Chapter 16: Social Behavior

Passionate love

A complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion.

Obedience

A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority.

Illusory correlation

A misperception that occurs when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmations of an association between social traits than they have actually seen.

Prejudice

A negative attitude held toward members of a group.

Bystander effect

A paradoxical social phenomenon in which people are less likely to provide needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone.

Group polarization

A phenomenon that occurs when group discussion strengthens a group's dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision in that direction.

Groupthink

A process in which members of a cohesive group emphasize concurrence at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision.

Social loafing

A reduction in effort by individuals when they work in groups as compared to when they work by themselves.

Commitment

An intent to maintain a relationship in spite of the difficulties and costs that may arise.

Internal attributions

Ascribing the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings.

External attributions

Ascribing the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints.

Discrimination

Behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Getting people to agree to a small request to increase the chances that they will agree to a larger request later.

Lowball technique

Getting someone to commit to an attractive proposition before revealing the hidden costs.

Attributions

Inferences that people draw about the causes of events, others' behavior, and their own behavior.

Reciprocity

Liking those who show that they like you.

Fundamental attribution error

Observers' bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others' behavior.

Social schemas

Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people.

Attitudes

Orientations that locate objects of thought on dimensions of judgment.

Outgroup

People who are not part of the ingroup.

Interpersonal attraction

Positive feelings toward another.

Collectivism

Putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one's identity in terms of the groups one belongs to.

Individualism

Putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships.

Social psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others.

Ingroup

The group that people belong to and identify with.

Matching hypothesis

The idea that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners.

Message

The information transmitted by a source.

Channel

The medium through which a message is sent.

Receiver

The person to whom a message is sent.

Source

The person who sends a communication.

Person perception

The process of forming impressions of others.

Reciprocity norm

The rule that people should pay back in kind what they receive from others.

Group cohesiveness

The strength of the liking relationships linking group members to each other and to the group itself.

Conformity

The tendency for people to yield to real or imagined social pressure.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to attribute one's successes to personal factors and one's failures to situational factors.

Defensive attribution

The tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way.

Cognitive development

Transitions in youngsters' patterns of thinking, including reasoning, remembering, and problem solving.

Group

Two or more individuals who interact and are interdependent.

Companionate love

Warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with one's own.

Intimacy

Warmth, closeness, and sharing in a relationship.

Stereotypes

Widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group.

Social roles

Widely shared expectations about how people in certain positions are supposed to behave.