Unit 4 - Psychology of Social Situations 1

Social Norms

rules for accepted and expected behavior

Social Influence Theory

proposes that social pressure to behave or think in certain ways can be normative or informational

Normative Social Influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval to avoid disapproval.

• ex: you wear army pants and flip flops to fit in with the popular kids

Informative Social Influence

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

• ex: you go to a football game for the first time and stand up, because everyone is standing up

Persuasion

the process of influencing someone to change their beliefs or actions

Peripheral Route Persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speakers' attractiveness

• ex: ads for makeup often uses peripheral route persuasion to get people to buy the product

Central Route to Persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

• ex: doctors often use central route persuasion when talking about medical treatments

Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon

tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

Door in the face phenomenon

when someone starts with a large request that the other person would turn down, and then asking a more reasonable request that the person would accept

Conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Obedience

changing one’s behavior at the direct command of an authority figure

Compliance

like obedience, but not being forced

• ex: playing simon says in class because Ms. Irby asked

Conditions that strengthen obedience

• Presence of an Authority Figure

• Distance from the Victim

• Legitimacy of the Authority

• Group Influence

• Lack of Personal Responsibility

Attraction

positive feelings toward another person

Types of Attraction

• Physical

• Proximity

• Similarity Principle - we are most likely to be attracted to people who share our interests, values, and experiences

Mere Exposure Effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them (related to proximity attraction)

Halo effect

believe someone is good, you will interpret all of their actions as good, and fail to notice their bad traits

• Oh she looks nice lemme talk to her—oh she sucks

Cognitive appraisal

how you think and how you process information