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social psychology  The branch of psychology that studies individuals as they interact with others.
deindividuation  State in which people in a group can feel anonymous and unidentifiable and therefore feel less concerned with what others think of their behavior.
diffusion of responsibility  The effect of being in a group that apparently reduces the sense of personal responsibility of each group member to act appropriately.
social facilitation  An effect in which working in a group improves one's performance on individual projects.
social loafing  The tendency of members of groups to work less hard when group performance is measured than when individual performance is measured.
groupthink  The faulty decision-making processes that may occur in groups.
polarization  The tendency for group discussion to make beliefs and attitudes more extreme.
conformity  Yielding to group pressure even when no direct request to comply has been made.
social roles  Culturally determined guidelines that tell people what behavior is expected of them.
social norms  Guidelines provided by every culture for judging acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
obedience  Doing what one is told to do by people in authority.
attitudes  Beliefs that predispose one to act and feel in certain ways.
persuasion  The process of changing another person's attitudes through arguments and other related means.
sleeper effects  According to Hovland, the potential for low-credibility speakers to influence opinion after a period of time.
cognitive dissonance  The discomfort that results from inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior.
prejudice  A harmful attitude based on inaccurate generalizations about a group of people.
stereotype  An inaccurate generalization on which a prejudice is based.
attribution theory  The theory that people tend to look for explanations for their own behavior and that of others.
person perception  The process of forming impressions of others.
primacy effect  The tendency for first impressions to heavily influence opinions about other people.
fundamental attribution error  The tendency to underestimate the impact of situations on others while overestimating the impact on oneself.
attribution  The process of trying to explain why things happen--that is, attribute them to some cause.
situational attribution  An explanation for behavior that is based on an external cause.
dispositional attribution  An explanation for behavior that is based on a personal characteristic of the individual.
passionate love  The mixture of romantic, sexual, and other feelings of love.
companionate love  The blend of friendship, intimacy, commitment, and security that generally develops after passionate love.
equity theory  The theory that partners will be comfortable in their relationship only when the ratio between their perceived contributions and benefits is equal.







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