inner-group
members are more productive.
4. Participation theories of leadership extend the early findings of Lewin, Lippitt, and
White regarding the effects of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leaders. This
approach provides the theoretical and empirical basis for shared leadership models,
such as co-leadership, collective leadership, and peer leadership.
5. Transformational theories of leadership examine how charismatic leaders promote
change.
* Burns distinguished between transactional leaders and transformational leaders,

and suggested that the latter are able to elevate both themselves and their
followers.
* Bass identified four components of transformational (rather than transactional)

leadership: idealized influence (or charisma), inspirational motivation, intellectual

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 stimulation, and individualized consideration, and they are measured by Bass and
Avolio’s Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire.
* The GLOBE study has identified transformational leadership as common in

cultures across the world.

6. Women tend to adopt participative and transformational styles of leadership, whereas
men are more likely to enact autocratic, laissez-faire, and transactional styles.
Women’s skills are particularly well suited for organizations of the future, which will
be less hierarchical and require a collaborative, shared approach to leadership.

11.1.9 Leadership in Group

Leadership is concerned with control and power in a group. Leadership can be aimed at
either maintaining the interpersonal relationships in the group or prodding the group to
achieve its task.

Groups will sometimes have two leaders: one for the social dimension and one for the
task dimension. There are also three main perspectives on leadership. First, some
researchers believe some people are born with traits that will make them good leaders.

A second perspective is that the group's leader selects an appropriate leadership style for
the given task. A third way of understanding leadership says that to some degree, leaders
are born with traits that make them good leaders, but they also learn how to become a
leader and use strategies appropriate to a given situation.

11.1.10 Leadership Approaches

There are different approaches in leadership. Some of them are discussed below.

i)"Good Leaders are born”

This approach says that people are born with traits that make them effective leaders. The
challenge for the group is to find a person with these traits.

ii) One-Best-Style

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This approach says that in a given situation, one particular style of leadership is most
effective. There are three main styles:

 Autocratic: Leader uses his or her authority to make decisions.

 Democratic: Authority is shared and all group members help make decisions.

 Laissez-faire: A "hands-off" style in which the leader allows the group to make its
own decisions.

iii) Contextual

This approach says that leaders are to some degree born with leadership traits, but that the
situation, personalities of other group members, pressures on the group, and group norms
also determine leadership.

11.1.11 Group Dynamics and Leadership

Dear learner, as we discussed in the previous chapters groups people who have
relationships. Groups vary in size, in situation and in tasks. Group consists of two or
more individuals with mutual interaction and reciprocal relationships. According to
numerical size, it can be dyad (two members), triad (three), small (4 – 9) or large (10 or
more). There are many classifications for groups such as formal and informal, voluntary
and involuntary, primary, secondary and tertiary etc. This all features has impact on the
dynamic feature of the groups. Another way of classifying and studying the group process
is by considering them as autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire groups. Groups can be
classified based on the type of authority exists on the groups and the dynamic aspect of
the groups can also be vary accordingly.

i) Autocratic Group

Under the domination of an individual or ‘power clique’, autocratic group operates.

Members may go through democratic styles, but they have to accept the decisions of

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leadership. There is gap in status between leadership and members and communication
tends to be one way (Top to bottom).

ii) Democratic Group

This is a group of ordinary people, having the ability to recognize, define and solve their
problems within their capacity to satisfy their common needs by working together. Group
action is based on group consensus achieved through participation, according to their
abilities to contribute.

Group productivity can be enhanced through efforts of entire group as well as of

individuals. Their human relation skills, group interaction and continuous evaluation of
progress will help in this process.

iii) Laissez-faire Group

It is characterized by lack of organization. Mostly it is dormant and occasionally it shows

the life (eg. Political parties become active when the elections come). Organizational
meetings are normally with a caucus. This type of group is unable to accomplish any
purpose. Individual initiatives are not accepted and hence progress will be nil. It may
perish sometimes and turn to autocratic group. Rarely may it grow to democratic group as
well.

11.1.12 Leadership in Group Action

Leadership is a term used to denote one who commands and guides the group. Normally
leader is credited for success or failure of the group, even though the true virtues or faults
are of the group itself. There is a general belief that leader casts his/her personality over
the group, but more frequently, the opposite situation occurs.

Leader is not born, but the qualities are acquired or groomed. The situation also exerts
much influence in grooming a leader. Parents’ influence, learning by imitation, crisis in
group, personal desire to influence others behavior etc may contribute in this process.

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Leadership may be by virtue of position in an organization, but it may tend to be
bureaucratic leadership. Sometimes, passive leadership emerges, by talents and
admiration by others. Personal power is exhibited by charismatic leader who always
create a magnetic field of influence over others’ behavior.

Democratic leadership emerges out of the group in which s/he is a part, rather than by
creating a follower of his/her own. In any group, a tradition builds up that certain
individuals are capable of certain tasks. When a crisis comes, the membership turns to
such individuals rather than untried persons. These individuals are leaders, and they are
democratic leaders.

A leader of a democratic group upholds the values and norms of his/her group. The group
considers that his/her judgment is most in line with the group interests, and the
alternatives s/he proposes are in line with the value system of the group.

The democratic leader has the ability to recognize in which direction the group is moving
and to move in that direction more rapidly than the group as a whole. Her/his foresight
into means and ends is superior, which will help the group and for this reason s/he is
chosen and s/he becomes the leader.

The democratic leader chosen is based on the superiority in competence, but if the gap is
too wide, the members may fail to communicate properly and fail to make use of the
leadership. In general, a tendency of distrust in one’s superior abilities is seen, which is a
type of anti-intellectualism that makes many impatient about democratic style. In
democratic style, ideal solution to a problem is almost never achieved, but some solution
is eventually reached, and it is the solution with which everyone can live.

A pure type of leadership never exists. Leader’s efficiency depends on the degree to
which s/he exerts influence on the members. An individual is a leader in any social
situation in which his/her ideas and actions influence the thoughts and behavior of
others. Since leadership is a process of influencing people by ideas, there is no limit to
the number of leaders that can function within a democratic group. In fact, the more the
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better because the very act of leadership, in whatever form observed, develops initiative,
creativity, and mature responsibility.

Activity 11.2

Dear learner, here you are expected to work with the following questions.

 Groups are divided in to three based in the form of authority- autocratic,

democratic and laissez-fair groups. Which type of groups do you think more
common the rural areas? And which type of group is more suitable for effective
extension programmes?
 Which type of group do you think more dynamic relatively?
 Which style of leadership (according to type of groups do you think appropriate
for these different type of groups? Try to much the leadership style with the type
of groups.

11.2 Interpersonal Communication

Dear learner, now it’s the turn of interpersonal communication to discuss here. We
hope that you are familiar with this concept. So, can explain it? What does it mean?

Well. Now we can come to discuss it in a formal way and you can compare with your
previous knowledge Interpersonal communication is at the heart of groups and group
dynamics. It is the means through which groups are formed.

Interpersonal communication is like breathing; it is a requirement for life. And, like

breathing, it is inescapable. Unless you like to live in isolation, you communicate
interpersonally every day. Listening to your friends, talking to farmers, or talking to your
colleagues are all examples of interpersonal communication. Even before we are born, we
respond to movement and sound. When we come to this world (as we are born), we first
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cry to announce to others that we are here. Without interpersonal communication, a
special form of human communication that occurs as we manage our relationships,
people suffer and even die. Most people spend between 80-90% of their working hours
communicating with others. It is through these interactions with others that we develop
interpersonal relationships. Because these relationships are so important in our lives, we
develop, sustain and sometimes end them.

Interpersonal communication can be viewed in a variety of ways, each of which can help
us to better understand the overall communication process. Interpersonal communication
can occur in any environment, be it formal or informal. Most of the Interpersonal
messages are informal, however, and stem from everyday, face-to face encounters. Most
of the interpersonal communication involves people close enough to see and touch each
other. This makes sending and receiving messages much easier and eliminates the need
for the kind of formal rules followed in debates, news conferences, or other public
speaking situations. Interpersonal communication is the sharing of feelings and ideas with
other people. Most interpersonal messages are informal exchanges. The potential of
sending, receiving and evaluating messages is shared between the people.

11.2.1 Definition of Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication refers to an interactional process between two people (a

dyad), either face-to-face or through mediated forms.

Interpersonal communication can be understood in different perspectives considering its

different elements.

Interpersonal communication is a special form of human communication that occurs

when we interact simultaneously with another person and mutually influence each other,
usually for the purpose of managing relationships. Four elements of this definition
determine the unique nature of interpersonal communication apart from other forms of
human communication.

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Interpersonal communication is a special form of human communication. For several
years many scholars defined interpersonal communication simply as communication that
occurs when two people interact face-to-face. This limited definition suggests that if two
people are interacting, then they are interpersonally communicating. Today, interpersonal
communication is defined not just by the number of people who communicate but define
interpersonal communication also by the quality of the communication. Although
interpersonal communication is more intimate and includes revealing more of yourself
than impersonal communication, not all-interpersonal communication involves sharing
closely guarded personal information.

Interpersonal communication involves simultaneous interaction between individuals.

When you communicate with someone interpersonally, both participants are acting on
information that has originated with the other person at the same time. This simultaneous
interaction may or may not involve words.

Interpersonal communication involves mutual influence between individuals. Mutual

influence means that both partners are affected by the interactions, not just one person.
Interpersonal communication is that special circumstance in which both individuals are
affecting the other. The degree of mutual influence varies a great deal from interaction to
interaction. Every interpersonal communication interaction influences us. Sometimes it
changes our lives dramatically, sometimes in small ways. Long-lasting interpersonal
relationships are sustained not by one person giving and another taking, but by mutually
satisfying communication.

Dear learner, can you distinguish the difference between interpersonal

communication and simply communication? What does it mean quality in
communication?

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Interpersonal communication is the fundamental means we use to manage our
relationships. An interpersonal relationship is the ongoing connection we make with
others through interpersonal communication.

11.2.2 Characteristics of Interpersonal Communication

1. Interpersonal communication is fully transactional: As communicators, each party

uses verbal and nonverbal symbols and signs to construct messages around his/her
intended meanings. At the same time, the receiver brings similar, or possibly different,
meanings to the task of receiving and interpreting that message. Information is sent
back in the form of feedback and each communicator adjusts by role- taking for next
phase of the process. Thus, each party simultaneously influences the other’s behavior
while being affected in return.

2. Interpersonal communicators share physical proximity: Interpersonal

communication takes place with two individuals engaging in face-to- face interaction.
This rules out all forms of impersonal exchanges or those in which interaction is
carried on over longer distance. By being in close physical proximity, communicators
are able to increase their chances for understanding each other accurately and
efficiently.

3. Interpersonal communication is shaped by social roles:When people are engaging in

interpersonal communication, what they are saying- that is, content- can be
interpreted only within the context of the roles that define their overall relationship.
One has to understand the nature of the relationship between the two people- the role
that each is playing and the relation between them.

4. Interpersonal communication is uniquely irreversible: This is particularly significant

feature of messages in an interpersonal context. There is no way to erase a regrettable
message. You can’t undo your spoken words just like you edit your file in Microsoft
Word. So, you have to manage your communication so that it won’t bring bad effect
to anybody.
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How to Improve Interpersonal Communication?

There are seven first-order interpersonal skills you need to survive in the working place:
interpreting other’s behavior, presenting yourself, communicating, persuading, using
power, working in groups and meetings, leading and facilitating groups and meetings. All
of those skills are actually based on your communication skill, right?

Be Knowledgeable: Competent communicators are knowledgeable. They know how

communication works. They understand the components, principles, and rules of the
communication process. Understanding these things is a necessary prerequisite for
enhancing your interpersonal effectiveness, but this kind of knowledge alone does not
make you competent. You would not let someone fix your cellular phone if he or she had
only read a manual. Knowledge must be coupled with skill. And we acquire skill through
practice

Be Skillful: Competent communicators know how to translate knowledge into action.

You can memorize the characteristics of a good listener but still not listen well. To
develop skill requires practice and helpful feedback from others who can confirm the
appropriateness of your actions. Learning a social skill is not that different from learning
how to operate a computer. To learn any skill, you must break it down into sub-skills that
you can learn and practice. "Hear it, see it, do it, correct it" is the formula that seems to
work best for learning any new behaviors.

Be Motivated: Practicing skills requires work. You need to be motivated to use your
information and skill. You must want to improve, and you must have a genuine desire to
connect with others if you wish to become a competent communicator. You may know
people who understand how to drive a car and have the skill to drive, yet are reluctant to
get behind the wheel. Or maybe you know someone who took a course in public speaking
but is still too frightened to stand in front of a crowd. Similarly, someone may pass a test

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about interpersonal communication principles, but unless that person is motivated to use
those newfound skills, his or her interactions with others may not improve.

Begin with Self-Understanding: The more you understand about yourself, the better you
will be able to communicate with others.

Work at Understanding Other People: Understanding yourself will make this easier.
Recognize that all people need to feel accepted and valued by others. We all need to feel
good about ourselves. People appear to be different because they have different ways of
acting and communicating.

Empathy is being able to relate to another person’s feelings and viewpoints,

even when you disagree. We cannot actually experience the same things another
person has experienced, but we can try to understand others by allowing them to
tell us about their feelings. Understanding others improves your ability to
communicate.

Be Alert to the Elements of Communication: In your interpersonal communication, you

should equally value both verbal communication and nonverbal communication.
Because, some experts say that our nonverbal communication tells more about our real
feelings than the words we say. Pay attention to your own nonverbal communication.

Be Open to Others: The people we know and understand best are those who are open
with us and willing to share their thoughts and ideas honestly. We also should be open
with others so that they can know and understand us. However, each of us has very
private thoughts that we do not need to share with most people.

Practice meaningful conversation: Some conversations with others are too brief for
anything but small talk. Sometimes, though, we have opportunities to really get to know

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other people. That is when we can share ideas and feelings, hopes, dreams and fears. We
can explore opinions and attitudes.

Practice Effective Listening: One of the most important skills of interpersonal

communication is being a good listener. There is a time to speak and a time to listen.
When we are speaking and trying to express our ideas, we are very active and involved.
We should be just as involved when we listen to others.

Dear learner, do you remember the characteristics of interpersonal

communication? Please list them in the provided space below.

11.2.3 Habits to Differentiate Good from Poor Listening

Most people consider a good speaker is a good communicator. Because, most of us think
that communication = speaking is very common. That’s why people think that if you area
good speaker, you are a good communicator too. But the fact is not like that. Listening is
equally valued to be a good communicator. It is a big asset to build self –concept and
specifically positive self –regard. Below is just to brief you the salient characteristic of
poor listener and effective listener.

Poor Listener Effective Listener

tends to "wool-gather" with slow thinks and mentally summarizes, weighs
speakers the evidence, listens between the lines to
tones of voice and evidence
subject is dry so tunes out speaker finds what's in it for me
distracted easily fights distractions, sees past bad
communication habits, knows how to

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 concentrate
takes intensive notes, but the more has 2-3 ways to take notes and organize
notes taken, the less value; has important information
only one way to take notes
is overstimulated, tends to seek doesn't judge until comprehension is
and enter into arguments complete
inexperienced in listening to uses "heavier" materials to regularly
difficult material; has usually exercise the mind
sought light, recreational materials
lets deaf spots or blind words catch interpret color words, and doesn't get hung
his or her attention up on them
shows no energy output holds eye contact and helps speaker along
by showing an active body state
judges delivery -- tunes out judges content, skips over delivery errors
listens for facts listens for central ideas

Communication is closely related to self-concept. To be a good communicator, you must

have a positive self-concept. You must think positively about yourself. Self-affirmation
can be a way to increase positive self-concept. Start your day telling to yourself how
beautiful, smart, and nice you are. Know yourself better day by day, and let people know
more about you, too.

11.2.4 Functions of Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication is important because of the functions it achieves. Whenever

we engage in communication with another person, we seek to gain information about
them. We also give information through a wide variety of verbal and nonverbal cues.
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a) Gaining Information

One reason we engage in interpersonal communication is so that we can gain knowledge

about another individual. Social Penetration Theory says that we attempt to gain
information about others so that we can interact with them more effectively. We can
better predict how they will think, feel, and act if we know who they are. We gain this
information passively, by observing them; actively, by having others engage them; or
interactively, by engaging them ourselves. Self-disclosure is often used to get information
from another person

Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure is seen as a useful strategy for sharing information with others. By sharing
information, we become more intimate with other people and our interpersonal
relationship is strengthened. Read about self-disclosure and then complete the interactive
activity and take a short quiz to test your understanding of the concept.

Self-disclosure is not simply providing information to another person. Instead, scholars

define self-disclosure as sharing information with others that they would not normally
know or discover. Self-disclosure involves risk and vulnerability on the part of the person
sharing the information.

Functions of Self-Disclosure

Dear learner, would you please list some functions of Self-Disclosure?

Self-disclosure performs several functions. It is a way of gaining information about

another person. We want to be able to predict the thoughts and actions of people we
know. Self-disclosure is one way to learn about how another person thinks and feels.
Once one person engages in self-disclosure, it is implied that the other person will also
disclose personal information. This is known as the norm of reciprocity. Mutual

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disclosure deepens trust in the relationships and helps both people understand each other
more. You also come to feel better about yourself and your relationship when the other
person accepts what you tell them.

Self disclosure helps you to build your self-concept. After having good self-concept,
which is the main base of communication (intrapersonal communication – your
communication with your self), you will have to face others in interpersonal
communication (daily communication between you and others). So, how to communicate
effectively with others?

First, you have to be a good listener. God creates us with two ears and just one mouth to
make us listen more than speaking. You must remember that communication is not
merely about sending messages, but also receiving it. If hearing is a normal process when
your ear catches sound from environment, listening is more than that. Listening is the
way you intentionally try to understand a message. You can listen to understand
something, to evaluate, to appreciate or to show your empathy.

Risks of Self-Disclosure

While there are several advantages to self-disclosure, there are also risks. One risk is that
the person will not respond favorably to the information. Self-disclosure does not
automatically lead to favorable impressions. Another risk is that the other person will
gain power in the relationship because of the information they possess. Finally, too much
self-disclosure or self-disclosure that comes too early in a relationship can damage the
relationship. Thus, while self-disclosure is useful, it can also be damaging to a
relationship.

b) Building a Context of Understanding

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We also engage in interpersonal communication to help us better understand what
someone says in a given context. The words we say can mean very different things
depending on how they are said or in what context. Content messages refer to the surface
level meaning of a message. Relationship messages refer to how a message is said. The
two are sent simultaneously, but each affects the meaning assigned to the communication.
Interpersonal communication helps us understand each other better.

c) Establishing Identity

Another reason we engage in interpersonal communication is to establish an identity. The

roles we play in our relationships help us establish identity. So too does the face, the
public self-image we present to others. Both roles and face are constructed based on how
we interact with others.

d) Interpersonal Needs

Finally, we engage in interpersonal communication because we need to express and

receive interpersonal needs. William Schutz has identified three such needs: inclusion,
control, and affection.

 Inclusion is the need to establish identity with others.

 Control is the need to exercise leadership and prove one's abilities. Groups
provide outlets for this need. Some individuals do not want to be a leader. For
them, groups provide the necessary control over aspects of their lives.

 Affection is the need to develop relationships with people. Groups are an excellent
way to make friends and establish relationships.

11.2.5 The Nature of Interpersonal Relationships

Good interpersonal relationships are based on good interpersonal communication.

Through communications, we develop close human relationships marked by high levels

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of trust, respect, and even love. Happiness and success in our lives at home and at work
are dependent upon our ability to build these sound relationships.

Stages in the Development of Relationships

Interpersonal communication is marked by the fact that it takes place over a period of
time. The process by which an interpersonal relationship is established has a number of
fairly well-defined stages.

1. Proximity and Chance

Although interpersonal relationships are of primary importance to us, they are governed
by circumstances of proximity and chance. Even though we have the potential for
establishing relationships with a number of people, we cannot do so unless they are
around for us to interact with overtime.

2. Attraction

Appearance is significant for establishing interpersonal relationships. In order to have an

interpersonal relationship, two people have to be attracted to each other enough to begin
communicating. For many people, initial attraction is based on looks; for others, different
factors are equally important.

3. Disclosure and Risk Taking

Self-disclosure is the process whereby we tell others things about ourselves in the hope
that they will disclose information about themselves in exchange. There is, of course, the
possibility that after we disclose information, the other person will not reciprocate, and
that possibility is considered the risk factor involved in self-disclosure.

4. Trust and Intimacy

Sharing highly personal information (disclosing information) with another person can
build trust and intimacy. Disclosure often results in a closer relationship and increased

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feelings of self-with when we find that we are accepted unconditionally by another: Trust
is essential for relationships to develop intimacy. Intimacy in a relationship provides us
with a feeling of well-being, a feeling of someone understands us and is in our corner:
Without trust and intimacy interpersonal relationships cannot fully develop.

Not all researchers believe that self-disclosure is entirely positive. In some cases when we
disclose information about ourselves we reduce our power. Self-disclosure may not
necessarily produce liking. If we disclose information about ourselves inappropriately, we
can suffer negative consequences. Instead of unconditional openness, thoughtful or
careful disclosure is recommended.

5. Achieving Balance

Along with trust and intimacy, close interpersonal relationships are marked by a sense of
balance. As these relationships evolve, the balance between the two people involved
grows. Balance refers to psychological congruence between two individual personalities.

The issue of balance has to do with power and control. Control issue involves who has
power within a given relationship. The more flexible is a relationships, the more control
moves back and forth between the two parties. And, the more consistent these shifts in
control are, the more stable the relationship is.

6. Dissolution of Relationships

Not all relationships last forever, and communication plays a role also in their dissolution.
The dissolution of relationships begins with one or both people's dissatisfaction with how
things are going. When both people want to end a relationship, they can do so by
reversing the process that brought them together - example, spending less and less time
with each other.

7. Maintaining Good Interpersonal Relationships

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As the pain associated with ending a relationship is significant, obviously it is important
to understand how to build and maintain good interpersonal relationships. One way to
build good relationships is to have a clear understanding of the nature of conflict and how
to resolve it. Relationships always have some conflict, indeed it may be trivial or basic
ones.

11.3 Preparing, Delivering a Speech and Stage Management

11.3.1 Preparing your speech

If you were preparing a paper, a newspaper or a magazine story, you would write out
drafts of the work, criticize what you had written, and rewrite until you were satisfied.
“Writing out” a speech in a similar way may help you.

i) Clarity

Speaking clearly means using words that are understood instantly by your audience.
clarity eliminates ambiguity and confusion. Suppose a teacher recommended a student to
a prospective employer by saying, “He does pretty well on tests, he gets his other stuff
done in pretty good order, and he talks in class — no complaints”. If you were the
prospective employer, would you know much about that student’s work? Suppose instead
the teacher said, He gets B grades or better on tests, he completes all his homework and
turns it in on time, and his class discussion shows his understanding of basic theory — he
is a pleasure to have in class”. The second phrasing gives a much clearer picture of the
student’s behaviour.

ii) Vividness

In addition to speaking clearly, effective public speakers also speak vividly. Vivid
language paints meaning in living colour. Vivid means full of life, vigorous, bright, and
intense. If your language is vivid, your audience will picture your meanings in striking
detail.
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iii) Emphasis

A third important element of style is emphasis. In a 500 word speech, all 500 words are
not of equal importance. We neither expect nor necessarily want an audience to remember
every word spoken. Still, if you leave it up to listeners to decide which word are most
important; they may select the wrong ones. Although you can emphasize with your voice
and body, in words you can do it by means of repetition and proportion. Proportion
means spending more time on one point than on another.

iv) Appropriateness

The final aspect of an effective oral style is appropriateness. Appropriateness means using
language that adapts to the needs, interests, knowledge, and attitudes of the audience.
Appropriate language cements the bond of trust between speaker and audience. In most
situations the more personal you can make your language, the more appropriate it will be.

v) Delivering a Speech

When Demosthenes, the famous Athenian orator, was asked, “What is the single most
important element of speaking? he answered, “Delivery”. And of course, you have often
heard people say, “It is not what you say but how you say it that counts.”

Why do people place such emphasis on the importance of delivery? Primarily because
delivery is the source of our contact with the speaker’s mind. Delivery is what we see and
what we hear. Think of delivery as a window through which we see a speech: when it is
cracked, clouded over, or dirty, it obscures the content. Organization, and language of the
speech; when it is clean, it allows us to appreciate every aspect of the speech more fully.
Although delivery cannot improve the ideas of a speech it can help to make the most of
those ideas.

Delivery is the use of voice and body to communicate the message of the speech. Your
delivery will be evaluated by an audience on conversational quality, the effective use of
voice, and bodily action.
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11.3.2 Stage Management

Coping with nervousness

According to their study, R.H. Bruskin Associates found that when people were asked to
pick items from a list of things that frightened them, 40.6% said they were frightened by
speaking in public more — than anything else on the list including heights, insects,
flying, sickness, and death. Yet you must learn to cope with nervousness because
speaking is important. Through speaking we show others what we are thinking. Each of
us has vital information to share: We may have the data needed to solve a problem: We
may have insights that will influence the way people see an issue. Think of the
tremendous loss to business, governmental, educational, professional, and fraternal
groups because fear prevents problem from being heard.

Let us start with the assumption that you are indeed nervous — you may be scared to
death. Now what? Experience has proven that people (and this includes you) can learn to
cope with these fears. Consider the following points.

1. You are in good company. Not only does 40% of the population regard public
speaking as the thing they fear most, but many experienced speakers confess to
nervousness when they speak. Now, you may say, “Don’t give me that line — you
can’t tell me that (fill in the blank with the name of some person you know) is
nervous when he (or she) speaks in public! Asks the person. He or she will till you.
Even famous speakers like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D Roosevelt were
nervous before speaking.

2. Despite nervousness, you can make it through a speech. Very few people are so
bothered that they are literally unable to function. You may not enjoy the experience
— but you can do it. In fact, it would be disappointing if you were not nervous.
Why? Because you must be a little nervous to do your best. Of course, this does not
mean that you should be blind with fear, but a bit of nervousness gets the adrenaline
flowing and that brings you to speaking readiness.
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 3. Your listeners aren’t nearly as likely to recognize your fear as you might think.
Inexperienced speakers find their fear increases because they perceive their
audiences as recognizing their nervousness. This recognition makes the speaker
more self-conscious, more nervous. The fact is that people, even speech instructors,
will greatly understate the amount of stage fright they believe a person has. Recently
a young woman reported that she broke out in hives before each speech. She was
flabbergasted when other students said to her. “You seem so calm when you speak”.
Once you realize that your audience does not really recognize the fear that you as the
speaker believes are so noticeable, you will no longer experience the acceleration of
nervousness.

The more experience you get in speaking, the better you become at coping with
nervousness. As you gain experience, you learn to think about the audience and the
message and not about yourself. Moreover, you come to realize that audiences, your
classmates especially, are very supportive, especially in informative speech situations.
After all, most people are in the audience because they want to hear you. As time goes on
you will come to find that having a group of people listening to you alone is a very
satisfying experience.

When you reach the stand, pause a few seconds before you start. Take a deep breath; this
may help get your breathing in order. Try to get movement into your speech during the
first few sentences. Sometimes a few gestures or a step one way or another is enough to
break some of the tension.

Activity 11.1

Please look into the following activity and work them out preferable in group.

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 1. Please be with your colleagues and prepare a speech on any relevant topic you
choose to be relevant and present it to your groups by considering those principles
you have learnt above.

2. Would you please discuss with your friends the topic called self-disclosure? Do
you think self disclosure is always important? If not why? What are the practical
areas this topic you think is deemed applicable?

Summary

The idea of leadership is at the centre of groups. Weather the group is formal or informal
it has leader. Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and
influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a
given situation. It is also defined as the capacity to influence a group towards the
realization of a goal. Leadership is very important as justified by the following factors:
initiates action, motivation, providing guidance, creating confidence, building morale,
builds work environment and co-ordination.

Leaders have different roles in their organization what their subordinate expect them. The
following points are roles of leaders; required at all levels, representative of the
organization, integrates and reconciles the personal goals with organizational goals, he
solicits support and, leaders should act as a friend, philosopher and guidance. There are
different leadership styles but the most common are four; directive leadership,
Participative leadership, Supportive leadership and achievement-oriented leadership.

Group dynamic and leadership another important concept discussed above. Groups can
be classified based on the type of authority (on whom the power vests) exists on the
groups and the dynamic aspect of the groups can also be vary accordingly. Hence, this
classification is followed as autocratic group, democratic group and laissez-fair group.

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Other concept which is highly related to leadership is interpersonal communication.
Interpersonal communication refers to an interactional process between two people (a
dyad), either face-to-face or through mediated forms. Interpersonal communication can
be viewed in a variety of ways, each of which can help us to better understand the overall
communication process. Interpersonal communication can occur in any environment, be
it formal or informal. Interpersonal communications has a vital role to the individual and
the group as a whole.1

Self- Assessment Questions 11.1

Give short and brief answer to the following questions and refer the self assessment
answer key after answering them.

1. Write the difference between interpersonal and intrapersonal communication.

2. List points to consider while preparing a speech.

3. Define leadership and list some of the qualities a good leader should possess.

Further Reading Materials

1. Johns, Gary. Concordia University. “Social Behaviour and Organizational

Processes”. Organizational Behaviour: Understanding and Managing Life at
Work. Harper Collins Colleg Publishers, 1996

Answer keys for Self-Assessment Questions

Unit One

1. Psychology is the study of cognitions, emotions, and behavior.

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 2. Social psychology is a specific branch in psychology that scientifically tries to
understand how people influence as well as gets influenced by one another.
3. Describe, explain, predict, control and Improve

Unit Two

1. Dispositional Attribution
2. Consistency
3. Disincentiveness
4. Situational Attribution

Unit Three

1. True 2. True 3. True

Unit Four

1. Self efficacy 2. Self -serving bias 3. Self concept

Unit Five

1. True 2. True 3. False 4. True

Unit Six

1. Conformity
2. Cohesion
3. Door in the face technique

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Unit Seven

1. Actions that provide benefit to others but that have no obvious benefits for the
person who carries them out.

2. Reasons are many…….

3. Conflict is a perceived incompatibility of actions or goals

Unit Eight

1. Group dynamics can be defined as an interaction of complex intra-and inter-

personal forces operating in a group which determines its character, development
and long term survival.

2. Cohesiveness refers to the bonding of the group members and their desire to
remain part of the group.

3. Norms are acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by
members of the group.

4. Is a hypothetical unifying mental force linking group members together; the fusion
of individual consciousness or mind into a transcendent consciousness.

Unit Nine

1. False 2. True 3. False 4. False

Unit Ten

1. Personality, Social motivation, Anxiety and attachment

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 2. Social support is sense of belonging, emotional support, advice, guidance, tangible
assistance, and spiritual perspective given to others when they experience stress,
daily hassles, and more significant life crises.

3. Proximity principle, Complementarity, Interchange compatibility, Reciprocity

principle

Unit Eleven

1. The first is between persons and the latter is between an individual himself

2. Refer the module

3. Refer the module

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