Hindsight Bias- Seren Bezzant

Hindsight Bias is the tendency people have to see past events as more predictable than they actually are after the fact. The idea of “I told you so” or “I knew that would happen.”

A more serious example of hindsight bias is my brother’s best friend committed suicide last year and at his funeral, my brother really felt this burden that the signs were right in front of him, but he didn’t do anything. He was feeling very guilty because he felt like he knew that the signs were so obvious now. This illustrates the hindsight bias because my brother thought only after the fact that his friend’s depression and comments were obviously suicidal. His guilt stemmed from hindsight bias. It was easy for him to think after the fact the signs were obvious, but in the moment they weren’t so obvious and telling.

College Graduates and Financial Security-Seren Bezzant

Social Comparison is defined as one’s evaluation of their own ideas and abilities by comparing themselves to others.

 

In yesterday’s Deseret Newspaper as article entitled “College Students’ financial fantasies meet reality.” This article explores the fear college grads are facing when they graduate. They fear they won’t be able to find a job and if they do, they won’t be able to find a good paying job. The following figure, which was published with the article, shows that college grads on average say they’ll need 81,600 dollars in order to feel secure, which is much higher than what an actual college graduate makes, which on average is 21,900 dollars. The article speculates that college graduates are comparing their lifestyles to their parents and are disregarding the work that goes into it.

 

This illustrates the social comparison theory because college graduates are overestimating how much money they’ll need to feel secure because they are comparing their lifestyles to their parents and other successful adults around them. By doing this they are underestimating the work it takes to get to such a comfortable financial position. By comparing themselves to their parents they are not able to assess their financial situation accurately.

Eyewitness’s testimony-Seren Bezzant

The book talks about the reliability of an eyewitness’s testimony. The books says that eyewitnesses who remember minor details often are looking at the face of the perpetrator. But no matter what, eyewitness testimony are very persuasive in the actual courtroom.

This is the trailer of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. It’s called The Wrong Man. This is a true story about a man who was wrongly accused of robbing a bank. They say they have eyewitness’ testimonies and that those eyewitness have identified him.

In this clip you see the woman identifying the wrong man in the line up. In the book it also talks about minimizing false lineups and on way to do that is remind he identifier that the man that robbed the bank or whatever the crime is may not even be in the lineup. In the movie there are also a lot of leading questions from the detectives that could have led the witnesses to believe that the man in custody was the right man after all. This movie illustrates this phenomenon very nicely and shows the dangers that eyewitness testimonies can have. In the end of the movie another man gets caught robbing another store and confesses to both robberies, otherwise the wrong man would have stayed in jail. He was scheduled for trial and the book suggest that after these eyewitness testimonies, he wouldn’t have had much of a chance.

Comparison Level for Alternatives- Seren Bezzant

Comparison level for alternatives falls under the Social Exchange Theory of Attraction. It is the idea that people are satisfied in their relationships based on their extent to which they perceive their ability to exchange their current relationship for a better one.

I had a friend in high school that was very unsatisfied with her boyfriends. She had one boyfriend that she didn’t really like, but kept dating him. One day we had a long conversation about it. She said the reason she kept dating this boy was because she didn’t think she could find anyone better at the time. She didn’t really like him she just didn’t have anyone better at the moment. However, she believed that she could get a better relationships and could drop him whenever she wanted.

This is an example of comparison level for alternatives because she based her satisfaction for her relationship/friendship on her perceived ability to find a better relationship. She eventually did find a “better” relationship and eventually dropped the guys she was dating. Now that she is married and she believes she can’t get a better guy, she feels much more satisfied and secure in her relationships.

Comparison Level for Alternatives- Seren Bezzant

Comparison level for alternatives falls under the Social Exchange Theory of Attraction. It is the idea that people are satisfied in their relationships based on their extent to which they perceive their ability to exchange their current relationship for a better one.

I had a friend in high school that was very unsatisfied with her boyfriends. She had one boyfriend that she didn’t really like, but kept dating him. One day we had a long conversation about it. She said the reason she kept dating this boy was because she didn’t think she could find anyone better at the time. She didn’t really like him she just didn’t have anyone better at the moment. However, she believed that she could get a better relationships and could drop him whenever she wanted.

This is an example of comparison level for alternatives because she based her satisfaction for her relationship/friendship on her perceived ability to find a better relationship. She eventually did find a “better” relationship and eventually dropped the guys she was dating. Now that she is married and she believes she can’t get a better guy, she feels much more satisfied and secure in her relationships.

Negative State-Relief Model- Seren Bezzant

The Negative State-Relief Model is a theory that says that we help people in order to relieve our own negative feelings.

For an example, I wanted to tell a story about my neighbor. She has been diagnosed with depression. She is very serviceable and helpful with anyone in need. She is always the first to respond when there is a neighborhood “crisis” or any damage done. She always brought food for people in the ward, who were sick,  just had a baby, etc. All in all, she is just very giving and thoughtful of others and their needs. However, she recently confided to my mom that the way she can relieve her depressive thoughts and feelings is through helping other people. It’s a way to channel her thoughts from herself to other people and it has been the most successful way to cope with it. This is not a bad thing, but it illustrates very clearly this theory. Because she serve and helps people to rid of already existing negative or bad feelings.

However, by the same token people who are in a good mood are said to be more willing to give. There are examples for both. It just depends on the situation.

Influences on Aggression- Seren Bezzant

Aggression is defined as verbal or physical acts intended to hurt someone. The book identifies several influences on aggression such as extreme heat or any kind of climate change such as extreme odors.

So my family has had a few experiences with this. On a family vacation in South Carolina we were experience extreme heat and humidity that my family was not used to. My niece was about one or two years old and she kept telling her mom she was cold. Her mother, after may complaints about being cold, got very aggressive and said “You are not cold it’s a million degrees out here and you are sweating!” My niece just retorted “No, mom I cold” and that only made the situation worse. My sister-in-law is a very even tempered person but because of this extreme heat, she acted more aggressively than she normally would.

Another experience is with my nephew. He’s about six years old and he has a very sensitive nose. Any strong smelling lotion or soap really irritates him. He hates any kind of strong smell, good or bad. They are all stinky to him. So one day I was babysitting him and I had to go to work, so I was getting ready. My hands were really dry so I put on some lotion and that really set my nephew off. I had made him a sandwich and he wouldn’t eat it, because he could smell “my stinky smell” on it. It became very verbally aggressive with me and said a lot of mean things to me that he wouldn’t otherwise have said, if he wasn’t experience this climate change, the extreme odor.

 

Homework in the Mall-Seren Bezzant

There is a norm that in the mall you shop, walk and sit, you don’t lay down, you don’t read a book. You are there for a purpose and those things are more reserved for home or the library. The mall is the wrong place and context to do homework and lay down on the bench. So in order to violate this norm, I went to work an hour early and just laid down on the benches and read my textbooks. I was alternating positions from laying down, putting my feet on arm of the bench, etc. much like I would do at home.

At first it was really hard to bring myself to lay down on the bench. I was really concerned about what other people would say and I was embarrassed to break this social norm. But once I did it, it was easier to keep doing it. I was still embarrassed each time someone walked by though. I felt really awkward as well.

When I first laid down, I was pretending to read my textbook, but I was watching the reactions of the other people around me. Most people stared at me and gave me dirt looks. They gave me the “what is that girl doing” look. If they were with someone else, they usually whispered to the other person to look at me. If I made eye contact with anyone, they looked away and pretend like they were looking at something else. The best reaction I got though was from a mother with about three kids. Her kids asked her if she wanted them to sit down on the bench. Then she saw me and said “yes, we’ll sit down on the bench, but not on this monkey bench” indicating to her children to not sit by me. It was really funny. I could tell by how I was feeling and other people’s reactions that something as simple as laying down and reading my textbook in the mall is definitely socially unacceptable.

Is it really a just world?- Seren Bezzant

The just-world phenomenon is the tendency people have to blame the victim. We believe that the world is just, so when something bad happens to someone, we tend to believe it was somehow their fault. People get what they deserve.

I had an experience just the other day with this. There is a super accident prone girl from my home ward and she posted a picture of her latest accident. I have no idea what happened to her, but she’ll be in a boot for the next two months and be on crutches. She posted a picture of her foot and how bad it looks on facebook, and without even thinking about it, I thought to myself, well she was probably doing something dumb that got her into trouble. She was probably just being her clumsy self and that’s why she was injured.

Good thing I had just read my textbook and recognized this automatic tendency I had. I had no idea what happened to this girl, but I automatically thought that somehow it was because of something she had done, somehow it was her fault. It very well might not have been her fault, but I was very confident in my assumption. This illustrates the just-world phenomenon that allows people to think that the world is just. This phenomenon allows us to protect ourselves. We console ourselves and think that if we don’t do those things that cause accidents, we will be safe. It was an instant and automatic response for me and I’m sure it happens all of the time. It’s something that I need to be aware of so that I don’t place blame on the victim for being hurt because that isn’t always the case.

Clueless- Seren Bezzant

Deindividuation is when people lose their sense of self because of the group’s they belong to. They disregard their own attitudes and values in order to respond to group norms. This can happen for good or for bad.

In the movie clueless, Cher and Dionne decided to take Tai in and make her over. At the beginning of the movie, Tai is portrayed as a naive girl who doesn’t know the rules of high school. She takes interested in a guy, who Cher and Dionne don’t approve of so they stir her clear of him. They then decided to to a make over, where Tai slowly starts to lose her individuality. Towards the middle of the movie Tai has become the same as Cher and Dionne. She gave up her individuality and interests to fit into a group. A good example of her deindividuation is when the boy she was originally interested in invites her to his skateboard tournament, she refuses to go and is unnecessarily rude to him because her friends are there. In this instance she clearly conforms to group norms to stay apart of the group.

This is an example of deindividuation because Tai is unable to be herself in this group. She only acts and responds to group norms. She disregards her own attitudes and beliefs in order to do so. For example, she gives up the guy she was interested in. She stops drawing and only wears clothes that they think look good. She slowly loses herself throughout the movie and becomes identical to her group.

The Nomative Social Influence- Seren Bezzant

The Normative Social Influence is an explanation as to why we conform. The normative social influence states that the reason that we conform is because we want to be accepted and liked by other people. We are more likely to be liked by someone if we agree with them. So we are more likely to conform in order to be accepted.

I chose this clip from Nacho Libre because I thought it illustrated this concept well. Nacho is trying to get to know encarnacion, but as soon as she pauses he takes the time to agree with her. He may or may not like puppies, but he says that everything she says is his favorite thing in order to get her to like him. He also tells her about wrestling and when she doesn’t approve, he just says whatever, which is probably nicer than he would respond to anyone else, to be on her good side. Nacho is definitely complying with encarnacion and agrees with what she says in order to get her to like him.

Gender Roles Changing Over Time-Seren Bezzant

It the textbook it talked about all kinds of gender roles, but it mentioned the fact that over one’s life time gender roles seem to change and transform. For example, men become for sensitive and focus on connectedness and women become more independent.

When I read this part of the textbook, I immediately thought of a scene in Gilmore Girls. I couldn’t find the exact clip, so I’ll just explain the situation. Richard and Emily are married and Richard has just retired. There is a whole scene dedicated to showing how annoyed Emily has become with having her husband home all the time. Richard keeps saying things like why can’t we do things together? Why do you have to be so busy all the time? Can’t I come with you to your meetings? Emily has this sense of resistance to her husbands requests. She has become accustomed to doing things independently and is taken aback when her husband insists on doing things together, when he has never acted that way before.

This is an example of gender roles changing over time, as in one’s lifetime. Men are generally more independent, but as they grow older they become more focused on connectedness with their relations, as Richard did in this particular episode. Emily who had always focused on being connected with her husband became overwhelmed and more independent as they aged. It is an interesting phenomenon to consider.

The Foot in the Door Technique- Seren Bezzant

The Foot in the Door Technique is often used by salesmen or people who are trying to get other people to comply with a request. The salesman or the person getting the other person to do something has a specific goal in mind, but starts with a smaller request and eventually builds up to their goal. This makes it easier for the other person to comply because they’ve already agreed to all these smaller requests.

One time I was in the mall, I had just had a job interview and I was heading out to my car to go home. All of the sudden, a lady in one of the kiosks stopped me and asked me if she could show me her product. I said no, but she said “oh, just come and see my product.” So I agreed and she told me a little bit about her product. Then she asked me if she could show me how it works, and I said yes, and slowly she was trying to convince me that it was a product that I needed. I knew the whole time that I didn’t need it, let alone want it, but because I had already agreed to all these other things she had asked, it was a lot harder to say no. I eventually bought the product even though I didn’t really need it.

This is an example of the foot in the door technique because she started with a simple request of just showing me her product, then she explained it to me, then she showed me how it worked, and step by step she got me to agree to buy her product. I only agreed because it was a lot harder to say no, because I had already agreed to all these other requests of hers. She was then able to accomplish her goal to sell her product by starting with small miniscule requests and eventually building up to her ultimate goal.

False Consensus- Seren Bezzant

False Consensus is one’s tendency to think that his opinions and undesirable behaviors are more common than they actually are.

In this clip Willy Wonka is taken aback when he realizes that Charlie does not have the same opinion as he does. He thought that because he was able to come to the conclusion that he’s better off on his own and chocolate is better than families logically, that Charlie would feel the same way. His ideas were never discussed or disputed so he eventually he came to the conclusion that all people, or a higher percent than there actually is, feel the same way as he does. Because of false consensus, Willy Wonka is very confused. He then has to come to the realization that Charlie does not have the same opinions as he does. Similarly, that is often what we have to do, when we finally discuss our ideas and realize that a less percentage of people have the same opinion as we expected.

“The Spot-Light Effect” by Seren Bezzant

“The Spot-Light Effect” is an effect that causes a person in a certain situation to become extremely self-aware and self-conscious and certain aspects of oneself begin to stand out severely.

When I was younger, my father had the opportunity to go to Taiwan on a business trip. Taiwan was trying to make ties with America so they flew out lots of professors, businessmen, and media people, like my father. During his trip he had a lot of opportunities to meet with dignitaries and highly valued people of Taiwan. During this trip, my father was expected to answer important questions, and he was treated like royalty. Within this context my father’s competency or incompetency became very aware to him. Back home when he was within the context of his office, he felt very competent and able to perform all tasks, but in Taiwan when he was considered like an ambassador he began feeling very incompetent.

This experience relates to the spot-light effect because depending on my Father’s context, he felt very competent or very incompetent. Because of the way he was being treated and his surroundings, his own competency became particularly salient to him. He was very self-conscious and self-aware.