SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENTS

Group Members Student IDWong Yun Teng 0323454Lee Xin Ying 0322432Teoh Zhe Khai 0322905Janson Chen 0323047

Social Psychology (PSY30103)

Session: Monday (3.30pm-5.30pm)

Lecturer: Mr. Shankar Thiruchelvam

Submission date: 1st February 2016

Table of Content

No. Title Page1. Acknowledgement 1

2. Introduction 2

3. Roles 3

4. Storyline 4

5. Concepts and Application 5 – 9

6. References 10

Acknowledgement

First and foremost, we would like to express our gratitude to our Social Psychology lecturer, Mr. Shankar Thiruchelvam for his patient guidance throughout this semester. He helps us to understand all the concepts in the chapters and answers all the question we asked in the class. Next, we would like to appreciate to our group members that were involved and contributed in this assignment.

On the other hand, we would like to thank Wong Yun Teng for writing the storyline and doing the presentation slide. Also, we would like to thank Teoh Zhe Khai for directing and editing the video. Next, we would like to thank Janson Chen and Lee Xin Ying for writing the report. This assignment would not be complete without the effort and cooperation from every group members.

Introduction

Psychology is the scientific study of how people act, think, and feel. Social psychology studies how people act, think and feel in the context of society. That is, how people’s behaviours, thoughts, and feelings change because of other people.

This assignment consisted of 3 components which include a video clip, written report and presentation slide. For this assignment, we made up a video clip between 3-5 minutes by using a storyline that incorporate 5 concepts learned in class, written report of the clip that consists of 1500 words and presenting the clip to the class. This project allows us to recognize and identify the connections among concepts and perspectives within psychology and with other disciplines. This assignment also allows us to engage in psychological inquiry and become self-regulated learners.

Roles

26th January 2016Wong Yun Teng came out with her story with concepts. We have no meeting today but discussed the storyline in Whatsapp group.

28th January 2016All of the group members attended in this meeting. We met in library and discussed about the script for the video. After that, we confirmed the date, time and venue for taking the video.

29th January 2016The day of video filming. We did it on in the morning from 9am to 12pm at Block E Level 3, Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. After that, we discussed about the written report, presentation slide and edit video.

We separated the video into 5 segments to film up into 5 scenes which are representing 5 different concepts. This assignment needed the input of all members and all of us needed to be in the video. We discussed and settled the person who is in charge for each section. So that, everyone has put effort on this assignment.

Member Roles in assignment Roles in videoWong Yun Teng Slide maker Student BLee Xin Ying Report writer Student ATeoh Zhe Khai Vide editor TeacherJanson Chen Report writer Prefect

Storyline

This is a story about a prefect and a student. There was once a prefect who was always abusing his power towards this student so the student grew up disliking prefects in general. (schemas) The prefect always thought that prefects are “upper class” and better while normal students are below them (in group bias). The prefect acts differently towards teachers than when he is with students. He is more willing to give a hand to teachers but always ignore the requests of other students (explicit attitude). One day, the prefect spills over the ink put on the teacher’s table accidentally, but he leaves without clean it up. When the teacher comes into the class next day and feel upset for the mess, the prefect feels relax but the students feel nervous, because he always believed that he will never be in trouble while others will be punished instead (optimistic bias). Because of this, most of the teachers think that the prefect is a good student. When the students tell the teacher about the true, he does not listen to the bad stuff said about the prefect, because he believes that the prefect only has the good stuff. (confirmation bias)

Concepts and Application

I. Schema

Definition:a mental concept that informs a person about what to expect from a variety of experiences and situations. Schemas are developed based on information provided by life experiences and are then stored in memory. Our brains create and use schemas as a short cut to make future encounters with similar situations easier to navigate. We will look at a couple of examples that will help illustrate the definition.

Application:Once student A asked the prefect for teaching her some question but the prefect abused her, she started to dislike all of the prefect in general.

II. In group bias

Definition:refers to a pattern of favouring members of one's in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways.

Application:The arrogant prefect does not like to communicate with the normal students compare to other prefects, because he thinks that prefects are better and upper class than normal students.

III. Explicit attitude

Definition:A person’s conscious views toward people, objects, or concepts. That is, the person is aware of the feelings he or she holds in a certain context.

Application:The prefect acts differently towards teachers than when he is with other students. When student A asks him some questions, he thinks that student A is too stupid because for him, the questions is easy. and he is not willing to help her solves the questions. He also likes to instruct other students helps him to do anything. But when teacher ask for help, he will always be the first to give a hand.

IV. Optimistic bias

Definition:known as unrealistic or comparative optimism, is a cognitive bias that causes a person to believe that they are less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.

Application:One day, the prefect spills over the ink put on the teacher’s table accidentally. He finally go away without clean it up. Unfortunately, that day have only prefect, student A and student B stay back to do the student on duty. The next day, when teacher see the table is too dirty, he is very upset. Student A and student B feel nervous because they are on duty yesterday but the prefect looks like very relax and none of his business. This is because he always believes that he will never be in trouble regardless of what kinds of matter.

V. Confirmation bias

Definition:a type of cognitive bias that involves favouring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. It occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea/concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views (prejudices) one would like to be true.

Application:The teacher firmly believes student A and B did the mess, he has no give them a chance to explain. He never doubts that maybe the mess is did by the prefect, because subconsciously, he think that he is a good student. After the class is end, student B feels so unfair, she decides to complain to the teacher that not student A and her did the mess, the one who did it is the prefect. Although this is the true, but the teacher not believe to her at all because he considers the prefect is a good student.

References

1. Social Psychology, Simply Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-psychology.html

2. In-group, out-group, and the psychology of crowds. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201012/in-groups-out-groups-and-the-psychology-crowds

3. Why We Favour Information That Confirms Our Existing Beliefs. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/fl/What-Is-a-Confirmation-Bias.htm