Social Psychology Recording 4 Influence and Group Dynamics

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to social influence and group behavior.

Social Influence

The effect that the presence of others has on an individual's behavior.

Social Facilitation

The tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others compared to when they are alone.

Deindividuation

A psychological state characterized by a loss of self-awareness and individual accountability in a group.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

A prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.

Obedience

Compliance with the commands or orders of an authority figure.

Milgram's Experiment

A series of social psychology experiments conducted to measure the willingness of participants to obey authority figures when asked to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience.

Conformity

The act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms.

Group Polarization

The tendency for group discussion to enhance the group's prevailing attitudes toward a topic, leading to extreme decisions.

Groupthink

A psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity results in irrational or dysfunctional decision-making.

Role

A set of expectations about how a person should behave in a given context or group.

Reference Group

A group that individuals refer to when evaluating themselves or their behavior.

Zimbardo Prison Study

An experiment that highlighted how people can adopt roles with extreme commitment, demonstrating the impact of situational factors on behavior.