Social psychology

FNBE 03/15 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL CHRISTINA CHUA YI MEI 0323859
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT (FNBE)
ASSIGNMENT 1: INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL
NAME : CHRISTINA CHUA YI MEI
STUDENT ID : 0323859
SESSION : MONDAY (3:30 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.)
SUBJECT : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSY30203)
INTAKE : MARCH 2015
LECTURER : MR. SHANKAR THIRUCHELVAM
SUBMISSION
DATE : 30 NOVEMBER 2015

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13 OCTOBER 2015
JOURNAL 01 : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
ENTRY 01 : SOCIAL LOAFING
Social loafing is defined as a phenomenon whereby an individual tends to put in less effort when
working as a group. He or she tends to put in more effort in their own individual assignments while
paying less effort when working in a group due to the tendency of over-reliance on other team members.
Some may feel that it is unfair because of the inequality of work distribution among the team members
and different amount of contribution between the members and yet obtaining the same marks for the
assignment. This effect is term as the "sucker effect". Another type of team members are those that do
not put any effort at all into the group assignment but take for granted that other group members will do
the task for them. This group of team members are known as the "free-riders" because they try to get
marks by riding on the work of others. Every group work has its own pros and cons, social loafing is
bound to occur at one time or another. Hence, it is essential to recognize this early and tackling the issue
accordingly.
During one of the school holidays when I was sixteen, my friends and I were planning to have a
barbeque party at one of my friend's house. We invited our classmates to come for the barbeque
gathering but not everyone was able to make it, but we had about eighteen of us confirmed able to make
it to the gathering party and we decided to split the task like buying all the necessary food and utensils
for the barbeque party among the eighteen of us and that was decided approximately two weeks before
the date of the gathering, some are supposed to prepare drinks, some are asked to buy the food and fruits,
while others are to buy charcoal and fire starters for the barbeque. So when the day came, everybody
was really excited of the barbeque party. We called each other to remind everyone to turn up at seven
o'clock sharp. Some arrive early and a few of them were a bit late because of the traffic congestion. Only
than, the person who is in-charge of booking the venue realized that he did not book the venue. Another
three person who are responsible to buy the charcoal and starters did not bother to buy because they
expect other people will take care of it. So in the end, we have to change the venue to another
classmate's house and we have to rush to buy the charcoal and starter in order to carry on with the
barbeque party. I was disappointed with my friends' attitude and was a little carried away at that point of
time but all in all, it turns out to be a successful gathering and a memorable one too, all of us had
enjoyed ourselves despite the minor problem that we had encountered at the beginning.

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Another example of social loafing based on my personal experience is during my high school time. I
was one of the committee member of the Tourism club in my school. When we were asked to prepare
for our school exhibition day, the teacher divided us into few groups in order to make different models
that suit our theme, which is the "Seven Wonders in the World". We are required to make models based
on these seven wonders in the world. A few members and I were given tasks to do the Colosseum and
Taj Mahal. When we held meetings for discussion, three out of five members turn up, but the other two
members were not concern about the task. Even though they came for the meeting at times, but the y
tend to lose focus easily and play with their phones or do their own work most of the times. Until a week
before the exhibition day, we were rushing all for the model preparation, trying to complete it in time
and yet some of them still did not try to contribute and neglected the whole project. We end up finishing
the model ourselves without their help. In the end, we succeeded in completing the model in time and
able to perform well on the exhibition day with the help of the remaining helpful members that are
willing to hold on until the end.
I am currently serving in my church children ministry where I have to help out in storytelling or arts
and crafts every Sunday. It was on a Christmas event, where there was supposedly to have a play for the
celebration by the children ministry and every helper and teacher were given task to prepare for the
Christmas Event. A few helpers and I were given the task of designing the invitation cards for the guests.
As the day of the celebration approaches nearer, everyone was urging us to come out with the design for
the invitation card but no one seems to care about it because we took it for granted and had neglected

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our responsibility. In the end, I have to shoulder the responsibility and single-handedly completed the
invitation card by myself.
In conclusion, social loafing is a symptom of lack of responsibility and not a very pleasant attitude
to have especially towards your team members. It can happen anywhere, anytime and to anyone, be it
from school children to professionals. It is very difficult to get rid of social loafing, but we can
minimized it by implementing better working system, encouragement and recognition of work
contribution. Improving understanding and communication among team members are among some of
the ways of minimizing social loafing.

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20 OCTOBER 2015
ENTRY 02 : FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT
False consensus effect is the tendency of people to overestimate the level to which other people
share their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Most people with inflated ego also have similar issue,
whereby they believe their own opinions are more superior as compared to others. People with high
self-esteem always feel good about themselves and tend to make assumptions that other people agree
with their own beliefs. If an opinion varies from their own, they might consider the suggestion as
unacceptable or improper, this phenomenon is known as the "false consensus effect". False consensus
effect is always there to support one's beliefs.
From my own experience, I had undergo some false consensus whereby I always think that my
friend's thinking are the same as mine. After finishing each assignment, I used to go for a movie with my
friends to relax. We always exchange opinions after each and every movie we watched. Last month, we
went to the cinema for a movie, 'PIXELS', after our assignment submission. After watching the movie, I
feel that the movie was quite interesting and I enjoyed it. I assumed that my friends are quite satisfied
with the movie, but their opinions towards the movie was different from mine. When we discussed about
the movie, they think that the movie was quite boring and unrealistic. However, I felt that the movie was
exciting and funny. I always like watching science-fiction movies but my friends feel that they are
unrealistic.

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To me, dogs are dangerous animals. This is because I was bitten by a stray dog when I was nine
years old. I was playing with a group of friends outside my house when suddenly a stray dog came and
bit me on my leg. It was a frightening and painful experience for me. From that day onwards, I hated
dogs regardless of their sizes. I have the feeling that a lot of people have the same feeling as mine. Then
one day, a friend from my university bought a Schnauzer dog which I think it was scary. At first I
thought that her housemates dislike the dog. But to my astonishment, all her housemates loves the dog
very much.
Online video games is very addictive and popular to a lot of young people. They tend to play with
their smartphone games wherever they are. I always feel that online video games only suit young people
because I think that it is quite common for young people but not for adults and professionals. This came
to be wrong when I saw the article that my friend wrote during our English tutorial time. She wrote this
argumentative essay about online video games that stated many adult also played online video games
during their free time. Adults and professionals are even worse than children because they do not have
the time to play so they play during break and lunch, some even in the restroom. This proved that not
only children play online video games but many adult or professionals also play online video games. It
shows that all the while thinking that only children and young people play online games is a false
consensus that I always have in my mind.

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The last example that I will give is concerning football especially during world cup season. Football
is a sport that the whole world watches especially during world cup season. It has always be in my mind
that man loves to watch football. During every world cup seasons, the football fever catches up all
around the world. The whole world will be talking about the teams and players that they like and support.
Everybody rushing to buy T-shirts of countries they support. I was really surprised when I see my
female classmates were also talking about the world cup and all the players they loved. When we went
shopping together, I was really surprised that they were choosing different T-shirt of different countries
that they support, planning to wear them when they watch the team representing the countries they liked
playing. I went with them to watch the games and on the screen I can see from the screen that the
spectators in the screen comprises of a lot of women supporters. All the while I have the false consensus
that only man likes to watch football games but actually around half of the spectators are women.
In a nutshell, our estimation or thought towards a existing fact is not always wrong. But this will
sometimes lead us to false consensus because our judgment is formed by our first thought in mind.
Although the mental shortcuts can help us to simplify the complex information, but yet sometimes they
might cause us to have false consensus effect on our decision making.

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29 OCTOBER 2015
ENTRY 03 : COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
Counterfactual thinking is part of our thinking to create an alternative outcome to events that have
already happened. It is a psychological part of our mind to reject the reality and to imagine how things
might turn out differently if we have done things in a different manner. Counterfactual thinking can be
very strong or powerful as it can appear to alter our existing memories by assimilating new and artificial
memories and manipulating the facts. It normally happens when we encounter impactful events in our
lives be it in physical or mental form as this helps us to avoid from facing the harsh truth.
During my high school years, I used to be in the school basketball team as a regular player. We took
part in numerous different inter-school basketball tournaments and the outcomes of the games differ
from time to time. There is one time where we lost the game, just by a one point difference against our
opponent. Hence, we only managed to get the silver medal in that competition. We were so close in
coming out as the champion but still we did not manage to make it, and we were upset by the loss. We
tend to think that if and only if we had seize every opportunity that we had during the gameplay: to get
one more point at the very last minute, or should we had defended better against our opponent team, we
could have easily won the game. We even thought up of excuses such as the opponent were playing
against the rules, or that our luck ran out that day, as we were in denial that we did not win the
competition. Another encounter regarding counterfactual
thinking was when we were playing for third placing in the
basketball tournament, we managed to get the bronze
medal which we think it is better than losing. This made us
think that at least we got something out of the tournament.
This gives us at least some encouragement and give us a
boost on our fighting spirit. In here, we see that there are
two different types of examples, the former being a
downward counterfactual thinking and the latter being an
upward counterfactual thinking.

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In Malaysia, there is an exam in the fifth year of secondary school, known as the SPM or
internationally, it is an equivalent to O-levels. The results are released every year, in the month of March.
In the year of 2014 in which I completed my SPM, my results were only satisfactory as I did not manage
to score straight As. I got 10 As and 1 B, the B being the Chinese subject. Being the perfectionist that I
am, it bothered me as I kept thinking: if and only if I had work a lot harder and not during the last
minute, I would have done better and obtained straight As during this examination.
During my first driving lesson, I was driving along the road with my driving instructor sitting beside
me. I was pretty nervous as this was my first time driving along a road. When I came to the junction in
which I have to make a U-turn, I turned my steering wheel but there was not enough time for me to
adjust back the steering wheel. Because of this, I accidentally drove up the road divider and my driving
instructor quickly help me to return to the proper road by adjusting my steering wheel. At that moment
in time, I panicked and was at a loss. I did not know what to do. After that, I quickly stopped the car and
my driving instructor asked me to calm down. After I managed to calm down, we continued with my
driving lesson. However, that incident has caused me to imagine a lot regarding what had happened. It
was a shocking and traumatic experience, but I managed to comfort myself by imagining and reassuring
myself that if and only if I drove slower, or if I had managed to turn the steering wheel a bit faster; the
accident could have been avoided. This incident has taught me to be more alert with my driving, and to
always be within the proper speed limit and to be more observant and have a quicker reflex in order to
avoid accidents. However, I am extremely grateful because the incident during my driving lesson did not
cause any serious damage and no one was hurt in the process.
As mentioned earlier, counterfactual thoughts have the ability to fabricate thoughts or memories if it
is strong enough. The possibility of these thoughts could create positive or negative outcomes depending
on what it is based on. The 'if and only if' thoughts could affect one's emotion, ranging from a positive
joyous or grateful feeling to a negative angry or sad emotion. It also affects perception, as different
situations are viewed differently as the blame and responsibility shifts depending on the person.

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11 NOVEMBER 2015
ENTRY 04 : SELF-SERVING BIAS
Self-serving bias is giving ourselves credit for success while blaming others for failures. We
normally tend to believe that success only comes from our own hard work while failures are always
caused by others. Normally we want to put ourselves in a favorable position most of the time. This is
normally for our self esteem. Instead of admitting our own mistakes or inferiority, we tend to make
excuses to shift the blame away from ourselves, and in doing so we are inflicting harm to others. This
bias attitude leads us to believe that we are actually more superior as compared to others.
During my second year of high school, I had 40 out of 100 marks for my Mathematics subject in the
first examination. I was at the borderline in failing the subject and then I started to blame the teacher,
accusing her that she sets really difficult questions in the examination. Usually I will get 70 to 80 marks
but that time, I was shocked that I only get 40 marks. So, I started blaming that the teacher did not teach
us properly and did not explained the topics clearly. And on the examination day itself, I tried blaming
the classroom for being too warm, and that it is the reason I could not focus during the test. The night
before the exam, my friend kept calling me, with the intention to discuss topics related to the test but our
attention was diverted to non-academic topics. I pushed the blame and the root of my failures to my
teacher, the classroom condition and also my friend instead of realizing and admitting that it is my own
fault.
I have a great deal of passion in calligraphy. I feel a sense of satisfaction and happiness everytime I
managed to complete one artwork. I was inspired to learn the art of calligraphy and this motivation
comes from a wise and passionate lover of this beautiful art, which is my grandfather. I spent most of
my time learning and exploring Chinese Calligraphy for five whole years from him, since I was in
primary school. During my school times, I had participated in countless competitions but the results
were always unsatisfactory as I did not meet my own expectations. It was until one day, when I
participated in an interclass Chinese Calligraphy competition when I was in secondary school. Finally, I
managed to secure the grand prize in that competition. After that very competition, I think that my skills
were pretty good and it has improved throughout the years. I believed that I won that competition
because I had put in a lot of effort to practice. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. However, as

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that was my first time getting a first place, I assumed that this success is only from my own hard work,
and I did not give credits to my calligraphy teacher who have taught and guided me throughout all these
years.
Another example of self-serving bias that I have experienced in the past is when I was involved in a
car accident. After a long and tiring outing with my friends, I was driving home along a busy road when
suddenly, a car knocked the front of my vehicle out of nowhere. The impact gave me a shock, and I
stopped the car immediately. Both the other driver and myself came out of the car to look at the extent of
the damage caused. I noted that my car bonnet was badly dented and that part of the paint work came off.
We started arguing, and both of us blamed one another for causing the crash. After arguing for a period
of time, the opposite party finally agreed that he was at fault because he suddenly swayed and knocked
into my car. However, at that point of time, I did not realize that I too, played a role in causing the
accident and equally at fault as I was driving past the speed limit. Thinking back, I now realized that it
takes two hands to clap. In this case, both parties have their own mistakes, and that I should not only
blame the other person for what had happened. I learnt to recognize and reflect on my own mistakes and
be more aware of my 'self-serving bias' habit.
In conclusion, to err is human. All of us make mistakes at some point in time, and it is always a
good thing to reflect on what had happened. This is because we need to realize that no good outcome
can be achieved if nobody admits their mistakes because it is both parties who are at fault. It is also
important for us to keep this in mind, as it reflects our own attitude and bears a great impact in our
future.

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16 NOVEMBER 2015
ENTRY 05 : OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
Observational learning is the learning process which results in changing own attitudes or behavior
by noticing and witnessing another person behavior, which is known as the "Model". The observer
learns the sequence of behaviors and becomes able to perform it at will after multiple observations and
self practices. The learning process may bring both positive and negative impact to the observer
depending on the type of behavior that is being imitated. This form of learning is easily adopted by
anyone and universally made available for all. It is believed to be the easiest and fastest way of learning,
as good observational skills help us to have a better understanding and able to master the skill easier. It
requires a certain level of attention and the ability to focus, while observing the "model" performing the
task, noticing the important steps and yet not neglecting the minor details along the process.
I can vividly remember my first swimming experience. The anticipation and excitement I felt as I
attended my first lesson for the first time was simply inexplicable. I had never been able to swim
properly in the past, all I did was staying in the baby pool with a float and trying to paddle my way
through. It was a new breakthrough and eye-opening experience to me. Slowly, my swimming instructor
began to guide and lead me to the deeper side which at that point of time, I would have never imagined
to be able to set my foot in at that side of the pool. He taught me how to remain afloat without the need
of any assistance and had showed me some of the simple swimming styles. With good observation skill
from my side and a good guidance from my instructor, I managed to master a few simple techniques and
able to swim a few laps without the need of any assistance. It was truly an amazing experience and I am
grateful to have such thoughtful and patient instructor, who is willing to show the appropriate technique
step by step and performing it repeatedly to allow me to have sufficient amount of time to observe and
learn from him.
Throughout my childhood, I always wanted to sign up for drawing classes. I thought it would have
been fun if I could learn how to draw. To fulfill my long awaited wish, I took up a drawing class during
my time in primary school. The experience of taking up the drawing class turned out to be a life
changing one because shortly after the class started, I had a newfound talent. It caught my attention the
instant my tutor showed me some of her own painting and I was amazed with her artwork. She showed

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me the proper way of holding the brush and mixing colors. She taught me many new techniques and
approaches to paintings and drawings, appreciating it from different perspectives. It requires extensive
amount of observational skill and be very particular to every inch and corner of the drawing in order to
be able to notice its finest details and appreciating the drawing as a whole. It is a life changing
experience because till today, I had not given up drawing and this interest of mine had lead to me to the
course I am currently pursuing in the university. I enjoyed drawing and it had became part and parcel of
my life now.
Last but not least, another observational learning that I had picked up is learning how to use and
fixing the computer from my elder brother. I was not a tech-savvy person in the past and was not good
with computers. I needed help and many assistance from my brother most of the time when it comes to
dealing with computer works. As time passes and with multiple encounters with similar problems with
the computer, it drove me to learn more about fixing and handling computer and utilizing the various
software available to aid in the school work. I tried to observe what my brother do each time he tried to
fix the computer for me and naturally, with multiple similar experiences, I had the methods and

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procedures ingrained into me. I began to be able to fix minor problems and installing certain anti-virus
software to protect my computer from viruses. The desire to learn serves as a driving force for me to
keep striving further, trying to explore and learning new skills every day.
In conclusion, learning is a life-long skill. We discover new knowledge every day and learning is a
fun process only if we are able to appreciate its beauty and understand its value. Nevertheless, we can
achieve this in various manners and observational learning is one of its many forms. By observing what
others doing, we will be able to learn and discover new things depending on how observant we are and
our own desire to learn. Truly, observational learning has been with me for a long time and I had been
practicing it ever since I was a small kid. It had taught me many valuable lessons and had helped me to
overcome many difficulties and challenges in life and along the way, acquiring many interesting and
life-saving skills.

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