Social Psychology

PSYC 0203

Assignment 1: Journal

Name: Lee Ning

Student ID: 0320125

Course: FNBE 0814

Lecturer: Mr. Shankar

Tutorial Class: Monday, 9-10 a.m.

Submission Date: 27th April 2015

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Settings: 7.00-8.00 p.m., 9 April 2015

Location: Pasar Malam Taman Impian Emas, Skudai, Johor

Entry 1: Heuristics, Chapter 3

In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, learned or hard-coded by

evolutionary processes that reduce mental effort. Heuristics are also mental

shortcuts which allow us to make decision or judgement quickly. Heuristics

have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to

judgments, and solve problems typically when facing complex problems or

incomplete information. Heuristics can be interpreted into two, the availability

heuristics and representativeness heuristics.

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The availability heuristics are our assessment of how likely an occurrence is

based on hoe easily an example of that event can be recalled. Whereas, the

representativeness heuristics are our assessment of how likely an occurrence

is based on how much it resembles our expectation for a model of that event.

In the representativeness heuristics, there is a base rate fallacy. Where base

rate fallacy is an error caused by drawing a conclusion using the

representativeness heuristic without considering the base rate.

Nowadays, everyone is concerning about the Goods & Service Tax (GST).

After 1st April 2015, the prices of many items have been raised by 6%

because of the GST. So, we assessed that, the things before GST comes or

without GST are cheaper and we have more tendency to buy cheaper things.

When I passed by a fruits stall in the night market, I heard an interesting

slogan: “No GST on fruits, the more you buy, the more you save”. Peoples

were attracted by the slogan and started to have a look on the fruits. Peoples

were attracted as they recalled that the things without GST are cheaper

because of the availability heuristics. So, they decided to buy the fruits and

started to choose the fruits.

When a consumer wanted to pay for the fruits he had chosen, the fruits staller

started to give him a discount: “If you only buy 5 fruits, the price is RM10, but

if you buy 10 fruits, the price is RM16”. Then again, the consumer considered

to buy another 5 fruits due to the “cheaper” price because of the

representativeness heuristics. This is because consumer considered that both

situations gave a cheaper price.

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If the consumer was over-rely on heuristic and did not consider on the base

rate that he only needed 5 fruits, so he bought 5 extra fruits. If he could not

finish them before they are rotten, he will actually waste RM6 instead of

saving RM4. This is because the consumer was over-relying on the heuristic

which led the base rate fallacy occurred. By drawing a conclusion which buys

cheaper things can save more, the consumer did not consider the base rate

that he only needed 5 fruits.

Conclusion, heuristics is a mental shortcut to help people to decide quickly.

But we must not over-rely on it as not every problem can be solved by the

same solution, and sometimes the wrong solution by heuristics may cause a

serious mistake.

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Setting: 7.00- 8.00 p.m., 2nd April 2015

Location: Taylors’ University Lakeside Campus

Entry 2: Self-fulfilling prophecy, Chapter 4

Self-fulfilling prophecy is any positive or negative expectation about

circumstances, events, or people that may affect a person's behaviour toward

them in a manner that causes those expectations to be fulfilled. Meaning

that ， we will tend to fulfil our own or others expectations by self-fulfilling

prophecy either the expectations are positive or negative. This is because our

beliefs influence our actions.

For example, one of my friends who believes in Arithmancy was tended to

fulfil what the fortune teller had told her and finally what the fortune teller tod

her became true.

This incident happened in 2013, my friends and I were strolling in a shopping

centre. When we passed by a fortune teller stall, we were attracted by our

curiosity. My friend who was just fall in love at that time asked about whether

her present boyfriend was her destiny. Then the fortune teller told her that she

has more than 3 loving paths, which means that her present boyfriend was

not her destiny. Although we had told her that what the fortune teller said

might not preciseness but she was still took it to her heart.

After that time, she started to find out her boyfriend’s shortcomings, and feel

easy to get jealous if her boyfriend was talking to another girl. There were

several times she told us about her relationships with her boyfriend, when

they got quarrels. As her friends, we noticed that her boyfriend was true to her

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but she herself was the one who had been oversensitive. At the end, she

broke up with her boyfriend in the next year. The same situation goes to her

next two relationships.

Now, she is in a relationship with another guy, I do not know whether she will

continue to break up with her boyfriend or not, but I hope she has found her

true love. I hope she had forgotten what has the fortune teller told her and

realise that her future is in her hands, no one can actually decide for her

except herself, and she can always change her destiny by her will.

I had read an article about the flea and the lid’s experiment when I was in

secondary school. In the experiment, a scientist placed a number of fleas in a

glass jar. They quickly jumped out. He then put the fleas back into the jar and

placed a glass lid over the top. The fleas began jumping and hitting the glass

lid, falling back down into the jar.

After a while, the fleas, conditioned to the presence of the glass lid, began

jumping slightly below the glass lid so as not to hit it. The scientist then

removed the glass lid as it was no longer needed to keep the fleas in the jar.

The fleas have learned to limit themselves from jumping beyond the height of

the lid even if the lid was removed.

This experiment showed that even fleas will have the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The fleas limited themselves to jump higher as the scientist had set a limit for

them to prevent them to jump out from the glass jar by using a glass lid. By

fulfilling the scientist’s expectation, the fleas limited themselves from jumping

out beyond the height of the lid even the lid was removed. This is because

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they have been conditioned that they cannot escape from the jar and finally,

they fulfilled the scientist’s expectation and their own predictions.

In the conclusion, we tend to fulfil ourselves’ and others expectations.

However, we still can make our lives better by forbidding the negative

expectations. So, the first thing to do to lead a better life is to change your

thoughts. As the saying goes, “change your thoughts and you change your

world”, by Norman Vincent Peale.

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Settings: 7th April 2015

Location: Basketball court at Pontian, Johor

Entry 3: Social Facilitation, Chapter 1

Social facilitation is the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks when

in the presence of other people. This implies that, whenever people are being

watched by others, they will do well on things that they are already good at

doing. In 1898, Norman Triplett noted that competitive cyclists performed

better during races than during solo rides. There was subsequent research

confirmed that a well-learned performance is enhanced in the presence of

others. Meaning that, in the presence of others, we will perform better.

For example, my elder sister who is a basketball player in her school team

usually practiced her free shots to simplify the shooting process as a well-

learned process. In her practices, she will usually miss out 2-3 shots out of 10

shots. So, her probability to score is about 70-80%. But if she was in a play,

her probability to score is 85-90%. This is because of the social facilitation

occurs when she was in a play.

By practicing the free shots, it became a well-learned skill. The process of

well-learned performance is to complete a complex task as a simple task by

continuous practices. This well-learned performance was promoted when she

was in a play. That’s why her probability to score increased when she was in

a play.

Social facilitation occurs because she was performing her well-learned skill in

the presence of others yet her individual contributions to the team still can be

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identified even she was in the team. Therefore, she tended to perform better

in a play than she was practicing. This is because there was an extra

competitiveness when she was in a play. This competitiveness influenced her

to perform better to get the attentions and the supports from the audiences in

order to help her team to win the competition.

In conclusion, social facilitation occurs when people are performing in the

presence of others in order to achieve a target yet their individual

contributions can be identified. Besides that, social facilitation only occurs if

there is a well-learned performance.

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Settings: 8.30-9.00 p.m., 17th April 2015

Location: U-residence, Taylors University Lakeside Campus

Entry 4: False Consensus, Chapter 2

False consensus is our tendency to overestimate the number of people who

act or think as we do. False consensus effect is a type of bias in which we

think that our own opinions, attitudes and beliefs are common and

appropriate, so that others must also feel the same way. When we have a

particular belief, we tend to estimate that belief to be more prevalent than it is

by individuals that have an alternative belief. This effect may serve as a self-

protective function that we think our behaviours are acceptable and usually

reinforced by the company we keep.

For example, my friend who is a fashion person always takes care of her

image, she will have to make up every times she go out. That night, even she

just wanted to buy some groceries downstairs at 7-Eleven, she applied her

lipstick before she went out. For her, it is a necessary for a person to make up

before going out. She thinks that everyone has their responsibilities to take

care of their image and having a makeup before going out is a respect to

others. This action is reinforced by her friends who also get used to makeup

before going out.

I still can remember her face when I told her that I want to have dinner with

my friends without making up. She was totally shocked when I told her I never

make up. This is because she was having a false consensus that everyone

will make up before going out as all her friends around her will make up

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before going out. Then I had my explanations for her. I told her that it is not

necessary for me to make up as long as I think I looked fine and the way that I

show my respect to others is wearing proper clothing.

Conclusion, it is always a norm to overestimate the number of people who act

or think as we do. This is because of the confirmation bias that we always

tend to give attention to the things that support our beliefs and disregard the

information that conflicts our beliefs. Therefore, the people in a community will

share the same opinions or behaviours. This lead the false consensus

continued to occur as the people who shared the same opinions or behaviour

will reinforce it. To reduce the frequency of false consensus, we may conduct

some researches to explore our understanding to the world.

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Settings: 4:00-7.00p.m., 11rd February 2015

Location: IKEA

Entry 5: Cognitive Dissonance, Chapter 5

Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes,

beliefs or behaviours. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an

alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to reduce the

discomfort and restore balance. To reduce the sense of discomfort, we might

change our attitude by adding a consonant element. Therefore, the post-

decision dissonance occurs. We will start to devalue the option which is not

selected to improve our moods.

My roommate and I were choosing our new clothes stand in IKEA. When we

looked onto the catalogues we decided to buy clothes stand A, but we had

changed our mind to buy clothes stand B which was not listed in the

catalogue as the price was almost the half of clothes stand A. The differences

between the two clothes stands is clothes stand A have the pulleys but

clothes stand B have no. At the end, we had bought clothes stand B as it was

cheaper.

On the way back, my roommate and I kept comparing the two clothes stands.

We started to find out the advantages of the clothes stand that we had bought

and the flaws of clothes stand A. For example, the clothes stand we had

bought had a cheaper price, it is higher than clothes stand A so that our long

trousers would not touch the floor, and it has a smaller width so that it can

save our room space also clothes stand A is much more bigger and might not

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fit in our room, it is too short, the pulleys might make the clothes stand keep

moving if we do not log on the pulleys and it had a higher price.

When we were choosing the new clothes stand, the cognitive dissonance

occurred. Our first cognition to buy the clothes stand A was because clothes

stand A has pulleys. Then, the dissonant element was we were buying clothes

stand B. The consonant element that influenced us to buy clothes stand B

was the cheaper price of clothes stand B. The cheaper price of clothes stand

B became the third consonant element to reduce the degree of dissonance.

On the way back, post-decision dissonance occurred. We started to compare

the two clothes stands and find the flaws of the clothes stand we did not buy.

We had changed our attitudes to clothes stand A and felt that it was not as

good as we thought. We also spotted out the advantages of the clothes stand

we bought to support our decision. These were used to reduce the degree of

dissonance in this incident.

Conclusion, in Leon Festinger’ s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, cognitive

dissonance occurs when an attitude is in keeping with a behaviour then there

is a consonance relationship but when the attitude is not keeping with the

behaviour then there is a dissonant relationship. The dissonant relationship

requires a third consonant element to reduce the degree of dissonance. After

the decision has made, there will be a post-decision dissonance which we will

started to find flaws with the option that we rejected. This post-decision

dissonance might change our attitude to the first cognitive attitude to reduce

the level of dissonance.

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