CH 4-6

• Conformity


  The tendency to adjust one's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in order to fit in with a group's norms or expectations. Often occurs in response to implicit or explicit social pressure.
• Obedience


  Following direct commands or orders from an authority figure, often without questioning or challenging them.
• Conformity is more about fitting in with a group, obedience is about following the instructions of a perceived authority figure.
• Both conformity and obedience play important roles in shaping social behavior and can have significant impacts on individual and group dynamics.
• Evolutionary Psychology


  • Studies how natural selection also predisposes psychological traits and social behaviors that enhance the preservation and spread of one's genes.
• Sex


  Refers to males and females as two biological categories based on chromosomes, genitals, and secondary sex characteristics such as greater male mass and female breasts.
• Gender


  Refers to the characteristics people associate with males and females that can be rooted in biology, culture, or both, such as wearing dresses and liking sports. In psychology, it is the characteristics, whether biological or socially influenced, that we associate with males and females.
• Transgender


  Someone whose psychological sense of being male or female differs from their birth sex.
• Testosterone


  A hormone more prevalent in males than females that is linked to dominance and aggression.
• Androgynous


  Mixing both masculine and feminine characteristics that are capable of both assertiveness and nurturance.
• Culture


  The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.
• Epigenetics


  The study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without DNA change.
• Norms


  Standards for accepted and expected behaviors. It is Prescribed as "proper or normal" behavior.
• Individual Choices


  Cultures vary in how much they emphasize the individual self (individualistic cultures) versus others and the society (collectivistic culture)
• Rule-Following


  Especially important in traditional, collectivistic cultures, where violating norms is punished most harshly when others are harmed.
• Personal Space


  The portable bubble or buffer zone we like to maintain between ourselves and others. Its size depends on our culture and our familiarity with whoever is near us.
• The Nurture Assumption


  Parental nurture, the way parents bring their children up, governs who their children become.
• Gender Role


  A set of behavior expectations (norms) for males and females.
• Empathy


  The vicarious experience of another's feelings; putting oneself in another's shoes
• Aggression


  Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone.
• Interaction


  A relationship in which the effect of one factor (such as biology) depends on another factor (such as environment).
• Conformity


  A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure. A change in behavior or belief to accord with others
• Acceptance


  Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure. Occurs when you genuinely belove on hat the group has persuaded you to do.
• Compliance


  Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing. Conforming to an expectation or a request without really believing in what you are doing.
• Obedience


  A type of compliance involving acting in accord with a direct order or command.
• Autokinetic phenomenon


  Self (auto) motion (kinetic). The apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark.
• Mass Hysteria


  Suggestibility to problems that spreads throughout a large group of people.
• Milgram Obedience Study


  A test that measures what happens when the demands of authority clash with the demands of conscience.
• Cohesiveness


  A "we feeling"; the extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction to one another.
• Normative Influence


  "going along with the crowd" – based on a person's desire to fulfil others' expectations, often to gain acceptance.
• Informational Influence


  Conformity occurs when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people.
• Reactance


  A motive to protect or restore one's sense of freedom, rises when someone threatens our freedom of action.
• Self-consciousness


  The recognition of a creature by itself as a "self".
• Persuasion


  The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors'.
• Central Route to Persuasion

  Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
• Peripheral Route to Persuasion


  Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.
• Credibility


  Perceived expertise and trustworthiness.
• Sleeper Effect


  A delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, such as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it.
• Attractiveness


  Having qualities that appeal to an audience
• Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon


  The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.