Psychology Chapter on Social Behavior

Social Norms

• Implicit social rules guide how people behave
• Herd mentality: blindly following group direction
• Mass psychogenic illness: symptoms appear in a group without physical cause

Social Loafing

• Reduced effort in group work
• Process loss: reduced effort due to lack of motivation
• Coordination loss: poor communication and cooperation reduce effectiveness
• Less likely in challenging tasks, when contributions are identifiable, and with familiar people

Minimal Group Paradigm

• Arbitrary distinctions (e.g., eye color, t-shirt type) can trigger favoring one's own group
• When groups compete, a tendency emerges to overestimate one's own group's cleverness, intuition, and understanding while underestimating the rival group.

Conformity

• Individuals' tendency to follow group norms and behaviors
• Social norms increase conformity
• Factors influencing conformity include group size, task difficulty, and social status of group members
• Conformity decreases with privacy

Group Polarization

• Groups tend toward more extreme opinions/decisions during discussions
• Example: initially moderate feminist group will become more strongly pro-feminist after discussion

Social Categorization

• Naturally placing individuals into social categories
• Thinking about others based on group memberships rather than personal information

Stereotypes

• Often inaccurate and do not represent the diversity within a group
• Stereotype persistence despite contrary evidence exists
• Stereotypes simplify mental tasks, enhance group identity

Prejudice

• Emotion-centered judgments about a group based on perceived membership
• Part of the social psychology ABCs affecting our relationships with specific groups

Discrimination

• Behaviors toward individuals based on perceived group membership
• Discrimination stems from prejudice and is tied to negative stereotypes

Gender Stereotypes

• Beliefs and behaviors characteristic of each sex.
• Can be simplistic generalizations about attributes, differences, and roles

Prosocial Behavior

• Helping, sharing, volunteering, and donating
• Situational and personal factors (e.g., environment, mood, personality traits) influence helping behavior
• Cultural norms shape views on helping others

Cost-Benefit Analysis

• People weigh costs and benefits before deciding to help

Impact of Mood

• Positive moods increase helping
• Negative moods can motivate helping to alleviate negative feelings

Individual Differences in Helping

• Some people are naturally more helpful due to agreeableness and empathy.
• Altruism: selflessness, inherent inclination to help others without expectation of return