When a high school student gets teased by her basketball team for receiving an academic award, she is dealing with competing groups.

 The correct answer is :  reference groups

Explanation:  A reference group is defined as a group whose values, norms and beliefs come to serve as a standard for one's behavior. Reference groups are used in order to evaluate and define the nature of a particular person, as well as the characteristics of the group and other sociological attributes. It is the group to which a person aspires or wishes to belong.

c. wright mills's sociological imagination suggest investigating to explain this increase?

manifest functions are the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern, while latent functions are those unrecognized and unintended consequences. to analyze the manifest functions of any social institution, we have to study its contribution to the continuation of a group, community, or society.