Ch 8-Social influence

Question 1

What is social facilitation?

Answer 1

The presence of other’s influence our behavior.

Question 2

What are the two main things in the mere presence and drive theory? (Zajonc)

Answer 2

Social facilitation: Improved performance on easy tasks
Social inhibition: Impaired performance on difficult tasks
Caused by an innate increase in arousal (Hull-Spence drive theory)

Question 3

What is the difference between Hull-Spence drive theory and Cottrell evaluation apprehension?

Answer 3

A learned response instead of innate, to perform better/worse when one has the feeling to be evaluated-.
Dependent on the participants subjective feeling.

Question 4

What are social norms?

Answer 4

Belief systems about how to behave in a group

Question 5

What are descriptive norms?

Answer 5

How others will act in a similar situation (take off clothes when it’s warm outside)

Question 6

What are injunctive norms?

Answer 6

What behavior that should be performed (show respect in church)

Question 7

The ways to form norms (three different approaches)

Answer 7

1. Through instructions
2. Nonverbal behaviors that are activated by others gestures. (People start to look angry at you when you walk into a church with a bikini, you then realize that you need to cover up to pay respect)
3. Observing and imitating others (Take off your shoes when going into a mosque because you see that everyone else has taken their shoes off)

Question 8

Sherif’s autokinetic study

Answer 8

Looking at a dot in a dark room and it will look like it moves (when in fact it doesn’t).
When people encounter an ambiguous stimulus they tend to rely on other’s/the group.

Question 9

Deindividualisation

Answer 9

A state in which an individual is deprived of their sense of individual identity and are more likely to behave in an extreme manner (Zimbardo-Stanford prison experiment)

Question 10

In which situations are social comparison most likely to occur?

Answer 10

When situations are novel, ambiguous or objectively unclear. People then look towards similar others.

Question 11

What is group locomotion? (Festinger)

Answer 11

A group has coordinated goals and activities shared among the group members which is necessary to get a group to move towards their goals.

Question 12

What is normative influence?

Answer 12

Conforming to the group to maintain and build a good relationship with the others in the group.

Question 13

What is an informational influence?

Answer 13

Accepting other’s judgments and opinions as evidence with the main goals to make accurate and valid judgments.

Question 14

Door-in-the-face technique

Answer 14

Beginning with an extreme request (which is refused), then ask for a moderate favor which was the original question from the beginning (which is being accepted)
Motives for the person who will fo the favor: Maintain a good relationship and self concept (as generous)

Question 15

Foot-in-the-door technique

Answer 15

Ask for a small favor first (which likely will be granted) and then ask for a bigger one.
Motives: People want to behave consistently and self-perception theory (one is the kind of person that…)

Question 16

Low balling technique

Answer 16

Car dealer sets a specific price for a car, and then after 30 min when you have already decided that you want the var he will change the price to a higher one, and since you want to be consistent and already have made a commitment you will likely go through with the deal.

Question 17

Conformity: Difference between majority and minority groups

Answer 17

In a conflict:
Majority groups tend to compare themselves with the group and eventually comply in public.
Minority groups tend to validate themselves and ask why they are different and in private change their opinion.

Question 18

What is a conversion?

Answer 18

A change in private response after exposure to the influence of others; internalized change; a change in the way one structures an aspect of reality.

Question 19

What is group polarization?

Answer 19

The tendency to make decisions that are more extreme than the average of the group member’s initial positions, in the direction already favored by the group.

Question 20

What is groupthink?

Answer 20

A syndrome of poor group decision making in which members of a cohesive ingroup strive to think alike, and miss important information which could lead the group to a realistic decision.