STUDY B: THE PERFORMANCE TEST

Description:
Participants will complete questionnaires concerning their individual attributes and perform a specific computer task.

To take part:
1) Participants will need to bring along 1 of their ANY close same-gender friend whom they have known for at least 6 months, and have shared personal concerns with.

2) Participants and their friends must be Singaporean Chinese, between the ages of 18-26.

Duration:
An estimated of 45 minutes in total, for each pair of participant and their friend

Compensation:
1 Shaw Movie Voucher each, if you and your friend choose to participate in Study A also. If you and your friend choose to participate in all 3 studies, you and your friend will each receive 1 pair of Shaw Movie Vouchers.

Researcher: Leong Hui Xian Jocelyn

Contact number: 94763156

Email: leong.huixianjocelyn@jcu.edu.au

Research Supervisor: Ms Teoh Ai Ni

Ethics Approval #: H 3111

Your participation, as well as your friend's, are entirely voluntary.

If you wish to sign up for my study, or should you require more information, please feel free to call or message or email me, stating that you are a NYP student, & your name.

$700k body

About a month ago, The Health Ministry decided to put a stop to doctors offering patients a range of controversial, unproven beauty treatments such as fat-busting injections and “whitening” treatments. When The New Paper interviewed Ms Elsie, a 47-year-old mother of 2 daughters, whose husband is an owner of a fashion label, she said that she goes for such treatments to look good for her husband. However, when probed further by the reporter, she said that since her husband is constantly surrounded by beautiful women such as actresses, models and young pretty things, while she only manages her home, daughters and 3 maids, she does not want to end up as a “huang lian po”. She added that she cannot imagine herself being caught on camera with 3 bulges from “her breasts, her tummy and the space between them”. In her view, it’s not about what she wears, but most importantly it’s about how she carries herself and what she looks like.

According to her, she has spent about $700,000 on “all forms of beauty treatments and therapy” and to date, she has had regular botox, collagen and filler injections, intense pulsed light (IPL), liposuction and even the latest fat-busting treatments. While other tai-tais get around the world for the latest fashion accessories, she goes to France, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand for aesthetic retreats and detox spas.

In this article, I see the extent of which a person would go to maintain one’s appearance self-esteem, which is defined as an individual’s satisfaction with him or her physical looks. Given a choice, I would rather spend $700,000 on a trip round the world than to subject myself being poked by needles or whatever gadgets being used to make me look pretty. Reading this article also reminds me of my friend who ended up with a drip in the A&E as she was having a really bad gastric pain due to her constant skipping of daily lunch and dinner and eats only when she feels hungry to maintain her slimness. Though reminded by the doctor and friends around her, my friend till now, is still constantly skipping her meals to keep herself slim.

I agree with the textbook, that women tend to be more dissatisfied with their physical appearance as compared to men. This is so, as women are constantly exposed to unrealistic standards of thinness from the media, thus, at least for me, it seems more common to hear girl friends around me complain that they are fat as compared to guy friends, though I do have a guy friend who keeps complaining that he is fat when he really isn’t.

Unauthentic Sex Drugs

In the past week, 2 new fake sex drugs (Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule and Zhong Hua Niu Bian) were discovered, bringing the total number of such drugs to 4. Most of these fake drugs contained the diabetes prescription drug glibenclamide in dangerous dosages, with one pill possibly having up to five times what diabetic patients take to lower their blood sugar level. In actual fact, Glibenclamide does not have sexual enhancement properties and when consumed in the form of the fake drugs, it can result in dizziness, cold sweat, loss of consciousness and even death. Reading recent articles about new fake drugs, reminds me of what I first read about the Power 1 Walnut when it first surfaced in February.

In The New Paper dated on 24/2/08, a 68-year-old, grandfather of 4, known as Ah Hiah, mentioned that though he has been warned by his friends, he has no intention to stop consuming the Power 1 Walnut because he feels that he needs to keep his 3 girlfriends satisfied and happy to prevent them from being unfaithful to him. In his view, it is very important for him to feel happy, thus, even if he dies, he has nothing to lose as he would prefer to die as an ecstatic man in bed rather than a miserable man on the sofa in front of a TV. Though retired, Ah Hiah admitted that as the pill would roughly cost between a dollar to two, he could well afford it since his 4 children would give him a monthly allowance of $600 each. When The New Paper spoke to 1 of his girlfriends over the phone, she complimented his performance as powerful and his ability to try all kinds of patterns.

The theory of reasoned action is a good model to determine why Ah Hiah would want to continue his consumption of the Power 1 Walnut despite warnings from his friends and the HSA. In the theory of reasoned action, behavioural intentions depend on attitudes and subjective norms. Favourable attitudes and favourable subjective norms foster intentions to perform a behaviour, whereas unfavourable attitudes and unfavourable subjective norms foster intentions to avoid performing it. If attitudes and subjective norms are consistent with one another, then behavioural intentions will be strong and actions will be consistent. An attitude refers to an individual’s overall evaluation of a particular behaviour, which is based on the individual’s beliefs about the consequences of the behaviour. Subjective norms, however, are based on other individual’s beliefs that other people want them to perform the action or do not want them to perform the action, as well as their motivation to do what these people want.

As seen in the case of Ah Hiah, as he feels that he has got nothing to lose even if he dies as a result of the drug that he consumed (favourable attitude), together with him thinking that his 3 girlfriends would want him to satisfy their needs, and himself, wanting to prevent them from being unfaithful (favourable subjective norms), it explains why he would want to continue his consumption of the Power 1 Walnut. I guess, unless 1of the components for the theory of reasoned action changes, I don’t think Ah Hiah would want to stop his consumption.

Writing this entry makes me wonder, if authentic sex drugs are sold at a more affordable price, would people be less tempted to try out other alternatives? And that if these fake sex drugs don’t work in actual fact, why do people who consumed them thinks that it works?

Social Comparison

About 2 or 3 weeks back, Singapore Airlines announced that they would no longer be providing premium economy class seats on its non-stop flights to the United States, which means that from now on, people who want to fly non-stop to the United States, would have to pay more for Business class seats instead.

In The Straits Times- Lifestyle (29/3/08), Mr Jack Sim, after reading an article from The Straits Times (23/3/08) – Business Class Envy, commented that as he has to work with villagers or slum communities to understand their sanitation or lack of it, it has made him realise that the enjoyment of comfort is often an illusion. In addition, he said “if I think economy seats are comfortable enough, I’ll enjoy the whole journey. If I sit there envying the people in the front section, I’ll look down on my own seat and what I have in life as a whole and be miserable the whole journey.”

Personally, I think that his comment has some element of social comparison in it. Social comparison is the process of comparing ourselves to others to judge the self and it can either be an upward or downward social comparison. Upward social comparison involves comparing ourselves with people who are better off or more skilled than us, while downward social comparison involves comparing with people who are worse off or less skilled than us.

To make himself feel good about flying by economy class, Mr Toh chose to make a downward social comparison by comparing himself to villagers or slum communities. This is so, as perhaps to the villagers, it might be beyond their means to afford an air ticket. Therefore, since Mr Toh is able to afford an air ticket, he should be feeling good about himself. However, should Mr Toh had chosen to make an upward social comparison, he would want to compare himself to people who are able to afford to fly business class or even first class, and this would make him feel bad or even feel inferior about himself for not being able to afford the price of such air tickets.

Normative conformity?

I was reading the Lifestyle section of The Sunday Times (23/3/08) when an article titled “Art or mutilation” caught my attention. The article states that implants of silicon or Teflon beads can be inserted under our skin, forming raised designs and patterns. The process is painful and is also potentially hazardous to our health as infections can easily set in. However, this has not stopped 28- year-old Alexx Ng, a self-employed investment agent, and his 10 or more friends from doing it. Alexx has a total of 18 Teflon beads, each size of a 50-cent coin and a star-shaped silicone implant under the skin of his right arm. In the article, he mentioned that he was not an attention seeker and he did not really know why he did it.

Personally, I felt that Alexx went for the Teflon implants because he wants to be liked by the people that he is mixing with, and this is an example of normative conformity. Normative conformity occurs when people are influenced by others to gain rewards or to avoid punishment In Alexx’s case, the reward that he gets by doing what his friends does, is to be able to maintain positive relationships with them. In addition, perhaps Alexx felt that should he not do what his friends does, his friends would ostracise him, thus to prevent himself from being excluded, he went for the implants.

1st post: Altruism

Based on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, feelings of empathy for a person can lead to behaviour that is truly aimed at helping that person. As can been seen from an article on page 14 of The New Paper, dated on 2/3/08, Mr Toh, a businessman, upon reading about their predicament, rendered his help to a family which is having financial difficulties, till the extent that both parent intend to give 3 out of their 5 children up for adoption. According to Mr Toh, he wants to help the family because he too, once experienced the days of being down and out and having to struggle to raise his children, thus, he understands the feelings of the family.

Apart from giving money to the family, Mr Toh offered some business advice and a loan to the family if they choose to open their noodle stall in the future. In addition, he also offered a part-time job in his company to the family’s eldest son, provided that the eldest son’s school work would not be affected by the job.

The article also mentioned that through this incident, Mr Toh wants his children to learn the importance of helping, even if they would have to sacrifice something to bring happiness to others and to make them realise how fortunate they are. As such, he made his children gave away their favourite toys to the family in need. In doing so, he hopes that his children would be able to experience the positive consequences that he experiences and by observing his actions, he hopes that his children will learn to help others too.

From what I have mentioned above, I would consider Mr Toh’s helping originates from altruistic motivation (helping purely for the sake of providing benefit to another person), instead of egoistic motivation (helping others in order to obtain rewards or punishment) . This is so, as although this incident can help to mould his children’s future behaviour and perhaps, to help make Mr Toh feel better about himself, they are not the main reasons as to why he chose to render his help to a stranger. Instead, those two are benefits that he would gain while helping out.