1) The document describes an individual journal entry by a student about a minor car accident they had one week before starting their studies in Malaysia. 2) While driving back from a relative's house during Ramadan, the student chose an alternate route that had less traffic but accidentally collided with a motorcycle at an intersection. 3) After checking that their car sustained only minor damage, the student called an ambulance for the motorcyclist whose leg and wrist were broken. The student reflected that taking the original route may have prevented the accident, and that it could have been worse for both the car and motorcyclist.

1. Student Name: Abdullah Mamode
Student I.D.: 0319562
Group/Session: Monday 9 am - 11 am
Subject: Social Psychology
Subject Code: PSY 30203
Title: Individual Journal 3

2. Setting:
Took place on the Tuesday 15th
of July 2014 exactly one week before I come to
Malaysia for my studies.
Scene:
I had a minor car accident.
Counterfactual Thinking:
It was during the Ramadhan Month (Fasting Month), around 1hr pm, I took my father’s
car which was under maintenance and reparation to go to a relative’s house to get some frozen
snacks for Iftaar (Breaking of the fast). While going, I chose the easiest and fastest route to go
there. On my way back, I had two choice of different route to get back home. I think about
both routes for a while. The first route that came to my mind got actually very much traffic at
that particular time. So I chose to take the second choice which got less traffic. While driving
back, I came to a crossing road where I had to stop and check on both left and right side to get

3. to the opposite side of the road. I watched on the right side first as it was nearer to me, I could
see there was no car coming, so I watched on the left side and saw that two motorcycles and one
car coming, so I had to wait for a while. As both went across, I watched again on the right side
and saw that some motorcycles was waiting for me to go the opposite side, so not to take too
much of their time, I press the accelerator fast suddenly a motorcycle coming from the right
itself flipped with the front bumper of my car and fell down five to ten metres away. At that time
I told to myself: “Only if I took the other road that came first to my mind, I would reach home
a bit late, but I wouldn’t get into this accident which will now take much more of my time. This
is called Upward Counterfactuals.
After the accident occurred, the first thing that came to my mind was that I took the car
that my father was just putting money in that and was renovating it, if the car is much damaged
my father will rebuke me a lot and might not let me drive alone again even though I had my
Driving Licence. So the first thing that I did, I went outside and checked out how much the car
was damaged. But fortunately the bumper was not at all damaged, only that the plate number
fell down from the bumper. I was relieved a bit. Just after that, I went to check on guy who was
on the motorcycle, his right leg and left wrist hand was broken and needed immediate medical
assistance. And the man was kind of very angry with me.
For the car, I said thankfully nothing happened only that the plate number was fallen
down because the car could have damaged even more if in the place of the motorcycle there
was a car. And as for the man, I told him that he should be thankful that only one of your leg
and wrist hand got damaged, because worse than that could have happened to him. This is
called Downward Counterfactuals which means that I was saying this much happened it’s alright
because worse than that could have happened.
(547 Words)