NAME: THERESA THIA AI MIN

STUDENT ID: 0323170

TUTORIAL: 8 – 10 AM

17th October 2015, 5pm

It has been my second semester as a student of Taylor’s University, and it struck to me how fast time went by while pursuing my foundation here. As I went through my memories of the first semester, the concepts of social facilitation and social loathing became apparent through every one of my course mates when faced with a given assignment, especially while carrying out group projects. That did not mean that I was limiting it to only group projects, as it was clearly shown during individual assignments as well. One example would be during assignments that required us to make a presentation in front of the whole class of 124 people. I was very comfortable with presenting the different topics given by our lecturers to the class because public speaking was a skill that I had already acquired through several experiences. Bigger scale presentations exhibited social facilitation in my case as I felt much more confident and motivated to speak when standing in front of a large crowd. In contrast, social loathing is noticeable in me when presenting in front of a smaller crowd. My public speaking performance would decline drastically as I looked into the eyes of everybody in the room and feel their judgement upon me. It makes me nervous and I would forget my points constantly, wavering uncontrollably and mumbling throughout the whole presentation. In this context, social facilitation meant that the performance of a person would improve in the presence of others while social loathing denoted the contrary that the performance of a person would decline in the presence of others. I believe that the amount of people present could be the deciding factor on the performance of a person, as well as that person’s skills and mind set.

Moving on to a person’s performance while carrying out assignments in a group, it took me some time but I slowly observed which groupmates had their performance to fall under the social loafing category and which fell under social facilitation. There are some people who feel the pressure to perform better when put in groups. The main reason for most of them doing so was because they did not want to let the whole team down, and if by chance they are skilled in the particular field explored by the assignment, social facilitation would occur as their performance in the group exceeds their usual performance as an individual. There were some who had different reasons, for instance they did not trust the capabilities or ideas of everybody in the group except themselves, which led them to putting more effort and taking up most of the responsibilities present in the assignment. They would end up doing most part of the project, resulting in having their individual contributions much more clearly identified compared to other members in the group. There are some people who already have the set of skills required by the group project. Their performance would be better in the presence of other groupmates as they have the confidence to carry out the assignment while their impressing their groupmates. There was one assignment where we had to carry out a musical performance with instruments made out of daily items. Those who had knowledge on music performed very well for that assignment. Some of them stated that their performance in front of the whole class on that day was even better than when they performed at home, even though instruments were vastly dissimilar qualities.

Another category of people that I mentioned earlier were those who fell under the category of social loathing. The most common and obvious example would be those that we call lazy groupmates. Those people not only display social loathing, but are also usually loathed by their groupmates for their lack of contribution. They would appear to be not interested during group meetings and rarely show up when asked to. I did not understand fully as to why they would behave this way as their individual assignments were well done. According to the concept of social loathing, some people tend to make less effort in a group as compared to when they were trying to achieve the same goal as an individual. It could be that they felt more relaxed in a group project because there were other people present to help them with the workload. In a more serious case, some people just push the responsibility to all the other groupmates, leaving themselves with minimal work. Another example is people who have a timid personality which goes to the extent where it disrupts communication with other teammates. They might be skilled in something but too shy to do it in front of other people. Lastly, social loathing is displayed when one’s contributions in a group is not identified. They may have made an effort but it is not enough to be noticed.

( 808 words )

9th October 2015, 8.30pm

I noticed my friend acting strangely recently. We used to hang out very often together as a group with other close friends but lately she has been declining us whenever we ask her to join us. We never knew the reason why and nobody really bothered to ask her about it, so everyone just characterized her recent behaviour to dispositional attributes. Dispositional attributes explains a person’s behaviour or actions to be cause by their own internal characteristics. My friends assumed that she declined us because she was bored of hanging out with the same group of friends all the time and wanted a change in friends. The reason of the assumption was based on her personality that liked mixing around with many people instead of sticking with the same group of friends. This process took on the course of the three stage model of attribution but what it lacked in was the consideration of situational factors to take part in her constant rejection. As they were all caught up in their own lives, nobody had the time or energy to overcome their automatic dispositional attribution towards my friend’s behaviour lately. They did not have the motivation to do so as well because the dispositional attribution made was logical enough to be accepted as the real reason. That was the cognitive capacity of almost all of us in the group in this given situation.

As the friend was really close to me, I had the need of cognition to analyse what was going through her mind and weigh in every possible attribute to her behaviour, be it dispositional or situational. I noticed that most of us had the actor-observer bias, which was a bias that led us to making situational attributes for our own behaviour while making dispositional attributes for the behaviour of others. My friends would always come out with a reason for themselves whenever they declined hanging out, making it known that it was not that they did not want to, but it was because they could not at that moment. They would say that they were loaded with assignments or some other activity as situational attributes, so it would not seem that their internal characteristics had anything to do with it. But whenever anybody else declined, they would automatically presume that the person was not interested with joining them. All the reasoning I did in my mind helped me reduce correspondence bias towards my friend which is caused by lack of cognition and information.

After believing that there was more to her behaviour than just the dispositional attributes we believed, I decided to meet her up at her home and get her to talk about it. Her parents were at home. We chose to talk inside her room where there was privacy. She appeared very down when I mentioned the reason I stopped by. She brought me to a room by the kitchen downstairs. In there was a frail old man, who she introduced as her grandfather. I then realized that the fundamental attribution error made by our group of friends were too unfair to her. In front of me lay the very reason for her recent behaviour. She could not hang out with us because her grandfather was deathly ill, and she had to take care of him at home, which was a situational attribution. Even though it was apparent that her grandfather had little amount of days left ahead of her, she still believed strongly in a just world, that good things happen to good people. She believed her grandfather would get better soon because he was a good person to her even though the truth was clear. She told me later that her grandfather had gotten cancer from smoking. Even though it was a dispositional factor that attributed to this outcome, her grandfather condemned cigarettes for causing him to be in this position,

blaming it on the situational attribution. He showed self-serving bias, which is what most people tend to do. They are prone to attributing negative effects to situational factors while attributing positive factors to dispositional factors. It was known that her grandfather was addicted to smoking since his teenage life, which showed that his internal characteristics were related to his current situation. Apart from condemning cigarettes, her grandfather blamed his friends as well, who he believed influenced him into the habit of smoking due to peer pressure. It is from hearing what my friend said that I realized a person’s cognitive capability had great impact on the way they viewed a situation. I bid my friend farewell and wished her grandfather a speedy recovery, as well as urging her to take care of herself. I told our group of friends what had really happened, and they realized that they had made a fundamental attribution error. I hoped it was able to prompt them into having more need for cognition in the future, but all of that really comes down to their cognitive capacities.

( 830 words )

3rd NOVEMBER 2015, 2pm

Our semester break has started and I have been trying to lose weight. What have I done to do about it? I did everything else that did not help me achieve my goal. I’ve been looking at pictures of beautiful models online, admiring their lean curves and thigh gaps but all I have done was to sit around eating whatever food was in sight. That certainly did not help with my aim. I was clear that I was having a dissonant relationship between my behaviour and attitude. My attitude valued the notion of losing weight fully. It was in my opinion, something that I needed to do to get a healthier lifestyle and more confidence. However, my behaviour showed inconsistency with my attitude, as my actions resulted in the opposite way of what my attitude desires. I laze around, not doing any exercise, stocking up so many snacks in the pantry so I can eat them when I feel bored. All these actions contribute to weight gain, which is different from what my goal was. This scenario happens quite often in human life. When their actions contradict with their beliefs or value, it could cause mental discomfort to them as humans strive for internal consistency. Wanting to reduce the degree of cognitive dissonance, I knew I had to include a third consonant element.

There were several ways to do so, namely changing my attitude to fit in my current behaviour. This would require me to change my belief that losing weight is something that I needed to do, and to believe that it is not something compulsory. Adding an extra consonant element in, new beliefs are added, such as thinking that I could still survive being overweight, and I do not mind looking overweight, as well as thinking that the ideal body weight in subjective, and accepting me for who I currently am. This consonant element reduces the significance of my original values, and may alter them completely in a gradual manner. Another method to reducing cognitive dissonance would be identified as selective exposure. This method requires one to actively seek out for exposure to consistent attitudes. For example, I can choose to hang out more often with friends that are enthusiastic about fitness and sports. Their passion for fitness will be displayed through their topics of conversation and their daily routines. They may be able to turn exercising into an appealing activity for me, and I will be more likely to exercise under their influence. Apart from that, selective exposure also suggests that one would selectively avoid exposure that contradicts with attitude. I can choose to reduce my chances of exposure to snacks by avoiding hypermarkets, where snacks are arranged in rows of irresistible temptations. By avoiding to do so, I would not be able to buy as much snacks as I used to, and this will balance out my diet gradually as I would have more appetite to eat other much more nutritious food. Selective exposure creates behaviour that reinforces my current attitude. By exposing myself to people and places that encourage weight loss, I will come up with new behaviour by exercising and eating healthy. My free time would not be spent lazing around, rather it will mostly be consumed by activities such as sports. This is not something that can happen instantly, but could take a certain period of continuous exposure to bring out new behaviours.

Social support that favours a certain attitude is also something that a person will seek out when faced with cognitive dissonance. It can help reduce the degree of dissonance depending on the source of support and method of support. In my case, having a group of fitness enthusiast as friends will pose as great social support for me. But if I am unable to find such friends, I may have to find other means of social support, with an example being my own parents. Parents can be the greatest support to their child if what the child believes is consistent with their beliefs. If my parents do not value weight loss the way that I do, it might cause me to have a much higher degree of cognitive dissonance if I seek out their social support. This is because they will come up with opinions that contradict with my attitude and potentially confuse me as I consider their judgement alongside with my own beliefs. If my parents value weight loss like me, they would give out encouragement that can motivate me to do something about it, hence reducing cognitive dissonance. It is clear now that selective exposure and social support is what I needed to reduce the degree of cognitive dissonance without changing my attitude on the matter. In conclusion, I need to get myself exposure and seek support from people that motivate me to lose weight.

( 807 words )

5th November 2015, 8am

People tend to control the way they interact with other people in an effort to manage the impressions that form around them. We all want to represent ourselves based on what we believe we should be towards the world and take conscious means in order to achieve that goal. When I first started my foundation in university, I was determined to change the way I represented myself to other people. In high school, I was this very shy and awkward person. I made bad friends and people had their impression formed on me based on the personality I showed them as well as my choice in friendships. In result, not many people wanted to be friends with me. I lived my whole high school life feeling inferior. Stepping into university, I had a good start as there was nobody from my high school pursuing the same course as I am. It was a splendid start for me to change my whole image when there was no one from my past to remind me of who I was. During orientation, every interaction I had with anybody I ran across was controlled consciously to in an attempt to influence how my course mates would think of me. I talked confidently to hide the fact from people that I was terrified and incredibly shy but refrained from being too confident in case it comes across as cocky. I smiled and laughed at every chance to exude traits of friendliness, warmth and cheerfulness. These traits were what I wanted people to perceive me as having and what I believe would make them form a good impression on me. Impression management for me came with the ultimate motive of rebranding myself for a better social experience. I was tired of being the weird girl in class. I wanted to be accepted and liked by people in my course. By the end of orientation, I had made an impression on people I met as well as making many new friends, which was something I never did in high school. Yet, impression management did not stop at orientation.

When our classes started officially and teacher put us in groups with people we never met for assignment, I felt the need to control my new group mates’ perception on me. The goals of forming a particular image towards my groupmates were different. This time, not only did I want to make friends, I wanted to give them the impression that I was passionate about assignments. I always appeared to be interested during group meetings, as well as showing excitement occasionally. Soon enough my group mates had the impression that I loved working with them and loved the assignment. They started to show more interest in the project as well and we all communicated very smoothly. That is how impression management comes into importance during daily situations. People can manage their image to gain influence over other people. My group mates were influenced into doing their assignment with enthusiasm because they caught on the excitement that I exhibited, making them believe that I enjoyed doing the project and they should too.

During some interactions I had in university, I used ingratiation to prime my impression. I would compliment someone with the constraint that it had to be sincere. My intentions were to make myself appear as a likeable person as well as letting them know that I was paying attention to them. Ingratiation could be used in many situations, for example the countless number of times I praised my groupmates for any contributions they made to the team and made them feel appreciated. There are also the times I praised someone for how they looked or what they were wearing, boosting their confidence. All these in turn, gives people a good impression of me if not used excessively, as that would make me come off as insincere.

Managing my impression too much brought one downside to my life. It was known as the spotlight effect. I believed that I was in the centre of attention and believed that I was being noticed more than I actually was. It is believed that many people are influenced by this effect, so I was not the only one. It led me to thinking that all my internal thoughts, physical appearances and little changes in behaviour were obvious to other people. In turn, I became wary of my own thoughts, trying controlling what went through my mind because I was afraid that people would notice and judge me on what I was thinking. I spent a lot of time focused on my outfit and hair as well as monitoring my every movement because I felt that people were scrutinizing my behaviour. It became mentally exhausting but I learnt to manage my impression in moderation when I realized the impacts of the spotlight effect on me.

( 812 words )

25th November 2015, 10am

Cognitive ability is known as the emergence of the ability to think and understand. It is believed by Jean Piaget that a person would have to undergo four processes countless of times in their lifetime to achieve the cognitive ability that they have right now. These processes were named assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium and equilibration. Cognitive frameworks known as schemas are the fundamentals to the development of one’s cognition. My childhood had a large impact on the formation of my current cognitive ability. It was the accumulation of many experiences that helped me form a huge amount of schemas and required me to undergo the four stated processes repeatedly to mould these schemas into what was deemed suitable in my perception of the world. Schemas actually started to form when I was a toddler without me even knowing. Ever since I started to be conscious to my surroundings, the schema for a building was already automatically formed in my mind. At that time, I did not even know how to form words in my mind so I did not have a word for that schema. Even so, that schema was still available to me every day as I based it off the house that I was living in, because that was where I was at for the most part of my toddler life. My schema at that point for a building was something that had walls, something that blocked the sunlight. I knew I was inside a building when I did not feel the heat of the sun on my body. As I grew a little older, I learnt how to form words. I learnt that there were names for everything. It didn’t take long before I learnt that the building I was living in was called a house. This new piece of information caused me to undergo the process of assimilation. Assimilation is the process where a new schema is classified under an existing schema. My schema for buildings did not change, it was still the walls of the house that let me know it was a building, but now I identified the building as a house.

As I grew older, my parents brought me outdoor more often. Outside, I was exposed to many more different types of buildings namely skyscrapers, shopping malls and factories. These new information confused me initially as they looked nothing like my house, but my parents taught me to call all of them buildings. My mind had to go through the process of accommodation for my schema to adapt to all these new information. Accommodation is the process that requires one to modify an existing schema to accommodate a new stimulus. I tweaked my schema for buildings for me to understand that houses are not the only buildings in the world, but are only one of many different buildings that come in various shapes, structure and size. One factor that helped me undergo this process of accommodation was the fact that all these buildings had the same concrete and solid look to them, and I related all these traits to my schema for buildings. At this point, my mind had reached the comfortable state of equilibrium as the processes of assimilation and accommodation worked together rapidly to make my schema for buildings more adequate. My mind could now work automatically to assimilate every new building that I came across under my schema for buildings.

There was this time where I went on a 3 week cruise when I was 4 years old. I mistook the cruise ship I was on for a building as the interior related so much to many buildings I have been in. It had walls, a ceiling and plenty of furniture inside. There were facilities there that one would find in normal buildings such as a swimming pool and a cafeteria. My mother told me that the structure I was in was called a ship. Automatically I assimilated ships under the schema for buildings. I kept calling the cruise ship a building but my parents kept correcting me. They would say: “No dear, this is not a building you are on, it is a ship. Do not call it a building.” I became very confused. My mind was in a very uncomfortable state as I tried to understand what my parents meant. They probably noticed my confusion and gave me a thorough explanation a few days later. My mother explained that a ship was a structure that floated on water. It can move on water but buildings cannot. There are many kinds of ships in this world. The ship we were on was for people to go on vacation, which is why the interior looks so much like a building. I was starting to understand the whole ship concept. My father took the effort to search online for pictures of ships to show me. As I looked at the pictures, I noticed that there were some differences that set the ships apart from any buildings I have been in. The ships have a streamlined shape and looked metallic compared to buildings. I removed ships from my schema for buildings and made a new schema for it. My mind was comfortable now that I had reached equilibration.

( 875 words )