SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

Name : Wong Qin Kai

Student ID : 0320024

Group / Session : Monday (4-6 pm)

Subject & Course : Social Psychology

Submission Date : 27th April 2015

Journal 1 , Chapter 2 : Extrinsic Motivation 22th April 2015, 7:03pm

Extrinsic motivation means when someone is motivated by certain action in

response to the external pressure or responsibility. However, it could be used to avoid the

punishment or used to earn tangible reward but it often happens to me when I was ten

years old.

I’m the one who extremely dislike hiking in my family because it’s definitely a

hard physical exercise for me so I always make excuses for myself when I was called to

go with my father every weekend. Meanwhile, I have my own hobby which was cycling.

I like to cycle more than hike. I would rather go starve just because to save money to buy

new accessories for my bicycle from my pocket money. So my father decided to use

variety of methods to encourage me. Finally, he promised me that he would buy me two

set of bicycle accessories if I go hiking with him. For the sake of my bicycle , I decided to

go hiking with my father and took it as a slimming exercise even though at the end of the

destination I sweated a lot and felt short of breath. Last not least , I was happy and touch

because I get another two set of accessories from my dad without paying any money. I

love this kind of motivation because it involved participation in activities for some

specific rewards that external to the process of participation.

Journal 2 , Chapter 5 : Observational Learning 22th April 2015 , 10:30pm

In the lecture of Social Psychology, the concept of observational learning attracted

me the most.It’s because this concept often happens on me in my daily life. Observational

Learning is replicating , retaining and watching others engage in behaviors and repeat

those action from a model.

I remembered that when I was in the secondary school , the person that I admired

the most is my mom because she always covers all the household duties without any

complains. Ever when I entered the secondary school , I was still depended a lot on my

mom so that’s the reason why I never became involved in helping with the housework

and another reason is that I always rushed for my assignment that need to hand in every

week .One day after having supper, I saw my mom is folding the clothes tidily in the

room and I was free in that time so I decided to learn from my mom. I observed all the

procedure from her and folded myself. After several researches on it , I also can folded

the clothes tidily. I felt thankful to my mom because of her, I learnt a new thing in my life

and also can often help her with housework. In my opinion , I think that observational

learning played an important role in our daily life so we can learn anything that through

observational learning by observing other people’s behavior.

Journal 3 , Chapter 1 : Confirmation Bias 23th April 2015 5:50pm

I had learnt the concept of confirmation bias in my first lesson of social psychology.

It was an unforgettable lesson in my university life as I remembered that day I was

late.When I walked into the lecture hall ,the lecturer who named Mr Shankar was looked

at me ferociously and suddenly asked me to come down. I was afraid of being punished

and don’t wanna make myself foolish in others eyes. But in the end he didn’t made any

punishment on me, he just want me to sit in the first three role.

Here is an example that I’ve experienced the concept of confirmation bias before.

When I was young, my parent told me that the person who had tattoos on his body is a

bad guy. But unfortunately, I had a lot of this kind of friends by my side so as a filial child,

I decided to listen the advise of my parent. Since that day ,I stayed far far away from

them and also eased the relationship between them as I don’t want to be influenced. One

day by accident , I met one of them who named Nicholas in the street. I was shocked

when I saw him because he’s helping a disabled old man to cross the road. After that , the

old man also rewarded him with ten dollars but he rejected and said that helping others is

the origin of happiness. I felt sorry to him because I always biased against him and also

mistaken about him. Lastly, I can clearly understand what confirmation bias mean. It

means the tendency to interpret and search for the information that support to our beliefs.

Journal 4 , Chapter 5 : Operant Conditioning 23th April 2015 , 8:55pm

Operant Conditioning is used to weaken or strengthen a particular behavior through

punishment and reinforcement. Here is a example that often happens to me in my daily

life. When I was in secondary school , I am the person who easily get nervous in my

studies. In that time, I was in bad relationship with my girl friend and also no one

willingness to hear my complaints so I decided to smoke even though I knew it’s bad to

our health. One day night, when my sister who named Mary was attended to her friend

birthday party at the cafe that opposite our house and she inadvertently found me

smoking alone at the corner. She was grieved and come to console me but I still

ungrateful. Mary afraid that I will fall into the wrong path so she decided to tell all the

story to my dad. My dad didn’t scolded me but he canned me instead and advised me not

to smoke again. In my opinion, the punishment that given by my dad is a positive

punishment because he wanted me to learn from the mistakes that I did and also wanted

me to weaken this bad behavior.

Journal 5 , Chapter 1 : False Consensus Effect 25th April 2015 , 11:55pm

False consensus effect refers to the assumption that other people share their opinions,

beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. This concept also often happens in my daily life. In year

2012 is the only year that I get my driving license. I was happy enough because my dad

bought me a new car as my birthday present.Since that day , I always go out for supper

with my buddies. I remembered that I had a partner named Mildred who often go

swimming with me everyday. However, we also helped each others when we get into

trouble. One day after swimming, we decided to go out for dinner. Suddenly she felt

stomachache and need to go away for a while but unfortunately the waitress came to me

and asked me what to order .I had no choice but to save time , I decided to order one set

of chicken chop for her which I think is the cheapest and best seller meal in the restaurant.

But the unfortunate thing happened , she said that she was allergic to chicken since many

years ago. In this case , I totally understood what this concept mean and false consensus

effect was caused by me . Everyone have their own opinions and beliefs so we are no

longer to help other people make their own decisions.