Words from the Webmaster

Dear all,

Once again, another two batches of students have completed the course on the basics of qualitative social research. This time round, some selected participant observational research done by the students are put up. At the same time, students' video demonstrations of the various persuasion techniques in social psychology are included. Hope you enjoy them!

Regards

Henry Khiat

Persuasion Techniques: Technique based on Scarity

To limit the sup­ply of a prod­uct or ser­vice in some way to increase scarcity of an offer. Because it’s a proven fact that scarcity sells. It’s that age­less law of sup­ply and demand. The less the supply is, the greater the demand will be.

http://www.michelfortin.com/use-scarcity-to-sell-not-scare/

Persuasion Techniques: Bait and Switch

In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_switch

Persuasion Techniques: That's not all Technique

When offering or conceding something to somebody, rather than give it to them as a final item, give it in incremental pieces. Do not allow them to respond to each piece you give them -- keep on offering more.

http://changingminds.org/techniques/general/sequential/not_all.htm

Persuasion Techniques: Low Ball Technique

The Low-ball works by first gaining commitment to an idea or item at a lower cost than you really intend to charge, then, using the fact that people will behave consistently with their earlier commitments you change the agreement.
The strategy creates an illusion of irrevocability so that a person believes that a decision made (at lower costs) cannot be reversed, he/she may consider a handshake the close of the deal and therefore have a responsibility to commit to it to the very end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Ball

Persuasion Techniques: Foot in the door

Foot-in-the-door technique (FITD) is a compliance tactic that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up by having that person agree to a modest request.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique

Persuasion Techniques: Door in the Face

The door-in-the-face (DITF) technique is a persuasion method. Compliance with the request of concern is enhanced by first making an extremely large request that the respondent will obviously turn down. The respondent is then more likely to accede to a second, more reasonable request than if this second request were made without the first, extreme request. There is also a feeling of guilt associated with the DITF technique of sequential requests (Cialdini, 2000). A person is also more likely to agree with the second request because they feel guilty for having rejected the first request. A reference point (or framing) construal can also explain this phenomenon, as the initial bad offer sets a reference point from which the second offer looks like an improvement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique

Participant Observation: Home 7

I sat down in my living room to watch the tv while eating my dinner. I’ve noticed things that I had never noticed them before at home. Habits of my parents and sister.
Basic Info. My Father is a businessman who spend lots of time reading newspaper. Mother is a housewife and sister is an K1 student.
I took my dinner and sat down to watch tv at channel U together with family. When I started eating, my mom came sitting beside me and asked me about the dinner. Like how is the dinner, nice or not. While father sitting on his rocking chair reading newspaper. Sister is also eating her dinner when I started the observation. She always walk around the house, playing with her toy and coming for the rice every few minutes after playing. One thing about her is that I realized she plays with her toy with lots of sound effects. She even mixes different types of toy that doesn’t match together. Example is she was playing with her Barbie doll together with her block stacking. I don’t understand what is she playing at all. While she is playing, she spent 50% of her time trying to bring her fringe from the front to the back. And she often forgot about the rice in her mouth, my mom had to remind her to quickly swallow then she will remember to chew the rice in her mouth. Dad reading newspaper sometimes take a short look at what my sister is doing and will engross in the tv for a few seconds when something “weird” happen in the show. Example, the show showing a mom bringing crystal mickey and play it at another table and suddenly the phone rang. The moment when the phone rang, my dad would assume that something will happen. He actually said that the crystal would drop down on the floor when the mom was answering the phone call. But it doesn’t happen, then my dad will go back continue to read his newspaper. Mom sitting beside me who is suppose to feed my sister dinner was engross in the tv show. She spent 80% of the time watching the tv than feeding my sister. One thing I observed from her is that she always peels her heel’s skin. She peels them and place them at the side of the chair. Surprisingly nobody change the tv channel at all. I don’t know why.
When I finished my dinner, my sister finished hers too. I bring those plates to wash in the kitchen. Sister followed me and come to open the fridge to look for jelly and sweets. I asked her not to open it as I’m afraid that she might catch cold from the fridge. She ignored everything that I’ve said. She saw orange juice and shout for mom to drink the orange juice. My mom came over and take a look. She come beside me 1st and throw her skins into the bin beside me. At the same time bring sister back to living room. Sister come back again, mom gave up and decided to cut some fruits for us to eat. I finished my washing 1st. I took my soya bean and sat in living to drink. Sister keep asking for juice. Mom insisted not until she act crying. Mom gave up due to the fake crying. I turn my head and look at my sister, she had that “winning” face. Mom finnish cutting fruits and bring out the juice for sister and the fruits. Dad doesn’t eat the fruits at all. Still reading newspaper. I don’t know whats so interesting about that newspaper. Mom and sis didn’t eat the fruit. Sister is whining about mom not giving her juice at 1st. I thought im the only one eating, swallowed half of them. And then wash my fork and put my soya bean back to fridge. I saw mom and sis eating the fruits when I’m back to living room. Sis don’t really eat. She pass the fruits around for us to eat instead of her eating herself. Mom would accept her offer but dad asked her to put on the plate 1st. sis didn’t obey the instruction, she give it to me instead. When she is passing to me, I realized that she hold the fruit from grabbing it. Just like grabbing a pole instead of using only thumb and 1st finger to hold it. Mom is watching tv and eating at the same time. When the fruits left with only a little, then dad start taking them and eat. He put down his newspaper to eat. He folded the newspaper nicely and placed at the place where we put our old newspaper. When he was eating he kept asking sis questions like, are you full? What did you eat in school today? Did you quarrel with allicia today? Did teacher lim scold you? First 2 questions are answer within 2sec. but the last 2 questions she took around 10sec to answer. And her answer is no. then mom started asking her to learn spelling, she quickly go to mom.
The tv show had ended. Its playing the ending song. Sister will try to sing, mom and dad will watch the credit. And I went back off to my room.

Participant Observation: Home 6

By looking at the sleeping arrangements, I notice that it will be convenient for my mother to wake up early in the morning. She is sleeping near the door of the master bedroom. She will not cause extra noise like the footsteps sound or the squeaking sound of the bed when moving. My mum will always wake up at 0530 in the morn to prepare for the day. It is mostly the job of a mother to prepare for the family in the morning. The reason is that she is the housewife of the family, she does not need to work or attend school outside and she knows every single’s need.
The moon still shines up high, so my mum had to use the kitchen to see clearly. Arrangements of the kitchen were decided by my mum, as she will eventually be the head of the kitchen. The first thing that she would do is to boil the water first, in order to brew fragrance hot coffee. Filled up the water, she placed it on the stove, taking her a little bit more time with some noise produced, knocking on the stove to place it nicely. I can see that she is still not wide awake. After that, she prepares the breakfast; gather all the ingredients on the table, for her convenience to get the food to do sandwiches. Scramble egg, kaya, butter, cheese, all ingredients were prepared to cater to the different taste buds of the family members.
Breakfast done, she went on to wake up my two sisters at 0615. Although their schools are near, both of them at Ang Mo Kio, a less than half an hour to reach their school. My mum still insist on waking them up early in the morning. She knows that both of her children like to drag their time. My youngest sister, Min Yi will give excuses that she had not enough sleep whereby she always sleep at 10pm. It’s kind of weird that a normal person with a full eight hours of sleep can’t get enough of it.
Time 0640, while Min Yi do her last minute packing before going to school, mum went to woke up my young sister, who also likes to do things slowly, too. My mum is very confident to wake her up on time because she has her method. With the anxious voice and reaction, she faked her by telling her that she overslept and she have to wake up immediately before she is late for school. For my Min Qi, whether it is real or not, she would jumped of her bed and rush off to wash up, instead of lying on the bed, thinking that the time will wait for her.
Min Yi laughed, as she saw Min Qi pacing passed her to the bathroom. She, as always, got tricked by mum again. This is Min Qi’s character, she don’t like to be late. She feels that being late is a form of disrespect for the teacher. When one person is late, it means that the person is not serious on their work. Teachers also woke up early for their students in order to impart them the knowledge; students should also at least respect the teacher and be thankful to go to school on time.
Breakfast time is always the time where my two sisters update my mum with their latest ongoing news. They too, get their allowance in the morning every week. They will also get their parent’s signature and pass important notices from the school to them. They choose this time to tell my parents their exam results too. That is the only time where my parents are least focus as they just woke up from a nice sleep, they will not be too angry.
My sisters both left home around 0715, calculated that both of them will reach school before 0745 for the flag raising ceremony. Both of them gave my mum a kiss on the cheek, a form of saying goodbye.
At time 0720, the alarm clock rang, it belongs to the head of the family, my dad’s. He wakes up on his own, only at times when he is too tired; he needs my mum to call him up. He will always be tired when he did not sleep enough the night before. Approximately, whenever he slept mid-night or later. To have an alarm clock rather than my mum’s wake up call, is to show his children that we can wake up independently every day. There is no need to pester mum to wake people up every morning. I can see that it is a form of care toward my mum, not to let her wake up so early in the morning for other family members.
By 0800, my dad will be out to work. I see no unhappy face in his, but rather a fighting spirit within him burning. Because there is a need to fight on for his daughters future.

Participant Observation: Home 5

During dinner, everything could be clearly observed. Dad was sitting in his desk, all down on his work, while Mum and Sister were scooping the rice for everyone in the family. Brother was as usual, down on the sofa comfortably looking at his favourite cartoon. There was no intention for both of them to help Mum and Sister. It was only when all the dishes were served, that Mum called everyone to the dining table for table. From this, it is evident that the males seem to have a greater position that the females in our family. Mum did not ask for help from the males, and did not have the intention to.

The dining begins. Dad started up with his chopsticks digging hungrily into the dish, while Brother and Sister carefully announced:”Let’s eat everyone!”. Mum simply just ate after everyone else did. The male of the family had to start eating before everyone else does. It is very clear that the father of every household now has the power to control activities and is the leading character. There is a clear distinct level between males and females. During dining, Dad started a series of questions regarding the studies of his children and they answered accordingly. They answered his questions carefully and made sure that they were complete and to their dad’s satisfaction.

Finishing dinner, Dad left the table and continued to proceed with his work at the desk. His bowls were soon cleared by Sister, who has also finished her dinner then. We can see that the children had to obey their parents regardless of anything in the household. After a while, Mum waited till everyone finished dinner before clearing everything into the basin and started cleaning them. Women in the household are usually delegated to do labour such as washing and cleaning of different items. This is also usually the social status of women in households as housewives.

Mum bought durians home for dessert and requested for help from Dad. Dad then went on to opening up the durians while Mum started placing them nicely in plates. In terms of manual labour, men seem to be the dominating character as they are required to perform jobs such as repairing, fixing etc.

After desserts, everyone went on to the sofa to watch television. The channel was switched on and everyone tuned in attentively. After a while, Dad started flickering with his newspaper and giving a bored look. He then suggested to watch a DVD since it was a Friday night, and even selected his favourite movie “George of the Jungle”. However, everyone was engrossingly watching the channel and did not had the intention to switch to watching DVD. Then, seeing that there was no response, Dad fumed up and shut the channel. Mum, seeing this, quickly went to insert the DVD into the player while the children kept quiet, looking lost and sad that they missed their favourite show. The selection of activities was done by the father in the household. No one attempted to stop him and had to listen to him reluctantly.

Participant Observation: Home 4

The fight for the remote control was not as intense as it turns out to be, simply because my dad always gets it. From the duration of my observation to the end of it, it seems that my dad always gets control of the remote control. By there is a reason to it. Simply because my dad was the breadwinner and he dosen’t have much time to watch his favourite show, so when he is at home, nobody fights with him for it! So it is either Korean dramas or singing competitions for all family members.
The first part of the observation starts at 7pm. My father has just woke up from his nap after coming back home at 3pm. As he sits down on his favourite position, the screen changes to Channel U for his favourite korean drama, Likeable or Not. My sister grumbles about the plot dragging on for too long. Probably out of respect for my dad, she did not reach out and fight for control of the remote control. Finally, the first part of the commercial arrived. This is when dad relinquished control of the remote control. As he relinquished control he said: “Only 1 minute, watch anything but remember the korean drama”. After this, he heads to the toilet. At this very moment, my sister grabbed the remote control and switched to Channel 8 for a peek on her favourite Hong Kong drama. But after 1 minute, dad appeared on the dot and said politely: “Could we change back to Channel U?” Right at this moment, My sister unwillingly relinquished control of the remote control and it is back to Channel U for the korean drama. My sister then had to give up her favourite drama, but she said: “ Pa, since you are working the evening shift tommorow, you won’t be able to watch it, so you better enjoy yourself.” My dad smiled and turned his attention back to the television.
As the show reaches the climax, the screen changes to show the commercials. Dad grumbled: Why do they always show the commercials?” After grumbling, he went for his usual toilet breaks. This is when my sister quickly switch over to Channel 8 for her Hong Kong drama. This time round, dad took a little bit longer than usual, he returned 4 minutes later and he took over the control of the remote control. But by then , the korean drama had resumed and he grumbled for missing a small part of it. The show progressed on and everyone in the family continued to be engrossed in the drama. About 15 minutes later, it is the commercial break again! As usual, dad relinquishes control of the remote control and went to have a quick dinner. This time round my sister did not turn to Channel 8 for her favourite drama, she said: “ Ai Yah! No point turning , i had already missed a large chunk of my show, it is not interesting to continue anymore.” As she finished, she heads back to her room.



Dad quickly finished his dinner and just in time, the korean drama is back on screen again. He the went back to his favourite place and sat down to watch the show with my mum as my sister remains in her room. 10 minutes later, the korean drama ends at 7.55pm. At this moment, my sister trooped out from her room, this time round, dad switched to Channel 8 because another of his favourite show was showing. This time round my dad and sister was not fighting for control of the remote control anymore as they both share the same liking for this show. This show that they are watching was a taiwanese variety show where well-known singers were invited to the show to compete in a “Don’t forget the lyrics” lookalike competition where they must carry on and fill in the empty blanks to a missing part of a song.
The first singer emerges and picked a 70’s song. My dad then exclaimed: This is my favourite song!” Then he started to sing along and unsuprisingly, dad now the missing lyrics and urged the contestant to follow his answer. In the end, both my dad and the contestant were right. Then the show carried on. After a few more songs, it is the commercial break and dad takes a break and leaves the sofa to get a drink while my sister continues to sit in her favourite sit without leaving for a break.
The show resumed in about three minutes time, Then dad slowly trooped back and sat on his favouite place and resumed watching the variety show. This time round the singer picked a song of a techno genre, this time round my father complained about it being noisy, while my sister enjoyed it. After this, the show continued. The next was again one of dad’s favourite song and he started to sing along with the contestant, but this time the contestant did not follow my dad’s answer and he got koncked out. Then dad exclaimed: “ When I was listening to this song, you are not born yet!” Then all of us started to laugh about it.
After 20 minutes had passed and the time reaches 9pm, this marks the end of the variety show and the end of my observation. At the end of my observation I asked my sister and mother if the shows that dad was watching are shows that they really wanted to watch, my sister said: “ Ai Yah! Why fight with pa for the tv, he rarely gets to watch his favourite shows as he is working. He must have some time to relax.” Then my mother answered: “ It isn’t about what show i’m watching, it is about spending time with your pa.”
From this observation, I discovered that dad had a tight control of the remote control. The whole family did not fight for it as they knew my dad worked very hard to support the family, so when he has time to watch his favourite shows, they don’t fight for the control of the remote control with him. From this observation, I discovered that it was not that it was not my dad’s dominance that resulted in him getting control of the remote control, it was more of the whole family acknowledging the hardwork he had put in to support the family and the respect they had for my dad. It made me realised that you do not win over something by force, you win somthing through the respect that people have for you.

Participant Observation: Home 3

She is watching the television now. Channel U a Taiwanese show that she had watched for more than 2 years consecutively. Sitting on the nylon stretchable chair, she comfortably watches it everyday without fail. She plucks the stems of the vegetables for dinner later on while watching the series. Without fail, she will comment about the characters in the show and cursed at the antagonist. The show finishes and she went into the kitchen to cook her dishes.

Dad comes home at 615pm. He came home with some mails in the hand and his uniform: REDWOOD. He walks into the kitchen and talked to mom about his work. And mom will listen attentively to him while she cooks her dishes.

A huge pot of soup is always on the menu. Brother is always on the computer, playing games. Mom nagged at him “Do you want to do your homework! Can you listen?” Brother will reply: wait la! And she saw my shoe on the floor. She nags again “ah boy! Your shoe you want or not! Don’t want and I will throw it away?” I just replied with an “Orh!” The cycle is never ending. Mom never stops nagging at people. Brother will always play his computer games at this period of time. Dad just didn’t say anything and go straight to the bedroom bathroom to bath. After the shower, he goes into his bedroom to rest and check his documents.

7pm, she turned on the television to continue the show on Korean and watched the show while she cooks. Sitting on the chair comfortably, she only continues her cooking whenever there is commercial breaks. Dad came into the living room and sat down on the sofa and watched the series with my mom in the living room. Although he did not watch this series a lot, but he still do watch it sometimes whenever he can after work.

800pm, he went to take a shower and while mom continues with the last dish, soup.
810pm, the dinner starts. I seriously think she always cooked so slowly and this is the main reason for our family members being obese. Eat late. Mom is the one who get the rice and set everything ready for dinner. The dinner table was brought out to the living room and the newspaper was placed above it. This is a norm in our house so that we could actually just clear the used dirty newspaper and not needing to clear the tables with a wet cloth.
I went to have dinner with them while watching the television. After that she calls for everyone to have out dinner. Brother still got hooked to the computer. She nags again.

After dinner mom keeps the dishes and dad washed the dishes. 9 o’clock and I went back to my room while watching them and dad took the remote control and start to click, changing the channels constantly. They really have a great task of multi-tasking when dad opens the mails that he took from the letter box earlier and read them. Brother is still on the computer. Eyes attentively on the screen, literally.
10.00pm, dad tune into channel 8 and watched the news. They just sat there quietly and commented on much news that came about. She nagged at my brother again to tell him to do homework. Brother got really pissed off and responded: Hah Nah! Shut up la!

It is 1030pm. Mom sat on the floor leaning against the wall, bringing the fruits in and cut in front of the television watching the news with dad. She laid newspaper below the fruits too to prevent mopping later “Ah boy ah! You want fruits or not!”(Referring to me) Brother heard it and went from the computer table to the floor and sits around the place and start enjoying the honeydew. Meanwhile mom was cutting the pineapple.
I went to eat the fruits and said I have something to do so I came back. Just now my mom passed the honeydew to my dad. Mom continued to sit on the floor and still watching the show on the television. She continues to nag at my brother to shut down the computer. About 1045pm, she took the plates and newspaper to the kitchen. Bro is still on the computer playing the games and mom nagged at him again.

Life of a housewife is just so boring, TV, COOK, WASH, NAG….

Participant Observation: Home 2

In the inquisitiveness of wanting to know more about how things works with the most dominant person in my home, I decided to set my observation upon my family members. My first instance of descries in the early morning when I woke up, was to see my father waking my sister up. Just within the first reminder of my father asking her to wake up, she woke up without an intermediary and straight walked to the toilet to take her shower. This constituent factor made me wonder why she woke up so quick when my dad woke her but whenever my mother wakes her up in the morning for school, she will be like saying, “amma (mother) give me 5 more minutes” and tries to negotiate the time of waking up but it did not happen so with my father. Later after she took her shower I asked her, “Abirami, why you woke up straight away when appa (father) woke you up just now?” and she replied, “You know right that appa (father) do not like this kind of bargaining with him all so that is why I never say anything back and moreover I was so shock to hear him waking me up so I just woke up”. After awhile my sister was about to leave the house for school and she said “Bye appa”. This then triggered me a little more than the waking up because I was also about to leave for school yet she did not even say bye to me although I was long used to it but i still wanted to know why she said bye to my father only. Later that day when I came back from school I asked her, “abi how come you always say bye to appa only and never say bye to me or amma?” and she replied, “no la I don’t know why also la but it just happens that I automatically will say bye to appa”. Then I ask her why again as I did not feel very convinced with her answer, then she said, “I think its because I have lots of respect for him and also that he is the eldest”. Upon hearing that, I then made my main observation on a weekend, Saturday when everyone was at home. My mum woke up early and made breakfast for us. She made my father’s favourite dish, thosai (An Indian dish). To have completed the making of breakfast for us, she had to wake up at about 7am, which is 2 hours before my dad wakes up in the morning and then go to the market to get the stuff and come back home in time to cook despite having quite a number of steps to prepare the dish like grinding the flour, mixing it well with other ingredients and to also make the side dish to go along with it for our breakfast. It amuses me to actually see her being very keen to do us such a time consuming dish for our breakfast on a Saturday morning having to wake up early. It is because my mother has only one day off per week off and she could have actually chosen to wake up late as that is her only off/rest day. Therefore I asked her, “amma why you wake up so early to prepare breakfast?” And she replied, “At least once a week I can make your father happy by making his favourite dish for breakfast as he is working so hard for us all the time”. I was then starting to apprehend the status of my father in the grounds of my home through my mother and sister. On the same day after having breakfast, my sister and I were studying in our own rooms. My sister has this habit of blasting music while studying but whenever my dad is at home, that never seemed to happen. Once again, out of curiosity I straight when into her room and asked her “Abi, why didn‘t you blast the music today?’’ and she said, “Appa do not like blasting music and he will scold”. When I heard that statement from my sister, I learnt that she indeed knows my father very well about his likes and dislikes and caters to it in the right manner with a sense of respect for he is our father, the eldest and having a sense of that he is the superior one in our home. Later in the afternoon of the day, my whole family was watching television altogether. Then I realised that my father was the one holding the remote throughout. At a point of time we were all watching a Tamil movie on Vasantham Central channel and my father changed the channel when the advertisement came and he realised that there was a replay match of his favourite soccer team Liverpool. Thus, he just decided to continue watching the match without sparing a thought to change back the channel for us to continue watching the Tamil movie. Gradually it came to my realisation that my mother and sister were giving into him to just let him continue watching his soccer match as my mother slowly said that she was going to take a short nap. Shortly after she said that, my sister also added along in saying, “I am going back to my room to continue studying.” When I heard this, it staggered me real bad to eagerly know why they do not mind giving in so much to my father and knowing for a fact that my mother really liked that particular movie which was going on in that Vasantham Central channel and she was even longing to watch it again sometime ago. Instead, she gave in to my father to let him watch the encore telecast of the soccer match. I then went into my parents room with a desperate urge to get an answer for how and why they react as such to only my father so I asked her, “amma, are you sure that you do not want to watch the movie? and I thought you love the movie very much so why don’t you ask appa to change the channel for you to watch it?” and she replied, “You know your father loves soccer so much and he does not like it when he is asked to change the channel while he is watching his match”. Upon hearing that I went to my sister’s room asking her, “why today you were sitting down so nicely in a well mannered way” (as my sister will usually sit down on the sofa with her legs up on the table) and her reply was that, “later appa will scold for not sitting properly”. Subsequently in the evening we were all set to go out for dinner and my dad was asking all of us, “Where do you’ll think we should go for dinner” and no one replied. Then my father said, “ok let’s all go Changi village” and I looked at my mother’s face to see her reaction, she was essentially quite uncomfortable as I could see from her actions such as she was combing her hair with her hands, and as for my sister her face changed with a pinch of morose as she is afraid of the stray cats which change village is filled with. When we were in the car, travelling to Changi Village, my father was talking to us asking about our studies and school matters. I then realised that my sister was trying to converse with my dad with the right kind of words and in the most appropriate way and I know it so well that it was not her usual way of speaking like that as I have never heard her deliberating in such an appropriate manner to my mother nor me. When we came back, I asked her ,“Why you always speak so cautiously to appa?”, And she said, “ I’m afraid I may say something wrong that’s why”.

As from what I have observed thoroughly for the theme I chose to work on, it has come to such a crystal clear realisation of truth that the most respected/ dominant person at home is my father. The foremost reasons to why we respect him so much is because of the sacrifices he has made for the family by working so hard and giving us a good life. He does not load his burden upon us and instead he carries it all upon himself just to give us the best he could. Therefore everyone respects him and thus, we rather cater to his needs as much as possible. His words are final and no one objects to it. Some of the main obvious observations made were such as the single-seat sofa in the living room which is only for my father where my father sits to relax or watches television and no one will ever sit there whenever he is at home. It is like as if to say that the sofa is the throne and the ruler shall occupy the seat. Being the most respected and dominant person in the household, It is like a big position of responsibility where a higher level authority is given upon him. Therefore he has to live up to it and I feel that my father has done so much so that over the years, he had showed us that having such a pivotal role in the family is a great responsibility and not everyone can rise up to that challenge.

Participant Observation: Home 1

It is always a weekly routine that my family and I gather down to watch the Sunday night movie on channel five. Today’s Blockbuster movie is War of the World.
My mum and my dad are now all sitting on the sofa. When the movie began, my mum asked me if the movie was nice. I said I do not know and but should be quite exciting. I am mot interested in this kind of thriller movie, that’s why I am no watching it now.
During the first commercial break, my dad went to sweep the floor. And he always mumbles things when he sweeps. He will tell me “See! Your dad is so nice” and like things like “You’re not guilty?” and I will say “ I also got help you every time” . he will then continue to mumble. That is really funny. He now stops by and watches the movie again and asked my mum what happened? As he always does that, my mum replied “ Watch yourself! Every time ask people and you don’t watch, tell you and you don’t get it also! I guess she felt irritated as she is now watching the movie. Actually we all felt like this because my dad always does that! He always have a lot of questions about the movie.
When he is sweeping the floor he started to complain “ See , the floor is forever so dirty. GRRR!” I totally agree with him because every time after we sweep the floor, there is always hair and dust! So it was quite irritating.
He then sit down and continue the movie and on the next advertisement he went to mop the floor. And, the complaining begins! Haha! What a cute dad I haveJ
At around 8.15pm, my brother return home from watching movie Transformer with my cousin’s family. As my mum is too lazy she asked me open the door! Haha! When my brother returned, my mum asked him a lot of questions. First “ Did the rain caught you?”, “Eaten already?” and “ Are you full”( He is a BIG eater!). He answered all and sat down on watch the movie together with her.
After my dad finished mopping the floor, he disappeared into his own room and start watching soccer. He came out like 10minutes later and asked my mum what happened. And my mum was like “ AIYOOO! Watch youself lah!” haha! This is actually mu dad’s habit, he always asks people about things he never watch, even if we explain to him, he don’t understand.
He then disappeared into the room again to take shower. So, only my brother and mum are in the living the room. They start discussing about the movie. I wasn’t too sure on what they are discussing about there were things like “ yea, they ran the right way since the water he coming from that direction” and “ they escaped to the right place”.
Now, my brother disappeared in to the kitchen looking for food. He is hungry! Haha! He is a really big eater so a normal dinner wouldn’t be enough for him. He came back we some biscuits and my mum asked him for some. My mum really likes to eat finger food stuff, that’s why we got lots of biscuits at home.
My dad came out again and randomly, my dad and mum are now discussing about Tom Cruise. I heard stuff like “He also not handsome how come so popular in Hollywood” and they continued discussing on the latest news of him.
My brother then went to take a shower and after he is done, he shouted “ Anyone want to shower, need to off heater not”. This is usually a family thing like after we shower, we will always announce if no one wants to shower, we’ll off the heater.
My dad return to his room and came out again. He wanted to use our lap top as he wanted to play game. But both me and my brother were using, so he backed out! He then went to use the old computer we had at our study room. After 2minutes, he shouted to my mum how to go in the game. This time my mum shouted back “ I taught you that time already, told you to remember how to go in you never listen! “ haha! She then tells my brother to help my dad. My dad also has this short term memory thing with electronic stuff.
It’s now 9.30pm and the movie is over, my mum was left alone at the sofa. She began to look through movies on Mio TV.
At the study room, my dad kept complaining about the computer as it auto shut down. He kept calling me and asked me to come over to solve the problem. Haha! As he shouted too much and mum gave up and asked my brother to give up his lap top for my dad to play games. My brother was watching an online animation on his computer and was vey reluctant to let it out. My father then continued to complain about the old computer in the study room. Haha! I went to help him restart the computer, 5minutes later, it auto shut down again.
So, my dad gave up, went to watch television with my mum. He then start talking and asking my mum question again. Like “ Isn’t his the guy in Ocean 13”.
My brother finished his animation online and asked my dad to use it. I bet my mum will be happy if my dad went to use the lap top as there will be no one to disturb her! haha!
As my brother walked past my dad, my dad and mum told him not to hunchback. As my brother is quite tall of his age, he was hunchback and the nickname my mum gave him was turtle. So when he wasn’t standing straight my mum will shout turtle turtle!
My brother disappeared into the room, my dad went to use his lap top and mym mum was left alone watching the movie now.

2009 Assignments

This time round, the students from the third batch of this course embarked on conducting social experiments. They set out on understanding more about the behaviours, thoughts and emotions of the ever complex humans. Although new to qualitative social research, the students have performed admirably well. Good work! Hope one or two from this batch will become a real serious social scientist in future.................. : )

The Webmaster
Henry Khiat

Please take care of my laptop.

Team Name: Pink Dolphin
Members: Christopher Tan Puay Liang 0822363
Teng Wei Ya 0821250
Ng Kian Long Robin 0870056
Quennie Jenn Gamboa Magalzo 0842213
Wong Yu Ping 0837042
Eugene Khoo 0863320
Tang Hui Ting 0849744
Joline Fong 0850720
Ma Yu Xuan 0841410


Abstract
We set up a laptop and a pencil box on the study table beside fc3. Our experiment is that Dolphin (our actress) will ask people to take care of her things(the laptop, pencil box & laptop bag) while she go to the toilet(somewhere else to walk). We will then ask one of our people to take an item from the things and walk off with it.


Main research question:
What will a person do or react if he/she is asked to take care of an item for a period of time by a stranger?
Sub-research question:
1) What are the social and environmental factors that influence if the person helps?
2) Why does the person help or not help?
3) Why does the person stop or not stop the person from taking?
4) What did the person do when waiting for that long?


Analysis
Sub-research question:


1) Our actress is a sweet and pleasant girl and it seems that there is no reason for rejecting her. Furthermore she is alone. The situation was that she needs to rush to the toilet and really need help from others to help her look after.


2) Most of the people were kind enough to help. They only reject when they are late for class and have no time.


3) They thought that the person taking away pencil case was her friend. They might have this kind of thinking is probably they do not believe that SP students will take away people’s belonging for no reason.


4) They read their notes, play games using PSP, chatting and messaging their friends.


Conclusion
Most of the people will lend a helping hand to others who are in need only except for those who are rushing for class. Although we told them that we are actually doing an experiment on them, most of them still smiled politely and was willing to help people who need help again.

Fainted

Done by: Care Bear
– Xian Feng
– Pearly
– Mei Fen
– Zulhari
– Jasper
– Cheryl

Abstract
An experiment conducted by Care Bear on 15th January 2009. Our purpose is to study individual reaction towards a situation such as this. "When a person needs help, how would the people nearby react?"


Aim of Research
To see how people will react when they see fainted people in middle of the road.


Main Research Question
How people will react when someone fainted?


Sub Research Questions
What are the environmental/social factors that affect a person’s reaction?
How do they react when we approached them for help?
Why do they give assistance/ why don’t they give assistance?
Do their emotions seem to be affected when they know that we are carrying out an experiment on them? Give some evidences?


Data Collection Methods
- Looking for a female helper
- Looking a male adult helper


Analysis


Sub Research Question 1
When the people are rushing for class, they are alone or when there is not much passerby around, and they feel that there is a need to help.
When people approached them for help, they claim that they are helpless too.
When they are alone in helping, they feel panicked as there was no one to lead them. Hence the girl approached others.


Sub Research Question 2
They were shocked when they heard that someone fainted. They wanted to seek for ambulance and to look for other adults or male to help out. Some had no reaction at all and just walked away.


Sub Research Question 3
Why they gave assistance?
They gave assistance, probably because they feel that it is something serious as it was a guy that had fainted.
Why they do not give assistance?
They probably had not come across such situation and think that even if they were to help, they might not know how. They are also scared that they night not be of good aid and mess everything up and create more problems instead. Some might also suspect that this is prank.


Sub Research Question 4
Affected their emotions
Yes, one of them seemed to be frustrated we revealed to her that we were carrying out a social experiment which delayed her class.
Does not affect their emotions
No, it does not affect their emotions as the person still remained calm after knowing that we were carrying out a social experiment and was still willing to be interviewed.


Conclusion
In conclusion, our team feels that generally, nobody would be motivated to be involved, let alone take the initiative to help a fainted person or similar situation unless strongly/forcefully approached. The most common reaction would be “look and run”. To solve this crisis, we feel that our student should be educated to be helpful and not be ignorant.

Pick or not pick?

Done by: Once upon a time
1. Jia Hui - 0736956
2. Farid - 0868680
3. Iman - 0709721
4. Thiri - 0741101
5. Farhan - 0740803
6. Fahmi - 0740816
7. Navarro Chan Hanshen - 0758457
8. Nicky pang Quan Jie - 0758684
9. Keith Ng Kah Wai - 0758697


Abstract
In this research, we aim to investigate the social perceptions, reactions and thoughts of different people. Our target audience is students of Singapore Polytechnic. We have actors dropping their money onto the floor while we waited for the reaction of the people who walked behind our actors. The whole scene is recorded by the video camera.

Aim of Research
The reaction and integrity level of people when they saw a $10 note on the floor.
Do age groups and genders play a part in affecting a person’s perspective/reaction during this situation?

Main Research Question
1. Will a person keep the money that was found on the floor without trying to look for its owner?
2. How will a person react if he is presented with an unclaimed currency note at the foyer of Food court 5?


Sub Research Questions
1. What are the environmental factors that influence the behavior of the finder of the money?
2. What are his/her thoughts when he/she is presented with the unclaimed currency note?
3. What are his actions when he or she is presented with the unclaimed currency note?
4. What are the reasons behind his/her actions?


Data Collection Methods
§ -Observational
§ -Interview
§ -Video Taking


Analysis



1. Sub research Question 1: What are the environmental factors that influence the behavior of the finder of the money?
The environmental factors include the crowd around the foyer and the location where the money was found as well as the people whom the finder was with. From scenes 1 & 3, we observed that people tend to return the money:
§ When the surrounding people is aware that he/she found the note on the floor and
§ when he/she did not have a chance to communicate with the his/her peers.
As for scene 2, we observed that when there is no one around, the finder tend to keep the money to him/herself and when his/her peers support his/her action.




2. Sub research Question 2: What are his/her thoughts when he/she is presented with the unclaimed currency note?
For subject 1, she feels that she has her own money and she does not like to take other people’s money.
As for subject 2, they claimed that they did not see the owner dropping the money hence they kept the note. However, from our observation, they saw the whole process of Nicky dropping the money. Hence, we feel that they kept the money because of greediness and dishonesty not because they did not see the owner of the note.

For subject 3, he feels that it is natural and correct to inform someone that he/she dropped their money.

3. Sub research Question 3: What are his actions when he/she is presented with the unclaimed currency note?
Out of our 3 research subjects, 2 of them thought of returning the money to the owner and 1 planned to keep the money for personal use. Subject 1 and 3 returned the money and subject 2 kept the money. Basic on our observationof these 3 subjects, 33.3% of the people will keep the money while 66.7% of the people will return the money.




4. Sub research Question 4: What are the reasons behind his/her actions?
For the 2 subjects who returned the money, their reasons were simple. They wanted to return the money to the rightful owner. They put themselves into the position of the person who lost the money. As for the subject who kept the money, he planned to use the money for personal use since the amount found was not huge. He claimed that if the amount found was more than $50, he would try to return the money to the owner.


Conclusion
There are many factors that influence the decision of the subject, on whether he/she returns the money. From our research, due to sensitive issues (i.e. background and affluence level of the finder) we can only focus on the age, gender and environment of the research.
The few factors that we could not investigate in:
§ Family background, affluence level and upbringing of the finder of the money
o We feel that it’s very rude to ask these questions as they are quite personal and sensitive.
§ Educational level of the finder of the money
o We do not know the stream of the secondary school student who returned the money.
o They poly student they come from ITE or secondary school
o Different affluence level might have different mindset toward things
§ Peer pressure?
o We didn’t have enough information of the subject and the relationship between him/her and his/her peers.
o Some people might want to return the money but because of peer pressure, they keep the money for own uses.
§ Races
§ How lecturer will react?

During our research, the 2 subjects that returned the money were a female and a young male teenage kid. The subject that kept the money was a male teenager. We observe that the gender of the actor does not matter. During the scenes for both subject 1 and 2, the money was dropped by Nicky but subject 1 returned the money.
There are also people who saw the money but did not take any action. We did a group discussion and came out with several reasons for this lack of actions by these people:
1. They feel that $10 is too little and are lazy to bother with it.
2. They didn’t process the fact that $10 was a lucky find. They were thinking about something else while they were walking toward it. Perhaps by the time they realized they should have picked it up, they already went past it or someone else had already found it.
3. They wanted to leave it for someone else less fortunate to pick it up.
Hence, we concluded that age groups, genders and environment of the situation play a part in affecting a person’s perspective and reaction during such a situation but there are many other factors which contribute to the decision too.

Can I borrow your handphone?

Team Name: Team Name



Group Members Present (22.01.09):- Mallory (0821292)- Yong Quan (0821276)- Hwee Ee (0821023)- Hafiz (0820204)- Hamidah (0855594)- Wei Tian (0840310



Aim of Research

The aim of the research is to find out the thoughts and emotions of the victims when they lent their handphones to the actors. At the same time, to observe how these victims react when the actors tried to get away with the phone/do more than just to call (as stated by actors when trying to borrow handphone).



Main Research Question

How to students react to actions of the borrowers of their handphones?



Sub-Research Questions:-



Why did the victims do what they do?-



What are the victims’ emotions when the actors got away with the handphone?-



Why did the victims lend their handphones in the first place?-



Would the victims lend their handphones to strangers in the future after this incident?



Data Collection Methods

- Videos- Observational data

- Interviews



Analysis

Sub-Research Question 1- Why did the victims do what they do?Most of the victims that we approached were friendly and unsuspecting of our motives. However, they got suspicious when the actor(s) started to do more with the handphone (e.g. taking pictures with the camera phone), when in the first place, the actor(s) stated they were only borrowing it just to make a quick call. The victims then became apprehensive and in a few cases even confronted us.



Sub-Research Question 2- What are the victims’ emotions when the actors got away with the handphone?Different variations of the experiment produced different reactions. Some of the victims were anxious and scared while others were taken aback and felt that the whole set-up was weird. Undoubtedly, we also angered some of them. But what gave us away might have been our approach which might have been too random and without any concrete basis.



Sub-Research Question 3- Why did the victims lend their handphones in the first place?They felt that it was a natural thing to do. This is so because; they did not suspect the actor(s) intention to trick them. Thus, they did not mind lending their handphone to strangers.



Sub-Research Question 4- Would the victims lend their handphones to strangers in the future after this incident?Most of them said that it depends on how the person looks like. If the person looks young, presentable and does not seem to have any ulterior motives, they would most probably lend their handphones willingly.



Conclusion

As the world becomes more modernized and technology is easily available, gadgets like handphones are taken for granted. Many do not think that they are a luxury anymore. This is evident by how freely the victims lent their hanphones to the actor(s). The victims were so trustful of the actor(s) that even when the actor(s) were doing more than just making a phone call, they were hesitant to get back their handphones. And some were even amazingly ignorant about the whole situation.All in all, victims felt a sense of relief when they got their handphones back. However, they were still in a way affected and it made them changed their perception on lending their handphones to strangers.There were no environmental factors that influenced the victim’s decisions and reactions.As for social factors, the victims actually took pity on the actor(s) since they were in some sort of trouble. Hence, they willingly lent their phones to them. However, there was one that looked unwilling but he found no reason to reject the actor(s). This can be attributed to the phrase, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

Abnormal Booking of Tables

Done By:


Abdul K Naufa

Suh Fen
0759812
Chew Shan An
0707844
Chong Teck Meng
0747318
Hong Pei Xiang
0710307
Chan Zeng Kai
0745262
Tan Shyan Huey Sabrina
0766238
Tan Khoon Yew
0729332
Chua Boon Seng
0729246


Abstract
According to the social experiment conducted, our group has gathered the following key findings:

Scenario 1: 2 tables occupied with “Official Use” sign.

1. Over 90% of the people did not take the seat due to the fact that they regard the “Official Use” sign as authentic and react by complying with the sign by searching for other seats.

2. However, due to the crowded situation during lunch hours, an approximate of 10 % of the people disregarded the sign and occupied the seat.

Scenario 2: 1 Table with “Official Use” sign, 1 Table with tissue packet

1. Similar to scenario 1, almost 80% of the people regard both the “Official Use” sign and the tissue packet as signs of the tables being occupied and continue to look for empty tables.

2. Almost 20% disregard both objects and occupied the table thereafter. However, the majority of them chose the table with the tissue packet.

From both scenarios, it can be concluded that most people complied with the objects place on tables to occupy seats. Whereas, it can also be seen from the experiment that majority of the respondents regard an official sign higher than an tissue packet.

Aim of Research
The aim of the research is to apply the concept of compliance of people in everyday life. This is conducted through a social experiment where the compliance level of individuals and groups and their stimulus to objects and environment are tested.
Main Research Question

How do people response/react, comply with the influence of authority?

Data Collection Methods

Observational Aspects:
 Actions Taken
 Body Language
 Facial Expressions
 Behavior relative to items
 Peer Influences / Pressure

Interview Questions:
When they took the seat:
- Why did you ignore the item placed on the table?
- What are your reactions and thoughts when you encountered the situation?
- If the item is replaced by “…. ”, something more prominent, would you still ignore the item and take the seat?
- How did you come to the conclusion that the item wasn’t meant to reserve the seats?
- How did you feel when you didn’t comply to the situation? Was it right or wrong?
- Was it because you were afraid to create a scene when the person returns and demands his or her seat back. If yes/no, how did you come to that conclusion that this would happen.
- Would you have done the same thing if you’re not in school and probably some where else in the public? If yes/no, why?

When they didn’t take the seat:
- Why didn’t you sit down?
- What was your first reaction when you saw the item (regarding which one was used in the experiment). If they answered that it was because the items meant that someone had ‘booked’ or ‘chopped’ the seats, than:
· How did you come to that conclusion? It might be some left behind stuffs.
· Why did you choose to comply with the items placed?

Scene of our own actors going over and removing the items:
- What are your thoughts when you saw that person removing the items, disregarding them?

Video Filming:
Please refer to clip below


Analysis

How would individuals and groups react to the situation?

The sign:
When a group of people see the sign, most of them would walk away without hesitation, however facial expressions of members among the group indicates an arousal of suspicion. In the period of our observations, 1 or 2 members from the group would walk away from the table; they kept looking at the seat, questioning why would there be a sign on the table at KFC. However for those that had no suspicion and doubt: they simply walk away and immediately look for other empty tables. (From videos on the experiment on the sign)

However, individuals react to the situation differently. This may be due to the absence of undue influence from other group members to take the seat. It can be observed that individuals were afraid of disregarding the sign or objects and would rather look for other seats available

The tissue:
From one of our videos, we can see that this time, people will question the situation. We can observe that this time, people will loiter around the seat for some time before leaving. Whereas another group of people just took the seat without questioning (From the video)

Again, the case for individuals was greatly different. In this case, the individual would actually consider in occupying the table and seating down.

Why would they comply?

Based on our actual experiments, we have come to several conclusions regarding this aspect of our research. Here are two of the reasons.

Firstly, we believe that the most prominent reason why people would comply is that they are afraid of taking responsibility. The video of the group of Malay guys sitting down after our own actors did clearly portrayed this reason. We concluded that only after someone took the lead first, would they then do likewise. Although there were no seats left and they were desperate to find a seat, they were still reluctant to be the ones to take the lead. By doing so, they were spared of having to shoulder responsibility should anything happen, which in this case, if the authorities returned and demanded a reason to why the guys had sat down at the table that was obviously reserved by the sign ‘Official Use’. And thus, only when some other people took the lead, did they then do the same. This would ensure that if the authorities wanted an answer, they could shift most of the blame to the others by saying that they did what they did.

Our second conclusion would be that people complied because they are afraid of how people would see them as. Most people are afraid to be different from the majority of the crowd, by sitting down at a table reserved by an ‘official use’ sign or by a packet of tissue. These actions are not commonly seen, thus by doing so, they are expecting people to be looking at them in a negative way, and they’re afraid of that.
Who would comply with the situation more?

People who are alone tend to comply with the situation as they do not dare to occupy the seat due to the fear of possible confrontation. However when in a group, people tend to not comply and just occupied the seat. This may be due to the fact of the powers available in a group for negotiation should there be a confrontation. However, some groups did not seat despite some members of the group wanted to as the others refuse to.

Females tend to comply with the sign more than males, which is correct according to our prediction as guys tend to be more daring, defiant than females.


Conclusion

The experiment was rather successful as it was smooth throughout with a few problems encountered throughout. Despite a few hiccups and some last minute changes, our group can conclude that the experiment was successful and it fulfilled our aims on how people react.

The Timid Test

Done by

- Wenjing (P0733458)- Joycelyn (P0734194)- Sock Ching (P0745431)- Peizhen (P0719025)- Tian Xiang (P0734248)- Ibrahim (P0710480)

Abstract

From this experiment, we discovered that SP students are inquisitive about what are unknown, especially peculiar objects such as the design of our experiment bags. Factors like gender and appearances of the bags affect the reactions of the students. This experiment was conducted at food court 3 and the methods we used to collect the data are observation, interviewing and video taking.

Aim of Research

To test how timid SP students are and to analyze their thoughts when they are doing the experiment.

Main Research Question

How will students react when they put their hands into the mystery boxes?

Sub Research Questions

1. How will differences in demographics (gender, race, age etc) affect the students' reaction to the mystery boxes?2. How the actors' reactions affect the change in behaviors of the students?3. What are the reactions and thoughts of the students?4. What are the environmental factors affect the reactions and thoughts of the students?

Data Collection Methods

Observation
Interview



Video Taking

Analysis

Sub Questions:

How will differences in demographics (gender, race, age etc) affect the students' reaction to the mystery boxes?

The males are more daring, they are curious about the contents in all the bags. Hence they put their hands inside the bags without any hesitation and in all the bags. The females are more timid and would usually ask what is inside the bag before putting their hands inside.

There are no differences between any races and ages.

How the actors' reactions affect the change in behaviors of the students?

The actors were expressionless during the experiment which intensifies the atmosphere. The female participants keep prompting us to tell them the contents in the bags.

What are the reactions and thoughts of the students?

Reactions and thoughts:
· 1st participant was curious and had thought of winning a prize.
· 2nd participant was disgusted by the slimy gel and thought that she would also receive a treat just like the first participant. Thought that the content is similar to the packaging of the bag
· 3rd participant was nervous and kept asking us what was inside the bags as she thought there might be a mouse inside the bag.
· 4th participant was aghast by the scene of blood.
· 5th participant felt excited at first but was revolted by looking at his hands smudged with hair gel.
· 6th participant felt nothing and does not seemed interested in it. He took part of the experiment because of the fun.
· 7th participant felt excited before the experiment and actually felt awesome after seeing his hands full of blood.
· 8th participant felt curious and kept prompting us about the contents inside. He laughed at himself when he saw his hands were full of gel.
· 9th participant felt curious at first and felt revolted when he saw his hands full of blood
· 10th participant also felt curious at first and was appalled when he saw his hands were smudged with gel. He chose the bag because he likes the superman design outside the bag.

What are the environmental factors affect the reactions and thoughts of the students?

Due to unforeseen circumstances we are unable to conduct our experiment in different environments.

Conclusion

SP students are very cooperative and generally are quite brave and curious. The exterior of the bags does make a difference because majority of the students tend to judge the appearance of the bags before selecting a bag. This experiment was a success as we are able to gather enough information for the project.

How human react in difficult position when they encounter problems

Done by:
Rentro lui jian ting 0733010
Tan Xue Ru p0733573
Wong jin Nong p0734206
Chen weida p0764054
Bhavani P0764799
Jonathan Lee 0711689
Chua Kwan Leng p0736860
Tan Hui Xian p0736943
Venessa p0754198
Cherlyn Low p0731034

Abstract
The attitude from various stall holders are different. Using different approaches to deal with the stall holders proved to be better as we can find out the different reactions they made.

Aim of Research
To find out how stall holders treat difficult customers.

Main Research Question
How stall owner react when customer make difficult requests?
Sub Research Questions
1.How do stall owners usually treat their customers?
2.Why do stall owners treat their customer in these ways?
3.What kind of situation( long or short queue?
4.When is the busiest timing

Data Collection Methods
Through interviews. observation and videos method

Analysis
Subresearch Question 1
Customers are always kept waiting. not much communication between stall holders and customer when they are cooking. they do not smile to customers. but they treat their customers quite politely.

Subresearch Question 2
They are usually slow in cooking. There are only about 2 people managing the stall thus the efficiency of cooking and serving slow down. Because they are in the service line, they have to treat their customers better.

Subresearch Question 3
Short queue

Subresearch Question 4
Between 12 to 1 pm because it is lunch time, which is the most crowded timing.

Conclusion
Overall the experiment is a success. We managed to answer all of our sub-research questions and we achieved our purpose. We managed to find out that not all stall holders treat the customers in the same way. If we expect the stall holders to treat us nicely, do the same to them too. Most of the time they are respected.

May I have your number please?

Done by: Wong Jun Kang, Woo Chuan Liang, Chia Kim Choo, Chen Minsi, Lim Hong Wei, Gerard Koh, Lim Wei Xiang, Yeo Huai Shin

Abstract:
We would be observing how people of different gender react when asked for their hand phone numbers when they are alone or in groups.

Aim of Research:
Know why people are willing/unwilling to give their numbers.
Under what circumstances do subject give their number.

Main Research Question:

How will he or she react?

Sub Research Questions:
i) What are the requests that people tend to comply with?
ii) What environmental / social factors that affected if a person comply?
iii) why does a person comply or not comply
iv) what kinds of students comply or do not comply


Data Collection Methods

Analysis

i) What are the requests that people tend to comply with?

They tend to comply with requests which they feel that they are comfortable with, in terms of the extent of the request, their involvement, safety, personal privacy and personal preference etc.


ii) What are the environmental / social factors which affects a person’s willingness to comply?

The place, the situation they are in, their status/ commitment (single, attached, married).
As compliance is due to many factors, such as upbringing and influences from friends, school and the society, the environmental and social factors which would affect a person may vary. It also depends on how we approach and the gender of the person approaching.


iii) Why does a person comply or not comply?

It could depend on their character and personality. If one’s is sociable, he/she may be more open in doing things which the more conservatives’ individuals would not. One very good example would be our experiment, investigating the cognitive, affective and behavioral part of a person.

iv) What kinds of students/ people comply or do not comply?

From our observation, both guys and girls in a group usually would less likely comply. However, when they are alone, they tend to be more open and will not hesitate to reject us. Guys tend to be complying with our requests. However, as we are only experimenting a small sample size, the observational results may vary. A larger scale experiment involving a bigger sample size would be more accurate.

Conclusion

Overall the experiment was a success. If we were to do the experiment again we will have a bigger sample size in order to have accurate data. More support and fund is needed. We regretted not recording the conversations.

To help or not to help?

Done by:
Farhan 0829050, Actor 1
Fauzi 0819800, Actor 2
Tong Ngan 0830988, Observer
Hamizan 0829625, Observer
Ernest 0829597, Interviewer
Kiti 0851420, Observer
Jolynn 0844806, Actress
Hansheng 0828992, Observer
Hui Ting 0849009, Camera Woman
Hui Hui 0856272, Interviewer

Abstract
In this experiment, our goal is to investigate the social perceptions, reactions and thoughts of various people. Our targets will be the students of Singapore Polytechnic. Our actors and actress will attempt to pretend to fall along the stairway in the School of Business, near food court 6. For those that helped, and those who did not, we will approach them and let them know that we are conducting a social experiment. Following, we will interview them.

Aim of Research
To see if subject is helpful enough to stop and help the girl/guy who fell.

Main Research Question
How will students react when they see someone fall?

Sub Research Questions
- Will physical appearance affect the choice of people to help?
- How will they help the person?
- Will the conditions of the victims affect the choice of people to help?
- What are the kinds of people that are willing to help?
- What are the environment factor that affects?

Data Collection Methods
Observing, videoing and interviewing.

Analysis

1) Will physical appearance affect the choice of people to help?
Yes. The boys will normally help the girls but girls normally will be very kind and help both boys and girls.

2) How will they help the person?
1) walk forward to hold that person before he/she fall.
2) Help to pick up the belongings (e.g. boxes and bag) of the person who fell.
3) Express concern by asking if the person who fell was alright.

3) Will the conditions of the victims affect the choice of people to help?
Yes, some conditions such as the amount of things carried and severity of fall, will affect the choice of people to help. If our actor/actress is carry a lot of things, such as big boxes and bags, people will tend to offer their help. However, when our actor/actress seems to be able to help themselves, passer-bys will usually ignore them and walk away without helping.

4) What are the environment factors that affects?
The crowd. If a lot of people there, then they usually would not help as they think that other people will help the person who fell or everyone is just waiting for another person to help the fallen person.

Conclusion
Most people tend to be selective when it comes to deciding whether or not to help. Various factors such as looks, gender and races that may affect people’s decision. Some people just simply ignored the person who fell, while others walked away without lending a helping hand. It is not easy nor accurate for us to judge the helpfulness of people based solely on the data we have collected.

What exactly is it?

Done by:
Names of Members and their Student Number
Serene 0862907
Fauzi 0852348
Priyah 0819897
Ke Jie 0848701
Wayne 0811716
Wee Siong 0854254
Abigail 0829638
Michelle 0828822
Daniel Chua 0829261

Abstract:
we would put a picture which displays 2 type of items or animals in it. The actors would give different or wrong opinions of the pictures. The actors would then question the subject what they think it is.The location of the experiment would be conducted in the MRT station in SP.

Aim of Research:
To find out whether people will be easily influenced by other's opinion.

Main Research Question:
How easily one can be influenced by another person in singapore polytechic?

Data Collection Methods:

Interviewing, Videoing, Observing

Analysis
a ) how does different gender react ?
first group: 2 guys 1 girlthe guys had his own opinions while the girl followed their views.
second group: 2girlsboth of them were able to see both sides of the picture. and stay solid with their own opinions.

b) why do they react in such a way ?
Some people have their own personal views and will stick by them no matter what and thus they have the confidence to give their answers without doubting what other people might think of them.Whereas,some of them chose to trust opinions of their friends or people that they know.
First group:

c) what are the reactions ?
When we approached them,the guys were willingly ready to participate in our survey.The girl however,seemed to show abit of reluctancy in participating in our survey.The guys spoke from their minds being frank and open,whereas the girl just went with the flow and agreed blindly to what the guys said.

d) how do social factors affect their choice?
They were not really affected by the social factors.An example of the social factors would be your peers and environment.The guys stood by their the desicion.The girl was uncertain,not interested and followed the guys blindly.She decided to follow her peers.

Conclusion
This experiment enhances our camaraderie.We learnt to work as a team which lead us to get to know each other better.We have also learnt that different individuals have different opinions,thoughts and beliefs.Some of them stick through their personal beliefs while others just go with the flow.Some have insecurities and doubt their own thoughts.They do not have their own opinion but instead they just follow the thoughts of those they trust.Based on the various scenerios seen,we have came up to a conclusion that we all have various different thoughts,emotions and behaviours.

Human Beings' Mind Bewilded

Done by:
Clarence Yeo (0851389)
Md Aidil (0827537)
Ryan Ng (0819644)

Abstract
we would put a picture which displays 2 type of items or animals in it. The actors would give different or wrong opinions of the pictures. The actors would then question the subject what they think it is.The location of the experiment would be conducted in the MRT station in SP.

Aim of Research
To see if people's minds are easily manipulated by a group of people.

Main Research Question
The area of human interaction we are investigating on is whether the opinion of others affect people.

Sub Research Questions
How easily one can be influenced by another in singapore polytechic?
How peer pressure influence the decision?
How the mood inflence the decision?
How the interaction between the intervieweer and interviewee effects the deision made.

Data Collection Methods
Video plus observation plus interviewing.

Analysis
Subresearch Question 1
How easily one can be influenced by another in singapore polytechic?
Apparently very easy. They followed the actors answers blindly.

Subresearch Question 2
How peer pressure influence the decision?
Very much. They keep following the actors answers.

Subresearch Question 3
How the mood inflence the decision?
The interviewee was reluctant about participating thus giving answers half-heartedly.

Subresearch Question 4
How the interaction between the intervieweer and interviewee effects the deision made.
If the interviewer was more enthusiastic, the interviewee would have answered a little different.

Conclusion
People tend to follow under intense pressure.

Conforming to Notices

Abstract

This social experiment seeks to find out the people’s reactions to strong warning signs. There are several conditions that affect the behaviours of the test subjects such as personalities and peer pressure. The above will be address in detail in the report herein below.

Aim of Research

The general objective of the experiment was to allow students to comprehend the concept of compliance, one of the theories behind social psychology. In the process, students may acquire the skills of conducting a proper interview and the ability to analyse the said data accordingly.

Another main objective of this social experiment were to find out different individuals’ responses to warning signs, the reasons for which the test subjects complied with the signs, as well as the conditions (e.g. environmental) affecting compliance.

Main Research Question
What are the reactions of people to warning signs using strong word

-->Complied out of fear (in fear of real danger); some obeyed the sign and didn’t enter the toilet, most of whom were girls
-->Some touched the door and went into the washroom, realising the door was not painted.
-->some of them checked the door for paint and use the warning paper to push open the door
-->some were cautious and kicked open the door

Data Collection Methods

Data were collected through the form of video recordings and interviews, after which the interviews were consolidated and evaluated.

Subresearch questions & Analysis

Subresearch Question 1
What are the environmental factors that influence people to obey signs of compliance or obedience?
-->Some of the people mentioned they were staff so they did not want to be interviewed

-->Time: There are those who were in rush for work, either ignoring the signs or did not see the signs.

-->Personality – There are 4 groups of personalities, namely “dominance, compliance, intuitive and steady”. The compliance group, being adherers, will mostly likely comply with the warning signs while the “dominance” group will mostly likely break the rules as they tend to be leaders and have their own way of thinking. The people-based personalities, “intuitive” and “steady” will probably follow the lead of those (friends) who entered the washroom.

-->Influence of friends (groups vs. individuals): As explain in the above sub-group “personality” and be influence by the one leading.

-->Gender: We have found out from observations that the female gender will tend to obey the “Do not enter” signs while the males will improvise methods of getting into the washroom whilst being cautious at the same time. Paul & Caul, 1964, reported stronger internal control for females compared to males, which attributes to more females complying than males.

Subresearch Question 2
What are the thoughts/emotions of the people when they see the signs that ask for compliance or obedience?
-->Suspicion
-->Fear (For danger signs)
-->Curiosity
-->Cannot be bothered (“rules are meant to be broken”)
-->Improvising ways to enter the toilet (used the warning paper to push the door)
-->Caution
-->Follow the lead of friends (influence of peer pressure)

Subresearch Question 3
How far will people comply or obey?
There were 2 groups of people basically; those who obey and those who did not.
1st group:
They were suspicious initially, after which the started to be more cautious. Thereafter, they tested the warning sign/s, and went into the toilet.
2nd GroupThere were those who complied fully, most of whom were girls and did not enter the washroom.

Analysing the above data, we are of the opinion that most people comply with strong warning signs, be it completely or to a limited extent.The sign, “DANGER”, implies a risk factor and one will be more cautious upon seeing such as sign. Not complying at all would mean entering the washroom whilst ignoring the warning signs totally. However, in most cases, the test subjects either complied fully or did not enter the washroom immediately after detecting the sign. This concludes that individuals comply with the signs to a limited extent, considering the warning signs slowed down their movements into the washroom, without taking into account whether the test subjects entered the washroom ultimately.

Subresearch Question 4
d) What are the thoughts and emotions of the people after they have realised the truth, after which how will they behave?
Most would laugh off their stupidity and will be “more smart” in the future.
There were some of them who seemed to be angry but did not express their anger towards us (issue of mannerism).
After that they knew that the experiment was a prank, they said they would not trust these signs anymore or be more cautious in the future.

Conclusion:We have come to a conclusion that most people will comply with strong warning signs as it is their most basic instincts to react to the signs out of fear. As a result, they will either comply with the signs fully or be more cautious when proceeding, when the test subjects found out that the signs were “fake”, there proceeded ahead without fear or improvise methods of entering the washroom such as using the warning paper to push open the door.

Conformity - Elevator

Title: Social Experiment - Conformity - Elevator

Done by: Pamela, Dayana, Ee Chun, Yi Di, Li Zhen, Jing Ting, Maira, Hui Li, Wee Hao

Main Research Question
- Would a person still takes a lift despite a sign stating “out of order”?

Sub Research Questions
- what are the environmental / social factors that affect if a person comply?
- how do the people involved react upon seeing the “sign”?
- why do the people comply / didn’t comply?
- how far would a person investigate whether the lift is really out of order?

Data Collection Methods
- observe- video- interview

Analysis

Subresearch Question 1
[what are the environmental / social factors that affect if a person comply?]
- large groups of people may tend to comply to the sign once one of them sees the sign and walks away.
- passing of message from one person to another regarding the lift breakdown.

Subresearch Question 2
[how do the people involved react upon seeing the “sign”?]
- Most of the people turn away and walk off without even trying to check if the lift is really out of order.

Subresearch Question 3
[why do the people comply / didn’t comply?]
- They didnt doubt the credibility of the sign, they thought the sign was put up by the management.
- they didnt bother much as the stairs is right beside the lift.

Subresearch Question 4
[how far would a person investigate whether the lift is really out of order?]
- From our experiment, all the people did not investigate.

Conclusion
People are easly led away by the sign without investigating its credibility.

Requesting People to perform in front of camera

Team Name: Split Ends
Done by:
Nur Liyana Binte Shafie DAC/FT
Malcom Goh Aik Liang DEEE/FT
Jayne Ang DCP/FT
Ong Li Ting DCP/FT
Ang Ying Lan DCP/FT
K Saraswathi DFST/FT
Ng Hui Min DFST/FT

Absent:
Lee Wen Jun DCHE/FT

Location: Foodcourt 2 and T1A
Time: 0845 to 0930

1. Abstract

Scenario:
In this experiment, we aim to investigate the social perceptions, reactions and thoughts on different people. Our target audience is students at Singapore Polytechnic. We will be acting as students from the school of media and communications, doing a project on funny actions. We will approach random students in SP and tell them about this project that we are doing and ask if they are willing to help us by showing us some funny actions and allowing us to video them down.

2. Aim of Research

The main aim of this experiment is to see how different students will react when we approach them to ask for help on this funny actions project and to investigate on what type of students will help and what type of students will not help.

3. Main Research Question

How a person will react when being approached?
There will be 4 kinds of people. Firstly, some students will just totally ignore us and walk away without saying anything. Secondly, some students will stop to listen to us and then give excuses to reject us even after much persuasion. Thirdly, some students will stop to listen to us and show some interest in helping but in the end still reject us. The last type of students are students who will stop to listen to us, show us interest in helping and help us willingly without showing discontentment.

4. Sub Research Questions

1) What made some of them to be willing or unwilling to help?
2) What are the factors (environment, people around/with subject, timing, etc) that contribute to the decision made?

5. Data Collection Methods

Interview, observation and video

6. Analysis (Describe how your data answer your 2 sub research questions)

6.1 Sub Research Question 1
What made some of them to be willing or unwilling to help?

They may be uncomfortable with doing the stupid actions and not in the mood, some felt that fellow students should help each other as if the person being approached put himself in the actors’ shoes, they would hope that people would help them too. Some of them are just afraid to make a fool of themselves. Lastly, some people are born introverts and are shy in nature, thus they do not have the courage to do funny actions for us even though they would very much want to help us.

6.2 Sub Research Question 2
What are the factors (environment, people around/with subject, timing, etc) that contribute to the decision made?

Firstly, it may be due to their own personality, whereby some may like to do such things and some may not like to do such things and find it uncomfortable. The timing at which the students are approached is also an area for concern, whereby some may be rushing for lessons at that point of time and may not have the time to spare us even though they are of interest to help us. Thirdly, the attitude of the people who are asking for help matters, as we are asking a favour from others. Thus, a friendly attitude towards the people we are asking for help from would enable them to feel more comfortable in helping us and would make us feel more approachable and more would be willing to help us. The situation in which the person being approached also matters. Some of them are in a group, thus they do not feel awkward. Though they felt weird doing weird and funny actions in the middle of nowhere, it was fun to be done with a group of friends.

7. Conclusion

It was rather difficult to choose subjects, although it was said to be chosen by random, and of different races and gender. Some ignored us when we approached them, and the “ambush” was a little difficult since we needed to be around to see the whole process and yet far apart to pretend to not be associated with one another.

Helping Behaviour

Title: Our Social Experiment
Done by: kaching!
Tan Sinee/ 0810616
Noraniza Bte Md Isa/ 0867308
Sandra Koh/ 0867296
Ho Jinyi/ 0867311
Yee Peixiu/ 0848107
Sebastian Tan/ 0824039
Wong Chee Wai/ 0816287
Teo Jiayi/ 0810702


Aim of Research
Understand the students in SP in means of the individual character for their helpfulness and honesty.

Main Research Question
How helpful/honest are people in Singapore Polytechnic?

Sub Research Questions
How does the type of gender affect the level of helpfulness?
- What are the types of helping inducement scenario that affect a person's level of honesty?
- What are the internal factors of a person that will determine if he or she helps?
- How helpful are the students from the individual schools in Singapore Polytechnic?

Data Collection Methods
We collected the data by doing observation, videoing the whole process and by interviewing some of the people.

Analysis

Subresearch Question
1) How does the type of gender affect the level of helpfulness?
From the experiment that we have done, males did not help at all wheras females are the more helpful ones. The gender of person dropping the coins does affect the helpfulness level of people. SP male students are observed by us that they are not the helpful type of people.

Subresearch Question
2) What are the types of helping inducement scenario that affect a person’s level of honesty?
For the scenario with someone banging, that person did bother to help. However, for scenario where we hold the money and drop it, people usually did not help probably because our acting skills were not natural enough and they realize that we were filming them or they do not bother to help at all. In all, everyone was honest enough at least not to steal any of the money and run away.

Subresearch Question
3) What are the internal factors of a person that will determine he or she helps?
From what we observed, those that do not seem to bother help while those that seem to bother did not help. Since it was morning and students are still half awake and thus did not bother about their surrounding.

Subresearch Question
4) How helpful are the individual schools in Singapore Polytechnic?
The helpfulness from the students of the individual schools is equally helpful. In addition, we think they are more of honest than helpful.