Social Influence Key Terms

Agentic state

Agentic state

The individual carries out the orders of another person, acting as their agent with little personal responsibility

Authoritarian personality

A person who has extreme respect for authority and is obedient to those who have power over them

Autonomous state

Where individuals are seen as personally responsible for their actions

Cognitive dissonance

Unpleasant feeling of anxiety created when simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas

Cognitive dissonance

Superficial type of conformity where people conform publicly by privately disagree

Confederates

Alternative term for stooges or pseudo-participants

Conformity

Changing what we do think or say in response to others

Dehumanisation

Degrading people by lessening their human qualities

Deindividuation

When a person moves into a group and as a result loses some individual identity

Dispositional attribution

Explanation of individual behaviour as a result caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual

Identification

Where people change their beliefs (sometimes temporarily) to fit in with a group

Individual variables

Personal characteristics that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures

Internalisation

Where people change their beliefs permanently

Ironic deviance

Takes place when we believe that the behaviour of the majority is the result of unreasonable pressure from authority

Locus of control

Extent to which individuals believe they can control events in their lives

Majority influence

Alternative term for conformity

Milgram paradigm

Experimental procedure for measuring obedience rates

Minority influence

Where a individual or small group influence attitudes and behaviour of a larger group

Morality

Decisions and behaviour based upon the perception of proper conduct

Obedience

Complying with the demands of an authority figure

Personality

Combination of characteristics that forms an individual's distinctive nature

Reactance

Occurs when a person feels that someone or something is taking away his or her choices or limiting the range of alternatives

Situational variables

Features of an environment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures

Social change

The process by which attitudes, beliefs and norms of acceptable behaviour vary over time

Social roles

The parts individuals play as part of a social group

Social support

Perception of assistance and solidarity available from others

Status

The position of an individual within a hierarchical group

Systematic processing

Analysis based on critical thinking

Unanimity

Complete agreement from a group of people about an issue or question