chapter 13 Flashcards
conformity
the altering of ones opinions or behaviours to match those of others or to match social norms
- importance of unanimity
- Matching behaviour and appearance to perceived social norms.
social norms
accepted ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving than most people in a group agree on and endorse as right and proper
- Usually unwritten or unspoken rules for behaviour in social settings.
descriptive social norms
what people actually think, feel or do
prescriptive social norms
what people should think, feel, or do
informational influence
a group has informational influence if we adopt the group consensus because it seems correct (correctness)
normative influence
a group has normative influence if we adopt the group consensus to show identification with the group (acceptance)
compliance
change in a person’s behaviour in response to a direct request; requester has no authority over us
- Agreement with a request from a person with no perceived authority.
door in the face
A persuasive technique in which compliance with a target request is preceded by a large, unreasonable request.
foot in the door
A persuasive technique in which compliance with a small request is followed by compliance with a larger request that might otherwise have been rejected.
low balling
Making further requests of a person who has already committed to a course of action.
obedience
when we comply to the request of someone in a position of authority
- Compliance with a request from an authority figure.
halo effect
tendency of people to rate attractive individuals more favorably for their personality traits or characteristics as compared to those who are less attractive.
thin slices of behaviour
narrow windows of experience that can be used to diagnose many affective, personality, and interpersonal conditions
- think slicing is the process of making very quick inferences about the state, characteristics or details of an individual or situation with minimal amounts of information
attributions
A judgment about the cause of a person’s behaviour.
dispositional attributions
A judgment assigning the cause of a person’s behaviour to personal qualities or characteristics.
- explanations that refer to internal characteristics (traits)
situational attributions
A judgment assigning the cause of a person’s behaviour to the environment.
- explanations that refer to external events (situation)
fundamental attribution error
cognitive bias that leads people to overestimate the role of personality and underestimate the role of situation when explaining others behaviour
correspondance bias
The tendency to view behaviour as the result of disposition, even when the behaviour can be explained by the situation in which it occurs.
- tendency for people to overemphasize personal factors and underestimate situational factors in explaining the behaviour of others (cultural differences)
actor observer bias
Emphasizing dispositional attributions to explain the behaviour of others while emphasizing situational attributions to explain our own behaviour.
(self versus others)
self serving bias
Attributing success to dispositional factors while attributing failure to situational factors.
- positive versus negative behaviours
stereotypes
A simplified set of traits associated with membership in a group or category.
- cognitive bias
prejudice
A prejudgment, usually negative, of another person on the basis of membership in a group.
- negative judgements and attitudes toward a person based on their group memberships
- emotional bias
discrimination
Unfair behaviour based on stereotyping and prejudice.
- innapropriate and unjustified treatment of people based on their group membership
- behavioural bias
bystander effect
- diffusion of responsibility
- evaluation apprehension
- pluralistic ignorance
- The study of situational variables related to helping a stranger, most notably the decreased likelihood of helping as the number of bystanders increases.
diffusion of responsbility
person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when other bystanders or witnesses are present
audience inhibition
people do not take action to help others in an emergency situation because they are afraid of being embarrassed or criticized by others failing to act appropriately
groupthink
when group decision making is impaired because of a desire to reach or maintain consensus
social facilitation
A situation in which the presence of other people changes performance.
social loafing
Reduced motivation and effort shown by individuals working in a group.
deindividuation
Immersion of an individual within a group, leading to anonymity.
social psychology
- we are social animals who live in groups and depend on one another for survival
- social psychologists study how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined or implied presence of others
affiliation motivation: the need to belong
the motivation to be part of relationships to belong to groups and to be accepted by others
asch conformity experiment
The experiments revealed the degree to which a person’s own opinions are influenced by those of a group.
Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group.
milgram studies of obedience
factors that lowered rates of obedience include: proximity to the learner, proximity to the experimenter, presence of non obedient confederates
categorization and stereotypes
cognitive schemas that allow for easy fast processing of information about people based on membership in social groups
- overgeneralizations
where do stereotypes come from
- media exposure
-family and friends
-direct experience
