T5 - Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change, either conscious or unconscious, in our opinions or behaviour to fit in with social norms or as the result of perceived group pressure

Question 2

What is social influence?

Answer 2

A term describing how other people can affect our opinions, feelings and actions. Conformity and obedience are examples of this.

Question 3

What is informational social influence?

Answer 3

A change in our opinions or behaviour because we think other people have superior knowledge to us. (Conformity because of a need to be right)

Question 4

What is normative social influence?

Answer 4

A change in our behaviour or opinions because we want to fit in and be accepted by others (Conformity because of a need to be liked by others)

Question 5

What are social factors?

Answer 5

Explanations in terms of external events, like the world around you, your friends and where you live

Question 6

What are dispositional factors?

Answer 6

Explanations of behaviour in terms of individual or personal characteristics, like someone’s temperament

Question 7

What is obedience?

Answer 7

A type of social influence that causes a person to follow orders from a figure with perceived authority

Question 8

What is agency?

Answer 8

The responsibility we feel for our own actions

Question 9

What is an agentic state?

Answer 9

A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure (i.e. acting as their agent), and so we are freed from the demands of our conscience.

Question 10

What is an autonomous state?

Answer 10

A mental state where we are aware of the consequences of our own actions and, as a result, take voluntary control of our own behaviour

Question 11

What is authority?

Answer 11

When a person is perceived to have the right and the power to give orders and expect obedience

Question 12

What is an authoritarian personality?

Answer 12

An obedient personality type, where people with it are especially susceptible to obeying people in authority

Question 13

What is prosocial behaviour?

Answer 13

When people act in a way that is beneficial to other people in society

Question 14

What is bystander behaviour?

Answer 14

The way in which someone responds when they witness someone in need of help

Question 15

What is bystander intervention?

Answer 15

When a person who witnesses a person in need offers help

Question 16

What is bystander apathy?

Answer 16

When a person who witnesses a person in need of help does nothing/ doesn’t offer help

Question 17

What is the diffusion of responsibility?

Answer 17

When we feel less personally responsible to help someone in need due to the number of bystanders present, because of their potential to help as well. More bystanders = responsibility shared between more people

Question 18

What is collective behaviour?

Answer 18

The way in which people act when they are part of a group

Question 19

What is a crowd?

Answer 19

A large but temporary gathering of people with a common focus

Question 20

What is antisocial behaviour?

Answer 20

When people act in a way that is harmful to others or not in a socially acceptable way

Question 21

What is social loafing?

Answer 21

When people put in less effort into doing something when they are with others doing the same thing at the same time as opposed to when they are doing it themselves

Question 22

What is deindividuation?

Answer 22

The state of losing our personal sense of individuality, taking on the group identity of the people around us and becoming less aware of our own responsibility for our actions

Question 23

What is a locus of control? + both types?

Answer 23

The sense we have about what directs events in our lives. There are two kinds: internal (believe they are responsible for and can control what happens to them) and external (believe that factors outside of their control affect what happens to them)