SOCIAL INFLUENCE

People can influence the way other people think, feel, and act, even without specifically trying to do so. Norms: are learned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should o should not do in various situations and are transmitted by agents of culture.

Social Norms ( Robert Ciadini) Descriptive Norms: indicate how most other people act and thereby provide permission and suggestion to do the same. Injunctive norms: give more specific information about what others approve o disapprove, applying subtle pressure to behave accordingly.

Reciprocity: the tendency to respond to others as they have acted toward you. Deindividuation: is a psychological state in which a person becomes submerged in the group and loses the sense of individuality. Social Norms

Social facilitation: describes circumstances in which the mere presence of other people can improve performance. Social Impairment: the presence of other people sometimes hurt performance. The presence of other people increases a person’s general level of arousal motivation. Social Loafing: people when work in a group, exert less effort than when performing alone. MOTIVATION AND THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS

CONFORMITY AND COMPLIANCE Conformity: occurs as a result of unspoken group pressure, real or imagined. Compliance: occurs when people adjust their behavior because of a direct request; involves changing what you say or do because a direct request.

CONFORMITY AND COMPLIANCE Public Conformity: people gave and answer they did not believe simply because it was the socially desirable thing to do. Private acceptance: change our own perceptions because we consider that are wrong and change our minds.

Ambiguity of the situation: determine how much conformity will occur. Unanimity: everyone agree. Majority: most of them agree, but someone disagrees. Social Impact theory: holds that a group’s impact on an individual depends not only on group size but also on how important and close the group is to the person.

INDUCING COMPLIANCE Foot-in-the-door technique: agree to a small request and then working up to larges ones. Door-in-the-face procedure: ask for a big favor that is likely to be denied, then ask for a lesser alternative which was I really wanted. Low-Ball Approach. First step in this strategy is to obtain a person’s commitment to do something, second step the cost of fulfilling it is increased.

OBEDIENCE Changing behavior in response to a demand from an authority figure.

FACTORS AFFECTING OBEDIENCE Prestige. Presence of others who disobey. Authoritarianism: people are more likely than others to comply with an experimenter’s request to shock the learners. Locus of control: people believe that what happens to them is controlled by factors outside themselves.