Glossary Key of Terms

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[Glossary] Category
A

ACHA-NCHA

American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment: “The ACHA-National College Health Assessment (NCHA) is a nationally recognized research survey that can assist you in collecting precise data about your students’ health habits, behaviors, and perceptions.” (ACHA)

C

Clickers (Audience Feedback Technology)

Wireless keypads used as a group-based educational technology. In social norms interventions, each participant uses a clicker to answer multiple-choice survey questions, and immediate group results are then available to provide normative feedback (more at LaBrie 2008 Clickers and group-specific normative feedback file)

D

Descriptive (Behavioral) Norms

The behaviors engaged in by a majority of members of an identified group or population

F

False consensus

A type of cognitive bias in which an individual falsely believes that most members of their social group shares the same beliefs and behaviors as they do.

I

Injunctive (Attitudinal) Norms

The attitudes held by a majority of members of an identified group or population

M

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

An evidence-based counseling technique, widely used in substance abuse treatment, that is “…a collaborative, person-­‐centered form of guiding to elicit and strengthen motivation for change.” (Miller, W.R. & Rollnick, S. (2009). Ten things that Motivational Interviewing is not. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 37, 129-­‐140.) MI often incorporates normative information, encouraging an individual to assess the accuracy of their perception of peers’ behaviors and attitudes.

N

Normative feedback

information provided to a target group that allows individuals to compare their perceptions of group norms and their behavior with the actual behavioral norms of the group (adapted from LaBrie , Hummer, Neighbors, & Pederson, 2008)

N

Normative misperception

An individual’s perception of the normative behaviors and attitudes of a group of peers can often be inaccurate. This inaccuracy often takes the form of over-estimating the prevalence of unhealthy or risky behaviors and attitudes and under-estimating the prevalence of healthy behaviors and attitudes.

P

Personalized normative feedback

Feedback about the respondent’s own behavior, and how that behavior compares with the social norms in his/her peer group. (adapted from McAlaney, Bewick, & Bauerle, 2010)

P

Pluralistic ignorance

The majority of members of a group have an inaccurate perception of the group norm

S

Salience

The extent to which an individual identifies with a given group. For example, norms based on students attending an individual’s institution will have more relevance to the individual’s behavioral choices than the norms of all college students (see, for example, Neighbors…) Focus Theory of Normative Behavior asserts that a social norm is more likely to influence behavior when people are focused or conscious of that norm (Burchell, Rettie, & Patel, 2013; Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990).

S

Small group social norms

A social norms based intervention that occurs in a small group context.

S

Social Norms

“the customary rules that govern behavior in groups and societies” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). In the context of social norms interventions, social norms refers to the behaviors or attitudes of the majority of members of an identified group or population