Standard Area: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

Standard Area: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Behavior
Content Standards After concluding this unit, students understand:
1. Social judgment and attitudes
2. Social and cultural categories
3. Group processes4. Social influence

Content Standards With Performance Standards and Suggested Performance Indicators
CONTENT STANDARD 1: Social judgment and attitudes
Students are able to (performance standards):
1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of person perception. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Explaining the role of social schemas in person perception
• Stating how different kinds of physical attractiveness can influence perceptions of other personal characteristics
• Describing how cultural socialization determines social schema development
1.2 Describe how attributions affect our explanations of behavior.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Explaining differences between internal and external attributions
• Drawing conclusions about the effect of actor
•observer bias and the formation of fundamental attribution errors

1.3 Identify sources of attitude formation.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Providing learning-based interpretations of attitude formation
• Explaining the role of expectations and stereotyped thinking as they relate to attitude and behavior

1.4 Assess some methods used to change attitudes.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Citing research on the effects of advertising and persuasion
• Speculating about the potential of media to influence positive attitude change
• Creating campaigns to produce social change and evaluate their effectiveness

CONTENT STANDARD 2: Social and cultural categories
Students are able to (performance standards):

2.1 Identify basic social and cultural categories.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Identifying major social categories in the U.S. culture (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability)
• Describing the components of culture (e.g., symbols, language, norms, and values)
• Differentiating between culture and society or social structure
2.2 Discuss how social and cultural categories affect behavior.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Explaining how U.S. culture is both similar to and different from culture in other countries
• Discussing how the meanings of social categories (e.g., gender and age) can change over time and differ across cultures
• Speculating about how lives would change if magically transformed into a different social category (e.g., opposite gender)

CONTENT STANDARD 3: Group processes
Students are able to (performance standards):
3.1 Describe effects of the presence of others on individual behavior. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Applying the notion behind social facilitation to performance at a track meet
• Providing an example of the bystander effect
• Distinguishing differences in social behavior among individuals relative to their exercise of power (e.g., persons with less power may show greater awareness of persons with more power)
3.2 Describe how social structure can affect intergroup relations.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Discussing conflict and the processes involved in conflict resolution
• Describing the Robber’s Cave study and explaining its implications
• Giving examples of creating social structures that would foster competition between groups
• Graphing the expected productivity level of an American business in which people work individually compared to those doing the same kind of work in-group• Providing positive and negative outcomes of group polarization
• Giving examples of how a superordinate goal can increase cooperation between groups
3.3 Explore the nature of bias and discrimination.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Describing situations in which bias occurs
• Examining how bias and discrimination influence behavior
• Describing examples from early research on prejudice and discrimination
• Relating a personal example of ethnocentrism
• Exploring the nature of in-group/out-group dynamics
• Speculating on the sources of opposition to the 1954 Supreme Court’s decision regarding Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka
• Predicting how the self-fulfilling prophecy can fuel stereotypes about ethnic groups
• Developing strategies for promoting tolerance, cooperation, and equality

CONTENT STANDARD 4: Social influence
Students are able to (performance standards):
4.1 Describe circumstances under which conformity and obedience are likely to occur. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Explaining the importance of group size as a predictor of conformity
• Discussing why obedience to authority is a common phenomenon
• Citing examples of disobedience to authority
• Analyzing the 1986 space shuttle disaster from the perspective of the groupthink hypothesis
4.2 Discuss the nature of altruism in society.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Delineating the arguments for and against the labeling of a given human behavior as altruistic
• Debating whether specific actions qualify as altruistic
• Discussing the factors that increase or decrease altruism
4.3 Discuss the significance of aggression.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Explaining aggression from several theoretical orientations (e.g., biomedical, psychoanalytic, and social-learning perspectives)
• Debating whether media can influence aggressive acts