PSY 202 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Deindividuation, Prefrontal Cortex, Observational Learning
20 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Study of how people influence others behavior, beliefs, and attitudes. Helps us understand not only why we sometimes act helpfully and even heroically in the presence of others, but also why we show our worst side sometimes. It also shows why we tend to fall for pseudoscientific beliefs. We tend to believe that we never fall for social influence and others do. There are approximately 150 people in our social group. Need-to-belong theory: humans have a biologically based need for interpersonal connections. We seek out social bonds when suffering from negativity (physically or psychologically) Threat of social isolation can lead us to behave in self-destructive ways and even impair our mental functioning. Social influences should be evaluated critically because being maladaptive leads to blindness. Influences can turn bad without knowing or realizing (ex. Conformity: behavior that obeys the accepted rules of society or a group. Fire alarm evacuation is a type of constructive conformity.
