Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless in a particular situation. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the human being or the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances.

Just a few days ago, me and another few classmate and our lecturer John were having lunch together, and we discussed about the moving of school to the new campus at Upper Thomson. And we say that it is inaccessible. Then one of them suggested that maybe we could write in to SBS to request for new bus service to the campus, as there is a demand now. I quickly rebut it by saying that they most probably will reject by giving the reason "It will increase the expenses of SBS, if we start new service we might increase the fare etc....".

John immediately pointed out to us that is learned helplessness, saying we had learned the helplessness mindset over the year due to the influences of Government. This strike me hard on the head, realizing that although we might not had the actual experience of being helpless in that situation, but we had pick up the mindset of being helpless in that particular situation unknowingly.

Could this be due to the influence of the media or our society or ourselves? I believe all play a part in this. Learn helplessness can be apply to the daily event of our lives, how many of us had actually dismiss the thought of doing something even before tried doing it by reasoning that it is impossible or can't be achieve. Is this a type of learn helplessness?

The Self

The Self

I came across this article on the 30^th March in The New Paper, and think it will be interesting so I decided to blog about it. Self and social perception of us is crucial; it will affect our self esteem as we are very mindful about other approval of us.

The article is about this particular lady who wanted to known as Ms Elsie that spent more than $700k on aesthetic treatments on her face, body, hips and legs. The reasons she gave were ugly is scary and it gives her confidence, she have to compete with younger women, she do not want to lose her rich hubby. From her answer, we can roughly generalize what how important is her image to her.

Ms Elsie said that “it’s about keeping your husband, lifestyle, even a social competition of sorts with younger women”. She also added that “her husband is constantly surrounded by beautiful women – actress, models, and pretty young thing”.

From this we can see that Ms Elsie usually see herself using the upward social comparison. Upward social comparison involves comparing with someone who is better off than you are. In Ms Elsie scenario, she compare herself to the younger women, hence she went for aesthetic treatment to keep herself look young and beautiful.

Ms Elsie not only concern about how she see herself, but also how other look at her. In the article, Ms Elsie quote that “it’s about how you carry yourself, what you look.” She frequently need to accompany her husband to function, thus she feel that self-presentation to the public is very important, and also maintaining the positive image she had portrayed. Self-presentation is the deliberate control of our public behavior to create a certain impression.

Is that a overjustification effect in Ms Elsie? On the surface, it may seem that she had enjoyed the treatment to look young, but was that the most important reason? Or she simply wanted to keep her husband, thus went for all the treatment. Only Ms Elsie know the real answer.

The Great Person or Propaganda?

The Great Person or Propaganda?

The Great Person theory hypothesize that exceptional leaders possess extraordinary qualities and skills – consistent with the trait approach to leadership.
Trait approach to leadership took the perspective that people become leaders, or performs well as leaders, because of their individual characteristics, such as intelligence and charisma.

A good leader is essential in all organization, especially in political party. The recent Cabinet reshuffle had brought much change to the government. Urgently seeking talent: 'I have found some people, but we want the best possible team.' -- PM Lee on his priority, developing a team from whom to draw the next PM and DPMs. developing a team from whom to draw the next PM and DPMs. But how are the candidates for PM and DPM being chosen? What are the criteria for these positions that will affect Singapore greatly? Should it be “Election” by the citizen rather than “Selection” by the minister?

Fred Fiedler proposed the contingency model of leadership effectiveness, a theory that predicts that task-oriented leaders will be more successful than relationship-oriented leaders in groups where the situation is either very favorable or very unfavorable for the leader, whereas relationship-oriented leaders will be more successful than task-oriented leaders in groups where the situation is mixed for the leader.

In Singapore, the current situation is more or less stable and favorable for the relationship-oriented leaders, and if this continues for the next 2 polls, will bias toward candidate selected for the PM and DPM be more relationship-oriented leaders? Will the relationship-oriented leaders able to lead and make good decision in times of crisis and need. The task-oriented leader might be effective in solving unfavorable situation, but their “PR” skill might not be good, and will this affective their chances for the selection. As we all know that, relationship-oriented leaders are more popular as compare to task-oriented leaders.

But the most desirable leader should be good in both relationship and task, is this type of criteria too hard stringent?

Another issue should the selection be more democratic and transparent to the citizen, or it will be the government propaganda selection of the candidate? As a citizen of Singapore, we shall wait and judge for ourselves. The above statement is only solely view of my own, do not mean to discredit our society.

Stereotyping and Influences

Stereotyping and Influences

Stereotype is a way of representing and judging other people. A stereotype is a set of characteristics that someone associates with members of a group; it is a cognitive structure containing the individual’s belief that members of a group share particular attributes. A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the other group hold in common. Stereotypes may be positive or negative in tone. They are typically generalizations based on minimal or limited knowledge about a group to which the person doing the stereotyping does not belong. Persons may be grouped based on racial group, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any number of other categories.

I had read this article in the January Reader Digest and were shock by the facts that the District Attorney had lied in the case against the lacrosse team, for he know that he had no evidence to support his claim.

The attorney made various strong statement to as many as 70 media interviews and press conferences on the case regarding the player;

Extracted from the article. For full article click here.

In fiery language, Nifong declared that medical evidence made it clear that the alleged victim had been raped by Duke lacrosse players. False.
Fanning the flames of racial and class hatred, he suggested the players’ rampant use of racial slurs during the supposed incident. False.
The players were a “bunch of hooligans” whose “daddies” would buy them expensive lawyers, Nifong said, and the entire team had formed “a stonewall of silence” to protect three rapist teammates. False.

It’s is quite shocking to knowing that a man of such status will made these prejudice remark. These statement stirred much unrest in the college especially the among female. Coincidentally, the week of March 27, 2006, had been declared Sexual Assault Prevention Week at Duke. Over 750 students and Durhamites took to the campus on March 29 in an annual Take Back the Night rally, a common event at colleges nationwide. Late on the afternoon of March 29, the Duke campus was flooded with wanted posters showing photos of 43 of the team’s 46 white players.

These actions also demonstrated informational influence and normative influence. Information influence occurs when people are influenced by others because of desire to be correct and to obtain valid information. Normative influence occurs when people are influenced by other to gain rewards or to avoid punishment.

Firstly, the public was being influence by the statement made by the District Attorney. They believed him as he is a man of figure, commanding much authority, more knowledgeable in this area, hence the judgment made by him is correct.. Thus, the public begin to label the lacrosse players as rowdy, drunken white racists who might well be rapists too. This is the effect of information influence.

Secondly, it was stated in the article “Some admitted privately that they were afraid to cross the activists, lest they be smeared with charges of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia or right-wingism.” Defending the lacrosse players might incur the wrath of the other student, hence few speak up for the lacrosse team, so as to avoid punishment. This is the effect of normative influence.

In this article, we can see the devastating effect of stereotype and influences leading to conformity, thus a rush to judgment. Hence, it is important for us to avoid biases, prejudice and discrimination when making any judgment.

The Bystander Effect in our daily lives.

The Bystander Effect in our daily lives.

Catherine Susan Genovese, commonly known as Kitty Genovese, was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York. The circumstances of her murder and the apparent reaction of her neighbors were reported by a newspaper article published two weeks later and prompted investigation into the psychological phenomenon that became known as the bystander effect or "Genovese syndrome. For more reading on the case, please click here.

The bystander effect (also known as bystander apathy, Genovese syndrome, diffused responsibility or bystander intervention) is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual will intervene in an emergency goes down as the number of bystanders increases.

The bystander effect also suggests that living in large cities may foster bystander apathy. For example, residents of large cities may generally feel less responsible for the well-being of strangers than residents of small cities, because most setting in the large city have many people present.

Recently, there was a case in Singapore that “Police shot dead murder suspect in Outram MRT”. The firing incident triggered off debate over should the police office fire in that situation. However, many neglected that fact that the suspect allegedly stabbed an odd-job worker to death in a hawker centre as reported in the paper. Extracted from StraitsTimes.

Shall the suspect really had allegedly stab a man in a public place like hawker centre, its puzzled me as no one offered help to the man or stop the suspect when he literally perform such an act in the eyes of the wide public.

A personal view was that we shouldn’t put all the responsibility onto the police officer and the suspect, but everyone who were present at the scene of murder were partly responsible too. Wasn’t it part of our responsibility to prevent a crime from happening too? Or it was just the responsibility of the police. One could debate that the suspect was holding a weapon, hence it’s unwise or dangerous to interfere physically. However, if the public was active, merely shouting or halting at the suspect by a handful of people might send him fleeing off before he could commit the crime or deliver the fatal blow. The above statement is an assumption of my own.

Researches had suggested that bystanders tend not to intervene in emergency, as they lack the ability to help, such as when they do not know how to administer CPR to an apparent heart attack victim.

However, i feel that bystander effect does not only occur in emergency but also in minor event of our daily life. A possible explanation of this could be the diffusion of responsibility. In situation with others present, individual assume that someone else is going to intervene and so they each individually refrain from doing so and feel less responsible.

A typical example would be every morning we see a elder or a pregnant lady on the train or bus, how many of us actually give up the seat to them on first though or rather assume and wait for other passenger to do so.

The effect of bystanders effect and diffusion of responsibility had slowly contaminated our basic moral value on lending an helping hand. An personal viewpoint was we need to foster better and more helping behavior in the community before bystanders effect become a part of our daily lives.