SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT

NAME: CHIA LY VIER

STUDENT ID NO: 0320142

TUTORIAL GROUP: MONDAY 2PM – 4PM

SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

COURSE: FOUNDATION IN NATURLA AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT (FNBE)

LECTURER: MR SHANKAR

SUBMISSION DATE: APRIL 27TH 2015

9 February 2015 4:20 p.m.

Social loafing occurs when a person is doing something in a group but their effort

cannot be identified. I went through this situation few times when I was in a group

project. For example, I will think that if I did not do as much as I could, the other

group members will eventually finish the part which I did not manage to do. Besides,

I often think that even if I do less, nobody will know that because we were all

working as a group, nobody can identify the workload of an individual, so I could be

lazy sometimes without others knowing it. Social cultural perspective will be

influence by presence of others and also culture. Like in my case, my family thinks

that it is crucial for every single child to do well in our studies. The whole family

thinks that if you don’t study well, you will be the shame of the family. As a result, all

of us think that it’s normal for us to study hard and it’s just like anything we do to

survive. It’s just like eating, sleeping, etc. because our family culture emphasise on

the result of our studies more than what other talents we have and this concept was

planted in our mind since we were young. Evolutionary perspective is the physical

and biological predispositions which results in human survival. For instance, every

child in our family tends to perform well in our studies because if we study well and

gained good results, we would be rewarded and praised. So, in order to be outstanding

and fulfil the requirements of being the child of the family, we all will strive hard to

perform well in every single exam or assignment. We strive hard for our own glory

and self-esteem so that we will not belittle by others. We tend to compare the results

with each other so we will make sure that our results do not have a big gap with

others. Social cognitive perspective is derived from the behaviourism perspective and

it assumes that an individual’s cognitive process is influenced by the behavioural

associations. For example, I will think that judging others through their level of

education is normal as my family does that every time during family gatherings.

Nobody tells me that it’s rude or wrong to judge others like that. Besides, I think it’s

not a wrong thing to be pampered as nobody will say no to my needs and wants in my

family since young. I think that it’s normal to buy whatever I want as my parents

always fulfil my desire no matter what I require. I feel that there’s no right or wrong

as it all are influenced by what I was educated since young. Social learning

perspective is basically learning from observing behaviour of others. I observed what

my parents and brother did along my growth. I learnt a lot of things such as using the

computer, watching television, eat, run, etc. through the observation since young. I

also found that young kids learnt a lot through observation very fast. My young

cousin learnt to drink beer through the observation from his father. He also learnt

singing and dancing through those video clips downloaded by his mother. Basically,

as a child, we do whatever we see and hear from others. I learnt how to swear through

the observation from my friends and also movies.

2 March 2015 8:10 p.m.

Self-efficacy is the belief in our ability to achieve certain goals where people with

high self-efficacy will treat difficult task as challenges but people with low self-

efficacy will treat difficult task as obstacles. I often think that the projects which I

have now is a challenge to me but some of my course mates think that it’s an obstacle

for them to graduate from this foundation course. I think it’s the level of self-efficacy

which pushes us to whether achieve our goals or give up. Social identity is the

development of our identity which connects us with the other social groups. To me,

it’s like what I am to the others. For example, my social identity is a student in

university. This identity makes me different from those who are not from the

university, such as adults who are working, beggars, robbers, etc. It’s like I will not be

in the same category with robbers or thief. Besides, I am born and raised in a family

which taught me to be individualistic, which means stand out from others. I was

taught to be different, to think differently, to be myself and don’t follow anyone’s

footsteps. Be creative, adventurous and develop my own skills to get excellent results.

Affective forecasting is the predictions of future which is often wrong and affects our

emotions. I always think that I will get a bad result after submitting the project or after

submitting exam papers during my secondary school days. I will feel very sad and

will worry about the result until it is released. I often forecast that the outcome will be

very bad but the outcome is often better than I thought. I think that this kind of mind-

set should be abolish from my brain because it actually causes myself to become

pessimistic which I don’t think it’s a good thing to be. Self-discrepancy is basically

occurs when we are controlled by how close we are from what we want to be. For me,

it’s the distance between my achievements and the goal which I wanted to achieve. I

often think that I did not fulfil my expectations and this affects my emotions and I feel

very sad for it. Besides, my cousin is also affected by this self-discrepancy theory

where she is suffering from anorexia. She thinks that she doesn’t fulfil her

expectations of being slim, she sees herself as a fat girl but instead of fat, she is

actually very, very skinny. Self-perception is to gauge our attitude through our own

behaviour. People often ask me, why architecture? What makes me to choose

architecture as my future? I never know why until I learnt about self-perception

theory. People often don’t know what they exactly want but they know exactly what

they don’t want. I think I’m that kind of person too. That’s why I think I could accept

architecture, just because I like to draw. I might love architecture too. That’s how I

chose the future pathway and why my parents accepted this future that I’d chosen.

They also thought that I could do well in this course because I have they think that I

have the talent in art and I’m attracted to it. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external

pressure while intrinsic motivation is driven by internal rewards and it both occurs

throughout my education path. Extrinsic motivation occurs when I was studying as a

secondary school kid. I don’t like exams but the motivation is the pressure from the

family, I don’t want to be punished and belittle by others. Intrinsic motivation occurs

when I am now studying in the university. I strive for what I like and wanted to be.

It’s a motivation from deep inside my heart. I could feel the love towards art and

that’s why I’m working hard for it.

9 March 2015 10:29 p.m.

Schema is a guide for us to understand the world better. It’s a cognitive structure used

to identify and process information. For example, the reason I know how to

differentiate vinegar and soy sauce is because I was taught that vinegar has a sour

smell compared to soy sauce since I was a child. This knowledge is stored in my brain

and it’s accessed for future reference so that I will not get confused to choose between

both vinegar and soy sauce. Assimilation occurs when we uses existing schema to

classify a new information without modifying it. For example, at first, I know only

one type of vinegar which is the black vinegar. As time passes, I found that vinegar

doesn’t have to be black but could be white too. It could have different types of

vinegar, such as white vinegar, apple vinegar, balsamic vinegar, etc. That’s when I

add new information to the existing information about vinegar in my brain and hence,

assimilation occurs. Accommodation is reinterpreting or changing the existing beliefs

from new experience to accommodate new schema. For example, I always think that

being a teacher must have a stern face, strict character, and always bring a cane

whenever they go. But as I grew up, I found that a teacher doesn’t need to be like that

as not all teachers look like what I thought. I eventually changed the interpretation

about teachers to accommodate the new facts that teachers could be friendly and

gentle to the students. It’s not a must for teacher to have a stern face all the time.

Confirmation bias is we unconsciously accept only the information compatible to our

schema but automatically filter out the information which contradicts with our

schema. For example, I always think that the native people must be really good in

singing and I eventually ignore the fact that a native people might not be a good

singer. I also think that all Japanese are polite because I went to Japan before and they

are so nice and friendly until they will actually bring us to the place we wanted to go.

But when my friends told me that they saw some unfriendly Japanese, I choose not to

believe them as all my experience told me that Japanese are friendly and nice people.

I also think that smokers are good-for-nothing kind of people because I hate the smell

of cigarettes. I eventually filter out the possibility of a smoker could be a nice guy or

at least someone who will work hard. Because of this, I actually stay away from

smokers no matter who you are. Stereotype assumes that all members in a group share

the same feature. For example, I always think that all women are obsessed with

gossips, so do I. I think it’s like how we group people up. For instance, I think that

children are all playful and naughty and that’s how I categorise them as children. It’s

grouping a bunch of people together and judges them without knowing them. It will

eventually cause the perseverance effect where it’s hard to change when a schema is

formed. Illusion of control is the perception of the uncontrollable event somehow

could become controllable. For example, my mother thinks that we will get good

results if we wear red (anything that’s red). I think it’s somehow a superstitious act

where I also think that I will get lucky if it comes to number 2. Number 2 is my lucky

number; I am able to get through any obstacles or difficult tasks as long as it’s related

to number 2.

16 March 2015 6:20 p.m.

Covariation theory bases on three factors which are consensus, distinctiveness and

consistency. Consensus is the behaviour of most people, distinctiveness is the

behaviour of an individual, and consistency is the frequency of a particular behaviour

of an individual. For example, my lecturer is giving her lecture, all of my course

mates will listen to her, so it’s considered as high consensus because I’m not the only

one who listens to her. Similarly, I do not only listen to a particular lecturer, so it’s

considered as low distinctiveness as I listen to every lecturer’s lecture. Besides, I

always attend every class and focus on the lectures, so it’s considered as high

consistency. Dispositional attributions are assuming that an action is performed due to

the internal characteristics of someone. For example, one of my lecturers chose not to

announce our project’s marks because she is too lazy to mark our projects. The

laziness of that lecturer is the internal characteristics and what she did was just telling

us to wait until the end of semester, that’s when she’s going to announce the marks.

Situational attributions are assuming that an action is performed due to the external

environment factors. For example, my friend did not manage to hand in his project 1

and skipped several classes because he had an accident and was admitted to the

hospital. The action he made was skipping classes and also the due date for project 1,

because of the accident, which is the external factors causing that action.

Correspondence bias is assuming that when others do something, it’s because of this

is how they are, which is because of dispositional attributions. For example, I’d

experience that one of the KFC waiters did not serve me with a smile; I assumed that

he is an arrogant and unfriendly person. Besides, last time I went to a café and saw the

waiter serving me with trembling hands and unnatural smile, I assumed that this

person is actually a shy person and has a nervous kind of characteristic. The actor-

observer bias is making dispositional attributions for others but making situational

attributions for ourselves. For example, I used to think that when I got bad results is

due to the difficult exam questions, but if my brother got bad results, I will think that

it’s because he is lazy and does not want to study hard for the exam. Similarly, I think

that the reason of me banging into others car is because the car before me stops

suddenly, but when it comes to my friend, I think that it’s because he did not pay

attention when he’s driving and he is indeed lacking driving experience too. Self-

serving bias is taking credits for success but is not responsible for failures. I used to

think that I got good results for exam is because I am hardworking and I prepared a

lot for the exam, on the other hand, when I got bad results, I will think that it’s

because the teacher did not explain well about the topic and did not teach the subject

well enough for us to understand or simply just because of the exam hall is too cold

for me to rack my brains.

23 March 2015 7:15 p.m.

Attitude is an evaluation of a specific stimulus with affective, behavioural and

cognitive component. Affective component is emotional based, behavioural

component is action based, and cognitive component is knowledge based. For

example, my attitude towards bee is evaluated by feeling scared towards bees

(affective component), so I stayed away from bees and will run away if I see one or in

contact with one of them (behavioural component), and then I believe that bees are

dangerous because they stings (cognitive component). Attitudes can also be

ambivalent where both positive and negative attitude occurs at the same time. For

example, I know there’s a friend of mine who loves chocolate but she’s allergic to it,

because she will surely have pimples if she eats chocolate. She loves chocolate but at

the same time, avoiding it. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli are paired

together; they may stimulate the same response. For example, I used to have a friend

who was always criticised and punished by my history teacher no matter what he did.

He was afraid of that teacher because the teacher will punish him by making him to

do more homework or deduct his marks purposely. He eventually dislikes history and

this situation continued throughout his whole secondary school life. The mere

exposure effect occurs because we like things more when we are familiar to it. For

example, I like to draw but hate exams because drawing is something I am familiar

with while exam questions is something I will never get familiar with. Similarly, I like

the taste of chocolate because it’s something I eat it since I was small, I am familiar

with it. Observational learning is watching others’ behaviour and repeating those

actions. For example, when I was a primary school kid, I always watch my mother

smiles to my neighbours, and then, I will also smile to them and I was praised by both

neighbours and my mother for being polite. Besides, I once played a game with my

baby brother, where I smiled to him and he will smile back, I made a silly face and he

will try to imitate my silly face expressions too. I found that he could actually learn

very fast and was impressed by him for the power of observational learning. Post-

decision dissonance occurs when we have to reject the other choice and we devalue

the one we abandon. For example, I used to choose between studying in Taylor’s and

Singapore Polytechnic. I had a hard time choosing and at the end I chose Taylor’s as I

think that studying in Singapore Polytechnic is a waste of time as it is a 3 years course

and I think that studying in Singapore is very expensive compared to Malaysia. I

eventually devaluate the pros of Singapore Polytechnic and magnify the bad side of it

in order to make myself to feel better and strengthen the will of choosing Taylor’s.

Balance theory occurs when we feel comfortable with people who share the same

thoughts but feel uncomfortable with people who do not share the same attitude like

us. For example, I feel comfortable by working with my usual group members as I

know that we all are the ones who is willing to work hard and strive for good grades, I

feel uncomfortable by working with those lazy ones in the class because they think

that it’s normal for them to slack and I do not have that kind of opinion.