journal

1. Adam Tan Yen Sheng
0317750
Group 2 / 12pm Session
Social Psychology
FNBE022014

2. Entry 1 : Social Facilitation
Back in September 29, 2010, was my first ever basketball match. Even though
it was just a friendly match, I was still oozing with excitement and adrenaline. I was a
competitive young boy, winning was everything to me back then. My first match was
against the states best international school basketball team, which was Dalat
International School, Penang. I stilled remembered my first ever jersey number was
number 12, I was just a bench player then. During the game everyone was playing
phenomenal and the crowd was going wild, which just left more pressure on me but
also pumped me up. As soon as my coach subbed me on, I was able to get on the
boards within seconds. My first ever basket came from a free-throw, I made both of
my free-throws. As the game progressed I felt I was playing the best I had ever
played. After the game, even my coach was surprise with my performance, saying “
You did very well, next time maybe you can be a starter.” I ended the game with 5
points and 3 rebounds, it might not seem like an amazing scoreline but it was just a
short friendly game. Final score was 38-33 in favored of my school.

3. Entry 2 : Social Learning Perspective
I have never knew that my driver had influence me to drive the way I used to
drive, it all started when I was just a kid about 10 year old when we got this driver.
Ever since we got him, it was always him who fetch me to school, tuition or wherever
I wanted to go. Sounds like a dream, but there was one flaw with that whole thing,
which was that he was a true born 'Penang driver' which means he was slightly
reckless when it comes to driving, cutting around lanes, cause problems with other
drivers when it doesn't go his way. I never knew I picked up some of his traits of
driving when I was sitting in his car, until I finally got my license last year December
26, 2013. When I just started driving I was a confident driver, could also be
considered a cocky driver, meaning whenever I drove there would be no one who
who is able to cut my lane, I would block him/her out no matter what. When fetching
my friends around, only then one of my friends told me I drove like my driver which
only then I knew where I picked up my driving personality. Not to be wrong my
driver had great driving skills, and precision, but was just reckless. Without me even
knowing I slowly picked up from my driver's driving personality. I knew I had to
change though.

4. Entry 3 : Intrinsic Motivation
When I was 17 I had just graduated High School, it was July 2013. After my
school had thrown us graduates a graduation dinner, my friends then raised a idea of
going to the bar, and I wasn't feeling at ease to go, as it was the first time going to a
bar for me. Despite being unease to go, I still went with them. I just thought to myself
it's just one night out, having fun with my friends and no regrets. I was also very
curious of why a bar was such a huge thing, so I went to also fulfill my curiosity. My
uneasiness just faded away once I went in the bar, all my nerves calm down, and my
friends and I just enjoyed the night. It turned out exceeding my expectations, and it
was a night I would never give away of forget.

5. Entry 4 : Unrealistic Optimism
At the age of 12, I always felt that I would have the best grades in UPSR
exams. Even though I had never ever showed any sign of being the best or even close
to top 10, I was still optimistic. I had never lost hope in myself, I had never studied
for UPSR exams. Whenever I wanted to study something else would distract me,
whenever studying comes to mind anything could and would distract me. When I say
anything I mean anything. I remembered when I finally decided to go to my room
and study, I got distracted by my rooms newly painted walls. I wasn't sure what I saw
on the wall, but it certainly got me dozing off while staring at the wall. Even with all
that, I had high beliefs, I was really optimistic, may be called delusional. After having
this unrealistic optimism, it really set me back. I was not prepared when our UPSR
examination arrived. Just to made things worst my teacher red out our results, it
certain caught me off guard when I found out not getting the best grades, nor even
close to the best. I got placed in the middle of the class like I always had.

6. Entry 5 : Assimilation
As time passes by, we get older and when we grow older we get more
matured physically and mentally. When I was younger, like about just touched 4
years old I started to like eating spicy food. My first ever spicy food I ate was Penang
Hokkien noodles, which is Prawn noodles in Kuala Lumpur. I really loved spicy food
ever since, could not really live without it. I would only eat things that are spicy or at
least something that tickles my tongue. When I was younger I was thought that chilli
was actually the bottled chilli sauce 'Kimball'. Whenever I was at home eating, I
would ask for chilli and they would bring me the chili sauce, so it slowly developed a
schema, that whenever I think of chilli it would be that 'Kimball' branded chilli sauce.
As time passed, when I was like 10 years old, I was soon introduced to Bird's eye
chilli, more commonly known as 'Chilli padi' here in Malaysia. In no time, I sooned
picked up loving chilli padi, and no matter what food I'm eating I would always want
a bowl of chilli padi. With a bit more time I slowly called the chilli padi as chilli and
my schema slowly assimilate a new stimulus. Ever since then, chilli to me will
always be 'chilli padi'.

7. Entry 6 : Downward Counterfactual Thinking
Ever since I got in my high school I have been down grading standards,
most likely what happened from that UPSR examination results incident just changed
me. After that time, I had always set extremely low expectations for myself and have
always believed that other people are better. Doing badly in school was nothing to me
anymore, I was fine being just average or even slightly worse. During my first year in
SMJK Heng Ee, I was just floating around in class, day dreaming, talking and even
sleeping in class. When we got our Final examination results on form 1, I just barely
passed, but I was so glad that I never failed any subject. At one point I was even
proud of myself for doing just average just passing. I told myself, “at least I didn't
failed any subjects.” This was during the year of 2009. After that experience, my
mother decided to set higher expectations for me.

8. Entry 7 : Confirmation Bias
Basketball has always been a part of my life, basketball has been my
solution, cure and enjoyment for almost everything. There is no doubt I take
basketball seriously, I still remembered the first time I have ever played basketball
was when I was 7, my older cousin had thought me to dribble the basketball at that
age. When I got to high school I joined the basketball team when I was 14 and ever
since then I always had this belief that whenever it rains heavily, my team would just
lose, does not matter whether it was a friendly match or an official game. During the
basketball MSSPP competition on March 20, 2012 was my schools first game. What
a coincidence it was raining heavily, you could even hear the thunderstorm in the
stadium. Surprisingly on that day we won our game against St. Xavier School, but I
kept on insisting that it wasn't a heavy rain, that was why we won. Two days later was
our next match against the strongest team in the state that year, which was Dalat
International School, and there was a little drizzling in the air. We loss badly against
Dalat, losing about 56-32 and that's when my belief strengthens and this belief has
stuck with me up till now. I still believe that when it rains I would play badly and also
lose.

9. Entry 8 : The Halo Effect
How you look can really have a huge impact in how people see you. First
impressions are also very important. There are times people judge you without
themselves being aware of it. First impressions could be formed within seconds just
meeting you or looking at you. Back when I was 16 years old, I had a crushed on a
girl I thought she was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. I thought she was just
perfect, I believed that she could do everything perfectly. Without even really
knowing her at all. Whatever she did I thought was just great or amazing, even when
she was always late for classes, late handing in works but I just couldn't see the flaw
in her. It took me after graduation which was around August 2013 for me to have
realized that she was not as perfect as I had imagine or believe she was.

10. Entry 9 : Post-Decision Dissonance
On December 19 – 21, 2012, I went to Bangkok, Thailand. It is one of my
mothers favourite place to visit and one mine too. Mainly because of their forever
sales prices, large range of shopping areas, and for me mainly is their amazing Thai
food. Since I love spicy and sour food, which makes Thailand a dream destination for
me. Going on, when I was in Bangkok on the second day, I was just strolling around
with my family around a few shop lots. Then suddenly I stumbled upon a shop which
caught my attention, the shop sold lots of jackets, and one particular jacket really
caught my eyes were a black leather jacket which the manikin was wearing. I stopped
in front of the and admire the jacket for a moment before entering it. We were
bargaining long and hard for that black leather jacket but at the end we discuss a price
at RM55, so I bought it. After I bought the jacket I thought to myself was it still too
expensive, maybe I could had bargain more. After walking around with an unease
mind, I then saw a similar looking jacket which was at the price for RM60 even
though it was not bargained yet, but it certainly made me more satisfied and more in
ease with my decision.

11. Entry 10 : Classical Conditioning
When I was young, I was raised by this concept 'pain is love', which
means whenever I got beaten by my parents or teacher it would mean that they cared
about me. This concept has changed though in my households, but the scars remain.
When I was young whenever I did a small mistake I would get scolded and caned by
father. I still remembered when I accidentally pushed my cousin and he felled, even
though we were playing, he still dragged me to a room to scold me. As I grew older I
slowly learned what I could do, what should I do to avoid getting scolded, as that
scolding memory stills haunts me till today. It's like a small threat and fear scared into
my brain so I would never forget what would happen if I have done wrong again.