Please help me with my assignment...! Q. Write up two single-space papers. In th
ID: 3460395 • Letter: P
Question
Please help me with my assignment...! Q. Write up two single-space papers. In these papers, apply psychological principles to explain a real-world event. To complete a paper, Choose an event that can be described and explained through psychological principles. This event may be something that happened to you, that you observed happening to someone, or that you heard or read in the news. The first 1/2 page of this paper should be a summary of that event. The next 11/2 pages should be an explanation of the event, using psychological concepts to illuminate the actions, thoughts, and /or feelings of those involved. Use critical thinking skills and make as many connections to to general principles in the text book, PSYCHOLOGY: “A Concise Introduction” Fifth Edition. Analysis should be based on scientific psychological theories. Note that these papers should be an application of knowledge, not research. Please help me with my assignment...! Q. Write up two single-space papers. In these papers, apply psychological principles to explain a real-world event. To complete a paper, Choose an event that can be described and explained through psychological principles. This event may be something that happened to you, that you observed happening to someone, or that you heard or read in the news. The first 1/2 page of this paper should be a summary of that event. The next 11/2 pages should be an explanation of the event, using psychological concepts to illuminate the actions, thoughts, and /or feelings of those involved. Use critical thinking skills and make as many connections to to general principles in the text book, PSYCHOLOGY: “A Concise Introduction” Fifth Edition. Analysis should be based on scientific psychological theories. Note that these papers should be an application of knowledge, not research.Explanation / Answer
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary. Also, you can add other theories that you may have spotted in the case.
(Answer) The Solomon Asch experiment was conducted when a participant was in a room with seven other people. This participant assumed that the others in the room were also participants. His assumption was false because these individuals were associated with the researcher and their behaviour throughout the session was entirely scripted. The participants were given two cards. One on the left had a vertical line and the one on the right had 3 horizontal lines. The participants were all asked which of the horizontal lines were of a similar length to the vertical line. In most cases, the associates were unanimous and wrong. Even though the true participant knew that they were wrong, they would answer in agreement to the other people in the room. When the experiment was repeated with several groups, it was found that 33% of the time, people simply answered in agreement to others. In the Asch task, there are two theories at play. First is the ‘bystander effect’ and the second one is ‘conformation bias’.
According to the bystander effect, people actually refer to the behaviour of their fellow bystander and tend to mimic it. For instance, if a person were to suddenly stop before starting to walk along the zebra-crossing, then a few bystanders would mimic that behaviour without knowing what is really going on. In the case of this theory, people generally act because of the immediate need for a response. They may not always agree with a certain response that they adopt. However, they merely respond to a stimulus.
Here conformity could be the right answer. Because a person does not have the time to think and respond, they choose to directly copy and respond. This is not the wisest of ideas but in an immediate situation, like at the zebra-crossing, it is a “better safe, than sorry” issue. In such a situation, conforming would be the “right” answer.
On the other hand, with the “confirmation bias” theory, people who have a certain opinion, actively seek out people who have the similar notion as theirs. Together, they validate their behaviour by offering confirmation to each other’s beliefs. This can be observed in the ‘YouTube’ comments section. If we do not like a particular song, we may scroll down in the comments until we find someone with the same opinion as ours. Furthermore, we may react by liking or responding positively to that particular comment.
Unlike the ‘bystander response’, which occurs in situations with the need for immediacy, the ‘confirmation bias’ is where a person has the time to think and come up with their own response. However, they will seek out another individual whose response matches their own, instead of evaluating their own response. This is where conforming would be the “wrong” answer.
Another reason may have been that the participant would have weighed the consequences. In most cases, human beings feel that it is better to be wrong together than to be right and alone. This is how a student might generally feel if they are the only one in class who hasn’t done their homework. They might feel alone and even nervous if the teacher in question is strict. However, if they are accompanied by a friend who has also not done their homework, they might feel a lot more relaxed. This might have been how the participant evaluated the situation and chose to conform to other participants.