I am one of the choir members in my church. I started singing at a very young age. My parents noted the talent in me and encouraged me. They are the ones that motivated to join the church choir. Singing became a hobby for me. I would spend most of my time listening to songs and attempting to compose my own. When more people heard me singing, in choir competitions or in school, my voice moved them. Slowly, many people took an interest in my voice. I began getting invitations to perform in events and concerts. The invitations increased and singing became a paid job for me.
When growing, I spent almost all my free time practicing and listening to songs. When I was beginning to perform in concerts, I was very excited, my parents encouraged me and I was keen to bring out the best in me. As time went by, I began being exhausted and did not engage in much practice. I felt like I would not be able to meet the expectations of the audience. The expectation would be the more concerts I was invited to the more practice and time I dedicated to perfect myself. Contrary to this, I felt like singing was eating up much of my time, oblivious to the money I was making. I would only perform on weekends since I did not attend school on weekends. Despite this, I felt like singing was encroaching into my studies and needed to do something about it. I began weighing the options of declining concerts for a while. I made my parents aware of my frustrations. My parents tried to encourage me and told me not forgo my talent, but I felt that it was too much for me to take in. Currently, I posed performing in concerts for a while and decided to go back to choir.
When I began performing in concerts, my style of dressing did not match that of other singers I met at the concert. Slowly I changed my dressing style. I wore short dresses just like them. My attitude towards the church changed and I stopped performing in the choir. My friends also changed and I became friends with the people I met at concerts. Initially I would not drink any alcohol. I did not attach any value to it due to the problems that it posed to one’s health. Slowly I began taking alcohol and eventually I became comfortable with it. At first, I was guilty about it, but the guilt faded away with time.
At one time, we were required to perform in groups and we were trained for this. I did not like the trainer very much, during practice, he would shout at us and was very hard on us. The trainer always wanted the best he had no room for failure. I never wanted to cross his paths since I perceived him to be a very violent person. In the end, I did not perform with the rest since the trainer thought I was at my best when performing alone. This was ok with me, since I would not have to cross paths with him again.
There was a certain band, the crew, which I dreaded to perform with during concerts. The band consisted of boys who had tattoos all over them, piercings and a weird way of dressing. Interacting with them was a big hurdle for me. I would never go near them unless circumstances forced me. In the midst of those circumstances, I would be scared and tried as much as possible to make the interaction be as short as possible. This never changed even at the time I stopped performing. I stopped taking alcohol after seeking assistance and I managed to become friend again with my old friends. I am still redefining my life and contemplating on going back to perform in concerts.
Cognitive dissonance is where the mind conflicts about two views. There is what one believes in and he or she does the opposite to that. The individual ends up in a state of discomfort. The mind tries to do away with this by changing one's belief or by justifying their actions. The mind changes attitude, denies, blames, or justifies one's actions in order to reduce discomfort (Myers 46). Cognitive dissonance is applicable to both attitudes and behaviors. The theory further explains that where external justification, not from within, is insufficient individuals will reduce the dissonance by internally justifying themselves. They will be forced to believe or change their attitude or behavior. Where the external justification, such as a bribe is sufficient, individuals tend to experience less discomfort and no internal justification is required.
I did not take alcohol previously and neither did I attach any meaning to it. I did not attach any value to it. As time went by, I became comfortable with taking the alcohol. I did contrary to what I believed in. My mind justified my actions that why I became comfortable with taking alcohol. I felt that one would have to take a million bottles before the alcohol affected their health. I did not intend to drink that amount. As per cognitive dissonance, my mind justified my actions to ease the discomfort that I felt at first. Slowly, I changed my attitude towards alcohol and I felt no discomfort at all.
Attribution refers to the like hood of human beings to assign an explanation for the behavior of others. Human beings, therefore, tend to form judgments on the behavior of others and the world as a whole. Attribution is linked to the use of common sense. Individuals may attribute the behaviors of others to either external factors or internal factors (Myers 55) . Spontaneous inference occurs when one automatically infers a trait to an individual who behaves in a certain way. Dispositional attribution is attributing someone’s behavior to internal factors, whereas situational attributions refers to attributing an individual’s behavior to external factors. An attribution error occurs when we underestimate a situation and overestimate the impact the situation has on the individual (Myers 55). To overcome this error, an individual has to look at the consistency of one’s behavior, the distinctiveness of one's behavior in a situation, and consensus where how other people would behave in the same situation is taken into consideration (Myers).
I attributed the behavior of the trainer to that of a violent person. This was the spontaneous inference since I never took into consideration internal and external factors. I may have made an attribution error since the trainer may not be a violent person. The situation may have forced him to behave the way he has done since dealing with youth is not easy. I underestimated the situation he was in and overestimated the impact of the situation on him. I never bothered to find out the consistency of his actions, distinctiveness and how any other person would have behaved in his situation.
Self-perception theory refers to a situation where an individual makes inferences regarding themselves. An individual makes these inferences with regard to their behavior. They examine their behavior and come up with a conclusion for themselves in reference to their behavior. According to the theory, this mostly happens when an individual cannot infer their behavior to external factors or situations. The theory goes further to explain that our expression affects our attitudes. It explains that imitating the expression on another will help us understand how and what they feel. The theory explains that rewarding an individual to do or perform an action that they already like will make the individuals do less of it. The individuals will attribute their actions to the reward. Where no reward is offered, the individuals will link their behavior to liking the activity and perform more of it. Rewards therefore tend to undermine an individual’s motivation (Myers 57).
Self-perception explains my low motivation when I consistently performed in concerts. Initially, singing was a hobby for me. I would dedicate most of my time to sing. When I began singing in concerts, I dedicated less time and felt that singing was messing with my studies. The reward, money, which I was paid in concerts, decreased my motivation, according to the self-perception theory. The reward that I got in concerts lowered my motivation. I felt like singing was a job for me I had to do it for the money and not because I liked it.
Self-appearance theory links an individual’s actions to their attitudes. Individuals tend to care about how other people perceive them. They undertake actions such as dressing in a particular manner to fit in or to impress others. People do these actions so that they feel good about themselves and to secure their identities. These actions such as dressing styles and eating mannerisms have to consistent with their attitudes. The actions of individuals have to match their attitudes in order to make a more realistic impression (Myers 58). Individuals assume these attitudes even when they are not real.
Self-appearance explains my change in dressing style and my friends too. I was concerned with how the rest of the singers and the audience would perceive me. I had to change my appearance. In that way, I felt comfortable and confident with myself. My actions had to be consistent with my attitudes and that is why I changed my friends. Hanging out with people who wore short dresses and took alcohol do match as opposed to wearing short dresses and hanging out with people who were conservative in their dressing.
Conformity is a change of one’s behavior or attitude. According to this concept, the change in one’s behavior is due to either real peer pressure1 or just imagined group pressure. People change their behavior or attitude so that it can fit that of the members of a group. Conformity is therefore acting in a different manner from how an individual would have acted when they are alone. Conformity can be either in compliance, obedience or in acceptance (Myers 72). Compliance entails acting in a certain manner, regardless of your disagreement to that, obedience entails following a direct order, whereas acceptance acting in a certain manner because one believes in it.
Conformity explains my change in behavior in dressing, taking alcohol and the friends I hanged out with. I had to change my behavior to due to implied group pressure. None of the people that I performed with, told me to change my dressing, neither did they imply it. I just felt like I needed to be like the other singers. I disagreed with taking alcohol, but I still did it anyway so that I would fit in the group. I complied with my imagined standards of the group of singers in the concert oblivious to my disagreement of taking alcohol at first.
The social loafing concept explains that individuals use less effort when working in a group as compared to when the individual is working on their own. The more the size of the group increases the lesser effort people in the group tend to use. The concept that when in a group, individuals tend to free ride. They tend to benefit from the group, but put a less than proportionate input to the achievement of the group’s goals or benefits (Myers 66). Social loafing explains my free rider tendency when I was training to perform in a group. Even the trainer noted that I performed best when I was alone rather than when I was in a group. When I was, alone I knew I had to meet the expectation of the audience and put more effort in comparison to when I was performing in a group.
Prejudice is a concept the negative attitude of an individual. Prejudice entails having negative attitudes towards a group and the members of the group. The basis of prejudice could be racism, sexism or many more other sources. The negative attitudes in most cases are normally unjustifiable and stereotyped. Prejudice is of two types, overt prejudice and subtle prejudice. Overt prejudice is in most cases expressed and easy to identify. On the other hand, subtle prejudice is implied and is harder to identify (Myers 69).
My fear of the crew band is explained by prejudice. I had a negative attitude towards the members of that band. Tattooing and many piercings are associated with bad boys in most of the society. I felt that the boys were dangerous and that they would most likely harm me when I engaged myself with them though I never heard of anything bad they did to anyone. I exhibited subtle prejudice since I did not express it to the boys, but I implied it through fear that I experienced whenever I was close to them.
Works Cited
Myers, David. Social Psychology (11th Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2013. Print.
