Name: Yeo Dor Een

ID: 0316224

Group/Session: Monday 4pm

Assignment: Individual Journal

Subject: Social Psychology

Course: Foundation in Natural and Built

Environment

Submission date: 10 November 2014

Date: 18 October 2014

Entry # 1

Concept: Social Facilitation

I used to be a slow person no matter what I do. I can hardly finish

a task in a short period of time given since I always need some time to

think and take response. However, I realised something about myself

during account class that I never realised before. Our lecturer asked us

to record the time we used up to complete an exercise because he

hoped that all of us were able to finish the exercise as fast as possible

so that we can get used to do account quickly and effectively. My

friend who sat beside me always finished account exercise in very

short time. When I saw him doing so much faster than me, I tried to

write faster as well. Lastly I found that the time taken when I was doing

account exercise with my friend was shorter than I was doing alone in

my room. This situation showed the concept of social facilitation which

means people can performed better during competition than solo

assessment. Well-learned performance is enhanced in the presence of

others.

Entry # 2

Concept: Social Loafing

I have a friend who is a smart student but she does not like to

talk and hates to socialize with other people. Once we had a chit chat

session during our free time. She told me that she always prefer

individual work than group work. She found it hard to communicate

with people because everyone has different opinion in different things.

She was not able to perform better in a group work than individual

work. She claimed that her ideas were always different with her group

members. This problem troubled her so much in her studies every time

and she gained bad results from that. This situation showed the

concept of social loafing. Social loafing means an individual’s

performance can actually get worse in the presence of others. People

make less effort in a group than they would if they were attempting to

achieve the goal on their own.

Date: 25 October 2014

Entry # 1

Concept: Self-efficacy

Before I entered university, I was a shy person with low

confidence towards myself. I used to be pessimistic in everything

happened to me. When I met some problem that upset or troubled me,

I just felt bad and disappointed to my own life. Sometimes I did not

really think into the problem thoroughly and never try to find a proper

solution to solve it. Self-efficacy is our belief in the ability to achieve

certain goals. At that time I had a low self-efficacy which means that I

see difficult tasks as something to be avoided. However, I had learnt a

lot after I entered university. I knew that I must be rational enough in

solving every problem because I still have a long way to go in my

future life. Now I try to build confidence and high self-efficacy. I must

see difficult task or problem as challenges and try my best to cope with

it.

Entry # 2

Concept: Extrinsic motivation

During my secondary school life, there was a subject that I

hated the most, that was Chemistry. I was not interested in this subject

because I think I am not going to be a chemist one day. However, I

have to force myself to study Chemistry as hard as I could since I

wished to get good results in SPM. SPM is the most important exam for

us in secondary school. With good results, I could enter the university I

wished to enter and pursue my studies easily. Furthermore, I did not

want to disappoint my parents since they put so much expectations on

me. I was motivated by the pressure and pushed myself to take certain

action which was to study hard. This is an example of extrinsic

motivation. Since I knew that Chemistry was always my weakness, I

put more effort on it to improve my result.

Date: 15 September 2014

Entry # 1

Concept: Confirmation bias

Last Friday, My family and I went to a restaurant for dinner.

While we were waiting for the serving of dishes, there was a woman

walked into the restaurant carrying some fruits like bananas,

strawberries and blueberries. There was a little girl following behind

her carrying some fruits as well. We watched them came in knowing

that they were selling their fruits. They started to drop by each table

separately. The little girl dropped by our table and asked whether we

want to buy. My mother was attracted by the big and fresh

strawberries, so she asked for the price for one box. The girl answered,

‘’thirty ringgit’’. My mother was shocked because she did not expected

that small box of strawberries cost that much. She thought the girl was

mistaken since she was too young. The girl claimed she was not

mistaken but my mother still doubt about that. The woman came and

told my mother that the strawberries really cost thirty ringgit since

they were imported from New Zealand and taste really good. Finally

my mother believed them. From this case, my mother showed the

confirmation bias because she thinks the girl is too young and she

might don’t know a thing. She trusted the woman because she is a

mature adult. Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias and a

systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when

they gather or remember information selectively, or when they

interpret it in a biased way.

Entry # 2

Concept: Counterfactual thinking

Sometimes people like to imagine different outcomes for an

event that has already occurred. That event usually associated with

negative events. This counterfactual thinking can be used to improve

or worsen our mood. Here is a real example. One of my friend is a

pessimistic person. She always think the negative side of any incident

happened. On the other hand, I had another friend who is very

optimistic. He usually has a bright view even bad things happened.

There was a time we had a gathering at our friend’s home. That

gathering was at day time. When we were enjoying eating and talking,

suddenly electric power was cut and last for few hours. The place

became so hot without fans and air-conditioners working. My

pessimistic friend showed a despair face and said, ‘’Why are we so

unlucky? If only we gather another day but not today’’. My optimistic

friend said, ‘’ Luckily this is

not at night’’. If this took place at night, we may not only feel hot but

we could not see others as well because there would be only darkness.

My pessimistic friend showed upward counterfactual while my

optimistic friend showed downward counterfactual.

Date: 22 September 2014

Entry # 1

Concept: First impressions

I still remember the first day when I entered secondary school, I wished

to get some new friends. I tried to find a friend that could become my

best friend so that I would not feel lonely throughout my study life.

There was a girl in my class who talked to me first but my first

impression to this girl was that she was an arrogant girl and I don’t

really like her. So we did not talk much since our characters and

qualities were not matched. After that I saw another girl who looked

nice to get along with, I tried to talk to her. I got to know her and we

became friends. In the few days beginning of secondary school, we are

really closed friends. I followed her wherever she went. However, after

about a month, I realized she was not as nice as what I thought. She

was quite a selfish girl. She never help me when I need her

help even though I always helped her when she had problems. She

only thought about herself but never care about others even I was her

best friends. Our friendship became worse day by day and soon we

had our own other friends. Surprisingly, the girl that I thought she was

arrogant was not that bad after we got along for longer time. I realized

in fact she had many good qualities. She was funny, friendly and kind.

We became best friends for 5 years of secondary school time. This

experience showed that first impressions to someone may be

instantaneous. We should not count on our first impressions to others

too much.

Entry # 2

Concept: Non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication usually convey by non-verbal cues

which means the behaviors, gestures and expressions that convey

thought or emotion without words. This is very common in our

everyday life when we communicate with other people. Vivian and I

were best friends in primary school. We talked everything and share

happiness and sadness all the time. After we graduated from school,

we still always kept in touch. Due to our own busy studies, the

frequency for us to get in touch was getting lesser time by time. Last

year, I saw her in a shopping mall when I went to shopping. She was in

a glass elevator from a distance. I waved to her realizing we almost

lost contact for two years. She saw me and waved back to me happily.

Since we were in a long distance, I conveyed my thought to her by sign

language telling her I would call her and maybe go out for a tea next

time. She replied me ‘’no problem’’ by sign language as well. This

incident showed that non-verbal communication is very important and

efficient to convey message in some situation like when people are in a

long distance and cannot hear what the other say.

Date: 29 September 2014

Entry # 1

Concept: Operant conditioning

One of the rules in our university hostel is that we are not

allowed to cook. If any resident get caught by cooking in their unit,

they would be fined for minimum one hundred ringgit. If the case is

serious, they may asked to leave hostel immediately. Despite of this,

one of my housemate always cooked in our unit’s kitchen. Sometimes

another of my housemate advised her not to cook too often otherwise

she may get caught. But she was not willing to do so and still cooked

everyday as usual. One day she finally got caught and fined for one

hundred ringgit. She dared not to cook again from that day. This is

called operant conditioning, means using reinforcement or punishment

to strengthen or weaken a particular behavior. In this case, high fine

required as punishment weaken the residents from breaking the terms

stated in the rules of hostel.

Entry # 2

Concept: Observational learning

After I entered university, my study life was so busy and I lacked

of exercise. Even I have free time, I always stayed in my hostel room

and watched drama from some websites. I went back to my hometown

two weeks ago. I usually go back at least once a month since I always

feel homesick. My mother suggested me to go yoga class with her

since she knew that I rarely do exercise. Every time she asked me to

go, I refused to do so. But that time I agreed because I must do some

exercise to keep myself fit and healthy. That time I was the only new

student for yoga class. There was a part of yoga which is dancing.

Other students already familiar with the dancing moves and they could

do it easily and correctly. I could not follow them very well since that

was my first time for the dance. That was really hard for me. So, I tried

my best to observe and learn the way my mother and other students

dance. I went to the class again the next day. I realized that time I was

able to dance better and the moves were not that difficult for me

anymore. Observational learning means watching others engage in

behaviors and then repeating those actions. I was able to follow other

students and dance well through observational learning.