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Names : Gary Yeow Jinn Sheng, 0318797

Neville Geoffrey Somi, 0317780

Ong Min Junn, 0317767

Samaa Ismael, 0316353

Tan Yincy, 0318355

Session : Monday, 8am

Subject : Social Psychology [PSYC0103]

Course : Foundation in Natural and Built Environment [FEB 2014]

Submission Date : 8th December 2014

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Acknowledgement

The members of this group would like to show our appreciation towards a few individuals

that has helped us in achieving a finalised video presentation and report.

First off, we would like to thank our lecturer, Mr Shankar Thiruchelvam for guiding us

throughout the assignment and explaining to us about the certain concepts in classes. We

appreciate his help in explaining the concepts used because it is of the utmost importance

that we understand the concepts used to produce a good script that portrays each concept

that is understood by others.

We appreciate the cooperativeness by Taylor’s University for allowing us, students, to film in

public spaces within the campus. A big thank you to them for not causing any inconvenience

to us.

Lastly, we would like to thank a few other friends that has helped us in coming up with the

storyline and filming it as well. Such small things may seem to be taken for granted but we

would like to take this opportunity to appreciate their small acts.

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Table of Contents

Contents Page

Introduction 3

Method 4

Concept 8

Discussion 11

Reference 16

Appendix 17

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1.0 Introduction

The short story that we have come up with portrays two policemen that have received an

order from a higher ranking officer to investigate on a drug trafficking activity that has

been happening. Both policemen went on an investigation but faced conflicts after

arguing with one another and both men part ways, carrying out the investigation, each on

their own. But one of them came across a very suspicious lady that has been acting weird

within the investigated site and he started to investigate on her, figuring whether she is

tied to the case. The suspicious lady turns out to be involved in the drug trafficking world.

She tried to figure out ways to keep the policeman distanced from her. Finally, the

policeman managed to catch her at the end and putting her under the court’s justice.

In this act, the characters are portrayed by:

Gary Yeow Jin Sheng as Police G

Ong Min Junn as Police M

Neville Geoffrey Somi as Nevo, dark-skinned man

Samaa Ismael as Drug lord

Tan Yincy as Police M’s girlfriend

In the story above, it involves 5 main concepts that turns the story about: racism,

confirmation bias, availability heuristic, hostile aggression and motivation. The aim of

having these 5 concepts in the story is to show that the current society throughout the

world carries out their work according to these few concepts, showing that no matter in

which field, such concepts still affect their perception of things happening around them.

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2.0 Method

2.1 Apparatus

In terms of apparatus we had to take into account suitable environments in which each character

would be in, for what reason, and how it would apply to the characters background and persona.

In our video we had five different characters, MJ who played the good cop we showed this to the

audience when there was a conflict between himself and Gary after they began to interrogate

Neville due to racial issues, Gary who played the bad cop when he made the assumption that

Neville was a drug dealer just because of his skin colour, Yincy who played the good cop’s girlfriend

she played a minor role, however, was linked to the good cop who then motivated him to catch

the true drug dealer, Neville the falsely accused young man who was interrogated by the two cops

and felt greatly offended because he was frisked, and Samaa who played the boss that was

introduced as a normal character at first but with progression she kills of the good cop’s girlfriend

which results in her meeting her fate which is when she is caught towards the end. From the

assigned roles we can already determine who plays the protagonist, antagonist, the helpless, and

the person who causes the twist in the storyline. For the two main characters (MJ & Samaa) we

chose to add internal monologues, close-ups, character change to emphasise the importance of

the two characters and how later in the video the audience discovers a complete change of

character to what the audience had initially assumed in the beginning.

In order to show the character’s persona we emphasised lighting on certain characters to suggest

whether they are good or bad, for example the majority of MJ’s scenes he had strong and ambient

lighting to suggest that his intentions were good and we shot a scene at the lake with his girlfriend

to suggest the strong chemistry between them. However, to contradict his character, Samaa had

less lighting and most of the scenes she was filmed in were in dark and dodgy places such as the

parking lot due to the fact that it is a very convenient place to take part in undercover jobs such

as drug dealing, some scenes were shot in places with minimal sombre lighting to suggest that her

character is a dark one.

Moreover, the majority of the scenes were shot in Block C and Block D as we thought it was a good

place because of the maze like structure which allowed certain characters to hide and run, a place

that looks as if security is required.

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The way we assigned our characters roles was based on the physical attributes of the people that

took part in the video. For example because the whole point of the video was to show racism

towards people of colour (POC) Neville played the character that faced racism, the policemen had

to look strict therefore we assigned the roles to MJ and Gary, the good cop’s girlfr iend had to look

innocent and kind which suited Yincy, and because Samaa naturally looks like a bully we assigned

the evil drugdealer to her.

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2.2 Materials

We drew materials for our video from a few ideologies and events that exist in the world today.

Firstly, we researched how people from various look upon each other and incorporated that in

our act. We focused on the stereotypes that are a part of everyday lives amongst individuals all

around the globe, even though we pretend to overlook them and behave in a more civil and

understanding manner, as though the problem does not exist. To judge a book by its cover.

Typically analysing and judging a person by their outlook; race, colour and creed. We looked into

the problems of racism and that is what we depict in our video. People judge a rigid, dark and

tough outlook are seen as notorious and criminal whereas a subtle, refreshing and light skinned

person is taken for having a clean slate. We also targeted gender, showing that men are more than

often taken to be the sinister character in any foul play whereas the women are looked on

otherwise only because of the fragile and innocent label they carry. Hence, we showed how a

person, who was light-skinned and a female, was not seen as the drug dealer. However, the dark

toned man was ultimately targeted as the criminal only because of his colour, even though he was

innocent. Even though this issue has been looked down upon by people all over the world. Despite that, every person who lives is scrutinised on the basis of his or her race and colour.

The back up our research on racism and colour, we looked into the Ferguson riots taking place in

Minnesota. A man named Michael Brown, an African American was allegedly accused of stealing

a pack of cigarettes and was shot down to fatality by cop, namely Darrin Wilson. Brown was later

found innocent of the act, he was not even involved in the theft at all. A wrong man suffered death

for a crime he did not commit, only because he was black. That shows how suppressed racism is not, and how it radiated through the cop who did not bother investigate and took a life for nothing.

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2.2 Procedure

Day 1

Police M and Police G received a call from office. They were informed that a drug case was

happened in Taylor’s Lakeside University Campus. Both of them were cooperate as a group to

arrest their target – the drug lord.

Day 2

During their patrol, Police G found out a black person (Nevo). He thought that that particular guy

may be the drug lord. So, he was chasing that guy with his teammate. He thought he had a great

agility, so he climbed over the railing and planned to jump from there. Unfortunately, he failed. In

the end, Police M caught that black person. Police G came and insisted on checking Neville for

drug, but he found nothing. Police M just let him go since he was nothing. Then, polices had

conflict because Police G believed that the black people brings the drug, just he can’t find it this

time. Police M was doing the correction of Police G’s racism thinking. Eventually, they were split

up because difference of opinions. Police G was wondering the girl that he met just now when he

was chasing Nevo. He thought that girl was suspicious and he dedicated to find out more about

her.

Day 3

Police M found the drug lord on his patrol in the night time. He was chasing for her but he did not succeed to get her. He didn’t realized that she was hiding behind the vending machine.

Day 4

The drug lord knew that Police M saw her, and she thought this might be a treat for herself. So,

she planned to kill his girlfriend. Drug lord was stalking Yincy (Police M’s girlfriend) and finding for

a good timing to kill her. Yincy was killed when she was texting.

Day 5

Police M received a call from the drug lord. She told Police M that Yincy was killed by her. He was

shocked about the loss of his girlfriend. He was so sad and depressed. He walked to the places where they were having their sweet memories. He decided to arrest the drug lord as revenge.

DAY 10

In the midnight, the drug lord went car park. She passed the drugs, which packaged with a

cigarette box to the customer. But she didn’t knew that Police M was prepared behind to arrest

her. Finally, she was caught. She was pissed off and showed her middle finger to the customer, who drove away and didn’t informed her about the presence of that police.

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3.0 Concept

3.1 Racism

Definition: Discrimination or prejudice based on the race

Explanation: Racism affects the perspective towards other races negatively in many

ways. As an example, in the United States, African Americans and

Latinos do not get education equal to most of the whites. This is due to

the country’s policy where money allocated for school should come

from the local property taxes. Therefore, places with less expensive

houses do not have the chance for higher quality education

3.2 Confirmation Bias

Definition: The confirmation bias refers to the tendency to selectively search for

and consider information that confirms one's beliefs.

Explanation: Confirmation biasness affects an individual’s tendency to accept

information. For example, a student who is going to write a research

paper may primarily search for information that would confirm his or

her beliefs. When such things happen, the individual will fail to

interpret information rationally. Thus, the student may fail to search

for or fully consider information that is inconsistent with his or her

beliefs.

3.3 Availability Heuristic

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Definition: Availability heuristic is a cognitive heuristic in which a decision maker

relies upon knowledge that is readily available rather than examine

other alternatives or procedures.

Explanation: After seeing many news stories of home foreclosures, people may

judge that the likelihood of this event is greater. This may be true

because it is easier to think of examples of this event. This shows that

people have the tendency to link information to any recent information

that they have in mind to create an assumption of another event.

3.4 Hostile Aggression

Definition: Hostile aggression is a type of aggression that is committed in response

to a perceived threat or insult. It is unplanned, reactionary, impulsive,

and fueled by intense emotion as opposed to desire to achieve a goal.

Aggressors typically have a sense of a loss of control during outbursts ,

and characteristically experience physiological hyperarousal.

Explanation: It classified by the type of aggressive acts committed and by the state

of mind or intention of the aggressor. These aggressive acts are in

respond to potential threats that can affect the individual. As an

example, a teenager will fight back when a bully tries to threaten him.

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3.5 Motivation (Extrinsic)

Definition: Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides, and

maintains goal-oriented behaviors that arise from outside the

individual.

Explanation: A simple example of extrinsic motivation is to study harder so that you

can get paid more money in the future. This external form of

motivation motivates the individual to carry out certain things in order

for them to achieve it. It allows the individual to even help recover from

negative setbacks as the individual is motivated to improve.

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4.0 Discussion

4.1 Racism

The act of discriminating and having a prejudice towards others based on their skin tone

was shown by Police G when he suspected Nevo to be a drug trafficker because of his dark

skin. Although Nevo was suspiciously around the suspected crime area, it does not make

him a target of crime. Police G immediately went after Nevo without even proper thinking,

assuming that he is related to drug trafficking due to his skin colour. Intimidated by Police

G, Nevo ran away because he fears danger from Police G as the identity of Police G was

not revealed to him at all.

In fact, this can be proved when Police M questioned Police G on the sudden chase of

Nevo. Police G, being a superior to Police M, gave orders on the spot without much

evaluation and this made Police M doubtful about Police G’s actions. Upon questioning

by Police M, Police G immediately told him it was common sense that dark skinned man

are often involved in such cases and it is normal to suspect them.

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4.2 Confirmation Bias

Confirmation biasness was shown in the act during the argument between Police G and

Police M. Police M was curious about the sudden chase because he wondered about the

Police G’s action that were irrational. The argument started because Police G stood on his

own belief about dark-skinned people being tied to such cases.

Police M argued with Police G, stating that the actions of a person does not depend of the

skin colour. He insisted that Nevo was to be let go off because he believed that Nevo was

innocent and is not tied to any of the case that they are investigating in. However, Police

G was against the action and thought of Police M for letting Nevo go. Police G kept

insisting that it was right to suspect them and he did not accept any explanations made

by Police M. He stood on his own belief and only thinks that he is right while Police M

made a mistake to let Nevo off.

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4.3 Availability Heuristic

This mental shortcut on implying someone else happened when Police M suspected a

suspicious lady around the crime scene while he was chasing after Nevo. By just

exchanging glance and looking at the lady’s physical self, Police M. After parting ways with

Police G, Police M walked off alone and recalled the suspicious lady. It came to his mind

that she can be the one tied to the case when a few examples came to his mind.

As police M realised that most people involved in drug trafficking are from low-income

people and are dressed badly but those at the top are usually dressed well and innocent

looking. This made him decide that the lady is a suspect by just looking at the way she

dresses and by her looks. This resulted in his investigations towards the lady and catching

her.

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4.4 Hostile Aggression

In the act, hostile aggression was shown by the lady, who was actually the drug lord. When

faced by Police M, she immediately ran away from Police M because she felled that Police

M was a threat to her. This resulted in her being chased by Police M but luckily, she

managed to run away. In response to the threat from Police M, she knew it would be wise

to warn Police M to stay away from her to avoid any other threats from Police M.

The drug lord acted aggressively and had the intention to kill Police M’s g irlfriend as an

act of warning towards to Police M. Impulsively, she went after Police M’s girlfriend and

murdered her without realising that it fuelled Police M’s desire to catch her. Right after

the murder, she called up Police M to inform him about the death of his girlfriend as a

sign of warning towards him to not get involved in the case.

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4.5 Motivation

During the act, the death of Police M’s girlfriend was an impact to his emotional state. It

affected Police M’s investigation of the drug lord and was only mourning over the loss of

his girlfriend. However, the death of Police M’s girlfriend became a motivation for Police

M to put the drug lord under the court’s jurisdiction. It motivated Police M to investigate

further into the case to ensure that the drug lord will be caught.

Apart from that, this motivation helped him with self-recovery as it sped up his self-

recovery. Police M recovered from his depressed state of mind after being motivated to

catch the drug lord as a revenge for murdering his girlfriend. This motivation affected him

positively and soon, he managed to catch the drug lord red-handedly.

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5.0 Reference

I. Myers, D. (2010). Exploring Social Psychology (4th ed., p. 482). McGraw-Hill.

II. Goodwin, C. J. (2010). Research in psychology: Methods and design, 6th edition. New

Jersey: John Wiley and Sons

III. Sanderson, C. A. (2010). Social psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

IV. Cherry, K. (2011, August 1). What is a confirmation bias. Retrieved on December 7,

2014, from http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/fl/What-Is -a-

Confirmation-Bias.htm

V. Nittle, N.K. (n.d.). What is Racism?. Retrieved on December 7, 2014, from

http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/WhatIsRacism.htm

VI. Bell, B. (n.d.). Confirmation Bias. Retrieved on December 7, 2014, from

http://www.psychologyandsociety.com/confirmationbias.html

VII. Examples of Racism. (n.d.) Retrieved on December 7, 2014, from http://www.anti-

racismonline.org/html%20pages/Examples%20of%20Racism1.html

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6.0 Appendix

6.1 Script

SCRIPT

Legend:-

Police M - M

Police G - G

BOSS - B

Neville – N

Yincy - Y

Day 1, Police M and Police G received a call from office.

M: Yea…police job for me? Make sure you get a reward for me at the end. Yea, no case is too

big to me. I’ll do it.

G: Hello? Yea, yes I am.

*Police G looked at his phone awhile*

G: Are you sure you calling a right number? Yes! Yes ! I will! I will! No problem.

Day 2, policemen were on their duty. Police G saw a black guy. He wanted him to stop.

G: Hey! Stop!

They were chasing the black guy for investigation. Police M caught Neville.

M: Why he asked you to stop but you didn’t stop huh?

N: Nothing, man. I DON’T HAVE A SHIT!

*Police G reached them*

G: Hey, you must have something huh.

N: Nothing…nothing.

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G: Show me that! Come on. Where’s the drug?

N: I don’t have drugs.

G: You’re liar. Show me that!

N: That’s my phone.

*After that, they found no drugs at all*

M: So, you sure it’s clean?

N: Yea, I am.

G: There’s something!

N: Give me back my phone man!

*Police G & M had conflict*

G: Why you simply justlet him go, man?

M: We both checked him. You know he is clean.

G: Come on. His skin is black and dark. He is the man who also do the dark thing.

M: Well, he is black. But it doesn’t mean he will do that thing. He may be good anyway.

G: Come on…this is SHIT! I don’t want work with you anymore! This is BADASS!

*Police G left. Police M wondered*

M: Hmm... The lady looks very suspicious. Maybe she’s the one who tie with case. I should

find her out. I think I investigate more about her.

Day 3, Police M on his solo patron. He saw BOSS and chased her around. But failed to catch

her.

Day 4, BOSS felt that she was threatened since Police M saw him.

B: Hmm… He found out who I am now…I should take some revenge. How should I do it?

Maybe I should kill his girlfriend! That’s a brilliant idea!

BOSS stalked Yincy from behind and searching for a chance to kill her.

B: Oh my god…nice hair!

*BOSS killed Yincy from back*

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Y : Ahhhhh…

Day 5, Police M received a call from BOSS.

M: Hello?

B: You messed with the wrong person. Hope you attend your girlfriend’s funeral.

M: What?!

*Police M so sad and depressed. He walked to the place where he been with his girlfriend and flash back those sweet memories*

Day 10, BOSS went to car park to meet her customer and passed the drugs to him.

B: What’s upppp?

*Police M was hiding behind for ready to arrest BOSS. But she didn’t knew that*

M: Don’t move!

**********************THE END***************************