Today, I just have a lecture about behavior in social and culture context, there are two parts in the lesson impress me. They are the case of the suicide bomber and the concept of prejudice. Firstly, the story of the suicide bomber makes me think about the frauds in the recently years. Although there is news report reminding people not to fall in the trap, the numbers of frauds still increase in every year. In the past, I always wondering why the victims are so stupid, they already have the idea of how the frauds were happened but still being cheated. However, I know that’s not their fault after the lesson. Just taking an example of a body-fit Centre, in order to let people fall in the trap, the Centre will firstly promote their company by offering an extreme low price treatment to the customers who had never try the services before. As the customer think that they just have to spend a very little price to become slim, they go to the company to have a try. In the treatment, the staff would persuade the customer that it is very important for women to keep fit and become slim. For example, by telling them they will get better offer and paid if they are fit, they may become popular among men if they have a perfect body shape and etc… the staff just conclude the view of the society in one simple attribution—as a woman, you should be slim, and make the customer strongly believe on it. Afterword, the customer would told that they can reach that attribution if they finish a course of treatment of the company. Suffer from the entrapment of the first service offer by the company, the customer will consider paying for the course as they have already spent time and money for the first service. The staff will further promise the customer that if their course doesn’t work, they will return all the money. When the customer said that they have to consider, the staff will sent them in a room and isolate them from the other by taking their mobile and connecting device away. The customer’s access to disconfirming information is controlled and finally, the customers have to buy the service as they have no choice and get no opinion from the others.
The ways of the fraudsters used nowadays are similar to the people used in persuading the suicide bomber. These kinds of fraudsters are very clear that the value of their target, therefore they can make use of persuasion and entrapment successfully. Once people fall into the trap of the fraudsters, it is difficult for them to withdraw. To avoid the frauds, I believe that it is important for people to maintain a clear mind, think twice before making a decision and don’t blindly believe on what stranger’s words. Secondly, for the concept of prejudice, I strongly agree that people in one group will have a very strong and unreasonable dislike on the other groups based negative stereotype. Example of prejudice can be easily found in our daily lives, I still remember that in my secondary school life, when we were doing the group project, we always think that our presentation was better than the other, we hate the other groups present and ideas and we only talk about the bad part of the other’s work. It is the psychology cause of prejudice that people can feel better and secure by disliking the other groups that we seems to be inferior. Apart from the psychology cause, prejudice will also happen because of social pressure. If a majority of the group members hate a certain group, being in the same boat, the remaining people in the group will also think negatively on that certain group because they are afraid of making their group members angry. On the other hand, it is very common to see that the poor people dislike the rich people because of the unequal economic treatment. Poor people will think that it is not fair for them to work hard every day just to earn a living but the rich people can have a better lives and living standard without working. Furthermore, there will be prejudice on culture and nation as well. During the war, it is a must for the army hate the other side, otherwise they won have the energy or reason to kill the other side. In the notes, it is suggest that prejudice can be reduced when group are having equal legal status, economic opportunities and powder, it’s also suggest that setting a common goal among groups may reduce prejudice as well. In my opinion, I believe that these suggestions may help in certain extent, but it seems not functioning between the Hong Kong political parties. Although the political parties in Hong Kong are sharing the goal that providing maximum support and welfare to the general public, there is a very big prejudice among them. Because of hating and disliking each other, no matter good or bad, the ‘A’ party would always band the suggestion of the ‘B’ party. Consensus can never obtained between these parties which lead to the delay of the government policy. Prejudice is bad, we can avoid it by having an objective mind, don’t just blindly follow the emotion and stereotype on the others, and every individual in a group is different. After talking the behavior in social and culture context, the lecture of learning and condition also impress me very well, I feel the most interesting part in this lecture is the relationship between reinforcement and punishment. I still remember that when I was a very young child, maybe in primary school, my mother always punished me if I didn’t finish the homework immediately after school. The method she used to punish me was hitting, as she don’t have a high education level, what’s in her mind is that hitting can make me feel afraid and I won’t do the wrong thing again because of fear. At that time I was angry and fear, I keep wondering why my classmate can go to the part after school but I need to do the homework before playing? But I was not daring to ask my mum. It was impossible for me to understand why my action was wrong as my mother seldom explain it to me. Sometimes, if she is in good mood, she will allow me to play with other kids in the park after school as well. Because of the inconsistent punishment which without any explanation, I was confuse and afraid, I didn’t know what is right or wrong and I hate my mother very much at that time. It shows that the way of punishment used by my mother was totally failed. When I grow up, I understand that my mother worried that I won’t have enough time for doing homework if I play after school so she asked me to study before playing. I think if my mother can explain to me at that time and used a minor ways such as time out or loss of privilege instead of hitting me, I will accept her opinion better. Although my mother never gives me reinforcement when I was young, it is common for parent nowadays to use a lot of reinforcers to encourage their children to have good preferment. The children perform well only because they want to get the gift, but they don’t enjoy the learning process and don’t know the long- term effect bring by studying. Once the parents stop giving the reinforcement, the children would stop working. It is true that reinforcement will encourage a response, parents shouldn’t too rely on it as the extrinsic reinforcers will destroy the intrinsic reinforcers of the children. Once the intrinsic reinforcers are destroyed, children lose the interest in the happiness and joy of learning process anymore. In my opinion, I think both reinforcement and punishment should be used when teaching a child. Use minor and consistent punishment to the child when he/she done something bad, also, punishment should be accompanied by information as it can let the children understand that why they are wrong. Apart from this, reinforcement should only use when the learning result is not immediately shown. I think using the about method can enhance the learning process to the greatest extent.

Reference:
Carole Wade & Carol Tavris. (2004). Invitation to psychology (Third edition). USA:Pearson