Yes chips/ No chips

Our life is full of contradiction; we often contradict our action with our cognition. “Do what you preach” is the phrase that we constantly use to remind ourselves to behave the way we think. However how many of us are truly able to do that all the time? If contradictions exist between actions and cognition is it possible that contradiction also occurs between our own cognitions.

In 1957 Leon Festinger proposed the cognitive dissonance theory; the theory states that awareness of consonant cognitions (consistent beliefs) makes us feels good, whereas awareness of dissonant cognitions (inconsistent beliefs) makes us feel bad. In addition, the negative feelings produced by dissonant cognitions (inconsistent beliefs) act as a motivator that motivate us to do something to change our state.

He defined consonant cognitions as beliefs that are consistent with one another; they imply that the other is valid. While dissonant cognitions represent beliefs that are inconsistent with one another; they imply that the other is wrong or bad (Breckler, Olson & Wiggins, 2006).

According to Festinger dissonance was characterized to be a state of “aversive arousal” that human are motivated to reduce using the process of rationalization that involves trying to convince ourselves that our past and current actions does makes sense after all.

According to research, there are mainly 4 ways that human use to reduce cognitive dissonance.

They are:

1. Changing one of the dissonant cognitions directly,

2. Changing behavior,

3. Adding consonant cognitions and

4. Reducing or increasing importance of the cognition.

In the context of applying Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance to my life, I found that it is extremely relevant on how I deal with my cognitions about junk food and my health.

You see I love love love to eat potato chips, I think the person who invented this junk food is a genius. However I am also aware that potato chips are unhealthy food (which will eventually do something bad to my body) . Thus you see these two beliefs are inconsistent with one another. If I really love potato chips I should eat it often, but what makes me hesitate before making the move is the knowledge that they are unhealthy food.

Therefore as much as I LOVE potato chips, I opted for the first option to rationalize the inconsistency between the two beliefs and attempted to change my behavior. I totally stopped eating potato chips for at least a year or two.

However as much as I wished I could quit eating potato chips for the rest of my life, there are times where I just could stand the temptation. That is when I will adopt the third option which is to add on new consonant cognitions such as eating potato chips makes me happy (haha I know I am such a glutton), and that is when I will allow myself to indulge in the smallest bag of classic lays potato chips and feel so happy after that. Last but not least the fourth option of reducing or increasing importance of cognition also do come into the picture, especially when I am trying to tell myself to dismiss the urge to eat potato chips. I will increase the belief that potato chips is seriously damaging to my body and kiss the chips goodbye as I walk down the supermarket’s aisle.

So now you know, when you want to torture Shuang, often her some potato chips. Although you won’t be able to see but you will know that I am having a mental battle of different cognitions in my mind. I bet I run through the rationalization process in the mind at least 365 times before I can tell you my final decision.

In conclusion: Don’t offer me any chips!!!!! HAHA just kidding! I guess it is pretty amazing to realize that such a small and mundane act of life such as eating chips involves so many different factors and processes inside and outside of our head. Cheers to social psychology it must be one of the most useful topics I have ever taken in my life.

The cockroach's fault?

Last week I met up with a friend of mine at a coffee joint.

And what I expected was a happy catching up session, but however she came with a dark cloud over her head and was looking really angry.

See here’s the thing, she just had a minor car accident on her way to meet me. Its ok she wasn’t hurt or anything BUT she was driving her boyfriend’s SUV. She just bumped up a bit of the front bumper. So she called her boyfriend to tell him about the car and accident. Immediately after asking if she was ok, her boyfriend started blaming her for being a lousy driver and damaging his new car. He said that it’s her fault as she is a careless person, who is easily distracted. He also commented that she is a lazy person, who never checks her blind spot before moving the car. Blah blah blah….etc

All the time he was ranting in the phone trying to explain why the accident happen when he wasn’t even there to witness it. So inevitably, my friend hung up the phone call and switched off her phone.

So I ended up listening to her telling me how the accident occurred. As usual she was driving along the road, going to make a turn when this BIG FAT FLYING cockroach appeared out of no where and flew on to HER FACE!!!! Can you believe that? (By the way she is really really really scared of cockroach, and as if BIG FAT FLYING cockroach is not good enough to scare the shit out of her pants, of all place it chose her face to do the landing)

Of course, her nature reaction was to use her hands and swept it off her face. (Which girl who fear cockroach won’t do the same thing?) So both of her hands was not on the steering wheel for around 3 seconds when the car front bumper “kissed” the back bumper of the car in front of her boyfriend’s SUV. And the cockroach was no where to be seen then, the culprit for this accident have obviously went into hiding inside the car while my friend handled everything. (My friend was so angry with the cockroach, after our catching up session; we went to buy Baygon as a treat to the cockroach that causes the accident. And yes she made me kill it for her, the funny thing was she was still so freaked out when I show her the corpse.)

Enough of cockroach story already, applying the context of the situation mentioned above, it seems that the reason why her boyfriend attributed all the blame of the accident to her was because he made a fundamental attribution error.

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate the extent to which a person’s behavior is due to internal dispositional factors and underestimating situational factors when assessing a particular event.

According to my friend’s boyfriend, it seems that the occurrence of the accident was purely due to the internal attributions (e.g personality, ability, motivation, attitudes, and values) of my friend. Factors highlighted by him that caused were laziness, carelessness, incompetence, lousy driving ability. It had never occurred to him that there could be external attributions (e.g chance/luck, situational constraints, and influence of others) present that contributed towards the accident. Thus he had made a fundamental attribution error when he passed judgment assessing the cause of the accident.

The underlying source of fundamental attribution error is the correspondence bias. Correspondence bias refers to the tendency to assume that people’s doings and words reflect their personality, their attitudes, or some other internal factor, rather than external or situational factors.

As suggested by research, there are three different causes that attribute towards correspondence bias.

They are:

• We simply overlook or are unaware of situational factors that influence other people’s behavior.

• We simply underestimate the power of situational factors, even when we notice external factors.

• The process of taking situational factors into account requires cognitive resources which may not be always available.

In application to my friend’s boyfriend I personally think that option number 2 is more appropriate. I guess he simply underestimates how much fear can be caused to a woman when a cockroach flies on to her face. (Ok if i hate himI can choose option 3, but he is my friend too.)

In conclusion, it seems that we can never really draw a clear cut line between attributing success and failure to either internal or external factors. People assessing the event in different perspective tend to also interpret the event differently that lead to a diversity of conclusions. So you can say that conclusions made are dependent on the perspective that we choose to take.

So which side are you on?

Conformity

Please take a look at this link before reading this blog entry: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/335204/1/.html

The above article highlighted the protest that was held by the SDP (Singapore Democratic Party) on 15^th March 2008. The purpose of the protest is to highlight the increasing inflation rates in Singapore and the fact that the citizens of Singapore are the ones suffering from the increase in prices of commodities products that is needed in our daily life.

The SDP members chanted slogans and displayed placards to voice out their concern on how increasing inflation affects our life.

In the end, SDP members were arrested for staging an unlawful demonstration without a permit. In the article it was highlighted that the SDP did try to apply for a police permit to hold a protect rally however the application was seen as an empty gesture (why was it described an empty gesture? After all they did apply for the permit, just that it wasn’t approved). Their acts were seen as a form of defiance, going ahead with the protest rally with the permit.

It was also highlighted in the article that the police “saw an escalation in the level of defiance" because for the first time, the group "staged typical militant protest methods of locking arms to resist arrest." The Police also reiterated that no one is above the law. The law applies equally to all, whether local or foreigners.

From this article, it seems like conformity is an essential social norm that is pretty much enforced by law in Singapore. The point that the SDP members highlighted are not based on foundationless grounds, this is because Singapore government has also provided information on the increasing inflation rate in its Singapore Budget 2008. The fact is that many of us feel the pressure of the inflation but yet not many of us are willing to voice out our opinion. That is because we conform.

So what exactly is conformity?

Conformity refers to any change in behavior caused by another person or group; individual acted in particular ways due to the influence of others. It does not refer to effects of other people on internal concepts such as attitudes and beliefs (Breckler, Olson & Wiggins, 2006).

So, why do people conform? It could be due to 3 factors. They are namely: informational social influence, normative social influence and terror management.

Informational social influence is the influence of other people that leads us to conform because we see them as a source of information to guide our behavior. We see other’s interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than ours. For instances, our parents’ behavior, we are brought up listening to them telling us what is appropriate behavior. Thus when we are unsure of how to react during a new situation that we have encountered, we refer to them as a guide for information. We do what they deem to be appropriate for us. Normative social influence on the other hand occurs when people are influenced by others to gain rewards or to avoid punishment. Lastly terror management is whereby we conform to a cultural worldview that provides order and meaning to an otherwise random world to protect self.

Applying to the context of Singapore, it seems that most of us are affected by all three social influences when it comes to our behavior especially when it comes to deal with any legal issues (e.g protesting for a cause). However the larger percentage of influence seems to be coming from normative social influence. As a Singaporean myself, I understand instance whereby I try very hard to avoid violating any law that is stated by the government. Even though it could be a very small offence such as littering, this is because we all fear the punishment that is attached to the violations. It could be because the punishments are very heavy (your pocket gets $500 poorer if you litter [I don't even have $500 to spare!!!!!] ) or it could be simply due to the fact that we do not want to get into any trouble. I am not putting anyone down for conforming, because every one of us conforms to different things in our life. (e.g to friends and to our family)

Therefore to the ones who were brave enough to help us to voice out opinions: I applaud your bravery and passion, and hopefully more of us (Singaporeans) will be able to be like you guys in time to come. However it should be understood that many of us have stakes on the line when it comes to breaking our conformity and standing up for what we believe in (Its not just simply breaking the norm for us, its the way we have been brought up too). Thus for now we conform.

Nonverbal Behaviour

Nonverbal behavior is defined as actions and cues that communicate meaning in ways other than in words (Breckler, Olson & Wiggins, 2006). It includes a wide variety of cues such as facial expression, interpersonal space, eye gaze, gestures and vocal qualities (such as pitch and tone).

Most people will agree that nonverbal cues are one of the most useful tools in judging the emotion of others. Why is that so? One of the reasons why people see nonverbal cues as informative about others feelings is because it is not totally under voluntary control. For example, you could easily see that a person is nervous while speaking to you if her voice is quivering and she keeps playing with her fingers, even though she is trying very hard not to show her emotions.

Research have suggests that nonverbal information does enhance our understanding of interactions, it was found to be useful in improving comprehension of social interactions (Archer, & Akert. R., 1977). Personally I feel that nonverbal behavior plays such an important role in our life, such as finding a job or maybe even a spouse! For example, the nonverbal behavior that we display during an interview could either help us score during an important interview or make us lose the job even though we could have been the best candidate for it.

I found some videos that highlight the importance of nonverbal behavior during an interview.

However there also instances whereby nonverbal cues can contradict with verbal cues. For example, a person commented on your new dress by saying: Wow! What a nice dress sense you have in a mocking tone with a quick laugh at the end.

Would you rely on the positive words she used or on the tone that she expressed her views when it comes to interpreting the message’s meaning?

Usually conflicts as such occur when a sarcastic comment is made or when someone is trying to mask their feelings. My personal experiences of masking my feelings usually occur when I am upset and I do not want anyone else to know about it. However I am such a flop at it, whenever I am upset my facial expression is so obvious that everyone who sees me will know.

In addition to conflict between verbal and nonverbal behavior, it have also been suggested that there are differences in nonverbal behavior between different gender and culture.

My recent trip to Bangkok illustrated to me how culture can play a role in our nonverbal behavior. During my stay there I was invited to one of my friend’s colleague house to have dinner. At the end of the night, I thanked the family for their hospitality and made a fool out of myself. I went over to the host and proceeded to extend my hand for a handshake, but instead of reciprocating the handshake the host put her palms together and did the thanks gestures in traditional Thai gesture. Trust me, the others who was watching laughed at me so badly there were tears from their eyes (including the host!!!).

This funny incident illustrates the existence of cultural differences in nonverbal gesture. It is important to note that while being in a different country you should observe what kind of greetings and gestures are appropriate before getting yourself into trouble. For example, people on Eastern Europe people often exchange kisses on cheek as a form or greeting, or standing in close proximity while talking to other. These actions are greatly acceptable in the western culture but in the Asia context many of these actions are seen to be impolite.

To effectively illustrate the existences of cultural differences in nonverbal gesture, just look at the picture I have attached below:

Schemas

Hello to all who are reading this blog entry,

This entry will highlight one of the funny/sad event of my life that happened just one week ago.

Last week, I brought my cousins to the playground under my block to have some fun. As usual, I played with them for awhile before I sat down and watched them play.

Next to me sat another middle age lady (around 30 – 35 years old) whose kids are playing at the playground too. She smiled to me when I sat down and out of politeness I smiled back. Trust me that was the WORSE mistake of the day. Let’s call this lady Mrs X

Mrs X proceeded on to carry out a conversation with me about her kids and so I asked how old her kids are. She replied 3 and 5 years old.

Then, she went on to ask how old MY kids are. I felt as if a pair of imaginary hands came out of no where and slapped my face hard. I was speechless for at least a few seconds before she proceeded on to ask again. So how old are YOUR kids? At this point of time my face was tomato red and I replied with a very stoned expression (-_-) that they are my cousins and not my kids. I am only 20 years old.

After my reply, it was the look on her face that was totally priceless. She managed to utter “Ooops…. I am sorry” before she went to the playground dragged her two kids out by their collar and literally ran home. When my cousins finally finished their playground session, I brought them home and shared the encounter with my family. And yes I became the joke of the day.

Trust me; Mrs X just "made" my day.

However looking back at the incident it actually made me realized that I should not have been so mad at Mrs X.

After all according to social cognition, human develop schemas that guide their attention and memory. Schemas are mental representations of objects or categories, which contain the central features of the objects or category as well as assumptions about how the object or category works. Schemas are found to be organized in an associative network, therefore when a particular type of schema is activated, related schemas will be activated too. This explains why some schemas are extremely accessible, and are at the top of your head(Breckler, Olson & Wiggins, 2006).

Therefore due to the accessibility of related schemas, interpretation beyond the amount of information given in a particular social situation may influence the person’s thinking and behavior, with no regards to whether interpretation are accurate or not. Due to the accessibility factor, many times a person might not be even aware of an activation of a schema. One of the processes that increase the accessibility of schemas is priming. Priming is the process by which the activation of a schema increases the likelihood that the schema will be activated again in the future(Breckler et al., 2006).

In the case of my encounter with Mrs X, it is a real life example of priming. Mrs X is a mother who frequently brings her kids to the playground, and the ladies that she has met there so far are all mothers too. For this reason, the likelihood of activating the schema that all women are mothers increases each time Mrs X meets a mother with her kids at the playground.

There is a variety of functions that are carried out by schemas. Schemas does not only impose meaning on our world, they also influence what is noticed about objects (Breckler et al., 2006).

Therefore the when I appeared at the playground with 2 kids in tow, she conveniently activated the schema on the top of her head that assume that I am a mother too. In fact she might not even take into consideration how old I look before assuming that my cousins were my kids, because she categorized me just on the fact that I brought 2 kids down to the playground. Her schema influenced her to notice the presence of the kids but not how old I look. The fact that she felt embarrassed after I corrected her on her wrong interpretations about me being my cousin’s mum shows that she was not aware that she is generalizing that every women who brings any kids down to the playground is just like her, a mum.

My encounter with Mrs X seems to be consistent with the idea that accessibility of schemas affect our thinking and social behavior. To be frank, after understanding the dynamics behind the occurrence of such an encounter, it seriously decreases the anger that I have inside me. I assume that Mrs X really did not do that to me in purpose and was unaware of the activation of her schema. However if she is able to be in total control of the activation of related schemas, it would not have put her in such an awkward social situation at all.

By acquiring the knowledge on how schemas work, I guess I gained more knowledge on why sometimes we tend to get ourselves into embarrassing situation. Everyone makes mistakes in social situation once in awhile, so I guess we just have to be more cautious when we speak during any social event (especially if you are speaking to someone important).

Question is: Since much of the time our schemas are activated unconsciously which in turn get us into embarrassing social situation like this. Is there a way to prevent such incident by being more conscious about the activation of our schemas?

Hope you enjoy this entry, and here's some pictures of my adorable cousins (Who sometimes really make me wanna scold them and laugh at the same time)