A Review of Our Research on Group Polarization: Eleven Experiments on the Effects of Group Discussion on Risk Acceptance, Probability Estimation, and Negotiation Positions

1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Lamm

This paper gives a summary of the procedures and results of 11 experiments on the effects of group discussion. A wide range of personality and situational features were manipulated as independent variables. The studies were conducted for the most part in West Germany and have been published previously in various German and English/American journals. The findings are interpreted through two principal current theories of group polarization (i.e., of the finding that group discussion enhances the initially dominant tendency of group members), the social-comparison and persuasive-arguments theories. The studies here presented (almost all providing evidence for group polarization) seem to provide somewhat greater support for the latter theory. The article also analyzes subversions of each theory and discusses the relative support these receive from the data of our studies.

Author(s):  
Henrik Mouritsen

While manumission has been practised in almost all slave societies the Romans appear to have freed their slaves with unparalleled frequency. The chapter looks at three aspects of Roman manumission: the status of freedmen, the Augustan reforms of manumission and the legal discourse on freedmen under the Empire. It is suggested that the background for the Roman practice of enfranchising former slaves should be sought in the social and legal structures of early Rome, which delegated many “state” functions to the heads of households. The enfranchisement of freedmen was compatible with the political structures of the Republic, but in response to changes to the Roman citizenship the first emperor introduced a new legal framework, which remained until late Antiquity. The details of this framework were refined over the following centuries, as jurists explored a wide range of complex legal issues associated with manumission and the place of freedmen in society.


1991 ◽  
Vol 158 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Roberts ◽  
Gordon Claridge

Throughout the history of schizophrenia as a psychiatric concept, opinions have differed sharply over its essential nature and its causes, giving rise to a wide range of explanations that have drawn upon ideas from almost all of the social and biological sciences. Only one fact has truly survived the vicissitudes of argument about the condition: that genetic factors contribute to its aetiology. Even that conclusion, first reached in the very early days of schizophrenia research, sank temporarily out of sight during the radical psychiatry challenges of the 1960s. However, the continuing collection of family, twin, adoption and other data over that period put the genetic hypothesis beyond reasonable doubt (McGuffin, 1988).


2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D. Prior ◽  
Lucy M. Miller

Traditional ethnography focuses on identifiable cultural groupings of individuals and, through a process of observation and participant interviews (among other techniques), the researcher explores the effects of the social dynamic with regard to a topic of interest. Webethnography (also known as netnography, webnography, online ethnography and virtual ethnography) involves the application of ethnographic research methods to specific online communities through the observation and analysis of online dialogue and other online artefacts. This paper contends that webethnography is appropriate only where almost all interactions between group members occur online through the community site - that is, the community is a virtual community in the truest sense. Where communities conduct some or most of their interaction offline, webethnography is less appropriate as a stand-alone research method. Using a case study of project manager online communities on the social networking site www.LinkedIn.com , we argue that a triangulation with offline data sources helps to ensure data validity and generalisation to the group of interest. This paper presents a typology that proposes three general approaches to research design, to account for the differing scope of online cultural groups. The implications of this typology include the addition of additional precautions in the design of ethnographic studies.


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Rogier ◽  
Vincent Yzerbyt

Yzerbyt, Rogier and Fiske (1998) argued that perceivers confronted with a group high in entitativity (i.e., a group perceived as an entity, a tight-knit group) more readily call upon an underlying essence to explain people's behavior than perceivers confronted with an aggregate. Their study showed that group entitativity promoted dispositional attributions for the behavior of group members. Moreover, stereotypes emerged when people faced entitative groups. In this study, we replicate and extend these results by providing further evidence that the process of social attribution is responsible for the emergence of stereotypes. We use the attitude attribution paradigm ( Jones & Harris, 1967 ) and show that the correspondence bias is stronger for an entitative group target than for an aggregate. Besides, several dependent measures indicate that the target's group membership stands as a plausible causal factor to account for members' behavior, a process we call Social Attribution. Implications for current theories of stereotyping are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
Gugulethu Shamaine Nkala ◽  
Rodreck David

Knowledge presented by Oral History (OH) is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions and understanding of the interviewee in its primary form. While teachers, lecturers and other education specialists have at their disposal a wide range of primary, secondary and tertiary sources upon which to relate and share or impart knowledge, OH presents a rich source of information that can improve the learning and knowledge impartation experience. The uniqueness of OH is presented in the following advantages of its use: it allows one to learn about the perspectives of individuals who might not otherwise appear in the historical record; it allows one to compensate for the digital age; one can learn different kinds of information; it provides historical actors with an opportunity to tell their own stories in their own words; and it offers a rich opportunity for human interaction. This article discusses the placement of oral history in the classroom set-up by investigating its use as a source of learning material presented by the National Archives of Zimbabwe to students in the Department of Records and Archives Management at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST). Interviews and a group discussion were used to gather data from an archivist at the National Archives of Zimbabwe, lecturers and students in the Department of Records and Archives Management at NUST, respectively. These groups were approached on the usability, uniqueness and other characteristics that support this type of knowledge about OH in a tertiary learning experience. The findings indicate several qualities that reflect the richness of OH as a teaching source material in a classroom set-up. It further points to weak areas that may be addressed where the source is considered a viable strategy for knowledge sharing and learning. The researchers present a possible model that can be used to champion the use of this rich knowledge source in classroom education at this university and in similar set-ups. 


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-74
Author(s):  
Attiya Y. Javed

The economic reform process began in India in 1991. However, the reform agenda is still far from its goals as is evident from low per capita income. Thus, this reform effort has not produced the desired outcome of a faster rate of economic and social development in a meaningful way. It is the premise of this volume that to transform the social and economic landscape, the proposed reforms should be broadbased and multi-pronged which take into account incentives for the stockholders in both the private and public sectors. The institutions are the rules that govern economy and include the fundamental legal, political, and social rules that establish the basis for production, exchange, and distribution. The two editors of this volume have received contributions from a number of authors and the wide range of papers are grouped under five main headings: political economy of reforms, reforming public goods delivery, reform issues in agriculture and rural governance, and reforming the district and financial sector.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Wesołowska

In social psychology the group polarization refers to the tendency for groups to make decisionsthat are more extreme than the initial inclinations of its members. This phenomenon constitutesa potential obstacle to positive outcomes attributed to deliberative debates. A deliberative debateis a particular kind of a group discussion tasked with fi nding group consensus on controversialissues. The idea of deliberation originates from the writings of John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, AmyGutmann and Denis Thompson. Deliberative debate imposes numerous normative requirementson the communication, relationships among the disputants and their approach to the issue underdiscussion. These normative requirements make a big difference between deliberative debates andthe situations in which the phenomenon of polarization was observed. Thus, we presume that indeliberative debates conditions the phenomenon of group polarization may be limited.The paper investigates the following questions: would the normative conditions of deliberationlimit the occurrence of polarization in discussing groups? and What infl uence (if any) would thepolarization process have on the quality of group decision? In the light of the empirical data we concluded what follows: (1) In 50% of the analyzed casesof group discussion the phenomenon of group polarization was observed despite the normativeconditions of deliberation. (2) The occurrence of group polarization in some cases coincided withmaking the fi nal decisions which did not alter the initial preferences of the disputants (but did nottotally predestinated the fi nal outcome).


Author(s):  
Rami Obeid ◽  
Elias Wehbe ◽  
Mohamad Rima ◽  
Mohammad Kabara ◽  
Romeo Al Bersaoui ◽  
...  

Background: Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is the most known virus in the plant mosaic virus family and is able to infect a wide range of crops, in particularly tobacco, causing a production loss. Objectives: Herein, and for the first time in Lebanon, we investigated the presence of TMV infection in crops by analyzing 88 samples of tobacco, tomato, cucumber and pepper collected from different regions in North Lebanon. Methods: Double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), revealed a potential TMV infection of four tobacco samples out of 88 crops samples collected. However, no tomato, cucumber and pepper samples were infected. The TMV+ tobacco samples were then extensively analyzed by RT-PCR to detect viral RNA using different primers covering all the viral genome. Results and Discussion: PCR results confirmed those of DAS-ELISA showing TMV infection of four tobacco samples collected from three crop fields of North Lebanon. In only one of four TMV+ samples, we were able to amplify almost all the regions of viral genome, suggesting possible mutations in the virus genome or an infection with a new, not yet identified, TMV strain. Conclusion: Our study is the first in Lebanon revealing TMV infection in crop fields, and highlighting the danger that may affect the future of agriculture.


Author(s):  
Nerida Jarkey

This chapter examines the forms and usage of imperatives and command strategies in contemporary standard Japanese. Although commands are highly face-threatening acts in any language, speakers of Japanese encounter particular challenges in using them in socially acceptable ways. Commands are generally only given to those considered ‘below’ the speaker in the social hierarchy, and are normally considered appropriate only when used toward ‘in-group’ members. Further restrictions relate to the identity the speaker wishes to convey. Numerous command strategies have emerged to avoid using the most direct imperative forms, and some of these strategies have gradually come to be reinterpreted as imperative forms themselves, suggesting a loss of their original euphemistic qualities. Furthermore, when issuing commands, speakers often go to considerable lengths to soften the face threat, for example by giving reasons for the command, adding markers of hesitancy, or softening illocutionary particles, and using appropriate honorific language forms.


Author(s):  
Jane Stevenson

This chapter examines the social aspect of the interwar arts. It demonstrates that the genuinely innovative were almost all dependent on personal patronage to support the early stages of their career. The necessity of clientage relationships influenced what was achieved, since the patrons’ interests could not be discounted. Cultural capital was exchanged for social opportunity and financial support. This also gave particular opportunities to gay people of both genders.


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