When Their Community Was Threatened with Flooding, Two Rival Groups

question 31

Multiple Choice

When their community was threatened with flooding, two rival groups ended up working together to try to save the town from the overflowing river. Based on Muzafer Sherif's findings, it is probable that the joint effort of the two groups to achieve a common goal may lead to:

• A) diffusion of responsibility and the bystander effect.
• B) increased conflict over which group should get more credit for achieving the goal.
• C) reduced conflict and increased harmony between the two groups.
• D) increased antagonism and hostility once the danger has passed.

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Definitions:

Extinction

In the field of behavioral psychology, the phenomenon where a learned response gradually becomes less frequent and ultimately vanishes because the previously associated stimulus is not presented alongside the original, unconditioned stimulus anymore.

Classical Conditioning

A process of learning through which two stimuli are habitually paired; the response, initially drawn out by the second stimulus, is eventually evoked by just the first stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus

A previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with an unconditioned stimulus, eventually triggers a conditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that instinctively and automatically induces a response without previously being learned.