PSY2050

Tutorial 2 (Lectures 3-4)

• Social Psychology

• Learning
Part 1: Social Psychology
Activity 1

Video:
[Link]
m4

What would you do ?

Activity 1

In this situation, would you intervene? Why or why not?

• Group Discussion
 Can the following concepts of Social Psychology be applied to
explain why other observers did not help the victim?
 Why DID one classmate intervene?

 Conformity?
 Bystander Effect?
 Diffusion of Responsibility?
Activity 1

• Conformity
 changing one’s own behavior to more closely match or be the same as the actions of
others

• Bystander effect
 the effect that the presence of other people has on the
decision to help or not help

• Diffusion of responsibility
 a person fails to take responsibility for action or for
inaction because of the presence of other people who are
seen to share the responsibility
Activity 1

• Considering the five steps in making a decision

to help, what are the reasons you would chose
to intervene or not to intervene?
Activity 1

• Think of an example of bullying in school. It could be an

incident you witnessed, a personal experience, or a
story heard from others.
• Knowing about these Social Psychology concepts, how
could we make it more likely that other students would
have intervened?
• Relate your example to concepts of Social Psychology:
 Conformity, Compliance, or Obedience
 Bystander Effect
 Diffusion of Responsibility
 5 Steps to Helping
Activity 2

• Scenario
 Leslie is a mobile app developer who has considerable creative
talent but who, so far, has just been earning a comfortable living
by writing small apps. Recently, Leslie has come up with an idea
for a potentially significant app. If it could be created and
accepted it might have considerable impact and be a big boost to
Leslie’s career. On the other hand, if Leslie is not able to work out
the idea, or if the app was a failure, considerable time and
energy will have been invested without any financial return.

 Imagine that you are a friend advising Leslie. Check the lowest
probability that you would consider acceptable for Leslie to
attempt to write the app.
Activity 2

In a group of 4, consider Leslie’s case together.

Leslie should attempt to write the app if the chances that the app will
be a success are at least:

__1 in 10
__2 in 10
__3 in 10
__4 in 10
__5 in 10
__6 in 10
__7 in 10
__8 in 10
__9 in 10
__10 in 10
Activity 2

• Group polarization
 Members involved in a group discussion tend to
take somewhat more extreme positions and
suggest riskier actions than individuals who have
not participated in a group discussion

Some real-life examples

• Acts of terrorism, mob mentality, public policy,
violent acts, peer pressure, college life, and
decisions taken by a jury
Activity 2

Why does group polarization occur?

• Social comparison interpretation

• Conformity: People tend to change their opinions when in a group in order to 'fit in' or to
be more accepted
• Some individuals tend to study the group and if a popular opinion is found, they then
opine the same views but in a more extreme form, such that they not only appear to
share the popular opinion, but are looked upon as possessing leadership qualities
• A loop then begins wherein other members of the group begin to take on a more
extreme viewpoint in order to be closer to the ‘leader's' opinions
 Persuasive arguments theory
 People tend to enter a discussion with favorable information for both sides of the
argument, and then change their opinion to favoring the side which provides more
information in its arguments.
 If others already had slightly more arguments on the “pro” side, then more information
on that side is presented, leading everyone to favor that side even more.
 Activity 3: What is
cyberbullying?

• How would you stop cyber-bullying as a future educator?

• Video: [Link]
Part 2 Learning
 Activity 1.1: Classical Conditioning -
Identify the NS, US, UR, CS and CR

1. Primary students begin to cry when they are lining up for a needle
(vaccination) at school.

NS

US

UR

CS

CR
 Activity 1.1: Classical Conditioning -
Identify the NS, US, UR, CS and CR

1. Primary students begin to cry when they are lining up for a needle
(vaccination) at school.

NS Lining up
US Painful needle
UR Crying / scared
CS Lining up
CR Crying / scared
Activity 1.1: Classical Conditioning -
Identify the NS, US, UR, CS and CR

2. Being humiliated many times by Mr. X’s in English class, Tommy

began to hate English.

NS
US
UR
CS
CR
Activity 1.1: Classical Conditioning -
Identify the NS, US, UR, CS and CR

2. Being humiliated many times by Mr. X’s in English class, Tommy

began to hate English.

NS Mr. X / English class

US Humiliation
UR Hatred feelings
CS Mr. X / English class
CR Hatred feelings
Activity 1.2: Operant Conditioning – identify the following situations as
positive / negative ; reinforcement / punishment. Put your answer inside
the boxes on the right (The explanation in brackets are tips to guide your
answers):
1. You go to the library to study more frequently because of the
renovation at your neighbor’s house. (How does that affect your
tendency to go to the library when it is noisy?)
2. Parents not allowing you to go out with your friends because you failed
a test. (What is the parents’ intention for not allowing you to go out?)
3. Although incorrect, the teacher praised Elaine for making the effort in
providing an answer. (What was the teacher’s intention for parsing
Elaine?)
4. Bob is asked to clean the classroom during recess because he threw a
piece of trash on the floor. (What is the teacher’s intention on Bob?)
5. Bonus marks are given to students who actively participate in
classroom discussions. (What is the teacher’s intention for doing
that?)
6. Ever since mom began nagging you about the cleanliness of your room,
you clean the room more often because you wanted to avoid mom’s
nagging. (Why were you cleaning your room more often?)
7. Tommy was staring at other girls when he was out with his girlfriend.
His girlfriend then gave him “the silent treatment” throughout the
whole day. (Why was the girlfriend doing that to Tommy?)
Activity 1.2: Operant Conditioning – identify the following situations as
positive / negative → given / removed stimulus; reinforcement /
punishment →tendency of behavior. Put your answer inside the boxes on
the right (The explanation in brackets are tips to guide your answers):
1. You go to the library to study more frequently because of the
Negative
renovation at your neighbor’s house. (How does that affect your
reinforcement
tendency to go to the library when it is noisy?)
2. Parents not allowing you to go out with your friends because you failed Negative
a test. (What is the parents’ intention for not allowing you to go out?) punishment
3. Although incorrect, the teacher praised Elaine for making the effort in Positive
providing an answer. (What was the teacher’s intention for parsing reinforcement
Elaine?) (for effort)
4. Bob is asked to clean the classroom during recess because he threw a Positive
piece of trash on the floor. (What is the teacher’s intention on Bob?) punishment
5. Bonus marks are given to students who actively participate in
Positive
classroom discussions. (What is the teacher’s intention for doing
reinforcement
that?)
6. Ever since mom began nagging you about the cleanliness of your room,
you clean the room more often because you wanted to avoid mom’s Negative
nagging. (Why were you cleaning your room more often?) reinforcement

7. Tommy was staring at other girls when he was out with his girlfriend.
His girlfriend then gave him “the silent treatment” throughout the Positive / negative
whole day. (Why was the girlfriend doing that to Tommy?) punishment
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case
• You are required the use of classical conditioning, operant conditioning
and observational learning in this case.
• You are the class teacher of class Primary class 4A. A few months after
school commencement, the Science teacher, Mr. X says that one of your
students, Larry, has always been a troublemaker in the Science class. Mr.
X claims that Larry does not follow instructions where he frequently
works on his English homework during Science lessons. And he disturbs
the class repeatedly by shouting random answers.
• Mr. X says that the Science class is getting out of control. Many students
in 4A are following what Larry is doing during Science lesson. In fact, they
do not even pay attention to Mr. X. As you begin to investigate on the
issue, you notice the following issues:
i. Mr. X doesn’t really stop Larry’s misbehaviors, and rather, he ignores
Larry when Larry takes his English homework out during Science
class;
ii. Mr. X would only say “stop this or else I will tell your class teacher”
when he cannot tolerate Larry’s misbehaviors (but he never did
anything to stop the misbehavior);
iii. No disciplinary issue was found with other subject teachers.
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case

1. Explain why Larry misbehaves only in the Science class (in front of
Mr. X) by utilizing your knowledge in classical conditioning.

NS + US → UR

CS → CR
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case

1. Explain why Larry misbehaves only in the Science class (in front of
Mr. X) by utilizing your knowledge in classical conditioning.

Not scared of
Mr. X doesn’t Mr. X (so freely
Science class seem to care / do whatever
(Mr. X) teach much Larry wants)
NS + US → UR

Not scared of
Mr. X (so freely
Science class do whatever
(Mr. X) Larry wants)
CS → CR
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case

2. Explain why other students follow what Larry is doing (working on

things other than Science related work) by utilizing your knowledge
in observational learning. Be sure to explain using the four processes
in observational learning.

（1）attention process
（2）retention process
（3）motor reproduction process
（4）motivational process
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case
I. Attention processes (observer’s and model’s characteristics)
Larry is a classmate, with identical characteristics with all other
classmates. Other classmates are more likely to pay attention to
Larry. Larry is seemingly doing something with positive
consequence (not being punished and getting other homework
done).
II. Retention Processes (Memorization)
Other classmates remember what Larry is doing in the Science
class (in front of Mr. X).
III. Motor Reproduction Processes (Imitation)
When Larry was not punished for his misbehaviors, other
classmates may try to imitate Larry’s misbehavior.
IV. Motivational Processes (Desire)
When other classmates are also doing it and not being punished,
more classmates will want to join (not doing Science work) and
misbehaviors become more frequent.
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case

3. What should Mr. X do to resolve this issue by using concepts from

operant conditioning?
 Activity 1.3: Mr. X classroom management case
• If students take an active part in the class and answer class
questions actively and seriously, Mr. X adopts the way of class
integral, and the one with the highest score in each class can be
exempted from certain homework. → positive reinforcement /
negative reinforcement
• Positive punishment - Mr. X can give a detention class to the
students if they misbehave during science lessons.
• Negative punishment - All homework done in class will be
confiscated and send to their subject teacher.
• Negative punishment - The daily mark will be deducted if they
have misbehaved in the class. Their grade of conduct will be
affected also.
Activity 1.4: How can we use operant
conditioning more effectively in educational
setting?