| Term | Definition |
|---|
| social influence | process whereby one person's behaviors are affected by the words and actions of others |
| norms | social rules that prescribe what people should or shouldn't do in various situations |
| descriptive norms | reveal rules for how a person should behave by actually showing us how to behave |
| injunctive norms | reveal accepted behavior by somehow telling us what we "should" or "ought" to do |
| reciprocity norm | a norm that causes you to act toward someone else as they have acted toward you |
| deindividuation | occurs when you are in a group and lose your individuality and sense of accountability and might do something that you wouldn't do alone |
| social facilitation | when the presence of others improves a person's performance |
| social impairment | when the presence of others reduces the quality of a person's performance |
| social loafing | exerting less effort when performing a group task than you would if performing the task alone |
| conformity | changing behavior or belief to match those of others, usually through unspoken pressure |
| compliance | changing behavior because of a direct or indirect request |
| Asch | performed famous study on conformity in which people gave an obviously incorrect answer just to conform to the group |
| public conformity | a type of conformity where you change your behavior to fit the group, but don't truly believe in it |
| private acceptance | a type of conformity in which you genuinely accept a new behavior or belief |
| foot-in-the-door approach | works by getting a person to agree to a small request and then gradually presenting larger ones |
| door-in-the-face approach | works by asking for a big favor that is likely to be denied, then you make a second smaller request "settling" for what you wanted in the first place |
| low-ball approach | works by obtaining an oral commitment, then increasing the cost of fulfilling this commitment |
| obedience | changing behavior in response to a demand from an authority figure |
| Milgram | did benchmark study on obedience showing that 65% of people were willing to give someone extreme shock simply because they were told to do so |
| expert social power | ability to influence peple because they assume the person in power is a knowledgeable and responsible expert in the related subject |
| legitimate social power | ability to influence people because they assume the person in power has the right or legitimate authority to tell them what to do |
| aggression | an act intended to harm another person |
| Thanatos | Sigmund Freud's theory for aggression, the death instinct that must be released in aggressive actions |
| limbic system | brain system that contains the hypothalamus and amygdala and controls aggression |
| testosterone | masculine hormone that plays an important role in aggression |
| culture of honor | aggression learned through the passing down of the belief that one may violently defend one's honor |
| Bandura | did landmark study of learned aggression involving children who watched an adult model violent behavior with a "bobo" doll |
| frustration-aggression hypothesis | argues aggression comes from built up frustration (or any stress) triggered by an environmental aggression cue |
| negative affect | unpleasant emotion |
| excitation transfer | when generalized arousal from one experience carries over to another; this is one factor that can influence aggression |
| environmental psychology | this field has done research showing that high temperatures, air pollution, noise, and crowds all are factors that lead to aggression |
| helping behavior | ANY act that is intended to benefit another person |
| altruism | unselfish concern for another's welfare; helping at a cost to oneself |
| arousal: cost-reward theory | holds that people help others to reduce the unpleasant arousal they feel when witnessing suffering |
| bystander effect | when, through diffusion of responsibility, people are less likely to help when others are present as well |
| self-efficacy | confidence in the likely success of one's efforts (to help, in this case) |
| empathy-altruism theory | theory suggesting that people help others because of empathy with their needs |
| kin selection | helping a relative survive so that one's genes may survive in future generations (inclusive fitness) |
| cooperation | any behavior in which people work together to attain a goal |
| competition | behavior in which individuals try to attain a goal for themselves while denying it to others |
| conflict | results from a person or group believing that another stands in the way of their achieving a valued goal |
| social dilemma | a situation in which an action that rewards an individual most, if taken by all in the group, would be negative for the group |
| prisoner's dilemma | a social dilemma in which mutual cooperation guarantees the best MUTUAL outcome |
| resource dilemma | dilemma in which people must share a common resource creating conflicts |
| commons dilemma | a resource dilemma in which people must decide how much to take from a common resource |
| public goods dilemma | a resource dilemma in which people must decide how much to contribute to a common resource |
| tit-for-tat | acting toward another as they have acted toward you (in the prisoner's dilemma this would involve rewarding cooperation with cooperation, etc.) |
| zero-sum game | social situation in which one person's gains are subtracted from another's resources (there can be only one who gets the resource) |
| task-oriented leader | a type of leader that provides close supervision, gives directions, and discourages group discussion |
| person-oriented leader | type of leader who supervises loosely, asks for group discussion, and shows concern for group members' welfare |
| groupthink | happens when group members are unable to thoroughly evaluate the negative consequences of a decision they are about to make |
Combine with other sets
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