This document contains notes from 5 journal entries on topics in social psychology. It discusses schemas and how they help organize information. It also covers attitudes, persuasion techniques, stereotypes/prejudice, and factors influencing prosocial behavior. The notes provide definitions and examples to illustrate key concepts from chapters in a psychology textbook.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: NUR ZALIQAL BT ZAHER
STUDENT ID NO: 0317121
SUBJECT: PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC 0103)
CLASS / SESSION: MONDAY 4 – 7
LECTURER: SHANKAR THIRUCHELVAM
SUBMISSION DATE: 12th
MAY 2014

2. Journal 1
Chapter 3: Social Cognition
From what I’ve learnt, schema is basically something that is the most basic thing in
our social life. Schema is something that is created automatically based on our daily
basis and our experiences. As I said, schema is the most basic thing is because it
guides us to knowing and understanding the world better. It helps us in organizing and
interpreting information. Without schemas, we’d be clueless with what’s happening
around us. Schemas allow you to relate with your environment in an automatic
manner without effortful thought. For schemas to be activated, it requires prime.
They’re activated through stimulus. Our experiences and attention could be affected
by the way of our schemas being primed. Once a schema has been created, it is hard
for you to change it. You’ll always fight to sustain your own schema. This is why
different people argue as they have different point of view as each person learnt
something from a different way than you did.
Based on theory did by Jean Piaget, he said that schemas is a cognitive structure that
is used to identify and process information. He also said that schemas work like a
mental index file where index card represents a different schema of information. Once
acquired, one’s schemas can be accessed and used for future references. What he
meant was everyone has their own idea of something around them. They have
different opinion than you. This is why some people couldn’t agree with what you
have to say. Piaget also meant that once a situation fits their schema, they’d interpret
it in their way and if it doesn’t match their schema, they will say something about it.
For example, I was taught that a cat is cute, has fur, four legs and a tail. But then one
day, I saw a dog for the first time and I thought that dog was a cat because it fit my
schema of a cat which were cute, has fur, four legs and a tail but then someone told
me that it’s actually a dog. I then modified my current schema for a cat and created a
new schema for a dog.

3. Journal 2
Chapter 5: Attitudes
In chapter 5 I learnt that attitudes are evaluations people make about object, ideas,
events or other people. The evaluations could be either positive or negative. There
were 2 types of attitudes which were implicit and explicit attitude. Implicit attitude is
unconscious beliefs that can influence decisions and behavior. Explicit attitude is
conscious beliefs that can guide decisions and behaviors. There were 3 components of
attitudes which were cognitive, affective (emotional) and behavioral.
I also learnt that there were 3 dimensions of attitude; strength (positive or negative),
indifferent and ambivalent. Strength is when one strongly believes and holds firmly
on their information. One tends to have stronger attitudes on something they have
considerable knowledge and information about. Indifferent is when one’s attitude
refers to the ease which it comes to mind while ambivalent is when one is feeling both
positive and negative at the same ratio. This is when one tends to have mixed feelings.
For example for strength attitude;
Positive - “I like acting if possible I’d love to act someday”
Negative – “I don’t like that car, I’m not gonna buy it”
Example of indifferent attitude;
“I’ve never been to any concerts so any plans of yours will do”
Example of ambivalent attitude;
“I’d love to join dance classes but it’s very time consuming!”

4. Journal 3
Chapter 6: Power of Persuasion
The next chapter I learnt was chapter 6 which was talking about the power of
persuasion. I learnt that persuasion is the attempt on influencing others’ attitude or
behavior. In persuasion, I learnt that there were 2 routes of persuasion which are the
central and peripheral route.
**In Cialdini’s six weapons of influence, there were actually six ways of influencing.
First is reciprocation. Reciprocation is when someone is doing something just
because they have the need to repay one’s action to avoid feeling indebted. Or we
sometimes call it returning the favor. Next is commitment and consistency which
means when one’s given a task, commitment is created. One will then act in
consistent with that commitment. The bandwagon effect is also one of the six
weapons. It is called the social proof where following others is an action to proof of
what’s wrong or right. Other than that, liking is also one of them. We usually say
‘yes’ to the people we like and ‘no’ to the people we don’t fancy. Besides that,
authority was also included. Authority is when we tend to follow and obey what the
authority wants and told us to do. Last but not least is the scarcity. Scarcity is the
tendency of having something they think they couldn’t own.
Examples for the Six Weapons of Influence;
Reciprocation
- “since you helped me with my car the other day, I’ll treat you for lunch this
weekend!”
Commitment and consistency
- Submitting an RVSP before a party.
Social proof
- “Everyone is talking about the café that has just been opened last week, lets try it for
ourselves!”
Liking
- A friendly and attractive salesperson wanted to sell you a perfume and you ended up
buying it even when you don’t actually need it.
Authority

5. - A policeman in full uniform knocked on your door and wanted to ask you few
questions and you let them in and respect them. But if they weren’t in their uniform
you’ll probably close the door.
Scarcity
- “If you don’t wanna get me the diamond ring from that jewelry shop, we’re breaking
up”

6. Journal 4
Chapter 7: Stereotypes, Prejudice & Discrimination
In this chapter, I learnt that stereotypes are beliefs about people based on their
membership in a particular group. Stereotypes can be negative, positive or neutral.
Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude towards on individual based solely on
their membership of a social group. Discrimination is the behavior or action towards
an individual or group of people.
Stereotypes are not easily changed. There are reasons to that. One of it is, one’s
perceptions are influence by their expectations. For example, one thinks that all men
are the same. So when her friend broke up with her boyfriend, she assumes that it’s
the guy’s fault because guys are all the same but when actually it’s her friend that
cheated on him. Another reason is one selectively recall instances that confirms their
stereotypes. For example, one assumes that all women drivers can’t drive properly. As
an evidence to himself, there’s an accident nearby and the driver involved was a
woman.
For discrimination, there are few types of discriminations which are;
Ageism
Racism as well as
Sexism
Example of ageism
- In a workplace, no one above 55 is allow to work as they believe that anyone that’s
older than that can’t work effectively and they're going to slow down the company’s
work.
Example of racism
- No black people are allowed to participate in any of the white people organizations.
Example of sexism
- Women are not allowed to have higher position than being a head of department no
matter how good they are in handling their work.

7. Journal 5
Chapter 8: Pro-social Behavior
From what I’ve learnt in chapter 8 was that there are five steps in knowing when to
help someone. In few cases there are actually many witnesses yet no one offered help.
So to know when to help, take a look at these 5 steps.
One – Notice the emergency
Two – Interpret the need for help
Three – Feel a sense of responsibility
Four – Decide how to help
Five – Provide help
But sometimes after figuring if we should help or not, there are still few factors that
will affect the decision to help. One of the factors is called pluralistic ignorance. This
is when there’s a tendency to not respond to any kind of emergency because no one
else is seems to give any attention to the emergency. Next is the evaluation
apprehension. It is when one is concern on how others would think of him if he reacts
to the emergency. The other factor is called diffusion of responsibility. This happens
when one expects somebody else to do it.
For example, there’s an emergency happening by the beach where someone was
happened to be drowning. One that’s already gone through 5 steps wanted to help to
victim but then there were few facto affected him which were;
Pluralistic ignorance – no one seem to be panicking about it so he thought it was a
prank
Evaluation apprehension – one was worried that what if his actions gone wrong and
couldn’t save the person who happened to be drowning
Diffusion of responsibility – one believes that someone else is thinking of doing the
same thing so he decided to let the other person does it instead of himself.