The New Professor (Scenario)

question 150

Multiple Choice

The New Professor (Scenario)
Samir has recently received his Ph.D. and has begun teaching at a large university. Prior to his first day of class, Samir's department head had lunch with him and explained what was expected of a new professor in terms of maintaining discipline in his classroom, providing students with a challenging course, and keeping grades down. Later that week Samir met with other professors in a faculty meeting. During that meeting, a number of issues were discussed and, although Samir did not agree with all of them, he did not feel comfortable discussing his position because he was a new assistant professor and the others were more senior. However, in watching the reactions of other professors, he got the feeling that some of them disagreed with a few issues, too, but did not want to say anything because doing so might be disruptive.
-Midway through his first semester, one of the teams in Samir's class came to him with a problem. Of the four team members, all of them were doing their jobs except Rami. The group had agreed to have Rami as a member since they all knew he had a high GPA and worked hard on all of his individual assignments. However, as a team member the group agreed that they were not getting Rami's best efforts. They felt like he was not working as hard as a group member as he was as an individual. Samir quickly diagnosed the problem as one of________ .

• A) role conflict
• B) groupthink
• C) status differentials
• D) social loafing

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Definitions:

Presidential Campaigns

The organized effort to elect an individual to the presidency, involving strategy, fundraising, outreach, and public appearances.

Constitution

The supreme law of the United States, outlining the national frame of government and the rights of the citizens.

Race

A social construct used to categorize humans into large and distinct groups based on physical characteristics, ancestry, culture, or history.

Rights

Legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; the fundamental norms regarding what is allowed of people or owed to people.