Social Psychology: Groups Flashcards
Theodore Newcomb
Studied group influences at a small women’s college. As the women progressed through their education, they became more liberal.
Edward Hall
Suggested that cultural norms governed how far away we stand from people we are speaking to.
Proxemics
The study of how people space themselves.
Zajonc’s Theory
The presence of others increases arousal and consequently enhances the emission of dominant responses.
Social Loafing
A group phenomenon referring to the tendency for people to put forth less effort when part of a group effort than when acting individually.
Philip Zimbardo
Conducted the Prison Simulation
Prison Simulation
A mock prison set up with prisoner and guard subjects asked to maintain law and order. The experiment only lasted 6 days where guards became more authoritarian and abusive. The subjects experienced deindividuation
Deindividuation
A loss of self-awareness and of personal identity.
Irving Janis
Studied situation in which government officials made “serious blunders”
Groupthink
The tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information.
Risky Shift
The finding that group decisions are riskier than the average of the individual choices. (this average riskiness of the individual choices can be considered to be an estimate of the group’s original riskiness.)
Value Hypothesis
The risky shift occurs in situations in which riskiness is culturally valued.
James Stoner
Conducted an experiment where couples were presented a dilemma (allowing a pregnancy that would endanger the mother’s life to continue or terminating that pregnancy). The group decision shifted towards caution.
Group Polarization
The tendency for group discussion to enhance the groups’ initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution.
