report

1. NAME: LEW QUO MING
STUDENT ID: 0322884
COURSE ID: PSYC0103
TITLE: INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL

2. Chapter 1 Confirmation Bias
Entry 1
Date: 15th October
After having attended my second lecture of social psychology, I’ve managed to learn
all sorts of things that I will never get to learn by myself such as the multiple perspective of
social psychology, the social facilitation, the main area of interest, etc. The thing that was
more intriguing to me was learning about confirmation bias. From what I understand of
confirmation bias, it is a type of cognitive bias that involves favouring information that
confirms and supports previously existing beliefs or bias and denying any information that is
against the existing beliefs. A short example of confirmation bias would be imagine that a
person holds a strong belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed
people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and also
creative, this could cause great importance as it further supports their belief and
discouraging that only left-handed are more creative than right-handed people.
An example for when I experienced confirmation bias would be in 2012, I had
enjoyed the performance of Chris Hemsworth since the movie, “The Avengers” and also
during his first solo movie “Thor”, so when I heard that “MARVEL STUDIOS” was releasing
another Thor movie starring Chris Hemsworth as the main character again I was excited and
eager to watch the movie. I constantly followed up the news of the filming and until the
official trailer, “Thor the Dark World” was released online, I anticipated highly of the movie
to not disappoint. Given that official release of the movie was during my midterm’s exams,
so I was not available to enjoy it. About two weeks after the release of the movie, I had
finally finished up all my exams and was ready to watch the movie in cinema. Given that this
is the age of technology, there are bound to be reviews and spoilers all over the internet
even just by turning on the Wi-Fi on my phone will pop up multiple notifications about
reviews on the movie. I did saw some non-spoilers reviews and heard some of the
comments about the movie from my friends who had already watched it. A number of
friends told me that they did not enjoyed it and the movie was not as good as they expected
it to be, I did not pay much attention to them and insisted that how can the studios that
brought us “The Avengers” which is one of the best and highest grossing movie of the

3. decade will produce a movie that had comments like these, I did not wish to believe them
and also did some research on the Internet for more information about the movie, I found
out that the movie received high ratings from critics on numerous sites so I chose to believe
in the ratings of those websites and purchase a ticket to watch the movie myself as I have
been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. The cinema theatre open and I
went in with expectations of my own believing that the movie will not disappoint. I went in
and finally realized that the movie was not as good as I originally expected it to be, it was
due to the fact that the movie contain a weak villain with no character development, the
coolest villain of the previous movie became an anti-hero, the plot of the movie was messy
as it was trying to focus more on expanding the universe rather than focusing on making an
individual filmand I did not enjoy it that much. This shows that confirmation bias was
applied when my friends told me the movie “Thor the Dark World” was not that good
compare to “The Avengers”, because originally I followed up on all the things related to the
movie from the production of the movie until the release of it and had the schema
implemented on me that the movie will be good because the original actor that I liked from
“The Avengers” and “Thor” Chris Hemsworth took the lead role and only blindly reading
articles which only benefits the movie.
Another example of how I experience confirmation bias is when I was in primary
school, I have this good friend and he was the best student in my class as well as in the
whole school. Half way throughout the fourth year of primary school, he started
disappearing from classes. I asked his friends and teachers about the reasons for his
disappearance and at first I thought he transferred to another school but they told me that
he has been hanging out with another student that is from the back classes and skipping
classes to hang out in an Internet café. At first when I heard this I was very confused and
shocked about this because in my mind, he was this straight A student that is very
hardworking and his personality doesn’t match his current attitude. During the start of the
fifth year in primary school, I confronted him about this and he admitted that he did all of
those things that I was told but could not accept. This also shows that confirmation bias was
applied when I was first being told by my friends and teachers about my friend’s activities
and chose not to believe due to the already implemented schema of him being a good and
smart student.

4. Chapter 2 Motivation
Entry 2
Date: 25th October
The thing that I find most interesting today in class was that there is a lot of meaning
within the word motivation. From what I understand of motivation, motivation is what
drives a person to take a certain action and it’s the inspiration for doing something. Without
motivation is just like without a goal as you will have no direction to work towards to and
accomplish very little. I learn that there are actually two types of motivation one being
extrinsic motivation and the other being intrinsic motivation.
To my understanding and extensive research, extrinsic motivation would be referring
to the performance of an action or behaviour in order to achieve a reward or good
outcome. When an individual is extrinsically motivated to do something, they are not
concerned with the enjoyment of performing the action or displaying that behaviour but
only focus and more concerned towards the final outcome associated with that action. This
concept is more towards the line of doing something just to avoid punishment. An example,
all secondary student currently have to be in school before 7.30 due to the new education
system to combine all forms together in the morning to have classes. Given that most of us
do not enjoy waking up early on weekdays, but we know the consequences of waking up
and arriving school late would be. So we are extrinsically motivated to wake up early in
order to avoid any punishment of being late. Another example would be that ever since I
started practicing martial arts at the age of 13, my parents kept pushing me to train harder
and win competitions to get a sports scholarship when I enter university. So given that I was
doing quite ok in my studies, I decided to do my best and get at least both the scholarship so
that it will be cheaper or even free when I enter university. In order to get the sports
scholarship, I have to compete and win at least gold medals in multiple national tournament
to get recognize for the scholarship. After much training throughout the years, I was able to
secure the medals and certificates to allow me to apply for a sports scholarship. This shows
that I was extrinsically motivated to do something that I actually did not really enjoy which is
practicing martial arts because it was very torturing for me but I was more focused on
getting the sports scholarship to lower my tuition fee when I get to university.

5. While extrinsic motivation is about only focusing on the final outcome, intrinsic
motivation would sort of be the opposite of it as it is about performing an action or
behaviour because a person enjoys the activity and the process. The inspiration for acting
on intrinsic motivation can be found in the action by itself. For example, people enjoy
reading fictional books for the sole purpose of enjoying themselves to interesting stories
that they prefer. Other examples such as a few months ago, I visited an orphanage house
along with my friends. We were there to help and enjoy ourselves with the kids there as
they rarely have the chance to meet outside people. Even though we are able to claim
scholar hours for those who are scholarship holders that are attending this event, we
focused more having a good time assisting and playing with the children there. We do this
not to fill in the hours but also gain experience and learning about how fortunate we are as
these kids face this sorts of problems every day of their lives. After this event, I started to do
more community service to help people that required it. Another example, for one my high
school projects, my team and I had to do a research study on why high school students in
my school wants to join the school’s cheerleading team called “MickeyMitez”, it was a
cheerleading team that has boys and girls. My team interviewed a lot of students from
different age and classes on why they want to join the school’s cheerleading team. Around
40 percent of the students told us that they joined because they want increase their
popularity status, getting more medals for themselves and the most common answer was to
increase their chances on getting a sports scholarship for when they enter college. The other
60 percent of students joined because they enjoy performing for others, they think that it is
fun and because they love the challenges they get from joining the school’s cheerleading
team. The reasons that the 60 percent of students gave are an example of what is intrinsic
motivation.
Aside from that example, another example to explain intrinsic motivation would be
when I was around 7, I had the hobby of collecting different stamps from all over the world.
I know that collecting stamps in this day of age could be considered dumb but back in the
early 2000 it was still quite popular among kids in my area. My parents were both business
people so they had to travel around the world for business work and they would help me
purchase some stamps from the country that they were in. The reason for collecting stamps
was because I enjoyed its unique design for each every one of those stamps, I used to have

6. different folders for all the types of stamps I collected like dinosaurs and space types. It was
very pleasurable for me collecting stamps. Even though now maintaining a quality collection
of stamps can produce a financial gain, this was not enough to motivate me at that time
that was intrinsically motivated to collect stamps. I collected stamps because it was
something that was fun and enjoyable for me, even though it has the potential to produce
an external reward now.

7. Chapter 3 Stereotyping
Entry 3
Date: 1st November
Stereotype is a word that I hear all too often whether it is in school or in social media,
there will always appear this word. I did not fully understand the meaning of it until my
social psychology class came and helped me understand it better. To my current knowledge
and my research on the topic, stereotypes are the beliefs about people based on their
membership in a particular group. Stereotypes can be positive, negative, or neutral.
Stereotypes based on gender, ethnicity, or occupation are common in many societies. By
stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we
assume all members of that group have. Stereotypes lead to social categorization, which is
one of the reasons for prejudice attitudes which leads to in-groups and out-groups. Most
stereotypes probably tend to convey a negative impression. Looking at stereotyping in
accordance to our nature as humans, we could say that it is normal because as human
beings we cannot stop ourselves from looking around and observe things. However, if we
are to dissect on why it is so easy for us to assume the entirety of the person just by having
a quick glance at him or her, it is because of these two main reasons: past information and
generalization. Past information allows us to make assumptions because of the past
experiences and prior knowledge that we possess, thus helping us know how he or she will
think and act. On the other hand, generalization is the manner of applying that assumption
to the entire being, forgetting or even ignoring the fact that he might be different from our
assumptions.
I learn that there are many types of different example of stereotypes. Most common
would be viewing people according to their race and culture background. For example,
Western countries perceive Asians as the mathematics geniuses who can calculate and solve
the mathematical problems with a blink of an eye. This is partially a fact, because Asians
have superior mathematics than the non-Asians. But it does not necessarily mean that they
have an excellent mathematical knowledge on an absolute scale. Asians are taught in a way
that they always have to stress more on their studies and constantly practice all the time
until they get to score brilliantly. Another example would be that TV shows like “Family Guy”
and “The Simpsons” projected that male Americans are believed to be obese, lazy and
always hanging in bars and in both of these shows, the main character Homer Simpson and
Peter Griffin are the personification of the said stereotype. Most of the Malays or other
races in Malaysia constantly have the same mind-set that people from other races would
not understand their language, such as Chinese people think that Indians and Malays did not
know how to speak and understand in Mandarin. I had experience this a few times but the
one that I remembered the most was when I was in high school, I had this Malay teacher
that was a new teacher that recently just started teaching in our school. One day during
class, while she was teaching, a group of Chinese students were constantly insulting her in
Mandarin because she punish them for not completing their homework. They kept on
talking bad and insulting her in Mandarin until she got really mad and scolded them in

8. Mandarin. Everyone in class was so shocked that she understands and even speaks
Mandarin, she took the group of Chinese students to see the discipline teacher and even
called up their parents. This happened because as mentioned just now, the mind-set that
only Indians knows Hindi, only Chinese know Mandarin, and only Malays know Bahasa
Melayu gave them the misconception that they could talk bad behind others back.
Another form of stereotyping would be generalization of people according to their
gender. This stereotyping is a sensitive topic since there has been a constant battle between
the sexes because of the misconceptions that are correlated with gender. For example,
gender stereotyping in the animated world are no better than those in live action movies.
Gender stereotyping are very prominent in Disney movies as usually the female heroine is
either a princess, a queen or a homemaker. In the older Disney films, the princess was
always the damsel-in-distress who waited for her prince to save her. Another example, let’s
take a classic Disney movie Aladdin as example: the main male protagonist of the movie,
Aladdin, is portrayed as independent, assertive, intelligent, and resourceful. On the other
hand, Jasmine, the main female protagonist, is emotional, tentative, romantic, affectionate,
sensitive, frail, passive and weaker than Aladdin. Not only that, she is depicted as one of the
weaker characters of the movie.
An example of me experiencing gender stereotyping would be when I was in high
school. We are required to choose a new head of the class every year. Students would
volunteer themselves or called out others name to be nominated. But given that was it was
the final year of high school, nobody wanted to be the head of class fearing that they would
be too busy and not having enough time to cope with their studies as the topics in each
subjects are relatively harder compare to the other years in high school. Both of my friend
volunteered to take the position so we had to vote on who is the more capable person to
handle the job. But before we got to even vote, the teacher just chose my friend who is a
guy over the other student who wanted the position which is girl. We were all shocked as
we all knew that the girl was more capable than the guy in my class but it all comes down to
what the teacher’s decision. When we asked him on why he chose the guy to be the head of
class, the teacher told us that usually guys are more capable in leading rather than girls. This
is when I found that even gender stereotyping was applied in schools.
Given all the description above, stereotyping has both good effects as well as bad
effects. Good in a way that we had a general idea on how a certain individual may think and
act. Bad in a sense that it leaves a bad impression to a particular group of people. Giving an
excuse to judge people in accordance with the group he or she is classified in. Thus, not
allowing us to know the person for who they truly are because we are too blinded by their
stereotypes that we fail to acknowledge that everybody is unique.

9. Chapter 4 Self-Serving Bias
Entry 4
Date: 4th November
The self-serving bias is one of the concept that I liked because somehow it relates to
me. The self-serving bias refers to our tendency to take personal credit for success while
blaming outside sources for our failures. Essentially, we tend to believe that our successes
are due to internal qualities and talents, while our failures are caused by variables outside of
our control. For example, if someone were to ace an exam, it was because they studied
really hard for the exam. If they had failed the exam, they would most likely blame the
teacher on not explaining the subject properly during classes or because your friends kept
on disturbing you studying a week before the exam.
I find it that it is only in our human nature to react this way as not everyone is cut out
to be perfect and most of us are unable to accept our own faults. A number of factors
contribute to self-serving bias. It is usually born out of an internal need for self-
enhancement, the desire to uphold one's own worth, and self-branding, the way in which
one is seen by others. Individuals with higher self-esteemtend to have greater self-serving
bias than those who have low self-esteem. The self-serving bias is also less likely in older
adults. Self-serving bias is always shown at a daily basis, like when a footballer misses an
open goal for the team, instead of blaming himself for not controlling the ball properly, he
blamed the field was unbalanced and caused him to slip on the field.
This concept relates to me best because during my studies in high school, I was
classmates with this guy that was extremely cocky and arrogant in class. He always used to
boast about how he managed to get high marks in exams and continuously looked down on
others results when comparing them. He was also quite selfish like whenever a student
needed help and proceeded to ask him to help out, he would often just ignored or insult
them badly. I admit that his results were good but his attitude would be the total opposite
of his results. In classes, he would often talk loudly to his friends and not pay any attention
to the teacher’s teaching because he said that he already learned about it in tuition. When
the results of the SPM trial paper came, he mange to get all A’s and continuously brag about
how smart he is to everyone. As SPM was closing in, rather studying for it, he was mostly
enjoying his time but going on trips and hanging out in the Internet Café near the school
because he was so confident that he is going to get the same results as his SPM trial papers.
After a week of siting through SPM papers, he started complaining about it being so tough
and proceeded in blaming the teachers and tuition for giving the wrong tips to study for
SPM. The results were released and he was extremely furious about his results. He kept on
blaming about the teachers intentionally giving the wrong tips to study and to whoever was
marking his papers. The self-serving bias concept was applied when he got bad grades and
was not fully prepared for the exam, he blames the teacher for giving the wrong tips and
accuses the marker for marking his paper wrongly thinking that only his answers are correct.

10. Another example of self-serving bias happened when I was with my friend together
about to take the driving examination earlier this year. After around 30 minutes, I managed
to complete the driving course and passed the examination while my friend was still waiting
for her turn to come. I sat down at the waiting room to wait for her and also see how she
will go through the examination. Unfortunately she failed her examination when she failed
to complete one of the courses which is handling the slope. She was furious throughout the
journey back to her house complaining about how it was the car’s fault and not her skills.
Apparently she did not have any practice driving the course and just thought that she could
easily pass this exam. A few weeks later, having already obtaining my license, I drove her to
take the examination. She was actually more confident as she told me that she has been
practicing for quite some time and has the confidence to pass the examination this time. I
sat down and waited for her to complete her course and to see whether her hard work paid
off. She eventually did pass and was extremely happy with the results, she also said that she
should have practiced the last time so that she doesn’t have to come all the way here again
and pay more to sit through the exam again. The self-serving bias appeared when she failed
her driving examination and instead of blaming herself for not practising enough, she
blamed the car for not functioning properly. However at the end, she managed to get her
license through her own hard work in practicing.

11. Chapter 5 the Mere Exposure Effect
Entry 5
Date: 7th November
Chapter 5 of social psychology was very interesting for me as I finally learn about
what is the mere exposure effect. This concept was always implemented into funny memes
that was seen in social media and was very popular then. The mere exposure effect means
that objects better liked with repeated exposure as we tend to like things more when they
are become familiar to us. For example, the more often a person sees a celebrity or brand,
the more likely they are to love them, even when they don’t admit to it. This is where the
mere exposure effect comes in and this may be why some of today’s biggest stars have
extremely die-hard fans. The mere exposure effect can be very useful in marketing, as many
forms of advertising can be used to create a feeling of familiarity with the product. The
messages that the ads are presenting are not likely to have a huge effect on the way we
think about the product being advertised. However, just hearing the name of the brand is
enough to find the product more attractive the next time we encounter it.
As for my experience on the mere exposure effect, in 2011, there was concert in
Sunway Pyramid called “MTV World Stage”, it features multiple singers from other countries
and even local artist to perform their music. The most popular artist that performed was
Katy Perry. So when the first few artist came and perform, the crowd appreciated them but
was only just waiting for the main star. But when she did perform at the end, the crowd was
even more hyped up than before. The reaction of the crowd and even myself are an
example of the mere exposure effect. Given that the other artist aren’t the worst compare
to Katy Perry but, she was much more popular and familiar so we prefer her and her music
better. Songs are usually the cases of the mere exposure effect is when a new song pops
out, it is played in every major station available so the more you hear of the song, the more
you will be familiar with it and enjoy it.
Anime nowadays have been extremely popular compare to before, it has become a
worldwide sensation. I used to always follow on the latest anime series back when I was in
high school and would always be talking about it with my group of friends. As time goes by, I
started losing interest in anime as the latest series was all kind of boring compare to the
older ones. In my final year of high school, I stopped watching all anime series and switched
back to watching American comedy shows. Going into college, I thought that there will not
be much people watching anime series let alone talk about it openly. I was shocked to find
out there was anime club in my college and a lot of students were apparently talking about
the latest anime series. Usually in most of the conversation between my groups, there will
surely be mentioning about a particular anime series and everyone will be proceeding into
continuing the topic. So whenever they were going into that territory, I will be playing with
my phone or at least try to understand what they are talking about. Knowing that I stopped
watching anime, they proceeded in encouraging me into going back to watching anime
again. The current anime series that everyone has been talking about was an anime series
called “One punch man”. They kept saying that this series was amazing, awesome and fun.

12. They kept convincing me to watch it but I refused until everywhere I go, there will surely be
other people talking about it and promoting it. So I was influenced by all of those factors
and proceeded into watching that anime series. The mere exposure effect happened when I
got more and more familiar with the anime series as I was influenced by everyone around
me promoting it and encouraging me to watch it. Now I enjoyed the series more because I
am more familiar with it through multiple times of exposure.
Another example that the mere exposure effect happened when I was watching
“How I Met Your Mother”, a popular sitcomabout five young adults in New York and their
relationships, the episode talks about the mere exposure phenomenon in full effect, when
one the main characters hired a female assistant that does not look as attractive compare to
others. According to one of the main characters, he said that men will eventually feel
sexually attracted to women simply by spending more time with them, even if they initially
don’t find these women attractive at all. After watching that episode, I start to think back on
when my friend decided to start a relationship with another friend simply because they
were in the same group project. During high school, for one of my class project we are
required to find a partner to team up with. My friend was late for class and had no choice
but to partner up with this girl that he hardly ever talks to. He mentioned that his partner
was not as attractive compare to other girls and wished that the project quickly ends so that
he doesn’t have to meet her anymore. As time goes by, they were extremely close even
after the group project has been completed. Apparently they have formed a love
relationship when they bonded through the group project. The mere exposure effect took
place when the time they spent together as friends slowly led to an increase of attraction
and intimacy as my friend did spend a lot of time alone with her in doing the group project
while slowly developing feelings towards her.