SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT

ENVIRONMENTS

NAME(S): CLAUDWIE TAN WAN SIEN 0317997

ANG WEI YI 0317885

NHAT DINH 0313309

SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC0103)

LECTURER: MR. T. SHANKAR

SESSION: MONDAY 12-3PM

SUBMISSION: 8th DECEMBER, 2014

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T

In the process of carrying out this assignment for Social

Psychology module, we had received a lot of great cooperation and support from many parties and we would like to express my gratitude to

them.

First are foremost, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to Mr. Shankar, our lecturer of our Social Psychology module, for giving

us an opportunity to produce a conceptual video clip and a presentation for our final assignment. We were really grateful that Mr. Shankar had

given us a very clear guideline that facilitated us to complete this assignment on time.

On the other hand, we would also like to thank our parents for

giving us boundless support and financial resources for us to successfully carry out all of the progress of video filming, as well as the editing.

Lastly, we would like to extend out sincere regards to all participants who had involved in our video for their kind cooperation.

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T

I N T R O D U C T I O N

M E T H O D S

Design:

A survey is designed, aiming people of different gender, age and race in our location, i.e. Sunway Pyramid, to investigate how people will react

and respond to stranger, local and non-local, who ask them for help to give him or her a ride back to the campus because his or her phone has

run out of battery and he or she has no money. The expressions and reactions of the passers-by are observed and recorded.

Participants:

Our target setting is limited within the boundary of Sunway Pyramid,

aiming people from all walks of life. The participants’ gender, age group, race and reactions are the key points that we have recorded and organized

in chart (see Results).

Materials:

A hidden camera is placed around the area of targeted passers-by to

record the participants’ expressions and reactions to our approach.

Procedures:

1. The team members were assigned separately to approach any passer-by and ask for help, and record the process of

approaching the participants as well as their reactions.

2. Different settings were chosen for video recording.

3. All of the physical traits of the participants were recorded.

4. After the participants gave respond, by either saying yes or no, the analyzer went to the participant to inform him or her that the

whole process of approaching them and their reactions were recorded for our conceptual video clip assignment for Social

Psychology module.

5. All steps were repeated in different settings to obtain various outcomes.

.

R E S U L T S

Number of participants and their races

Race(s) No. of participants

Chinese 18

Malay 13

Indian 9

Foreigners 5 Table 1.

Figure 1.

45%

31%

17%

7%

Sales

Chinese Malay Indian Foreigner

Participants who agreed to help non-local

(based on their races)

Race(s) No. of participants

Chinese 0

Malay 0

Indian 0

Foreigners 0 Table 2.

Participants who agreed to help non-local

(based on their races)

Race(s) No. of participants

Chinese 12

Malay 9

Indian 5

Foreigners 4 Table 3.

Figure 3.

40%

30%

17%

13%

Chinese Malay Indian Foreigner

Participants and their gender.

Gender No. of Participants

Male 31

Female 14 Table 4.

Figure 4.

Participants who agreed to help to non-local.

Gender No. of Participants

Male 0

Female 0 Table 5.

69%

31%

Male Female

Participants who agreed to help to non-local.

Gender No. of Participants

Male 24

Female 6 Table 6.

Figure 6.

C O N C E P T S

We have included 5 concepts or theories in the video which comprise of

theory of first impression, stereotype, the halo effect, confirmation bias and emotional expression of non-verbal communication.

First Impression In social psychology, first impression is the event when one person first

encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person. First

80%

20%

Sales

Male Female

impressions are not deliberate and they may be instantaneous. It takes just a quick glance, maybe just three seconds, for someone to evaluate you

when you meet him or her for the first time. First impressions are based on a wide range of characteristics: age, race, culture, language, gender,

physical appearance, accent, posture and time allowed to process.

Linking to the video content, whenever Dinh asked for help from passers-by to give him a ride back from Sunway Pyramid to Taylor’s University

Lakeside Campus, almost all of them rejected him and refused to give him a hand. This is because they formed a mental image of him as a

foreign student from Vietnam because of his accent.

Halo Effect and Stereotype

People tend to associate a good quality with other positive qualities, and vice versa. The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which an observer's

overall impression of a person influences his or her feelings and thoughts about that entity's character. This also speaks to the importance of a good

first impression. Halo effect occurs without our active awareness.

On the other hand, stereotyping is the process by which we draw inferences about others base on knowledge of the categories to which

they belong. The stereotype acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy where the perception of attractive people are more valuable members of the society,

leading to them receiving preferential treatment and tangible benefit. Similarly, what is beautiful or attractive is good effect relies on the

assumption that physically attractive people are superior to others on many other traits, such as overall personality.

From our video, we could clearly see that the passers-by involuntarily formed a mental image and interpret Dinh as a ‘dangerous’ stranger to

them as he is from Vietnam just because Vietnam gives people a first impression of it is a very ‘perilous and unsafe’ place. Whereas, when

Winnie and Claudwie were asking them for help, most of them willingly agreed to give us a hand. In conclusion, these decisions are made easily

and instantaneously because a person’s physical appearance is a personal characteristic that is the most obvious and accessible to others in social

interaction.

Confirmation Bias

The concept of confirmation bias also applies in our video when three of

us started to ask for help from the passers-by. Confirmation bias defined as the tendency of people to favor information that confirms their belief

or opinion. The passers-by’s belief of Dinh being a ‘dangerous’ Vietnam student is confirmed as he started to speak to them.

Non-verbal Communication

Non-verbal cues are behaviors, gestures, eye contacts and expressions

that convey thoughts or emotions without words. Emotional expression in social psychology is observable verbal and non-verbal behaviors that

communicate an individual’s internal emotions to others. Facial expressions are responsible for a huge proportion of non-verbal

communication, considering how much information can be conveyed with a smile or a frown. The look on a person face is often the first thing we see, even before we hear what they have to say.

Examples of non-verbal communication in the video are portrayed when

three of us asked for help and different passer-by showed different facial expressions or gestures as we spoke to them. Non-verbal communication

can occur with or without self-awareness.

S U M M A R Y

R E F E R E N C E

1. Robby K. (2012). Don't Judge Foreign English Speakers by Their

Mistakes. English Harmony. Retrieved December 7, 2014. From

http://englishharmony.com/don’t-judge-by-mistakes/.

2. Rob Capps. (2012). First Impressions: The Science of Meeting People. WIRED. Retrieved December 7, 2014. From

http://www.wired.com/2012/11/amy-cuddy-first-impressions/.

3. Chia, Y.P. (2014). Conformity and Group Behaviour [PowerPoint].

Retrieved December 7, 2014. From http://goo.gl/0pSKzQ.