Social Psychology

1. Entry 1:
Concept: Social Learning Perspective
I had learned during the social psychology learning concepts from the
lecturer. During class, I had learned about a concept, which is known as
social learning perspective. This concept gives me knowledge about how
other people around me influence my behavior. Basically, I didn’t know how
this concept works but as I learned from the lecturer, a human behavior had a
pattern of stealing others behavior by influence through observation. Hence,
stealing patterns from other people is an acceptable behavior. For example,
when I was in class. I could not understand why other people surrounding me
are continuously speaking and communicate towards each other. But as for
me, I was just sitting quietly at the other side, which no words came out from
my mouth as I was wondering what would happened to me. As I continue to
stare at the others and daydreaming like a dumb guy. I noticed that something
is psychologically not right about my behavior. The others are happily talking
towards each other while I am sitting along. Suddenly, a guy came towards
me and says “What’s Wrong, is there anything not right there”. I shockingly
think that it was my imagination but it was a surprise that someone as kind as
him would come to me and ask me that question.
I didn’t know what I should answer him, as I couldn’t think of how am I
supposed to say. Then the guy came to me and pad my shoulder happily
saying that “ its all right there, you don’t have to be sad” he could actually
figured out what happened to me. Why am I so quiet and feeling depressed
about the situation that I am facing? As I returned a smile to him saying that I
am fine. He then cheer for me and ask me to be a more happier and speak
more to communicate with others. I was shocked as my reaction was quick
when I was able to return the smile to him. This shows my behavior had
reacted when I faced other people. I then begin to speak as I decided to
change my current behavior, as my life would be lonely if I don’t do
something. As I went to a café to buy a coffee, when I was about to order a
coffee at the counter. I wasn’t able to speak clearly about what type of coffee I
really wanted because I was too silence all the time as I seldom speak out to
the others and I didn’t communicate with other people all the time. “Sorry do
you want to add sugar to the coffee” I was like shaking my head and say
hmm… They couldn’t place my order rightly as I didn’t express my words
confidently.
As I look at the entire place, people around me are happily speaking towards
each other. I finally looked for a place to sit and drink my coffee. As I look at
the people sitting besides me talking to each other’s. They are expressing
their confident in the way of how they would speak. As I listened to the way
they communicate, their words were naturally from how they actually think
from their brain, by relating the situation surrounding them as a way to
communicate better. The next day, I had to give a verbal presentation of a
topic in the class. But I was too nervous as I have no confident in how I should
present my topic to the class. As I stand in front of the crowd, I begin to

2. present my topic but my voice was too soft, as it didn’t get the attention of the
crowd I was too nervous until I didn’t know what I should speak. Then I looked
at the slides on the screen. A picture finally gives me the clue on how I should
speak. My brain then gives me the idea and developed the confident to me
and I finally manage to present my topic to the class. As I look from the
influence of them, I then think of a better way in speaking towards other
people. In class, I begin to meet new people, which I didn’t know and talk to
them about myself. Where I lived? What am I doing now? How am I? In which
finally I change my behavior when I speak with others. I had learned how
other people communicate among each other. How they would speak out and
what they think and suggested before communicating to the others. This
behavior actually influences me to speak out as well. Aside from being lonely
and quiet person, I would be a better person if I talk to others.
Entry 2
Concept: Self Concept
I had learned during the social psychology learning concepts from the
lecturer. During class, I had learned about a concept, which is known as self-
concept. This concept gives me knowledge on how a mental representation
and overall sense affects me. It also include on how various beliefs would
describe. I have the will, but I am working on the skill to change. The major
influence is competency and my subjects are everyone that I interact will help
me determine my progress. The first thing I found that I should improve on
was feeling comfortable around those who I perceive as superior. I have this
fear, which leads to disorganized thoughts, of communicating with someone
of a higher rank than I.
For example, to me having the ability to speak good English is a big
advantage, and it is just one skill that I still need improvement on. I find myself
lost of words when spoken to, and most of the time I end up stuttering them
and leads to "not making sense". I can write, but it is difficulty for me when it
comes to a face-to-face conversation. By taking this class of interpersonal
communication, I have discovered how to overcome the problem of speaking
English fluently. First, I create a feeling of competence and decreased my
level of nervousness. Secondly, I organize my thoughts and words as I listen.
Then, I express those ideas slowly and articulately. That way, my ideas can
come sensibly. Another solution is to think highly of myself, instead of thinking
more inferior. Learning the ability to speak good English also encourage me
to be able to communicate with those who are speaking English well. In
reality, I was able to speak good English when I was about to present my
English essay in the class.
Secondly, I realized that I am too hard on myself. I think too irrationally of my
self and of others, "how people are going to react towards me?” I constantly

3. ask myself, "How will they react if I ask them wrongly? What will think and do?
How will they feel?" So what I try to do is to think "rationally" of how I am
going to react towards them instead, because in my opinion, my impression is
what influences their reactions, thoughts, feelings, and behavior. This means
that self-awareness must also come into play. I will have to be concerned
about the way I present my ideas, as well as my behavior; otherwise, it will be
perceived negatively. So far, my self-concept has changed positively and in
time, it will improve. The only difficulty that I have been facing is the ability to
defend myself against negative comments from others. Because of my
thinking process speed, it takes time for me to acquire comments and how to
say them immediately. In addition, I found that it is not necessary to give a
response back to negative comments in order to defend someone, except in
courtrooms. Nonverbal expressions are also as powerful. For example,
ignoring critical comments create a serious climate between you and the
speaker sending a message that the comment was unnecessary and
offensive. But in some cases, verbal messages are necessary, such as that in
debates over issues.
Entry 3
Concept: The Optimistic Bias
During the lecture class, I had learned about a concept, which is known as the
optimistic bias. At first I was quite unsure of what this concept means to me
and how I can relate this concept in my real life. When I learned about this
concept in class, I finally manage to figure out the meaning of optimistic bias,
which it happen base on my own experience. It usually happens on my beliefs
and thoughts that bad things happened to other people and I would
experience a positive event.
For example, as I usually thought that this years examination was quite hard
and I belief that other people are going to fail the exams since they did not
have enough study on the syllabus. As for me, I am sure that I will not fail the
exam and I am going to pass the examination since I had already study the
entire syllabus. But how confident am I in passing the examination as I
thought that a 100% that I would not make any mistake as I thought it would.
But it is not confirm how I did well in the examination since the time I use to
study was too much and I didn’t have my time to enjoy. Besides, I usually feel
stress when I study for too long and my brain starts to stop working and
thinking. When I was too overconfident in something that I am doing, I beliefs
that negative results would happen to everyone since they did not put in much
efforts. But as for me, I tried my hardest to place efforts into something to
achieve success. So I would believe that I would not be failing in the
examination.

4. As I had successfully passed the driving test and that I believe that I would not
make any accident in the future. Since I had already learned the right way to
drive safely, I would belief that no accidents will be happening when I am
driving. But who knows that this coming weekend I will be involving in an
accident. I would hope that no accident would happen because I already had
full confident in driving car. But what about those who keep failing the driving
test and retaking when they had no confident in driving at all. They did not
drive in a safe way and keep breaking the rules on the road. Their probability
of accident would be high if they had no confidence in driving. When I believe
that something bad would happen to someone who did not do well in
something. As for me, I believe that something good would happen to me
since I already prepared to achieve something.
When my parents advise me that it will be best we I don’t smoke, but what
could that benefit me if I don’t smoke. I belief that if I stop smoking, my risk of
getting heart disease will be low and I will not get lung cancer. But what about
those people who keep smoking all day long. I believe that their life would be
at risk and they would start to have chest pain and lung cancer in the future.
Since they did not have any advise for them to stop smoking and they would
rather smoke as their common lifestyle. But as for me, I belief that I will not
get any health problems if I don’t smoke all the time. When I will experience
good things in life even if beliefs don’t always came through. I just have to
believe in something positive. My mind will always think positively and it will
also gives me the confident of deciding whether good or bad things will
happens to me in the coming even.
Entry 4
Concept: Situational Attribution
In the lecture class, I had also discovered a concept related to our daily life of
social psychology. This concept, which is known as situational attribution, is
the actions, which are due to the cause of the environmental factor. For
example, when I was still studying at my high school before entering
university, Iike many school seniors, I usually take the test, which can judge
where my standard is. When I hope that my results are excellent for me to
enroll scholarships for me to enter university.
Upon receiving me results, I then discovered that the test that I perform was
poor in grades. My score are actually below the minimal requirement for me to
apply for the scholarship. Then when I went back home, my father asked me
why did you perform your test so poorly? I stated that the poorly score was
due to the exam environment was full of distraction. I was not able to perform
properly because its sound from the outside when people walked by the
classroom they speak loudly that distracted my attention. The test was taken
in the afternoon, which the weather outside was very hot, which makes the

5. classroom hot and I keep sweating and cause my shirt wet. I told my father
that this effect causes me to perform poorly in my examination. Then I
requested to resit the examination without any further distraction. They finally
agreed to place me in a classroom with air-cond where it was cooling and
without any sound of distraction.
When I was at home, that time I had just make a cup of hot coffee for myself
while watching television. Then as the coffee was very full, I had to slowly
carry it to the table. Suddenly, I accidentally spilled the cup of coffee on the
floor, which the cup breaks. My mother questioned me why am I so careless, I
then tell her that the sound of the television that my brother turned on was too
loud until it distracted my attention in carrying the cup of coffee. The cup of
the coffee was also too hot until I couldn’t even hold it properly. This causes
me to spill the coffee on the floor and break the cup as well. Then my mother
did not accept my excuses, I was forced to clean the floor and buy a new cup
for the replacement.
On an evening, I went to the park and cycled my bicycle there. When I was
cycling my bicycle, I accidentally fall off from my bicycle and injured my knees
and hands as well. When the other residents ask me what happened to me, I
say that the ground got many bumps and holes causing me to lose my
balance when I cycle my bicycle. The stone on the ground was also big
causing my bicycle tires to ramp into it. The ground was too rough that I could
not cycle my bicycle evenly and eventually I fall off from my bicycle. Besides
that, when I was cycling, the other residents were playing badminton in the
court and I was over distracted at it and I did not focused on cycling and loses
my attention causing my bicycle to fall to the ground. When I was asked over
and over of the problems that I am facing, I always feel concern about the
surrounding environment that caused me to get distracted and eventually I
could not perform something well enough. This is due to the surrounding that
caught my attention and then I was not focusing on the other thing. Instead,
this actually is caused by my senses and humor. My brain actually works
better if I only work on one thing at a time. If there was distraction, it causes
my brain to think of something else.
Entry 5
Concept: Counterfactual Thinking
When I learned a concept in social psychology during lecture, I had learned a
concept, which is known as counterfactual thinking. Before learning this
concept, I could not imagine what could have come through my mind and
what this concept actually means. After I had understanding what
counterfactual thinking is when I had imagined different outcomes after an
event have occurred. To relate this concept with my daily life, I had

6. experienced several times and it usually give me the impression of thinking of
other solution to the problem that had already happened.
One of the experiences is when I was having my first test and I wasn’t really
serious on studying the course of the subjects that I was going to take for my
exam. So there were 5 topics among the subject. Since I didn’t really bother to
study everything, I only studied 3 topics out of 5. During the exam, I was really
curious that the questions that came out were majority based on the other 2
topics that I did not study. After the exam, I wasn’t expected that my results to
be an A but maybe B or C only due to the subjects that I did not studied.
Eventually, my results came out to be an average only. From that time
onwards, I actually regarded for not studying enough for the preparation of the
exam. This causes an upward counterfactual experience that I had ever had
in my life. Since that day onwards, I would study the whole topics of the
subject for me to get a better results for my examination.
Another relation to this concept is when I was asked to go to a supermarket to
buy some oranges. But as I founded out that the oranges in the supermarket
was a little expensive as it cost around RM2.50 for one orange. Since it was
too expensive, I went to another supermarket, which the orange cost only RM
2.00. But as I decide, I still think that it is still a bit expensive. So I went to the
third supermarket, which the orange is, only RM1.60 but I have to buy 10
oranges in order to get that price, as this is the supermarket’s promotion and
offer. At first it was hard for me to decide which supermarket should I buy the
oranges. Finally after a long time of thinking, I decided to buy 10 oranges
which each costs RM1.60 at the third supermarket. Although I had to buy 10
oranges, but at least the total price of the oranges is still cheaper compared to
the other two supermarkets. For the relation, I had also encounter several
downward counterfactual experiences in my life even though it causes me to
take time in order to make decision.
In the course of my studied towards the concept of counterfactual thinking, I
have learned that this concept can have beneficial outcomes in the future or
no benefits at all depending on my life experience. Depending on my sense of
humor, even through counterfactual thinking can benefit my future situations,
it could also helps me to avoid suffering from high level of depression
frequently believe that there is nothing that I could do to change my life.
Throughout my life, I had many instances where I have encountered many
counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual thinking produces feelings like
sadness and despair but it also can help me depending on my thinking
change my behavior in the future.