PSYC 2310 Study Guide - Final Guide: Social Cognition, Norm (Social), Group Dynamics

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2310
• Professor: Saba Safdar

Document Summary

Chapters: 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 + lectures since the midterm. Categorization: the lumping together of objects and events into meaningful groupings (brewer. & miller, 1996) one of the fundamental cognitive processes in humans. Major social categorizations ae: gender, ethnicity, age. We tend to exaggerate similarities and ignore differences. Chapter 8 social influence: norms, conformity, compliance or informal group. Conformity: a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined pressure from others (kiesler, kiesler, 1969) Nature of the task: ambiguity, task importance can influence conformity, difficulty, on easy tasks people don t need to look to group members for the answer, whereas on harder tasks they may feel less sure about their answer. Individual differences: conformity varies in different stages of the life span: childhood, adolescence, & old age. The best way to prevent following the wrong social norm is by: becoming aware of normative influence.