PSYC201 Introduction To Psychology

What traits of a person determine their behavior?

What is the technique to change attitude?

Dissonance is related to which attribute according to the theory of Cognitive dissonance?

What situation promotes obedience in people?

What promotes coformity to a group?

In relation to performance in individual task, what does social facilitation experiments test?

What situation leads to obedience in people?

What elements is necessary to change attitude of people?

Which statement is true- ‘Behavior determines attitude or attitude determines behavior”?

Which element is include in emotional dimension of attitude?

From the lesson learnt from chapter 13, we gained different idea related to factors that influence group behavior. Social loafing and social facilitation were important concept among them to understand group dynamics and behavior in a group. While social loafing is the tendency of improved performance in the presence of other members in the group, social loafing relates to the tendency of individual giving less effort in a group. As both are different concept, we organized a group activity among classmates to determine which concept is correct to determine group behavior and individual performance in groups.

Two groups in our class were involved in a collaborative educational task regarding preparing a creative poster on the interesting fact about psychology. They had to prepare this poster within 30 minutes. To prove the theory of social loafing, one group had only 4 members and other group had 10 members. In doing this activity, it was necessary that each member understand their responsibility and contribute equally to the task. It also meant applying creative skill as well as academic skill in preparing the poster. As the first group had only 4 members, it was found that each member were very serious about completing the task in time. They were given 10 minutes time before developing the poster. In this time, they effectively divided the task among all the four members. Things went smoothly for this group. One person was involved in writing the content of the task, other person created the framework of the poster. In the meanwhile, the third person clearly wrote down the information in a creative and attractive writing style. The last person worked on identifying errors and correcting other members.

On the other hand, the group with many members were found to have a relaxed attitude. While some members were seriously working to complete the poster on time, other members were found loitering around or just watching what was happening. Hence, in this group, all members did not contribute equally to the task and some members underperformed. The final outcome of this activity was that group with 4 members completed the task with distinction and the group with larger number failed to complete the poster and they prepared a very haphazard poster. This group activity suggested that individuals with smaller groups are more productive than members with large group. This is relevant to the concept of social loafing in psychology.

From the topic of social psychology, I gained many knowledge about the manner in which people’s attitude and behavior is influenced by different attributes present in society. The main theoretical concepts related to social psychology covered in the week included the attribution theory of social behavior, relation between attitudes and action, techniques to change or modify attitude of an individual, benefit of the foot in the door phenomenon, cognitive dissonance theory, social influence and compliance with social pressure and key concepts related to group dynamics. The reflective essay demonstrates how these concepts and learning is useful for me in everyday life.

The fundamental attribution theory was a useful concept, which helped me to understand why people react different on different situation. Through this theory, I learnt that people’s behavior is influenced either by specific situation or by personal disposition. This understanding will help me to evaluate people’s behavior in different social context. It will help to judge reasons behind behavior of diverse people living in the society and promote understanding of political life. This will help determine political development of a region or social development of individual. For instance, the ideology of people based on situation or personal disposition will help determine performance of individual in different societal actions such as welfare activities, social rights and developing social policies (Sahar, 2014).

From the class lesson, I also gained understanding about the different routes of persuasion to influence an action and the use of foot-in-the-door phenomenon to influence an action. Through the learning of different modes of persuasion, I can effectively apply them in different situations in life. For example, I will use peripheral route persuasion to encourage my family members to lead a healthy life. On the other hand, in my professional life, I will use central route persuasion to contribute to decision making and problem solving process in my job.

I am also amazed to know how techniques like foot-in-the-door phenomenon facilitate engagement of people in useful activities. Just like Chinese captors used this technique to engage prisoners in useful activities while in confinement, this technique can be used to improve the life of the socially disadvantaged group in society. This group of people generally hesitates to take part in development activities like educational attainment or healthy behavior because of poor social experience in their life. In such situation, the foot-in-the door technique can help to engage this people in small activities that developed their interest in educational attainment and practice healthy behavior to prevent diagnosis of chronic illness.

Another important concept learnt from the chapter of social psychology is related to understanding about factors affecting group behavior. This experience will support me in my professional life when I have to work in team as part of my professional responsibility. This understanding will help me to manage group based work and promote social facilitation in group. I can work to eliminate negative consequence of social loafing in team work. I hope to explore other elements in the field of social psychology so that I expand my knowledge about social behavior and thinking pattern of different individuals in society.

After completion of the chapter 13 on social psychology, we had to prepare a presentation on the topic covered in the week and engage in group activity to understand the concept of group behavior. In this self-reflective paper, I will discuss how I went about planning and developing the presentation on the topic. I will also mention the issues that I faced during this presentation plan and propose action plan to improve the presentation skills in the future.

While preparing the presentation, I wanted to ensure that I cover all the important point covered in the topic. The main goal of preparing the presentation was to make it academically sound that readers the work to be informative. To prepare a successful academical paper presentation, I searched about the method or model of paper presentation in the field of social psychology. As the topic is related to social psychology, it was evident that there were will be many theories in it. However, I made sure not to make the work monotonous for the reader and include clear indicative diagrams so that reviewer understands the topic even without reading. This was meant to keep the interest of the readers alive until my presentation end. I wanted them to stay hooked to my presentation and add elements so that they become curious about the next slide to come. This tactic helped me a lot in efficiently preparing the paper according to academic standard.

When I was preparing the presentation, I also found some issues too. This occurred when I had to fully cover the theory as well as add visual props. I wanted to ensure that I do not go out of the context. For some theories, I found it difficult to find appropriate diagrams that would make the idea clear to readers. Hence, in some cases, I had to skip the visual illustration as I could not find an appropriate depiction of the theory through illustrative diagram. I had to speak about the presentation in front of an audience and I was very nervous about my tone of speech at that time. Reading too fast may also give bad impression to audience and reading slowly will also create problems. The most important thing was that I had to deliver my speech according to time allotted. Hence, to ensure that everything worked well while giving the presentation, I practices a lot and plan accordingly to make my speech fit in. Lastly, giving a final conclusion was important and I ended u my speech with identifying areas of controversy or doubt which could be easily explored.

My personal experience of preparing a presentation for the topic of social psychology helped me identify my areas of strength and weakness in presentation task. I would like to work on my weakness in the future. For instance, there are many smart art techniques, which would have, enhance my power presentation slide and make it more interesting for the audience. However, I could not use them due to my lack of skill in it. In the future, my action plan is to search guidelines and effective practice to deliver a successful academic presentation.

Sahar, G. (2014). On the importance of attribution theory in political psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8(5), 229-249.