AP Psych Chapter 18- Social Influence

social impact theory

a group's impact on an individual depends not only on group size but also on how important an close the group is to the person

task-oriented leaders

a leader who provides close supervision, leads by directives, and generally discourages group discussion

person-oriented leaders

a leader who provides loose supervision, asks for group members' ideas, and is concerned with subordinates' feelings

door-in-the-face procedure

a method of compliance, by starting with a request for a favor that is likely to be denied, and then the person substitutes the favor for a lesser alternative, which is the one they really wanted in the first place

low-ball approach

a method of compliance, have to obtain agreement to do something, but then the price is jacked up

foot-in-the-door technique

a method of compliance, works by getting a person to agree to a small request and then gradually presenting larger ones

minority influence

a minority in a group influences the behavior and beliefs of a majority, uncommon but happens with powerful members of a group

reciprocity

a part of some injunctive norms, it is the tendency to respond to others as they have acted towards you

groupthink

a pattern of thinking in which group members fail to evaluate realistically the wisdom of various options and decisions

deindividuation

a phenomenon in which a person becomes "submerged in a group" and loses the sense of individuality. When this happens, people become emotionally aroused and experience intense closeness with the group, leading to many people performing actions they wouldn't do on their own

frustration-aggression hypothesis

a proposition that frustration always leads to some form of aggressive behavior. Proposed by John Dollard, and over time has proven too simple and too general

social impairment

a reduction in performance due to the presence of other people

commons dilemma

a resource dilemma in which people have to 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

prisoner's dilemma

a scenario in which mutual cooperation guarantees the best outcome (reread pg 753)

resource dilemma

a situation in which people must share a common resource, creating conflicts between the short-term interests of individuals and the long-term interests of the group

zero-sum game

a social situation in which one person's gains are subtracted from another person's resources, so that the sum of the gains and losses is zero

arousal: cost-reward theory

a theory that proposes that people find the sight of a victim distressing and anxiety provoking, and that this experience motivates them to do something to reduce the unpleasant arousal

compliance

adjusting one's behavior because of an explicit or implicit request

aggression

an act that is intended to cause harm to another person

frustration

an emotion that occurs when we are prevented from reaching some goal

altruism

an unselfish concern for another's wellbeing

helping behavior

any act that is intended to benefit another person

cooperation

any type of behavior in which people work together to attain a common goal

bystander effect

as the number of people who witness an emergency increases, the likelihood that one of them will help decreases. Diffusion of responsibility occurs

obedience

changing behavior in response to a demand from an authority figure

conformity

changing one's behavior or beliefs to match those of others, generally as a result of real or imagined, though unspoken, group pressure

defensive aggression

comes from damage to structures like the amygdala and hypothalamus, includes heightened aggressiveness to stimuli that are not usually threatening or a decrease in the responses that normally inhibit aggression

social loafing

exerting less effort when performing a group task than when performing the same task alone

social striving

greater individual effort when working in a group

kin selection

helping a relative to survive

norms

learned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in various situations

injunctive norms

norms that give more specific information about the action that others find acceptable and those that they find unacceptable. Combination of two things

descriptive norms

norms that indicate how most other people actually behave om a given situation

empathy-altruism theory

people are more likely to engage in altruistic (unselfish) helping if they fell empathy toward the person in need-even if the cost of helping is high

unamity

people experience greater pressure to conform as long as the majority is unanimous

transformational/charismatic leaders

rather than focusing on rewarding/punishing specific behaviors, these people concentrate on creating a vision of the group's goals, inspiring others to pursue that vision, and giving their followers reason to respect and admire them

social dilemmas

situations in which an action that produces rewards for one individual will, if adopted by all others, produce negative consequences for everyone

legitimate social power

the ability to influence people because they assume the person in power has the right or legitimate authority to tell them what to do

expert social power

the ability to influence people because they assume the person in power is a knowledgeable and responsible expert

social facilitation

the mere presence of other people can improve performance

social influence

the process whereby a person's behavior is directly or indirectly affected by the words or actions of other people

environmental psychology

the study of the relationship between people's physical environment and their behavior. Factors affecting aggression include high temperatures, loud noise crowding

inclusive fitness

the survival of one's genes to future generations

transactional leaders

those whose behavior depends on the actions of those they lead

competition

trying to attain a goal for oneself while denying that goal to others

ambiguity

uncertainty; when the physical reality of a situation becomes less certain, people rely more and more on other's opinions and conformity to a group norm becomes increasingly likely

negative affect

unpleasant emotion, part of Berkowitz's modifications to the frustration-aggression hypothesis. The greater the negative affect, the stronger the readiness to behave aggressively. Modifications also include that aggression comes from stress and aggressive cues

excitation transfer

when arousal from one situation carries over into an independent situation, part of generalized arousal

conflict

when one person or group believes that another stands in the way of their achieving their goal

private acceptance

when someone uses others responses as legitimate evidence about reality, and were convinced that their own perceptions were wrong, and actually changed their mind

mixed-motive conflict

when there are good reasons to cooperate and good reasons to compete