Final answer:
Sociological concepts such as deindividuation, groupthink, and socialization explain how individuals are influenced by group members through loss of self-awareness, conformity, and assimilation of group values respectively.
Step-by-step explanation:
When members of social groups are influenced by other members, this phenomenon can be referred to as several concepts including deindividuation, groupthink, and socialization. Deindividuation is the loss of self-awareness in groups, possibly leading to anomalous behavior. Groupthink, on the other hand, describes the phenomenon where members of a group conform to what they perceive as the consensus, often leading to a suppression of dissenting viewpoints and poor decision-making outcomes. Lastly, socialization is the process by which individuals assimilate the values, beliefs, and norms of a group, impacting their opinions and behaviors.
These concepts are crucial for understanding how groups can exert influence on individuals, shaping their thoughts, feelings, and actions in profound ways. This includes how peer groups can steer political views or how people adapt to fit into reference groups in new environments, like a college campus.
In sociology, understanding these dynamics is key to analyzing human behavior within different social contexts and the impact of group dynamics on individual decision-making processes.