Social Influence Flashcards
Social influence
The effect other people have on our behaviour. This includes conformity, obedience and social loafing, for example.
Conformity
A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as the result of group pressure.
Autokinetic effect
An optical illusion, in which a spot of light appears to move, when in actual fact it doesn’t.
Obedience
Following the orders of someone we believe to have authority.
Socialisation
The way we are raised to behave and the things we are taught to accept as normal.
Buffer
Something that creates a barrier between the teacher and the learner (E.g. a wall or another person administering the shocks).
Deindividuation
The state of losing our sense or indivuality and becoming less aware of our own responsibility for our actions.
Anonymous
Being able to keep our identity hidden.
Mundane realism
An everyday situation, that is life-like and not artificial.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV)
A television system often used for surveillance.
Social loafing
Putting less effort into doing something when you are with others doing the same thing.
Culture
A group of people (usually living in the same place) who share similar customs, beliefs and behaviours.
Diffusion of responsibility
In a group of people there is less of a need for the individual to act because someone else who is present could also be doing something.
Empathy
Being able to put yourself in someone else’s position psychologically and understand how that person is feeling.
Altruism
Helping someone without thinking of yourself, sometimes at great cost.
Bystander apathy
Doing nothing in an emergency when someone is in need of help.
Practical implications
Suggestions about behaviour in the real world beyond the research study, based upon what psychologists have discovered.
