Group Dynamics
The process by which individuals adjust their thoughts, feelings, or behavior to align with those of a group, as a result of real or imagined group pressure
What is conformity?
Explains how people decide whether someone’s behavior is caused by their personality or their situation
What is attribution theory?
A generalized belief about a particular category of people, often oversimplified and not based on direct experience
What is stereotype?
The process of influencing others’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors through communication, often involving appeals to reason, emotions, or authority
What is persuasion?
Unwritten rules that dictate acceptable behavior within a society or group, influencing how individuals act and interact
What is social norms?
The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone
What is social loafing?
How a person usually explains the reasons behind events—whether they blame themselves or outside factors
What is explanatory style?
When a belief about a situation or a person leads to actions that make the belief come true
What is self-fulfilling prophecy?
The cognitive bias where a positive impression in one area (like attractiveness) leads to positive evaluations in other areas, influencing overall judgments about a person
What is the halo effect?
Assuming a person's actions are due to their personality, not their situation
What is dispositional attributions?
When people in a group talk about an idea, they often end up agreeing even more strongly with each other, making their group opinion more extreme
What is group polarization?
The tendency to blame people’s actions more on their personality and less on their situation
What is the fundamental attribution error?
An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. It generally involves negative emotions, stereotyped beliefs, and a predisposition to discriminatory action
What is prejudice?
A persuasion strategy where a large, initial request is made knowing it will be refused, followed by a smaller, more reasonable request that is more likely to be accepted
What is door-in-the-face technique?
A psychological state where individuals lose their self-awareness and sense of individuality in group settings, often leading to impulsive and deviant behavior
What is deindividuation?
The tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others, typically showing improved performance on simple or well-practiced tasks and worse performance on complex or new tasks
What is social facilitation?
The habit of blaming our own actions on the situation but blaming other people’s actions on their personality
What is actor-observer bias?
The belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture, often accompanied by a feeling of contempt for other groups
What is ethnocentrism?
A psychological discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or values, often leading to an alteration in one of the beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort
What is cognitive dissonance?
The belief that outcomes and events are determined by external forces or fate, rather than one's own actions
What is external locus of control?
The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present
What is bystander effect?
The tendency to attribute one’s successes to personal characteristics and failures to external factors, enhancing one's self-esteem
What is self-serving bias?
A belief that the world is fundamentally fair, leading people to rationalize injustice or misfortune as deserved
What is just-world phenomenon?
A cognitive bias where people overestimate how much others agree with their own beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes
What is false consensus effect?
A method of persuasion that involves deeply engaging with the content of a message, leading to careful analysis and thoughtful consideration, typically resulting in more durable attitude change
What is central route of persuasion?