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1. Ch'ng Phei Woon | Social Psychology ( PSY30203) | 30th November 2015
Individual Journal
CH’NG PHEI WOON [0323842]
| Monday 5:30pm -7:30pm |
| Foundation in Natural and Built Environment (FNBE) |

2. PAGE 1
|Social Influence|
Chapter 1
Social influence is defined as change in an individual’s thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, or behaviors that results from interaction with another
individual or a group. Social influence is distinct from conformity, power, and
authority. Conformity occurs when an individual expresses a particular opinion or
behavior in order to fit in to a given situation or to meet the expectations of a
given other, though he does not necessarily hold that opinion or believe that the
behavior is appropriate. Power is the ability to force or coerce reticular way by
controlling her outcomes. Authority is power that is believed to be legitimate
rather than coercive by those who are subjected to it.
This theory often happens at educational institution .Yes, mine happen
during my high school year. It was back then which was 2 years ago when I studied
at Tenby School which is located at Penang. During that time I was Form 4 ,
studying science stream . I used to have 2 friends and together which made us ‘’1
Malaysia’’. Everyone can guess it! We are from different races , Sabrina Pillay is an
Indian while Iffah Nisa is a Malay race and the Chinese race is me !We were good
friend since we were Form 3 due to the number of female students in our class.
We hangout a lot and we do almost everything together in school. Sometimes, we
skip school together and hangout at the nearest shopping mall. We were even
group in every projects given and we do revision together during Form 3.
Our school is a private school and international school therefore more
students would prefer to go to government school. We all spilt classes during our
Form 4 because Sabrina had chosen to go Art stream on the other hand, Iffah Nisa
and I went to Science stream. Yet we are still close like how we used to be even
though we were from different classes. We still meet each other during math and
English classes. From time to time, Sabrina started to be friends with few boys
from Art Stream and she started to distant from us. We do hangout with her at
times but just limited. Even during lunch breaks, We used to have lunch together
but now she was with her Art stream friends.
There was once, Iffah and me skipped lunch due to the homework
that teacher asked to do correction and on the way to Bahasa Malaysia class, We
saw Sabrina from across the field. Sabrina was walking as in like swaying here and
there. Iffah asked me if she was high or something. I was not experienced on this

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area and I did not know much about this drug thing. She was walking toward us
and Iffah asked Sabrina if she was okay or not. She said she was fine but by looking
at her she looked like she was sleepy or just awaken.
We went to Bahasa Malaysia class and she was sleeping during the class
but after the class ends, she was awake and her eyes were extremely red but we do
not dare to ask her why yet we just kept quiet and our next class was biology so we
split classes with her. Every now and then, Sabrina had been talking to other boys
about drugs and clubbing. Yes, I heard it because she was talking aloud as if no
one is around when we were in class taking attendance from class tutor. I just felt
like they thought they were so powerful, special and different.
She went clubbing every Friday night and got drunk. They talked about it
every Monday morning since everyone is gathered in class. Occasionally, I heard a
classmate told her about some muffin which was fresh from yesterday and I know
it was not a very good thing when it was coming from a guy to Sabrina. Later , I
finally knew that the muffin contain some kind of drugs and put into the muffin
mixture to disguise it as a food but when it was consumed , we would get high and
hallucination. Once they made a party which was like weed and drugs party , they
were saying that ‘’Wow you get so high ‘’ or ‘’ At least you parents did not find out’’
and all .
Till now, we studied at different university and college and did not contact
each other anymore. As a conclusion, I think we have to be friends with the good
personality person because sooner or later one will improve or another will gotten
worse. To fit in a group was not easy so this happens a lot in a educational
institution where an individual will try their best to blend in a particular group and
be like them. Sometimes, we might not be aware that the action was appropriate
but yet do it because we just want to fit in and just be like everyone.

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| Motivation (Intrinsic and Extrinsic) |
Chapter 2
Motivation provides insight into why we may behave the way we
do. Motivation is an internal process that reflects the desire to achieve certain
goals. Motivation can be divided into two basic types: intrinsic motivation and
extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation reflects the desire to do something
because it is enjoyable. If we are intrinsically motivated, we would not be worried
about external rewards such as praise or awards. If we are intrinsically motivated,
the enjoyment we experience would be sufficient for us to want to perform the
activity in the future. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation reflects the desire to
do something because of external rewards such as awards, money, and
praise. People who are extrinsically motivated may not enjoy activities. They may
only wish to appoint in certain activities because they wish to receive some
external reward.
Firstly, I would start off with intrinsic motivation. Since when I
was in my high school, I am uninvolved in anything in particular like a hobby. I
have my Art lesson in school and my teacher was Madam Tan Ai Ing, I can still
remember her name so clearly. It is because she was one of my favorite high school
teacher and she even teaches me Kemahiran Hidup (Life skills) one of the
compulsory subject during Form One till Three. She was a 56 years old lady who
wore elegant blouse put on red-colored lipstick and have a curly short black hair.
She was a caring and anger-free person. During my Form 2 , she was my art class
tutor and I did not grow interest in art during that time. I would not complete the
artwork and I simply drew. I barely pass up my work yet she did not scold me or
either punish me.
There was once, I feel like just drawing and not talking to my
friends. When Madam Tan asked my class to drew but I drew something else.
Later, she walked around the class to observed the artwork and commented on
each students. Then she came to my table and saw me using paint while I am
supposed to draw by pencil. That is when she saw my artwork and I thought she
was going to scold me but instead she praised me. My artwork was in the yearbook
magazine. I was very happy that she likes my work for then I started to draw and
paint a lot I was involved with competition and voluntary art. I draw when I am
free and kept my artwork. I still have it in my room! Art makes me feel free and
there was no wrong to it, It does relieved stress and anger.

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On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is when I do an action to
get a reward. My extrinsic motivation was study because my parent and my
grandparents will always nag me on studying hard and get a good job. They had
been telling me for my 18 years and it had been stuck in my mind. I study very
hard during my junior high, high school and still on going. I had been very weak in
mathematics. Well, don’t even mentioned about additional mathematics. I am
impuissant in mathematics. My grade started to fall during my high school which
make me very depressed because it is not just low but very low grade. I remember
for my Form 4 mathematics, my result was ten out of hundred. Most of my marks
got below 40 not even 30 which was fail. My mathematics tutor even look down
and had no hopes on me.
It was the year of 2014 , the year that I had taken SPM (sijil
pelajaran Malaysia) and on my trial SPM at school. I got 40 marks which is just
passing marks. I did a lot of activity books almost 4 mathematics books and I
practiced every day before my real SPM happened which was around the corner.
On SPM week , I was nervous and I was worried about my weak subject but
mathematics was the weakest among all .At last I had grade B+ for my
mathematics when the result was out during March 2015. My tutor teacher was
also surprised and happy for me. I was proud of myself.
Conclusion, I would like to say is that we should not give up
easily. Even though we fail, fail and fail but we still have to stand up and fight for
it.

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|Stereotyping |
Chapter 3
Stereotyping is the typical picture that comes to mind when thinking
about a particular social group. Whereas early research conceptualized
stereotyping as a rather inflexible and faulty thought process, more recent research
emphasizes the functional and dynamic aspects of stereotypes as simplifying a
complex environment. Stereotypes are cognitive schemas used by social perceivers
to process information about others .Stereotypes not only reflect beliefs about the
traits characterizing typical group members but also contain information about
other qualities such as social roles, the degree to which members of the group
share specific qualities, and influence emotional reactions to group members.
Stereotypes imply a substantial amount of information about people beyond their
immediately apparent surface qualities and generate expectations about group
members’ anticipated behavior in new situations.
One of the stereotype that was black had bad characteristics such as
talking roughly, Had bad background and what they do was stealing and abusing. I
think it was influenced by media and movies because black guy will always be the
bad characters in the movie. On the positive side, Black people can be good in
running and other sports activities.
By looking at gender perspective, Female will always be taking care of
their husband and belongs in the kitchen. Male had a better education than female
even during working life. Boys should had a higher income than the female.
Moreover, women are often expected to be passive and submissive, while men are
usually expected to be self-confident and aggressive. In addition,caring for
children is often considered best done by women, while household repairs are
often considered best done by men. By physical appearance, women are expected
to be small and graceful, while men are expected to be tall and broad-shouldered.
Furthermore, From cultural aspect , All Asians are geniuses due to their
hardworking attitude and how successful they can be on media and newspaper
and also have high IQs. They are smarter than most in Math and Science. These
people are more likely to succeed in school.. All Indians are deeply spiritual as I
had seen discovery channel about their culture and respected their own God. They
even believe in sun and moon. Whites are successful shown in media and how
good jobs they get.

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Stereotypes are rampant in our culture and have been a dilapidating
issue in our civilization for a long while. The use of stereotypes to judge another
human being can cause serious detriment to the success and happiness of others.
Understanding what stereotypes are and how they came about is important to
eradicate the use of stereotypes and be able to assess a person’s worth based on
their own individual traits. Some of the most common stereotypes are among
politicians, tattooed persons, feminists, and senior citizens. I will uncover the
stereotypes associated with these groups, how the stereotypes are used and why,
and how stereotyping most definitely leaves a negative effect.

8. PAGE 7
| Harold Kelley Covariation Theory |
Chapter 4
The attribution process involves reasoning backward from the
observation of an event or behavior to a judgment about its cause. Unlike a
prediction, the attribution process attempts to provide an explanation for an event
that has already occurred. The best known work on attribution is Kelley’s
theoretical approach that is based on two important contributions to our
understanding of cognitive processes associated with forming causal beliefs.
Internal attribution is the process of assigning the cause of behavior to some
internal characteristic, rather than to outside forces. When we explain the
behavior of others we look for enduring internal attributions, such as personality
traits. For example, we attribute the behavior of a person to their personality,
motives or beliefs. While external attribution: The process of assigning the cause of
behavior to some situation or event outside a person's control rather than to some
internal characteristic. When we try to explain our own behavior we tend to make
external attributions, such as situational or environment features.
Covariation theory is when you question yourself why one individual
simply act that way. For example; ‘Why does my friend order this dish?’ For my
friend consistency because she always ordered this exact same dish every time we
ate at that particular restaurant which her consistency was high while in
consensus, None of my friend ordered the dish before that caused the consensus is
low. Moreover, her Distinctiveness was high since she only ordered in the same
restaurant. The Covariation Theory assumes that she is caused by internal cause
perhaps she love the dish only from that restaurant and not others.
Next, The next scenario was my family and I went to my cousin
house for a visit, When my sister, Melanie Ch’ng saw a dog on the garden at my
cousin’s house , she was so afraid a run away while screaming at the same time and
her expression shows that she was frightened and shocked. Nobody reacted the
same way as my sister it was only her therefore, her consensus is high. Yes, She
acted the same way every single time there was any breed of dog nearby even on
public or roadside so distinctiveness was also high. She was scared of any dog
which her consistency was also high. Lastly, this shows that Melanie Ch’ng is cause
internally because nobody reacted the same way as she does.

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Furthermore, this scenario was in the lecture hall and lecture was on
going, as I saw a lot of student were sleeping and playing their smartphone. There
were some who was paying attention on lecturer’s slide and presentation. In
consensus perspective, Most of the students was playing on their smartphones,
while some were sleeping. Few students was only paying attention on the lecture.
A bunch of the student played their smartphone during different lecture and
lecturer. During lunch breaks some students played their smart phone at
restaurant. Therefore, the distinctiveness was also high. Every lecture scenario was
the same so that makes the consistency high. To conclude that the cause is from
externally and not internally.
Other than that, the scenario was my dad smokes every day after
meal. As a consensus, he behave the same way in similar situation which his
consensus was high. Then he always smokes anywhere after meal and anytime
during lunch and dinner too as a result, his distinctiveness was low. My dad
smokes in every time after meals , therefore the consistency was high.
Although the present findings confirm that causality can be
inferred by applying the principle of invariance, it should be realized that this
principle may sometimes lead to spurious inferences, because one cannot
guarantee that the cause inferred by applying the invariance principle is the only
factor that co-occurs with the effect .

10. PAGE 9
| Fritz Heider: Balance Theory |
Chapter 5
The balance theory is laid on people's "naive theory of action" - the
conceptual framework by which people interpret, explain, and predict others'
behavior. In this framework, intentional concepts played a central role. This is the
“surface” area of the psychology and the “deep” area for sociology: the common
sensual of an individual’s guiding behavior towards others; how an individual
perceives and analyze her conditions, other people, and their relations. One’s
behavioral change from liking to disliking is based on one of Heider’s propositions
stating that an individual tends to choose balance state in her interpersonal
relation. This is caused by pressure or tension that resulting from the imbalance
state in her interpersonal relations, which enforces someone to change her
sentiment relation toward balance formation or to lesser force or tension.
For instance, if I dislike Disney , but I like Alice and the wonderland
movie. I am P, Alice and the wonderland is O, and Disney are the X. The thought
or cognition “I like Alice and the wonderland” is represented by a plus sign
between P and O. Alice and the wonderland’s endorsement of Disney is shown by
the plus sign between O and X. My current attitude toward Disney is represented
by a minus sign between me (P) and Disney (X). Heider’s theory predicts that I
would feel uncomfortable when I realized that I was not balance between these
three elements: If I like Alice and the wonderland so much (P + O), and Disney are
great (O + X). Balance theory predicts that I would change one of my attitudes to
restore the imbalance. If I change my attitude toward Disney movie from a minus
to a plus, which is balanced.
There are other changes I could make to make it balance again. For
example, I could decide that I was wrong to like Alice in the Wonderland movie
which was changing P + O to P - O, a different balanced triad. Of course, Disney
hopes that isn’t the reaction I will have. Or, I could decide that Alice in the

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wonderland movie doesn’t represent Disney movie (changing O + X to O – X)
which would be triad 2, another, different, balanced triad.
One simple preference is that Balance Theory recognizes that
people sometimes notice inconsistent cognitions and that this inconsistency can
lead to attitude change. We don’t compare every thought we have to every other
thought, so at times we can have inconsistent cognitions and not know it.
However, when we are alert of inconsistency, that imbalance can lead to attitude
change. Heider was the first scholar to realize this and develop a theory to help
explain it.
One very important limitation is that Balance theory makes no
prediction about how imbalance will be resolved. Disney, of course, wants me to
change my attitude toward their movie and impression from negative to positive.
However, as noted earlier, there are at least two other changes I could make to
balance back. I could decide that I don’t like Alice and the wonderland, Yet
another balanced triad. Balance theory predicts that imbalance is disagreeable and
that I probably will do something to restore balance but it can’t predict which
thoughts or cognitions I will change. Congruity Theory was designed to correct
some of these limitations.
The social balance theory provides us a tool to analyze the social system
and how the sentiment relation among agents evolves to the balanced state.
Another useful development is by using the original model of Heider’s balance
theory about the balance between two persons and an object. That can strengthen
social interaction or solidarity or initiating the mitosis or separation of subgroups
in a social interpersonal networks.

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Reference
http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com/fragr_image/media/social
http://www.psychologyandsociety.com/motivation.html
http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-
binaries/54590_dovido,_chapter_1.pdf
http://diversity.arizona.edu/sites/diversity/files/stereotype_threat_overview.pdf
http://jeannetteenlightens.blogspot.my/2010/04/negative-effects-of-
stereotyping.html
http://www.cios.org/encyclopedia/persuasion/Ccongruity_theory_2heiders.htm