More about "Groups" today in Social Psych.

The prof was saying that the performance of people, in the presence of others, tend to shine if the person is the master of his trade but derail if the person is not familiar with it. That's because when someone is looking, if you are good at that skill, you tend to get a little nervous and focus more on what you're doing so that you make sure you do it well and earn the approval of others. However, if you are unfamiliar with it, you know you're not going to do the job well and because of the unfamiliarity, you fumble over the procedures in the presence of nervousness. It sure sounds pretty interesting and true to some extent for my case.

I play bball better when playing with friends, or when someone's scrutinizing... or at least I try to play better. But when it comes to discussions that I'm unfamiliar with, I tend to quiet down instead of being inquisitive most of the time. Then again, things seem a bit different when I'm playing my organ. I get a little perturbed sometimes and tend to mess up my pieces. Does that infer that I'm incompetent in this piece that I've been playing for 5 years? hehe~ not really.

On another issue in the lecture today. The lecturer was talking about Social Loafers, Free Riders and Suckers in a Group. I think I'm really a sucker manz. haha~ Before you start associating any negative connotation to it (or to me), a sucker in this respect means that the person tends to take up all the jobs required in a group. hehe~ so I'm a sucker... But I must admit, I'm not a really full-blown sucker. There're other suckers around as well. I'm probably doing just doing what I ought to do. Anyway, come to think of it, I'm a little of a social loafer as well. A social Loafer in Social Psych term is someone who tends to slack off a little in a group when compared to an individual. That's a pretty omnipresent phenomenon. Well, if similar work is split up among a group of people, who doesn't want to slack off a little. I'm not going to be affected by the social compensation where one tends to believe that since there're going to be a couple of free riders in a group, one will work to finish the jobs of the free-riders.

Just to wrap things up a little, the sucker thingy comes from the sucker effect where people want to only contribute as much as the others in the group. If no one's doing anything, I'm not doing anything either and be a sucker. Also, one of the reason for motivation when someone contributes so much in a group is that person likes the other group members, in other words, if members in the group likes one another, they tend to work harder in the group so that the others have a lighter load. hehe~ so does this mean that if you're not doing anything, it means that you don't like me??? :P

yep going to class alr... see ya!

Sorry for the random bits and pieces from social psych... am trying to remember what I learnt in class today, since it's one of those rare bits of information absorbed during the times that I'm awake. hehehe~