ASDASD

1. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND
DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT
ENVIRONMENT
FEBRUARY 2014 / SEMESTER 2
STUDENT NAME: DARREN LOONG CHI YOONG
STUDENT ID: 0318029
MODULE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSY30203)
ASSIGNMENT TITLE: THE JOURNAL
LECTURER: MR. SHANKAR THIRUCHELVAM
SUBMISSION DATE: 10TH NOVEMBER 2014

2. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 1 / ENTRY 1 - MOTIVATION
Based on the psychological concept of motivation, which can be learnt in chapter 2, I
can relate many of my experiences about motivation but I will go to the most vivid
experience I had about motivation. Firstly, motivation is divided into two types: intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation. In this journal, my experience that I will explain is
using intrinsic motivation.
I have been using this type of motivation until today. In the lecture about motivation,
intrinsic motivation is to take a certain action for the sake of enjoyment. By having the
enjoyment, it'll lead one to be more fully engaged and of course, the pleasure. Before I start
studying everytime, specifically during my SPM year, I would always do something I enjoy
doing before I start studying. I would always tell myself to enjoy myself first before
studying. I used to enjoy playing computer games a lot and I was addicted to the game called
'Sudden Attack'. I would play the game day and night, sometimes for 5-8 hours straight. I
was so addicted to the game to the point where I did not do well in my exams. When SPM
was nearing- around 3 months left, I would always promise myself to study after playing
'Sudden Attack'. I would allocate my time properly for gaming and for studying. Luckily, my
time management and discipline made it work. It lead me to become motivated to study as I
always keep in mind that the deal was to study after playing the game. I also told myself that
if I continue playing the game, for each extra minute I play, I lose a minute studying. I would
allocate only 2 hours a day for gaming and 6 hours for studying. So I would always use the 2
hours to play the game then I would study after that. I felt the pleasure after gaming and it
lead to become more motivated to focus in my studies as playing the game helps me to
release some stress and also to activate my brain. In the end of the day, I did pretty well for
my SPM examination and I reached my target number of grade As. I was very satisfied
because I could use a type of intrinsic motivation to force me to study.

3. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 1 / ENTRY 2 - UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM
In chapter 2 of Social Psychology, I have also learnt about unrealistic optimism.
Unrealistic optimism is the tendency to imagine that our own outcomes are better than those
of other people.
My experience related to this psychological concept dates back to 2013 when I
participated in a tennis tournament. I used to represent my school for tennis in district level. I
participated in the doubles category for the competition. My school had sent out a total of 12
representatives to participate in the tournament, 8 representatives in the under-15 category
and another 8 in the under-18 category. I was involved in the under-18 category. My school
had sent two pairs of players to play in the doubles category, so my partner and I weren't
alone as there was another pair. When the tournament started, my partner and I were called
up to play first. But when both of us reached the court, the umpire told us that our opponent
was not present, so it was considered a walkover for both us and we proceeded to round 2.
The other doubles pair had played their first match but they lost the first match. When my
partner and I were called up to play the second round, the opponent was present so we had to
play the match. We ended up losing in the second round. After the match I told myself that at
least my partner and I managed to cruise through to the second round while the other doubles
pair were already knocked out in the first round, but in actual fact, both pairs had lost the
first round. Although my partner and I did not play the first match and made it to the second
round but lost, I did not feel upset because at least we were one round ahead from the other
doubles pair.

4. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 2 / ENTRY 1 - NEGATIVITY BIAS
In chapter 3 of THINK Social Psychology, I have learnt about the negativity bias.
The negativity bias is the means of attending to and remembering only negative information,
thus impacting future evaluations.
Based on this psychological concept, I can relate my experience while I was on
holiday in Shanghai, China back in December 2009, when I was 13 years old. I used to love
eating oysters, especially the fresh cold ones. I was on a family holiday to Shanghai at that
time and I was on a tour, so there was a relatively big group of other family members as
well. It was a 8 days and 7 nights trip. On the third night during dinner, the tour guide took
all of us to have dinner in a Chinese restaurant where the serving style was buffet. The buffet
had a lot of food and had different courses, which are starters, main dishes and some
desserts. For the starter, I took some Chinese style pancakes, spring rolls, scallops and
oysters. All of them tasted very well except the oysters, it did not taste really fresh. I only
realised the freshness of the oysters after I had already eaten about five of them. My parents
had also warned me to control my intake on the oysters, as it may not be fresh.
In the middle of the night while I was sleeping, I could feel my stomach unwell and I
felt nauseous. It's the feeling of having to vomit and to defecate at the same time. I woke up
and I went straight to the toilet and I sat on the toilet bowl for quite some time defecating.
My feces was not the solid type, it was the watery type of feces, which means I have
diarrhea. I then knew it was because of the oysters I ate during dinner. It was not only one
time that I had to wake up in the middle of the night. I actually have to wake up several
times. By the third time I started to vomit and from there on I just felt so weak to climb back
up to my bed. My dad heard me vomiting in the toilet and he was awoken by the nauseous
sound I made. He told me it was definitely due to the oysters I ate during dinner and he had
already warned me about it, so he was quite angry. He then helped me to rub some Chinese
oil on my stomach and I felt a bit more relieved. When I woke up in the morning, my face
was pale, my hands and feet were cold, and I was very weak. I kept vomiting non-stop for
the rest of the day and the worst part is I had to follow my family on the bus to join the tour
group. I fully recovered on the last day of the trip, so I missed out a lot on the trip and I
regretted eating the oysters in the restaurant. I told myself that I would stay out from eating
oysters ever again and until today, I have a fear of eating oysters since that incident.

5. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 2 / ENTRY 2 - OVERCONFIDENCE BARRIER
The overconfidence barrier, which can be learnt in chapter 3 of THINK Social
Psychology, is the belief that our own judgement or control is better or greater than it truly
is.
After learning about this psychological concept, I can relate my experience while I
was participating in a barista competition earlier this year. I love making coffee and coffee is
my biggest interest. I started my coffee interest in January 2013 where I worked at Starbucks
Coffee at that time. While working there I enjoyed making coffee, I enjoyed being a barista.
I got myself an espresso machine at home and I started to practice making coffee with it. I
would make lattes and cappuccinos for my dad and myself everyday. I told myself that I
would learn up the most I can about coffee and coffee making in one year and I would
participate in the Battle of Barista Championships this year. I joined the competition this
year with sufficient hours of training and knowledge about coffee making. There were only
around 20 competitors that participated in this competition. Surprisingly, I was the youngest
competitor out there. Most of the competitors were aged between 21-30 years old, so I know
that they surely had more experience in coffee than I have. With such few competitors and
with my training and learning of one year, I aimed to clinch the top 3 among the 20 baristas
competing.
There were six baristas that performed before me, and in my opinion, only 2 of them
did well and the rest did not do well. When it was finally my turn, I felt nervous, as it was
my first competition. Many spectators and the competitiors were eyeing on me because I was
the youngest competitor. When my time began, I started explaining to the judges what I was
going to make, what coffee beans I was going to use and where did they originate from, the
profile of it and how it would taste like. I explained relatively detailed to the judges,
although I stuttered a lot and that wasted a lot of my time. Each barista was only given 15
minutes to prepare three cups of espressos, three cups of cappuccinos and three cups of
signature drink. Before I even made my first cup of espresso, I had already wasted five
minutes just explaining to the judges, so I knew I had to be quick. Little did I know, my
nervousness and my rush made me screw up all three of my espressos. I had no choice but to
continue serving to the judges. I could tell from the judges' face expression that it did not
taste too good. I proceeded making the cappuccinos. I told myself what could go wrong with

6. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
making cappuccinos, since I practice them everyday at home. Again, my espresso shot did
not turn out well, but at least my frothed milk looked like how it's supposed to be. At last I
made my signature drink and served them to the judges, with only 5 seconds left to spare.
In the end of the competition, I did not make it into the top 3 and I was placed in
number 19 of the 20 participants, which is a very bad result. I was overconfident in the
competition, thinking that I would have a bigger chance to clinch the top 3 with such few
competitors and also thinking that I would make all the drinks perfectly. Not only that, I was
also overconfident thinking that with my knowledge and practice of a year, I could dominate
the other competitors. I have learned my lesson after the competition, which is to never be
overconfident in anything I do, especially when it comes to competitions.

7. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 3 / ENTRY 1 - CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
In chapter 5 of THINK Social Psychology, I have learned about classical
conditioning. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli are paired together, they may elicit
to the same response. One of the types of classical conditioning is the mere exposure effect.
This means that objects become better liked with repeated exposure.
I have many objects that have been exposed to me repeatedly. One of the objects that
have been exposed to me repeatedly most is my favourite pillow. I had the pillow with me
since I was 6 years old. My parents bought it for me from a departmental store at that time. It
had pictures of Garfield making different face expressions on it. The reason why I like using
the pillow is because it had my own smell on it, not to be disgusting but it had my saliva
smell on it. When I was between 6 years old to 10 years old, I would bring it along
everywhere I go, especially going on holidays. My luggage bag is not complete without my
pillow and I would cry if I ever forgotten to bring the pillow along. I would hug the pillow
and I would smell it till I fall asleep. My parents would always threaten me by telling me that
they would throw my pillow away if I did anything wrong. My brother and sister would also
always play a prank on me by putting my pillow away and they would always lie to me
saying that my pillow is in the rubbish bin, and I would start crying. As years go by, the
colour of the pillow slowly faded off and the edges of the pillow had torn bit by bit. I had the
pillow with me until I was 16 years old when I decided to throw it away despite it being too
old. The colour had already faded off and the edge of the pillow had been totally torn off. It
even had a large hole in it. I could say that the pillow had me emotionally attached to it as it
had been with me for 10 years. That is my experience that applies the mere exposure effect.

8. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 3 / ENTRY 2 - POST-DECISION DISSONANCE
Another psychological term that I have learned in chapter 5 of THINK Social
Psychology is post-decision dissonance. Post-decision dissonance is when we have to reject
one appealing choice of favor of another, we will devalue the option not selected.
One of the most vivid experiences that I can relate to post-decision dissonance is
when I was purchasing my drums. Drumming is one of my hobbies too and I have been
playing the drums since I was 8 years old. Back in 2010, my mom had told me to sell of my
first set of drums, as it is too old and too small for me. I used to have a kids size drums at
that time and my mom decided that it was time for me to change my drum kit. When I was
brought into the Yamaha music store at that time, I saw two drum kits that I like. One of the
drum kit was an electronic kit and the other was an acoustic drum kit. My previous drum kit
that I had was an acoustic kit, but because it is an acoustic kit, I would sometimes play very
loud and my neighbour would complain. To be honest, I really liked playing the acoustic kit.
Both drum kits have their pros and cons to it. I find that the pro of the electronic kit is that
the volume could be adjusted, so I can play it whenever I want to, whereas the pro of the
acoustic kit was the feel of playing the drums. Playing drums on an acoustic kit has the
actual feel of how playing drums is like. I was left into a dilemma on which drum kit to
choose. After evaluating on both drum kits, I have decided to pick the electronic kit as the
volume can be adjusted so I can play it day and night, but at the same time I also really
wanted to pick on the acoustic kit. In the end, I went for the electronic kit instead.
When the electronic drum kit was delivered to my house, I started to play it day and
night. As I played the drums, I reevaluated the drum kit and I also began to find flaws about
the acoustic drum kit. I did not regret purchasing the electronic drum kit after I reevaulated
both of the drum kits and I was very satisfied with my decision.

9. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 4 / ENTRY 1 - FEAR-BASED APPEALS
Based on chapter 6 of THINK Social Psychology, the title of the chapter is 'Power of
Persuasion'. In that chapter, I have learned about fear-based appeals. Fear-based appeals are
the negative valence that is elicited by a message designed to prevent a specific action. The
reason for fear-based appeals is to prevent a negative outcome.
When I was in form 5, which was in 2013, I used to attend a lot of tuition sessions. I
had tuition almost everyday and my tuition would always be around evening or at night. My
parents were very busy working and their office was located very far from my home. So at
that time I always had no transport to attend tuition. My sister thought me how to drive a car
at the beginning of the year so I had some knowledge in driving a car. I had an extra car at
home everyday so I would I always secretly drive the car out, without a license. I would
drive the car out to a nearby shoplot and buy lunch from there. Over few months, my mom
told me to drive to tuition by myself, as she and my dad would not come back home in time
to send me to tuition. I always had to take the risk to drive out without a license and I had to
always be cautious while driving, to avoid any accidents or to stumble upon a police
roadblock. One day, my uncle found out that I was driving without a license. He came over
to my house and started to give me an hour-long lecture about illegal driving, in a relatively
loud voice. I was quite traumatised after the long lecture. I was traumatised because he
purposely came over just to give me a lecture about illegal driving. He was practically
scolding me about it. I did not take his words seriously and I just continued to drive without
a license. The next day, he started sending me photos of car accidents, news about car
accidents, which involved teenagers and also sending me photos of police roadblocks along
the road that I always travel via WhatsApp. That built up my fear level and I started to
realise how dangerous driving without a license is. Since that day, I did not go behind the
wheel at all until I had received my driver's license. To attend my tutions, I would car pool
with my friend to tuition and when the tuition ends, my parents would come and pick me up
straight after work. This experience shows my uncle used fear-based appeals to stop me from
driving without a license.

10. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 4 / ENTRY 2 - ROUTES TO PERSUASION
In chapter 6 of THINK Social Psychology by Kimberly Duff, I have also learned
about the routes to persuasion. There are two types of routes to persuasion, one being the
central route, and another being the peripheral route. My experience will highlight on the
peripheral route. The peripheral route is when one only attends to external cues.
In October last year, I fell down on one knee bent sideways while playing football.
The injury was quite severe and it took me a couple of weeks to feel the pain. When I went
to visit the doctor, the doctor told me that I have suffered a trauma on my left distal femur,
which is my bone right above my kneecap in my left leg. For months I couldn't use my left
leg properly and I will tend to limp while I walk and run. Over few weeks, muscle atrophy
began to develop, which is the loss of muscle mass.
Earlier this year, I decided to sign up for the gym nearby my house as my parents and
my friends told me that I have lost a lot of muscle mass in my left leg and I should go and
weight train my left leg to develop the muscle back. One of my friends is already a member
of the gym so he promised me that he would help me to gain my muscle mass back, so that
had already persuaded me to hit the gym. The next thing that came to consideration is the
price to sign up for the gym. I was attended by a very friendly who was a very persuasive
membership consultant of the gym. He first showed me around the gym before discussing
the price with me. After he showed me around, the membership consultant and I sat down
and he began explaing about the prices and promotion to me. He told me that there was a
special promotion for Chinese New Year and the promotion only lasts for two weeks, and
while I was there, the promotion was already at its last day, according to him. He explained
to me that the price of a one-year membership with the promotion and without the promotion
is a RM 500 difference, plus he told me that I could get a free three months membership and
six free personal training sessions from the qualified personal trainers there. I was
immediately persuaded by him and in the end I signed up for the gym for a year. I managed
to save almost RM 1000 because of the promotion he gave me.

11. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 5 / ENTRY 1 - SEXISM
In chapter 7 of THINK Social Psychology, I have learned about the three different
types of discrimination, which are racism, sexism and ageism. Out of the three types of
discriminiation, my most vivid experience is related to sexism. Sexism is the act of treating
people unequally due to their gender.
While I was in primary 6, which was back in 2008, I had a teacher that taught me
Bahasa Malaysia that was truly a sexist. My teacher, who is a man, was only treating girls
with absolute kindness and treating boys cruelly. Caning in my primary school was a pretty
normal scenario at that time, even for a very small mistake. My BM teacher used to cane us
boys for even the smallest mistake, as small as giggling while he teaches. I still remember
my friend, who's name is Hisham, he did not do his homework and even when the teacher
asked him to stand, he started laughing loudly with his friend while standing. That really
provoked my BM teacher to the point where he flipped the teacher's table and dragged him
out of the classroom. That incident stunned the whole class. When girls did not do their
homework, he would just ask them to complete it on the spot and he will not ask them to
stand up. I still remember when he returned us our mid-year exam paper, when he marked
one of my questions wrongly, he refused to mark it right and change the marks for me. To
the girls on the other hand, he would make sure that the girls would get the marks that they
should get. His way of marking the exam papers is very unfair towards boys and girls. While
I was at primary 6, I have already learned about the word 'sexist' and the meaning to it
because of my Bahasa Malaysia teacher.

12. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203
JOURNAL 5 / ENTRY 2 - JUST-WORLD HYPOTHESIS
I have also learned about the just-world hypothesis in chapter 7, which falls under the
attributional biases category. Just-world hypothesis is belief that victims of misfortune
deserve what they got.
In around March this year, while I was on the way to college, the traffic was very
slow moving on the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP). I was on the fast lane of the
LDP, nearby the Kelana Jaya LRT Station. Although I was on the fast lane, I was only
travelling at 40-50km/h due to the slow traffic. When I looked my rear mirror, I realised that
there was a white colour Perodua Myvi that was tailgating me. It was a female driver and she
was driving absolutely near me. I couldn't manage to cut out to the left lane in time, as there
was no space for me to cut in between the cars. As I continued to drive on the right lane and
while I was observing the driver behind me every second, the car in front of me brake
suddenly and I followed to brake suddenly. The driver behind me couldn't brake fast enough
and her car knocked on my rear bumper of my car. I came out of the car and saw my rear
bumper had several obvious scratches and a crack on my bumper. I went and confront the
driver, who is a female driver only holding a probation license. She kept on apologising to
me but I couldn't accept her apology as she tailgated me for almost ten minutes. I raised my
voice and asked her why would she tailgate me in the first place. She told me that she was
late for college and I told her that I was heading to my college too. She continued
apologising and I took a photo of her car number plate, her car condition, her driver's license
and her IC. I also got down her phone number and claimed back RM 200 for the damage she
did to my car.
When I got home and told my parents about it, my parents scolded me and started
blaming me for doing absolutely nothing and waiting for the driver to hit my car. They told
me that since I already realised the driver tailgating me for ten minutes, within that ten
minutes I could have found a way out and cut in between the cars on the left lane. With my
parents scolding me for the accident that was not my fault, I couldn't say much more as I
agree of what they told me. I accepted their words and I told myself to be more street smart
in the future. This experience highlighted on the just-world hypothesis because I am one of
the victims of the accident and my parents blamed me for the cause of it.

13. FNBE
02/14
DARREN
LOONG
PSY30203