Social Influence

12.1 Conformity

• Social Psychology: the scientific study of how a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior influence and are influenced by social groups; area of psychology in which psychologists focus on how human behavior is affected by the presence of other people

• Social Influence: the process through which the real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly influence the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of an individual

• Conformity: changing ones own behavior to match that of other people

12.2 Group Behavior

• Groupthink: kind of thinking that occurs when people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned

• Group Polarization: the tendency for members involved in a group discussion to take somewhat more extreme positions and suggest riskier actions when compared to individuals who have not participated in a group discussion

• Social Facilitation: the tendency for the presence of other people to have a positive impact on the performance of an easy task

• Social Impairment: the tendency for the presence of other people to have a negative impact on the performance of a difficult task

• Social Loafing: the tendency for people to put less effort into a simple task when working with others on that task

• Deindividuation: the lessening of personal identity, self-restraint, and the sense of personal responsibility that can occur within a group

12.3 Compliance

• Consumer Psychology: branch of psychology that studies the habits of consumers in the marketplace

• Compliance: changing one’s behavior as a result of other people directing or asking for the change

• Foot-in-the-Door Technique: asking for a small commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking for a bigger commitment

• Door-in-the-Face Technique: asking for a large commitment and being refused and then asking for a smaller commitment

• Lowball Technique: getting a commitment from a person and then raising the cost of that commitment

12.4 Obedience

• Obedience: changing one’s behavior at the command of an authority figure

Social Cognition

12.5 Attitudes

• Social Cognition: the mental processes that people use to make sense of the social world around them

• Attitude: a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation

12.6 Attitude Change: The Art of Persuasion

• Persuasion: the process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation

• Elaboration Likelihood Model: model of persuasion stating that people will either elaborate on the persuasive message or fail to elaborate on it and that the future actions of those who do elaborate are more predictable than those who do not

• Central-Route Processing: type of information processing that involves attending to the content of the message itself

• Peripheral-Route Processing: type of information processing that involves attending to factors not involved in the message, such as the appearance of the source of the message, the length of the message, and other non-content factors

12.7 Cognitive Dissonance: When Attitudes and Behavior Clash

• Cognitive Dissonance: sense of discomfort or distress that occurs when a person’s behavior does not correspond to that person’s attitudes

12.8 Impression Formation

• Impression Formation: the forming of the first knowledge that a person has concerning another person

• Social Categorization: the assignment of a person one has just met to a category based on characteristics the new person has in common with other people with whom one has had experience in the past

• Implicit Personality Theory: sets of assumptions about how different types of people, personality traits, and actions are related to each other

12.9 Attribution

• Attribution: the process of explaining one’s own behavior and the behavior of others

• Attribution Theory: the theory of how people make attributions

• Situational Cause: cause of behavior attributed to external factors, such as delays, the action of others, or some other aspect of the situation

• Dispositional Cause: cause of behavior attributed to internal factors such as personality or character

• Fundamental Attribution Error: the tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors in determining behavior while underestimating situational factors

Social Interaction

12.10 Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice: negative attitude held by a person about members of a particular social group

• Discrimination: treating people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong

• In-groups: social groups with whom a person identifies; “us”

• Out-groups: social groups with whom a person does not identify; “them”

12.11 How People Learn and Overcome Prejudice

• Social Cognitive Theory: referring to the use of cognitive processes in relation to understanding the social world

• Realistic Conflict Theory: theory stating that prejudice and discrimination will be increased between groups that are in conflict over a limited resource

• Social Identity Theory: theory in which the formation of a person’s identity within a particular social group is explained by social categorization, social identity, and social comparison

• Social Identity: the part of the self-concept including one’s view of self as a member of a particular social category

• Social Comparison: the comparison of oneself to others in ways that raise one’s self-esteem

• Stereotype Vulnerability: the effect that people’s awareness of the stereotypes associated with their social group has on their behavior

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: the effect that people’s awareness of the stereotypes associated with their social group has on their behavior

• Equal Status Contact: contact between groups in which the groups have equal status with neither group having power over the other

• Jigsaw Classroom: educational technique in which each individual is given only part of the information needed to solve a problem, causing the separate individuals to be forced to work together to find the solution

12.12 Interpersonal Attraction

• Interpersonal Attraction: liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person

• Reciprocity of Liking: tendency of people to like other people who like them I return

12.13 Love is a Triangle - Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

• Romantic Love: type of love consisting of intimacy and passion

• Compassionate Love: type of love consisting of intimacy and commitment

12.14 Aggression

• Social Role: the pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who is in a particular social position

12.15 Prosocial Behavior

• Prosocial Behavior: socially desirable behavior that benefits others

• Altruism: prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself

• Bystander Effect: referring to the effect that the presence of other people has on the decision to help or not help, with help becoming less likely as the number of bystanders increases

• Diffusion of Responsibility: occurring when a person fails to take responsibility for actions or for inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility