power of the situation

a basic premise of social psychology that assumes people’s thoughts, actions, and emotions are influenced substantially by the social setting. For example, the responses of participants in the behavioral study of obedience are attributed to the power of the social situation created by researcher Stanley Milgram rather than to the dispositional characteristics of the participants. See also Stanford prison study.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

x-intercept

x -intercept

n. in an equation representing a straight-line relationship between two variables, the value of variable x when the value of variable y equals zero. For example, in the general linear equation format x = a + by, a represents the x-intercept.