FNBE 0115 - PSY JOURNAL

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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
-
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSY C0103]
Journal 1
NAME: LEE LIN HUI
STUDENT ID: 0322797
GROUP/SESSION: MONDAY, 10am to 12am
LECTURER: MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 16th
NOVEMBER 2015

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Journal 1
Theory/ Concept: Social Facilitation
Social facilitation is the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks when in the
presence of other people. This means that, whenever people are being watched by others,
they will do well on things that they are already good at doing. However, the theory also
states that if the task given is not simple, then there will be error happened due to
nervousness.
The concept of social facilitation was first identified by Norman Triplett in 1898, when
he noticed that cyclists performed better when competing against other cyclists, than they
did against a clock in a time trial. To confirm his theory he undertook and experiment in the
laboratory, asking children to wind up a fishing line, and true to the concept, when there
were two children winding together, they both worked faster than when alone. This is the ‘co-
action effect’ where the presence of someone else doing the same task spurs your own
performance. The term social facilitation was first coined by Floyd Allport in 1928. Later
studies showed that it was not just the presence of others undertaking the same task
example, co-actors, but being observed by passive spectators that could bring about an
improvement in performance.
In addition, what is complex for one person might be simple for another, and so they
would have different reactions to having others watching. For example, when I was little and
I was learning to play the piano and perform to my parents at home sometimes. At recitals,
however, with other parents watching, I get nervous and doesn’t do as well. In contrast, a
concert violinist, who practices hours and hours a day, is skilled enough that having a group
of people watch him or her would inspire them to play even better.
Let’s take a real example, my cousin who was a former state badminton player.
During her practiced, she usually miss out 10 – 20% of shots from her coach per practices.

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However, she only miss out 5% of shots during the competition. This is because social
facilitation happened when she was in a play. By keep practicing, it became her skilful
abilities. This helped her turn the skill became easier as she kept practicing. And that was
the reason why she only miss out 5% of shots as her ability was performed in competition.
Social facilitation occurs as she performed her skill in a more challenging situation. To my
cousin, during those competition, she might feel more stress and be more attentive compare
to normal practicing because she was being observed by people which cause social
facilitation occur. Social facilitation tends to trigger one’s competitive edge. This example is
called as social facilitation in performance.
Here’s something really cool about the social facilitation on animals. In 1969,
Robert Zanjonc did a famous study in which he demonstrated these effects with
cockroaches, of all animals. He created two mazes, one easy, one hard. The simple maze
which is a straight runway, a cockroach reaches the end of the runway faster in the presence
of other cockroaches than when alone. They observed that it takes a cockroach a longer
time to complete a complex maze in the presence of other cockroaches than when alone.
This experiment lends support to the theory that physiological arousal resulting from the
presence of others leads to social facilitation effect.
The motivation becomes high when performing an easy task that others observe. We
are likely to get positive feedback as a result. Motivation is lower for more difficult tasks
because we fear making mistakes, and this could result in unfavourable comments from
others.
However there is a downside of social facilitation. If the task is not familiar to the
person given then the performance will be worse when there are co-actors present or they
are being observed. Although people can perform better when there is some stress, but over
stressed lead to make errors.

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In a nutshell, social facilitation occurs when people are performing in front of others
and their contributions could be identified. It also helps us to understand and appreciate the
motivation for doing a task which influenced by how good do we look on to the task and
whether are we being evaluated by other.
(754 words)

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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
-
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSY C0103]
Journal 2
NAME: LEE LIN HUI
STUDENT ID: 0322797
GROUP/SESSION: MONDAY, 10am to 12am
LECTURER: MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 16th
NOVEMBER 2015

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Journal 2
Setting: Year 2013
Theory/ Concept: Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy is defined as any expectation, positive or negative, about a situation
or event that affects an individual behaviour in such a manner that it causes that expectation
to be fulfilled. Meaning that, self-fulfilling prophecy is a statement that alters actions and
therefore comes true. And I had believe that self-fulfilling do plays role in our relationship as
well.
This is my story. I had a relationship in three years ago. At the beginning of my
relationship started, one of my best friend told me that my relationship would not last longer
than one year as we were different age [both of us different one year]. Besides, the reason
why I started the relationship was trying to catch my first-lover attention and finally my mind
really became true.
This incident happened in early of 2012, as I just started a new relationship with my
senior, one of my best friend, Joy told me that she was not expected this of my relationship
will get longer as she knew many of my past story. She knew why I get into a relationship at
that period which just wanted to get back attention from my X boyfriend. She did warn me I
will be regretting on my decision. I was laughing when I heard her comment on my
relationship and told her it would not be happened.
After half years later, I started to lost interest to my boyfriend. I started to compare
my boyfriend with my previous boyfriend. I started to think my boyfriend was not good
enough if compare to my previous. And those small flaws that I once overlooked suddenly
be huge and obvious until I can’t take it anymore and from that moment I can’t stand to be
around with him. At the same moment, my previous boyfriend messaged in one midnight,
told me how was his feeling and thoughts on my relationship. He hoped me… After my

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previous boyfriend’s incident, I really broke up with my boyfriend as I got back attention from
my previous one. What my best friend prophecy really came true.
Another story happened to me with the prophecy too. The incident also happened in
the same year, 2012. Many people are unaware that what they constantly worry about
become their beliefs and their beliefs. As I first started learning additional mathematics and I
felt like a failure in this subject. Yet, I became nervous and afraid when I saw my friends who
can scored well in this subject but I could not. Even my friends tried to help me out but
because I felt like a failure, every exam I do allow my feeling to influence myself to fail. Each
time I fail, I are likely told myself “I am a born failure”, “I always fail” and “I can’t help it; that’s
the way I am.” I strengthen my belief that I am are a failure, and this causes my subject to
fail again and again. I thought it was hard and no matter how much exercise I took, I still
could not do well in the exam. Thus, I started to believe I will fail in my entire exam. Because
I believed I will fail my additional maths before the exam, then, I really got fail and never
pass this subject in my high school life. I kept fail, and that was what I think I will fail in this
subject ever. At the end, what I indicating myself is became a self-fulfilling prophecy that is
true.
Besides, self-fulfilling can be refers to an expectation about a subject, such as a
person or event, can affect our behaviour towards that subject, which causes the expectation
to be realized. For example, a high school volleyball coach expects freshmen to be
uncoordinated and less skilled, so he does not put them in to play very often. When she
does put them in, they are rusty and do not perform well, thereby fulfilling his expectations.
Or, if professor expects his student A to do well but not student B. He spends extra time with
the student A preparing for the exam, so his student get an A whereas student B who does
not have much time preparing by professor for exam and get a B or C. Thus, the professor
then thinks that student B is not smart than student A, thereby it fulfilling his expectations
again.

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As conclusion, if we think only good thoughts, good things will happen. In the other
hand, if you are a pessimistic person and tend to think on bad thoughts and things will
happen to you, such negatively thoughts will easily become self-fulfilling prophecy. In short,
if you think about the same thing over and over again, it strengthens our thoughts that it will
brings the full and true realization of the thinking. Thus, good and bad actions, feelings and
behaviours have the potential of becoming self-fulfilling prophecy.
(820 words)

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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
-
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSY C0103]
Journal 3
NAME: LEE LIN HUI
STUDENT ID: 0322797
GROUP/SESSION: MONDAY, 10am to 12am
LECTURER: MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 16th
NOVEMBER 2015

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Journal 3
Setting: April 2015
Theory/ Concept: Optimism Bias
The optimism bias is defined as the difference between a person's expectation and the
outcome that follows. If expectations are better than reality, the bias is optimistic; if reality is
better than expected, the bias is pessimistic. The extent of the optimism bias is thus
measured empirically by recording an individual's expectations before an event unfolds and
contrasting those with the outcomes that transpire. For example, students expect to receive
higher starting salaries and more job offers than they end up getting. People tend to
underestimate how long a project will take to complete and how much it will cost. Most of us
predict deriving greater pleasure from a vacation than we subsequently do, and we
anticipate encountering more positive events in an upcoming month (such as receiving a gift
or enjoying a movie) than we end up experiencing.
With the importance, one might expect the brain to possess accurate, unbiased
foresight. However, exhibit an influence and surprising bias: when it comes to predicting
what will happen to us tomorrow, next week, or fifty years from now, we overestimate the
likelihood of positive events, and underestimate the likelihood of negative events. For
example, we underrate our chances of getting divorced, being in a car accident, or suffering
from cancer. We also expect to live longer than objective measures would warrant,
overestimate our success in the job market, and believe that our children will be especially
talented. This phenomenon is known as the optimism bias, and it is one of the most
consistent, prevalent, and robust biases documented in psychology and behavioural.

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This incident happened in my first semester, for creative thinking skill course
project 2, students were required to produce a product with a report of product created. I was
too confident that I could complete on time as I thought that was an easy work and I did
other subjects works first. Therefore, I paid less effort and attention to this project. My
optimism bias caused me forgot the importance of complete work on time. This effect of my
bad attitudes caused me sacrificed one sleepless night to rush all work and submit on the
next morning.
I could still remember that day. I did not even take a short nap and just rush to
campus at 7 morning and I thought that I will not catch in traffic in such early morning.
Unfortunately, my prediction was wrong. I caught in traffic for one and half hour which means
I arrived campus at 8.30am. And my submission was 8am. I was 30 minutes late. As I
believed complete my project in one night and went to campus early morning, I will have
enough time for me to reach campus on time for submission and took a rest. However, the
truth told me I was too optimistic and I could not finish my work earlier and predict things
happen such as traffic jam even though I left home early to campus.
Besides that, the phenomenon is also often referred to as "the illusion of
invulnerability," "unrealistic optimism," and a "personal fable." This bias leads us to believe
that we are less likely to suffer from misfortune and more likely to attain success than reality
would suggest. We believe that we will live longer than the average, that our children will be
smarter than the average, and that we will be more successful in life than the average.
Researchers have suggested various causes that lead to the optimism bias, including
cognitive and motivational factors. When we are evaluating our risks, we compare our own
situation to that of other people, but we are also egocentric. We focus on ourselves instead
of realistically looking at how we compare to others. But we are also highly motivated to be
so optimistic. By believing that we are unlikely to fail and more likely to succeed, we have
better self-esteem, lower stress levels, and better overall well-being.

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Here are few factors that make optimistic bias occur, The optimism bias is more likely
to occur if the negative event is perceived as unlikely. If, for example, a person believes that
getting skin cancer is very rare, he or she is more likely to be unrealistically optimistic about
the risks. However, if someone started off estimating their cancer risk was 10 percent and
the doctor told them, “Bad news: The average likelihood is about 30 percent,” they would
scale up only gradually. The next time, they might say that their likelihood of contracting
cancer was only 11 percent. It is not that they did not learn at all. They simply decided that
the figures we provided were not pertinent to them.
In a nutshell, optimism bias is about belief or expectation of our judgement or
prediction which we believe that the truth. People always in belief that the future will be much
better than the past and present is then known as optimism bias. People are not born with a
natural understanding of biases. However, optimism bias might be good as people can live
happily with their dreams. But in the other way, it can leads to negative attitudes which
causes situation or life worse.
(859 words)

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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
-
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSY C0103]
Journal 4
NAME: LEE LIN HUI
STUDENT ID: 0322797
GROUP/SESSION: MONDAY, 10am to 12am
LECTURER: MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 16th
NOVEMBER 2015

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Journal 4
Theory/ Concept: First Impression
In psychology, a first impression is when one person first encounters another person and
forms a mental image of that person. Impression varies depending on the observer and the
target (person, object, scene, etc.) being observed. First impression are based on positive
and negative impressions and a sense of physical and psychological features. This impact
give to others could influence how are they been treated and reflected.
Here is an example story. My uncle often told me the story of how he met his wife: In
college time, they locked eyes across lecture class. And my uncle fall in love in the first sight
and told his friends my aunt was his girlfriend. However my uncle did not take any action,
until my aunt broke the silent flirtation and marched straight over to my uncle. "Look, if you're
going to keep telling your friends that I am your girlfriend, but you didn’t put effort to chase
me. I might be with somebody else. What do you think?”. My uncle said he was shocked and
started to chase my aunt. Thus, a good first impression is so powerful for people and may
bring people to get a relationship as well.
However, we do not often get a chance to correct a negative first impression. What
other think of you at first time you meet, is then how affect how other see and think on you.
In addition, paying attention is an important as how first impression may prejudice you
against somebody else. First impression takes a serious matter, as it leads either good or
bad. The positive first impressions lead to social cohesion whereas negative first
impressions might lead to bias or social prejudice.
This effect distorts reality. It creates false impressions to people, for example, it may
take researchers to dismiss disconfirming information; businesses to become self-satisfied;
teachers to over- or look down a student’s real performance; the police to wrongly identify

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suspects and banks to make careless loans causes loss. This phenomenon is much alike
devil in our mind as it is about our angelic side.
First impressions matter but quality could change everything. If you had never seen
or heard of Ron Weasley [ character from the novel “Harry Potter”], the first time you saw
him your impression would most likely be to negative as he has a dumb face. However, after
you get to know more about him, he is loyal to his friends, insensitive person and always
bring laugher to others. This shows the problem that few of us are Ron and we often do not
get a chance to rectify our negative first impression.
In my opinion, people should be not prejudiced somebody else at first sight which
may causes a judgement about a person. However, people nowadays are more trusted to
their first impressions. Therefore, we should change our attitude that first try to find out the
details or characteristic of a person for a period. As the reason person who you met at first
was nervous and this covered the person’s character. Through this, people can be less
mistaken and prejudice on others when they make a judgement before not giving
opportunities to show he or her character which might affect relationship.
We are always making first impressions. To be able to understand how to take that
opportunity, learn what someone wants, and get their attention with that update is a crucial
way that social strategy is played every day.
People nowadays are exposed to the world on social media, and it’s not just in what
a person post online, but it’s how you act, how you engage, and how people perceive you in
different situations. For example, a person with an online business can’t go around spouting
links that point only to their site that’s unethical and usually frowned upon. A person trying to
succeed online can’t grow warts and become a troll that lives under the social media bridge,
preying on innocent victims simply because they got their information wrong and didn’t know
how to defend themselves.

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To prevent this my first impression to other goes wrong. One should start trying to
build own brand on social media. For example, only share or produce the information as true
on social media. Well, if people who understood the information that I shared was wrong,
they might think that I was telling the wrong information to others and influenced them. This
will causes myself a bad impression with my friends. Because of all the eyeballs, you need
to always conduct yourself professionally.
To sum up, we should not trust on first impressions about a person or something
else. If we prejudice on someone, please do give that person a chance and get to know
more, who knows they might become one of your best friends or people who can lead you
into success. Just remember to find out why before you judge others.
(820 words)

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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
-
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSY C0103]
Journal 5
NAME: LEE LIN HUI
STUDENT ID: 0322797
GROUP/SESSION: MONDAY, 10am to 12am
LECTURER: MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 16th
NOVEMBER 2015

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Journal 5
Setting: May 2014
Theory/ Concept: Cognitive Dissonance & Cognitive Perspective
In psychology, cognitive dissonance refers to a mental stress or discomfort experienced by
an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time,
or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. A
cognition can be considered a belief. If you like to smoke and this can be considered a
cognition. If you like planting then this is another cognition. These two beliefs are not related
to each other but if one of them became irregular, in the other then according to the cognitive
dissonance theory, cognitive dissonance will happen. For example, people like to smoke and
even know that smoking is harmful then this situation results as cognitive dissonance.
Theory stated that Cognitive dissonance form when two cognitions were occurred.
Before taking FNBE course, I was struggle in choosing my course to study. The
reason why I struggle was I went to two University College and looked into the course that I
looking for. My first plan/course to take was in University A but after I went to University B, I
then changed my mind and decided to choose to study in University B. The differences
between the two universities I went are both attractive to me but University B provide much
better career field and better facilities yet it is nearby my house. Other than that, the course
structure fees in University B is slightly cheaper than University A. At the end, I chosen a
course in University B as it will be more convenience to me.
The day after I chosen University B and had already submitted my application form, I
started to regret and compare the course I chosen again. I started to find out the advantages
of the course and university that I chosen. For example, the course I chosen in University B
is famous in Health Care field whereas University A is famous in Business or Account field.

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And University B was much short distance travel compare to University A that would take
double distance of University B.
Days later, the cognitive dissonance occurred too. As my first cognition was to study
in University A as I did interest on business which is popular subject but I found out that
health care course is much better and much cheaper in University B. I then written down and
make a graph of advantages and disadvantages of choosing the course. Due to this
cognitive, I told my parents about my problem and we spotted out the advantages of taking
course in University B. The consonant element that influenced us to choose University B
was the environment of the campus as B is a non-smoking campus compare to A which is a
smoking campus. Another consonant element that influenced me was the teaching method,
in University B, learning schedule was more organised like office hours studying whereas
University A is more flexible. After the comparing, I made a post-decision dissonance. I then
decided to study in University B as I had applied the course firstly.
Whereas, the cognitive perspective in psychology is an area of the field that studies
how people acquire, perceive, remember and communicate information. It includes how we
respond to images we see or sounds we hear, how our minds change these stimuli into
meaningful ideas and how we remember these ideas later. Several lessons will discuss the
ideas of the cognitive perspective in psychology. Sensation and perception which is the
basic of the cognitive perspective.
Human’s five sensation are vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Let's take touch
as an example. When something touches any part of your skin that signal sets off the end of
a sensory neuron, which is a cell in your skin. The end of the cell moves slightly, which sets
off an entire series of electrical and chemical signals that go all the way to your brain. All of
our five senses work in basically the same way. But in the process of sensation, those
signals haven't been transformed yet into recognizable ideas. That's where the next step in
the process begins.

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Perception is when your brain transforms sensory experiences into meaningful ideas
that can be processed and understood. For example, when something touches your skin, the
process of sensation sends a signal to your brain, but perception is when you realize what
just happened. What is it that touched you? Was it something gentle, like a feather? Was it
something hot, burning you? What part of your body was touched? Another example of
perception is with vision. On the sensation level, all that happens is that the rods and cones
inside your eyeball process light and colour. But on the perception level, your brain
recognizes images, such as what your mother looks like compared to your cat or when you
look inside your fridge to decide what to eat. Perception is when your mind decides what just
happened to you, and what it means.
Conclusion, cognitive dissonance occurs when an attitude is in keeping behaviour
and there is a consonance relationship. Cognitive dissonance plays role in many value such
as judgements, decisions, and evaluation. Believe on yourself can impact the decision-
making process is a great way to improve ability to make faster and more accurate choices.
In addition, cognitive perspective processes occur so quickly and automatically that we don't
need to consciously think about them or even realize that they're happening. We have
automaticity for certain well-trained motions, like how to walk or how to drive after years of
driving. We also have automaticity for sensation and perception as well.
(934 words)