Research Report

Group members : Amos Tan Chi Yi 0318330

Teh Qing Da 0318580

Jeffrey Liew Jun Yi 0317951

Lovie Tey 0318155

Low En Huey 0317889

Group/ Session: Monday (12pm-3pm)

Subject: Social Psychology

Course: Foundation in Natural and Built Environment

Submission Date : 8th December 2014

Content Page

1. Acknowledgement

2. Introduction

3. Methods used

a. Apparatus/ Materials

b. Procedure

c. Participants

4. Discussion

a. Concepts used and Definitions

b. Storyboard

c. Application of Concepts

5. References

6. Appendix

Introduction

In this project, we are required to implement the social psychology concepts that we

have learned to a story. Several concepts are applied in the story and the story is

demonstrated and acted by each of the group members. The storyboard is created after

discussion with the group members. The concepts that are applied in the story are first

impressions, stereotype, confirmation bias, halo effect, optimistic bias, aggression and

balance theory.

These concepts are inter-related to each other. For example first impression is

the mental image of an individual evaluated by another person based on their physical

appearance and other characteristics. So does stereotype in which people are classified

based on characteristics. People’s thoughts and beliefs are influenced by the first

impression. We should be rational enough while processing new information and not

to be overly optimistic about certain thoughts.

Through this project, we are able to understand more about the concepts as

well as individual behaviour in social context.

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of everybody involved in making this

project as it is. Their efforts, knowledge and patience has been crucial for the

undertaking of this assignment, and without them, it would be nigh impossible to

successfully complete this project.

We would like to thank Mr. Shankar, the lecturer, for all the lectures that has been

imparted, the guidance given and of course, his counsel when we needed help in areas

we do not understand. Needless to say, without him this project wouldn’t have started

in the first place, and without him, we would be frighteningly in the dark about human

behaviours.

We would also like to thank the people at Starbucks, for willingly allowing us to film

there, as well as being patient with us during the duration of the filming. Starbucks’

locale and interior matches near perfectly the needs of our scenes, and we thank them

wholeheartedly for the use of their premise.

Lastly, we would also like to thank our own groupmates, the actors, the editors and

cameraman, for their part in this project. We thank them for their sacrifices in time

and energy, as well as their contributions, whether through acting or through report

writing.

Methods used

a. Apparatus and materials

Camera is used to film the video. Laptops like Macbook and Lenovo and

smartphones like Iphone 6, Iphone 5 and Samsung are used. These gadgets are to

show the financial status of a person in order to create first impression of rich and

wealthy to others. Cars like Audi TT and Proton Wira are used to show the

difference of financial status of a person too. Other props are coffee, books, pen,

bottle and white cloth.

b. Procedures

28th October 2014 : First meeting with the all of the group members.

During this meeting, we discussed about what concept to use and the draft

for the storyboard. We came up with 3 different stories to be chosen. The

meeting ended after we have confirmed the storyboard.

25th November 2014 : Second meeting was held to further improvise and

refine the storyboard. We discussed about the script for the video clip and

decided the date and venue for the filming of video.

4th December 2014 : Day of filming. We filmed our video at night, about

8pm-10.30pm at Starbucks of Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus and

basement of Syopz Mall. Later on, we discussed about the report and the

meeting ended.

c. Participants

All group members participated in this project.

Concepts used and definitions

For this video, 7 social psychology concepts were applied and demonstrated through the

acting of each of the group members. The 7 concepts are first impressions, stereotype,

confirmation bias, halo effect, optimistic bias, aggression and balance theory.

The first concept that we used is first impression. First impression is the first mental

image of a person when one person encounter with another one. The impression is made

based on their clothing, the appearance of the person, the action of the person and the scene.

Impressions may be positive and negative.

The second concept is stereotype. Stereotype is a thought of an individual is a

member of certain group based on characteristics. It is also an over generalized belief of a

class of people. The characteristics involve gender, race, national origin of the person and

other factors. Individuals may be group into positive stereotypes or negative stereotypes

based on their characteristic.

Next, the third concept used is confirmation bias. Confirmation is the tendency for

people to favour information that support and confirm their personal belief and interpretation.

It can be harmful because confirmation bias prevents us from considering important

information when making decisions due to the ignorance and undervalue of what contradicts’

one belief.

The fourth concept is halo effect. Halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which

our overall impression of a person influences on how we think and feel about the person’s

character. For example, if a girl thinks that the guy is rich, she may also think that the guy is

smart as well due to the halo effect. People often see only what they wanted to see.

The fifth concept that is used in the video is optimistic bias. It is the tendency of an

individual to believe that they are less risky to experience negative events compared to

others. Individuals are being overconfident that they will encounter positive events than

negative events as compared to their peers.

The sixth concept used is aggression. Aggression is a range of behaviours that can

result in both physical and psychological harm to one, other or objects in the environment.

There are several forms of aggression which includes physical, verbal, mental and emotional.

Aggression also serves different purposes.

Lastly, balance theory is used in the video. Balance theory is a motivational theory

of attitude change. Balance theory says that if people see a set of cognitive elements as being

a system, then they will have a preference to maintain a balanced state among these elements.

All these concepts will be demonstrated through the video.

Storyboard

The story is about a girl who encounters a guy who seems rich while hanging out at a coffee

shop with her friend. The story is divided into several scenes.

Scene 1 : Coffee shop

The girl and her friend walks into a coffee shop and orders coffee. They are chatting about a

new game application. While playing with their phones, the girl notices a guy who dressed

smartly walking confidently into the coffee shop. She gets distracted from the conversation

with her friend.

Friend : Hey, have you done your project yet?

Girl : Eh, that guy looks hot!

Friend : Who?

Girl : That guy sitting behind you, wearing a blue shirt.

Friend : That guy? He looks like a rapist to me.

Girl : Can you imagine both of us together?

(Girl starts to day dream about the guy watching sun set with her, taking a stroll beside the

lake together and chit chatting under a tree.)

Friend : Are you kidding me? Don’t judge a book by its cover, you haven’t even met him

yet !

Girl : But, at least he is richer than that guy over there. (Points toward another guy who

has messy hair and dressed badly. The guy is writing something on a piece of paper.)

Friend : How do you even know? You haven’t even met him yet and you are saying that he

is rich and falling over him? You are stereotyping!

Girl : (Stands up) I don’t care! I’m going to talk to him. Bye!

Girl walks away, leaving her friend alone at the table. Girl walks towards the table where the

guy who dressed smartly sits.

Scene 2 : The guy’s table

This scene starts with shooting the guy with messy hair and dressed badly.

The guy takes a Macbook out from his bag wanting to do research. Suddenly the phone rings,

initially, he takes out an Iphone 6 from his pocket, then an Iphone 5 and at last he finally

takes out another smartphone that is ringing and answers the phone.

The girl approaches the guy who dressed smartly. Both of them starts to chat. The girl is

really happy. At the end of their conversation,

Guy : So, do you want to grab supper or something later?

Girl : Yea sure! But please wait for me for a moment!

Girl walks towards her friend who is playing on her phone.

Girl : Hey, I’m not going home with you tonight, I have date. Bye !

Friend : Okay… (Face Palm)

Girl walks back to the guy.

Girl : Okay, let’s go !

Guy : Alright then!

Scene 3 : Walking out of the coffee shop

While walking towards the exit, a stranger trips at the exit.

Girl : Can you watch where you are going, man!

Stranger : Hey, what is your problem !

The stranger walks aggressively towards both of them. The guy who dressed smartly tries to

calm down the stranger.

Guy : Woah, calm down !

Stranger yells : What is your problem man !

Stranger walks away. Both of them walks towards the car park.

Scene 3 : Car Park

At the car park, two cars are parked side by side, a luxury car and a normal car. The girl sees

the luxury car and walks towards it.

Girl : OMG, that’s a nice car! It is better than that Wira! (Points towards the Wira that is

parked beside Audi TT)

Suddenly, the previous guy with messy hair and dressed badly runs towards Audi TT. He is

in a rush. The guy gets into the car and starts the engine.

Guy : Actually this is my car.

Girl : (Slowly walks towards Wira) Actually, Wira is not bad too.

Both of them enter Wira.

Girl : Hey, what are we eating? Can we go Klang to eat Bak Kut Teh?

Guy ignores the girl’s question. He opens a bottle and pour the liquid on a cloth.

Girl : Hey, what are you doing!

Guy : Preparing dinner.

The guy covers the girl’s mouth with the chloroformed cloth. Before the girl lost her

consciousness, she recalls back what her friend told her in the coffee shop, “he looks like a

rapist to me..”

End of the story.

Application of concepts in the story

Scene 1: First Impressions

The first concept which is first impression is applied in the beginning of the story in

which the girl thinks that the guy who dressed smartly and walks confidently is rich and

handsome (1:08 to 1:26).The image of the guy is evaluated based on what he wears as well as

his body movements. It is a positive first impression because the girl views him as a

handsome and rich person. First impression also influences the girl’s action as she day dream

about the guy doing romantic stuff with her. On the other hand, there is also a negative first

impression on the guy in which the girl’s friend thinks that the guy looks like a rapist (1:31 to

1:35). This shows that first impression varies depending on the observer. Another first

impression occurs in which the girl thinks that the guy with unkempt hair and dressed badly

is poor but in fact, the guy is rich as he owns a few smartphones and a Macbook. This also

shows that first impression may be reversed.

Scene 2: Stereotypes

The second concept, stereotype is applied when the girl thinks that the guy with messy hair

and dressed badly is a poor guy (2:18 to 2:21). She classifies the guy who dressed badly as a

poor guy whereas the other guy who dressed smartly as a rich guy. This shows that the girl

has similar experience on how a poor guy dresses and how a rich guy dresses. Stereotype is

used in this context based on the appearance and attire of the two guys. Both of them are

classified into two groups, the rich and the poor.

Scene 3: Confirmation Bias (Halo Effect)

Next, the third concept, confirmation bias is seen in (1:31 to 2:30) where the girl’s

friend tells negative things about the guy but the girl just ignores the negative information on

that guy and wants to approach the guy. The girl only seeks for information that supports her

belief of the guy is rich. The girl does not listen to her friend’s advice and she only

remembers the information like how the guy dresses up and the posture of the guy that

confirms her beliefs. Confirmation bias has prevented the girl from being rational, not

considering the consequences of going out with a guy whom she just met.

The fourth concept, halo effect is used on the guy who dressed smartly. The girl who

thinks that the guy who dressed smartly is hot and handsome. She might as well think that the

guy is rich. The halo effect is a specific type of confirmation bias. In other words, the girl is

transferring her judgement from one easily observed characteristic of the person which is his

attire to a judgement of that person’s character which is rich. The negative halo effect is

where the girl views the guy who dressed badly and with unkempt hair is poor, she might also

think that he is a nerd due to halo effect.

Scene 4: Optimistic Bias

The fifth concept is optimistic bias. This concept is applied at (1:39 to 2:05) in which

the girl dreams of being together with the guy. She expects the outcome of them being

together but does not think of what will happen to her. The girl is optimistic bias because she

thinks that positive event (she being together with the guy) is more likely to happen and the

negative event (she being raped) will not happen to her but on others. She makes overly

positive assumptions that cause her to ignore other information that disconfirms her

assumptions. In the end, bad thing happens on her as she is being chloroformed by the guy

whom she thinks is rich and handsome.

Scene 5: Aggression

The sixth concept is aggression. Two forms of aggression are shown in the video

which are verbal form and physical form. Verbal form of aggression is shown at (3:51 to

3:58). Conflict between the girl and the stranger who tripped leads to aggression. Aggressive

words are used by the girl to express her anger towards the stranger who tripped between the

girl and the guy. The girl reacts with impolite words and so does the stranger. The stranger

also shows another form of aggression which is physical aggression as he tries to beat both of

them. The stranger shows threatening existence at first due to his anger and he has the

intention of harming the girl and the guy.

Scene 5: Balance Theory

The last concept is balance theory. This concept is shown in the last part of the video

(4:04 to 4:20) where the girl compares Audi TT with Proton Wira and shows that she likes

Audi TT and dislikes Proton Wira. After knowing the Wira belongs to the guy who dressed

smartly, she immediately changes her attitude and tends to like Wira. Thus, this shows that

the girl changes her attitude in order to achieve psychological balance.

References

1. Balance Theory. Retrieved from

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/balance_theory.htm

2. Kendra Cherry (n.d.). What is aggression? . Retrieved from

http://psychology.about.com/od/aindex/g/aggression.htm

3. Kendra Cherry (n.d.). What is the Halo Effect. Retrieved from

http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/f/halo-effect.htm

4. Wikipedia.(n.d.). Optimism Bias. Retrieved December 7,2014, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias

5. Robert T. Caroll. (n.d.). Confirmation bias. Retrieved from

http://www.skepdic.com/confirmbias.html

6. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Social Psychology. Retrieved from

http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-psychology.html

Appendix

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