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1. Journal 1- Evolutionary Perspective
23th
July 2015 9:02am
Today morning, I attended a scholars gathering. On that gathering, we were informed that whoever that
can't achieve 3.5 CGPA for the final result, he/she will need to return the scholarship received back to
Taylor's University. At the moment, I was stressed and afraid that my parents need to pay more money to
the university. I'm from a decent family, my parents actually can afford the expensive fees in Taylor's
University and I get the opportunity to study in Taylor's University because I received the scholarship that
covers most of my tuition fee. If I fail to achieve 3.5 CGPA, my family will face a economy crisis for paying my
tuition fee, and so, my parents will cut down my pocket money until I can only afford bread every day. Next,
if I want to further my degree study in Taylor's University, I need a scholarship to cover my tuition fee, as my
family can't afford the expensive fee. And if I want to apply for scholarships for my study in degree, I as well
need to achieve 3.5 CGPA. If I fail to get 3.5 CGPA, I will need to leave this university, meaning that I will lose
my friends and all the effort I pay off. I can't even predict what my life will be after that, maybe waste one
more year to study STPM in order to get in local university, maybe stop studying and start working, without a
certificate, what am I going to be? In a nut shell, I will give all my effort, and no matter whatever it cost, I will
achieve 3.5 CGPA to prevent my parents to spend more thousands and to continue my study in this
university. I myself have two groups of friends in this foundation course. I categorized them into group A and
group B. After having breakfast with group A, we planned to do our individual assignment together, so we
booked a discussion room in the library to do our work. Everyone was focusing on their work and sometimes
we will have some conversation based on our assignments to solve the problems faced by each person.
While I was working with my group A friends I felt that my productivity was high and I managed to produce
nicer work as I had many good advice from my friends. After class, I went lunch with group B friends, they
are numerous and funny, we had a great lunch time. After lunch, I asked them do they started their
individual assignment, the answer was a "No", I was shocked because the submission date was the day after
and they planned to play football left their assignment empty. So I reminded them the submission date.

2. After noticing the submission date was around the corner, they changed their plan from playing football to
rushing assignment. Therefore we went to 3rd floor of the library and started doing our work. While we are
doing our work, someone started a topic of what we going to do after finishing our assignment. As a result,
everyone was distracted by his question, and I am not an exception, we discussed on what we want to eat
and play and many other things which in not related with the assignment and they even persuade others not
to be so serious on the assignment, it's only 5 marks and etc. I found my progress is slow and my work is
getting ugly working with them. Throughout the day, I found that I behaved differently when I was with
different group of friends, a sense of hardworking and the urge for good grades is transmitted throughout
the members in group A. In group B, I found they are not likely to focus on their academic results, a sense of
loafing is transmitted throughout the group. As a result, I will more likely to be hardworking when I am doing
assignment in group A and become more loaferish in group B. My behavior is seriously affected so I decide
to distance myself from my group B friends, this is because I need to work hard on my results and I'm afraid
that if I keep joining them, I will be affected and procrastinate my assignments, which makes me get bad
grades that will affects my final result. On the other hand, I will stay closer to my friends in group A, I hope
we can help each other in order to improve ourselves in every aspects and score well in every single
assignment and project that helps me to get my final result in flying colors. To conclude, I was afraid to be
eliminate from this competition, I need to get the scholarship in order to survive to degree, so I need to try
my best and eliminate every possible that will affects my result in order to get 3.5 CGPA successfully.
(820 words)

3. Journal 2- Spotlight Effect
10th
August 2015 11:34am
When I was doing my assignments in 24/7 study room, out of the blue, my girlfriend asked me to do her a
favour. She said she was busy because she was having a group discussions about project task with her group
members in the library. So, she asked me to buy something. At first, I was very curious, what is
that ”something"? A cup of tea? A sandwich? Or a bubble gum and some stuff like that? While I was
thinking, my phone rangs, I got a whatsapp message from her. When I tap into my whatsapp messages app,
she sent me a picture, it's freaking sanitary pads! Suddenly, my brain blackout, I was thinking "are you
kidding me?!" Then, I hesitated a few minutes, "should I? Or shouldn't?" I think it's super-duper
embarrassing to buy that thing in such a crowded place, because it's a girl thing. People must be like, why
would a guy like me buy such things? Yet, at the end, I decided to do her this favour. So after getting my
wallet and my phone, I walked out the study room after scanning my student id that sounded "beep!”. When
I stepped out from the study room, I realised that I left my laptop and tablet on the desk and I was thinking
"will it be stolen?” Without further ado, I turned back and scanned my student id, here goes "beep!" again, I
packed my things up, and leave again with a "beep” sound. I felt that everyone was looking at me as I kept
walking in and out the study room with a annoying beep sound, so I think that what I was doing and my
every action was so obvious to others in the study room, like a spotlight is focused on me, that leads
everyone's sight to me. I felt so uncomfortable and sorry for the annoying sound that interrupted others to
study. Swiftly, I walked to 7 eleven to buy the sanitary pads. When I arrived at 7 eleven, I saw plenty of
people inside the shop. By then, I received a message from my girlfriend asking me to be faster, it's urgent.
So I had no choice, I sneaked it the shop like a thief as I was afraid of any attention on me. Next, I tried to act
like normal, and I did not walk straightaway to the sanitary pads area. I strolled around like I am finding
something else, and I was thinking, i strolled for quite a period and I still haven't get anything, is it too
obvious to others that I was nervous? So I decided to get a pack of chip to cover my act. Gradually, I moved
close to the sanitary pads and grabbed one of it and placed it under the bag of chip, and slowly moved

4. behind the queue. Out of a sudden, I dropped the sanitary pads on the floor as someone hit me from behind,
I hastily picked it up and even ignored the person who apologised to me. Did anyone see it? What if my
friends see it? What my friends will think of me when they saw it? Good? Bad? Embarrassed? Or what? I
took a glance around me and I saw someone laughing, someone chit-chatting with each other and someone
looking at me. I was thinking "Why is the person looking at me? What is he thinking about me? Are they
laughing at me? Are they talking about me?" I felt extremely bad and hoping I can dig a hole and hide inside.
It's torturing to wait till my turn, time lapsed so freaking slow for me at the moment. Eventually, it's my turn
to pay, my I placed my stuff on the counter, I didn't even dare to look at the cashier. After paying, I glanced
through the cashier and saw him laughing while talking to his colleague beside him. "Even the Bangladesh
worker was laughing at me, oh my god" I was thinking. It's so embarrassing. When I was on my way to pass
the thing to my girlfriend, I felt like everyone I passed through is looking at me, and then I noticed the plastic
bag is half transparent, everyone saw what's inside! As a result, I stopped down and stuffed the whole plastic
bag inside my bag and continue walking. So while we may focus on that humiliating tumble down the stairs
we just took, others might be focused on reading the paper in their hand or a conversation with a friend.
When I reminisce this incident now, I realised that I had undergo the spotlight effect, which I view myself as
the center of the universe and forgot that I am not the center of everyone else's universe. It makes sense
that they would focus on different things than i do. So while I focused on that humiliating trouble with the
sanitary pads, others might be focused on talking with their friends, looking around for no reasons, and
sharing a joke with friends around.
(851 words)

5. Journal 3- Confirmation Bias
29th
August 2015 12:09pm
There was a tutorial class today and we need to show lecturers our progress on a project. I was late to the
class that day, but still I get the attendance as the lecturer is conducting tutorial one by one and left others
doing their own things. Therefore, I found my friends and sat down with them in a group and started doing
our things. Out of the sudden, Amelisa, one of my friends in the group got his hand dirty because of a
damaged inked pen. Therefore, she went to the toilet to clean herself up. At the meantime, we went to the
lecturer for tutorial, so basically, our stuff is left on the table with no one is guarding it. When Amelisa came
back, I pranked her with a phone looked alike with hers. I said “hey, your phone is here.” And actually the
phone is not hers and belongs to someone else. Amelisa then tend to get her phone by putting her hand on
the table where her phone should be, however, her phone went missing. I am the first person suspected, she
thought that I pranked her, again. This is because I used to prank somebody in order to entertain others in
the group. Therefore, I am suspected. It turned out to be a disappointment when they expect me to return
her phone and tell her “hey I pranked you” and I replied “No” so seriously. So they believed me at the
moment. We started to guess did she placed her phone anywhere accidentally or someone stole it. She flip
her bag up and down and even ran back to the washroom to search for is phone but it turn out to be a
disappointment again. When we make a call to her phone later on, we found that the phone is turned off.
Next, we checked the last seen of Amelisa’s phone on whatsapp and we found that the time is different than
the time when Amelisa last used her phone. Therefore, we assumed that the phone was stolen. Then we
asked the whole class to check their bag but the result is still the same. Yet, I know that Amelisa still insist
that I took her phone to prank her. She had confirmation bias and persevered her belief that I was pranking
her. When she asked for the CCTV clip of the floor, the guard told her the class is not in the CCTV coverage
area, so she don’t have proof to prove who the thief is. Later on, after I left, I received few messages from
my friends in the group, asking me if I took the phone, whether I was pranking and hope me to return the
phone to Amelisa because that was her second time her phone got stolen in Taylor’s University and she is

6. very sad and even got scolded by her parents. I was thinking “Oh my god! Do I looked like a thief? Why are
they suspecting me? Do I pranked them too much until they need to suspect me in this case? But I was not at
the table also? I was having tutorial that time” I felt so bad and I try to explain to them that I won’t prank a
person until this level. So I was trying to communicate with them to clear the confirmation bias they had on
me. After I explained, they only realized that when the phone was stolen I was not there as well, and might
be someone else that approached the table and stole it when we all are not there guarding our stuff, and I
went back to the table with the group, if I had stolen it, they should have noticed it. After that, we discussed
on who will steal her phone? We are pretty sure that no strangers came in the classroom and it was just our
classmates inside. Therefore, the person that stole her phone should be our classmates. However, we didn’t
managed to find the phone and the criminal. Throughout his incident, their confirmation bias about me
almost ruined our friendship, as I was mad when they kept asking me if I took the phone, like they are not
trusting me. But at last, I was able to understand what they are thinking. We all know that it’s very hard to
find the phone back if it is stolen in such a situation, no witness, no CCTV and we don’t even know how the
phone is stolen and who is the thief. At this situation, they rather believed that I took the phone and prank
them, at least I will return the phone back at last. They choose to maintain their original belief and pay
attention to the information that upholds their ideas, which is I was pranking and ignored the information
that challenges their existing belief that is the truth that the phone is stolen.
(830 words)

7. Journal 4- The Halo Effect
10th
November 2015 9:19am
She is a new student that join our course, foundation in natural and built environment in this semester.
She is beautiful and looks clean and tidy. Last week, lecturers are assigning us our new assignment. We
were informed that we need to form a group of five or six. This is an integrated project of English and
Effective Public Communication, moreover, this project is also the final project for the both module,
which means this project carries a heavy weightage in of our final result. Therefore, we need to select
our group members wisely to ensure our grades and result. At last, I managed to form a group of four, so
we still need a person to achieve the brief requirement. All members in my group are good, we teamed
up together in other projects and we know each other’s skills and capability quite well, so we decided to
recruit one more member, which is also good as well. When we saw the new student, she gave us a quite
good overall impression. She has a good appearance, clean and tidy, long black hair, quite attractive.
When we approached her, she was gentle and polite. Her overall impression was good and we thought
that she might be a good teammate that will benefits our team. So, we invited her to join our group for
this final project. Her name is Candice. For this project, we need to conduct interview at a barber shop
beyond Klang Valley, and we chose a barber shop in Kuantan. Everything went well at the beginning,
everyone is contributing to the group at the moment as we are just doing some simple research. Candice
as well works well with in our team. Last night, we departed to Kuantan during the Deepavali break and
we booked two chalet there as we planned to stay for 1 night at Kuantan. During that night, Candice
went out the girls room for a private phone talk, frankly, after she finished her phone talk and headed
back to the room, she found everyone fell asleep and no one is awake to open the door for her.
Therefore, she slept outside the chalet for a night instead of waking up others in the room. When we
found it in the morning today, we all felt so sorry to her and her impression became better and better in
our mind. I was thinking “WOW, this girl is so good, she rather suffer herself instead of waking up others
in the room” and I was impressed by her actions, we got a good choice of choosing group members, she

8. won’t be bad at doing works” I told others. After breakfast, we went to interview. After interview, now
comes all the physical works, it’s not about giving ideas and talking already, I assigned the works to each
group members and required everyone to get it done by one hours, and her task was arrange and type
out all the interview questions and answers. ”So easy!” This is what she told me. Meanwhile, when
everyone was doing the works they are assigned, Candice was playing with her phone at a corner of the
room, when I saw this, and I approached her and ask for her progress, “Steady, sabar-lah, I can finish it
on time” She told me. Actually I was quite angry that time as she took her task so unserious. Ï was
thinking “hope you can give me a nice work”. One hours later, I gathered everyone and I need to compile
everything together into a report, when i checked Candice’s part, I spotted a huge numbers of mistakes
and errors. Therefore, I asked her to redo her part, I saw her face when I told her to redo, and it was like
she want to kill me. “Horrible attitude” this is my comment on her working attitude. When I received her
work again, errors and mistakes are still there, it just became lesser. Then, I was thinking “Never mind, I
will do it. Won’t team up with her anymore.” At last I redo her part thoroughly. By the way, she is still a
good friend to be with, she is considerate and so nice and kind to her friends, but when it comes to work,
I’m so sorry, she is totally a worst group member as she is lazy and so careless. Candice was so kind and
nice when I first approached her, and I was thinking such a kind person should be good at work as well,
so I invited her into my group. However, she is not as good as I imagined at doing work. Candice’s
positive attribute, which is kind and friendly caused us to attribute other positive qualities in doing work
that we seek for to her.
(830 words)

9. Journal 5- Post-Decision Dissonance
23th October 2015 9:19am
Today, lecturers are assigning us a new project for Introduction To Design module. In this project, we are
required to form a group of four members. This module is a very important module and it’s the module that
most related to architecture. Therefore, even it does not weigh high marks of the final result, but everyone
do focus on it. This is because this project is very hard to score well in this module. People tends to believe
that if you score well in this module, people will respect you. In order to get high marks for this project, we
need to have good team members and great cooperation because this is a group project. Thus, friends that
always surrounded with each other could be the best group members. My gang consist of eight members, so
we decided to separate ourselves into two groups in order to meet the requirements of the brief. But the
problem is the arrangement of the group members, who will team with who? My gang consist of eight
people, some people are very good while some of them are not so well in doing group projects, and
everyone has their own capabilities, different personalities, and different ways when it comes to completing
a task, while some of them does not work well with another. Therefore, to form a group we have to separate
eight people into two group. It’s not easy to be satisfied with the group members that you are grouping with.
We struggled a lot inside the lecture theatre after the briefing by the lecturers, we even analysed everyone’s
capabilities and attitude when completing a task, this is to get the best arrangement of group members that
everyone will be agree with. Eventually, we settled this annoying and struggling moment of every group
project, which is forming a group, finding group members and some stuff like that. After forming a group of
4, we decided to have a meeting, so that we can prepare everything well for our first tutorial. So, my group
members and I had our discussion in the classroom, while the other group has their own meeting in the
same classroom as well. We had already set quite a numbers of aims in order to prepare a great work for our
first tutorial. Our aims of this meeting was to produce nine 2-D drawings for the next tutorial class. When we
two groups are working on the projects together, I can feel there was a sense of competition among us. We
were quite curious about each others’ work and kept on looking on each others’ drawings and improve on

10. our own drawings. When we saw the other group’s work, we will keep on searching their negative part,
therefore, we were very proud because we felt that we are better than them. For instance, when I saw their
work, yes it looked very nice, but I do not gives compliment to them. When I saw the exactly same image at
pinterest.com or even google, without any doubts I share it to my group members and we will be like “copy
cat”, “only know how to copy”, “what can they do except copying”, “our group is better”. This makes us felt
we are the best but actually we are not. Besides, we will doubt their work when two of our groups had two
different theme of this project. For example, they told us we need to do the drawings on A4 paper and we
insist, telling them that was supposed to be done on A3 paper. So, both of us doubted on each other, and
insisted ourself is correct. They had the post-decision dissonance as well, they came to our discussion table,
looked for our progress and gave us some really negative comments, and sometimes we even had some
argument on what lecturers’ wanted and the project’s requirements. Sometimes, I will be like “not like your
group is better”. After that, we went through the decision making part, as the decision was made, the groups
are formed. We would think that our own group is better than the rest because we thinks that our decision
to join together as a group is correct. Therefore, we will try to find the other group’s negative or bad part to
make us think that we are the best, and won’t regret on our own decision. So basically, we all undergo the
post-decision dissonance and we felt that dissonance regarding the possibility of it being wrong. We often
changed our own judgements to reduce the dissonance. Also, to make the decision that we have made seem
more valuable and correct. I was quite satisfied with my group members, and I felt that we were the best
team ever, even better than the rest. But actually, when they gave me some negative comments, it will also
be a thrust to us, which we will try to amend our artworks better and better until perfect. When both groups
went through post-decision dissonance, when we criticised each other, actually we got the opportunity to
improve, and become better.
(859 words)