There are many psychological terms that can explain different influences for behavior. For instance, deindividuation in a group setting can influence behavior. Joining a cult or a gang can change one’s behavior entirely, taking away their entire sense of individual identity and get lost within the group.
Social loafing within a group can be problematic and negatively influence a person’s behavior. If a group of students are working together on a project, the students will put less effort in individually to reach the collective goal because they know that that they can shrug off some of the responsibilities because others will pick up the slack. The door-in-the-face phenomenon is a common tactic for someone to use to get something that they would want. This phenomenon enables even the most honest person to deceive someone into giving in to their wishes or demands. If I wanted money from my mom to go to the mall and I was using the door-in-the-face phenomenon I would first ask her for $100, knowing she would say no. Then I would make a second request, only for $25, knowing that she would find the second request more reasonable, and more likely give in to my request, and I would get the money for the mall. Social facilitation can either have a positive or negative effect on behavior. If Genna is the top swimmer on the swim team, she is more likely to swim even better when she has an audience. But on the other hand, Genna is not a strong volleyball player, and she only plays for gym class as a requirements. When the entire gym class watches her team’s tournament, she gets nervous, and she is likely to do worse because of the pressure of being watched. Obedience is a common cultural phenomenon largely related to behavior. People are naturally obedient to an authority figure, so if Brooke’s mother, Cindy, tells her to clean her room, she will go ahead and clean her room, even though she may not want to. Cognitive Dissonance can be looked at more as a way to make an excuse for one’s behavior. For instance, Sheryl could go to work every day and one day decides she would steal some office supplies. At first she feels guilty, but then finds a way to justify it. Sheryl believes that she has a right to steal the office supplies because she does not feel that she is being paid enough. Racial discrimination is a serious problem increasingly common in today’s society. There are psychological phenomena that can even explain the perpetuation of racial discrimination. Obedience for instance is one of the most common explainable reasons for the perpetuation of racial discrimination. People like to follow a leader, and they like someone being in control. In terms of obedience, a leader can put the idea of racial discrimination into their followers head’s and allow them to think the same beliefs because they are told to. The people are subject to what their leader tells them to think. An example of this is Hitler’s control over the Nazi party. He told millions of people to follow his beliefs and actions, and they did, resulting in a world-wide genocide. Racial discrimination can also be seen in relation to deinidividuation. In a group, people lose a sense of their own identity, causing deindividuation to occur. Within that group of people, if some of them members share a negative belief of people of a certain race, and treat people of that race differently than others, then the other members of the group are likely to follow along with their group members so that they all share the same common beliefs and perform the same actions together. Racial discrimination can also be found in a form of cognitive dissonance. People can be mean and hurtful towards others. People discriminate against others of another race for unexplainable reasons, just because they believe it’s the correct way of thinking. Cognitive dissonance plays a role because they can use something as an excuse to justify why they are discriminating against others, and to them, it would make sense and make it feel right, even though it is wrong.