Journal compile

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURA AND BUILD ENVIRONMENT
ASSIGNMENT 01
NAME: TAN JO LYNN
STUDENT ID: 0318518
GROUP/SESSION: MONDAY; 0800HR – 1100HR
SUBJECT AND COURSE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSYC0103]
LECTURER: MR. T. SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 10TH NOVEMBER 2014

Social Psychology Journal 01
Date: 4th September 2014 (Thursday)
Time: 1218hr
Self-Concept
Self-concept, the various beliefs you hold about yourself. As I was revising
the slides provided by the lecturer for the coming test, I realized I never really
did thought about my self-concept before. I started asking myself: ‘what is and
was my overall sense of me? Do the judgments of others affect my self-concept?’
As I was having thoughts about it, I found out that I have changed from time to
time.
When I was young, I was extrovert, outgoing girl who was not afraid of
anything. I was proud of myself as I learn things well and I am always better in
drawing compare to others although I have never been to any drawing lesson
before. I used to be the ‘leader’ of the gang of friends and I will always have an
idea for certain things. I knew the decisions I needed to make and I will always
speak them out. As I grew up, things changed. I became a person who has a total
opposite personality compare to what I used to be. I am shy. I do not speak about
or even dare to share my ideas until someone asked me. I do not know how to
make decisions until an emergency point of time. I became a follower instead of a
leader. I care more and more about how I appear in front of others both mentally
and physically as I been through quite a few of judgmental situation. I am
definitely not proud to be myself today.
Thoughts of the change made my heart sunk a little as I found out how a
society can change a child’s personality and their self-concept, as the
development of our identity are influence by the social group we are in. Social
influences’ impact is so hard on children nowadays that some of them start to
lose beliefs about themselves and degrade their self-concept. Incident like this
could be seen everywhere these days. As for example, models today are more or
unless in an anorexic situation. This caused teenage girls to think that is it
necessary to be in shape like them to be labeled beautiful; girls in bigger size and
shape became ashamed of themselves and start to go on diet. Some even chose to

not have proper meal, causing them to have unbalance diet and lead to all kind of
sickness.
Every one of us should have strong sense of believe in their self -concept
as it is what we are born with and that is what we are.

Self-Serving Bias
Recently, I found myself experiencing certain situation that I could really
relate to a topic I have learnt in my one Social Psychology classes, which is self -
serving bias. It is where people making positive attributions that allow us to see
ourselves in the best possible light. In other words, people in this situation tend
to take credit for success or people’s effort but not take responsibility for failure.
Unfortunately, we could easily find these people around us, in school and
in public. As a student, this usually happen when there is group assignment going
on. Announcing their great efforts and achievements but gave no credit to his or
her teammate. Or at times declaring their accomplishments even though they did
not even contribute 10% to the group work. This personality trait is commonly
tagged as bad character but it is also recognized as a necessity at times. For
example, a great leader is too humble and gave all his or her hard work and
success to all his or her teammate. This could result in teammates to loosen up,
thinking that the leader will supply everything that need and at the same time
taking all credits that do not deserve.
However, in my case, it is definitely a manner that I do not think I could
not put up with anymore further. Undergoing these situations during group
project was not just about taking in new experiences as a life lesson. It is a
suffering and stressful experience that you cannot complain, as it would spoil the
relationship among the team members and would degrade the productivity of
the teamwork.

Date: 10th October 2014 (Friday)
Time: 2314hr
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is an incident where people seek out data that support
their beliefs and disregard data that refute those beliefs. I suppose that most
people have encountered this specific situation innumerous times in their life. As
different individual have different personality, each of us doubtlessly will have
certain convictions and perceptions. And we will always fight for it as it is what
we believe. This causes arguments between individuals about what they think it
should be.
I believe most of us have watched the horror movie ‘Annabelle’ which was
filmed not long ago. Some of us were frightened by the scenes and were scared to
death but some were not. One of my friend complained that it is a bad movie and
definitely do not understand why people should be scared of a black ‘Spiderman’.
She said that is it so stupid that she laughed throughout the movie as it is not the
spirits and ghosts she believed to be exist as a Buddhist. She continued to insult
the movie and the beliefs of the Christians by saying how stupid they are.
Not because I am a Christians but as a Malaysian, I definitely do not
support her attitude towards this kind of situation. Her confirmation bias
incident does not seem right for me as people should not be criticizing other
religious’ beliefs. She could comment that it is not a very nice film because of the
story line or the horror scenes was not enough but not how stupid it is to believe
the existence and scared of demons and satans.

Emotional Expression
Emotional expression is the facial expression, eye movements and body
gesture of individuals. These expressions are important in revealing one’s
feeling, giving information non-verbally and showing one’s reactions towards
certain things. It is used in our daily routine and with today’s technology, we
could even use them while chatting on phone via SMS, Whatsapp etc. They are
called the ‘emojis’.
The understandings of emotional expressions are often used by us, the
students to predict the lecturers’ current feeling and emotion. To prevent
scolding and complains of the teachers or lecturers to the parents. We work
according to the emotional expressions shown on them and we gain experiences
each time we used this tactic.
What happened in one of my lecture will definitely shown the important
of emotional expression. It was when the lecture has started and our lecturer
was briefing our next project, if I am not mistaken. Every one kept quiet as we
observed and concluded that our lecturer was not in a very good mood and was
definitely not a good condition to have all fun and jokes like how we usually do.
But there were one of us did not seem to notice that. He was having his time and
playing around as usual. We dare not to speak and warn him but we did give him
stares and gestures that told him to sit and quiet look. The lecturer did not seem
to be caring at first but he enjoyed more as time passed. It was when he started
laughing so loud that the lecturer turned and gave him an ‘if you continue to talk
I will move my way there’ look. That was when he finally realized why we were
all giving him weird face expressions and signs. He sat down quietly at the corner
and the lecture continues in the awkward situation.

Date: 12th October 2014 (Sunday)
Time: 0117hr
Ambivalent Attitude
Ambivalent attitude is when one has mixed emotions, a time when one’s
attitude is both positive and negative at the same time. In other words, it is when
you are in the midst of two choices, certain decisions or feelings. I believe that
most of us have been through this kind of situation many times on their life, as
humans will always have contradiction in their daily routine.
As for me, a person who do not know how to make even a simple decision,
challenged by this specific problem almost everyday. For example, in the very
morning, the weather was too good to be awake. I was awakening by my mum’s
knocks on the door, as I need to leave for assignment meeting at 12 o’clock in the
afternoon. It was 10 a.m. in the morning, chilly weather. Air-conditioned room
with my cosy blanket and pillow, perfect condition for my nap after my sleep.
Positive reaction, high. Nevertheless, the contradiction was in the existent. The
idea of unfinished assignments and the undone planning needed for continuation
of work strikes my head. The negative reaction is high too. It was obvious that I
should be out of my bed as the progresses of the projects are more important but
I cannot resist it.
As the day reached the afternoon, when I finally got to campus and done
with the meetings and planning of work, here comes the decision of life. It was
between a Chinese restaurant and a Japanese restaurant. The contradiction
between was the feeling of me wanting to have spicy curry chicken and my
favorite salmon. I have thought about the restaurant we should have lunch in for
almost 30 minutes and finally decided by two of my hungry friend by playing the
‘scissors, paper, stone’ game.
Both situation shown ambivalent attitude and it happens not just for me
but every one else, as it is a natural human nature.

Observational Learning
Since the first day we came the world, we learn most of our knowledge by
observing things and occasions around us. Observational learning is when we
watch others engage in behaviors and repeat those actions. From an infant to an
adult, we learn and understand things from our parents and those who are
around us. We start to have facial expressions, speak, walk, run etc. All of these
are learnt by observational learning and this process does not end even when
you are fully grown, as the world will continue to develop and there is always
new things to be learnt.
For instance, the ‘first times’ we have in our life, like drawing typical one
draw star, buying a cup of coffee in Starbucks or learning special way of ordering
food in certain restaurant or café. It is most seen nowadays where the older
generations learning how to use the smart devices.
It was when my mum got her first smart phone, Samsung Note 3, and an
iPad. She is a slow learner and she easily forgets stuff. So after our third try of
teaching her, we gave up. Consequently, she began to learn by observing how we
use them. When we were using phone and chatting in the living room to get
better connection of Wi-Fi, she stood beside us and watched the way we use. She
often asked how could we type so fast on such small keyboard while she cannot
even type fast on the big ones. By observing and sometimes asking, she learnt
certain skills like how to download apps and how to change and insert
keyboards of different languages as days passed by.
Learning is a process that should not be stopped no matter what is your
age or what condition you are in.

Date: 19th October 2014 (Sunday)
Time: 1021hr
Counterfactual Thinking
Did you ever think of different consequences of certain incident, which
has already happened? Did you ever wonder what would happen if, your
decision and choices were different? I suppose that the answer is yes. We always
think about the if-s and imagine the desired after-effects we wanted.
Counterfactual thinking is a situation where people imagine different
outcomes for an event that has already happened. It is usually associated with
negative events and is able to improve or worsen our mood. There are two types
of counterfactual thinking, which are upward counterfactual and downward
counterfactual.
Upward counterfactual occurs when the outcome is negative. It was my
piano exam week but at the same time it was also my CNC project submission
week. Everything was coming into my way and so I left my planning for the
preparation for my piano exam aside. It was not a truly official exam but it was a
test that would allow me to move on to the next stage. So everything went on
well, except for my piano practices. It was only about 15minutes I spent in front
of my piano per day as I focused more on my project. Days passed and it was the
day of my test right after the day of the project submission. My hands were
shivering and my mind was half blank, at certain section of the song I could not
even remember how it was supposed to be. As for my aural, the tones of certain
notes were out and there were few rhythms I missed. The result was below
average and my teacher decided to have my lesson repeated all over again.
And here I go, started thinking about all the what-if-s and all the different
outcomes like IF I had practice more, IF I spent more time on my practices
instead of sleeping, IF I managed my time better etc.

It was an experience and a lesson I should learn. After being through this
situation, I will be more aware of my time management and make decisions
more wisely to avoid more counterfactual thinking.

Stereotyping
Stereotyping is when people assume all members of a group shares a
similar feature. It is a typical reaction or thinking and impression of a person
towards a certain group or an individual when they see them. Every one does
that as it is a society where people judge by your appearance and it also human
nature to ‘follow the flow’ of others around them, which creates the same feature
among the group of people.
By cause of me studying in an English based school for quite a long time, I
have lost the habit of speaking Mandarin in front of my friends or with others
around me. This result in people tend to think that I am a ‘banana’, a Chinese that
do not know how to speak Mandarin, although I have even taken Chinese in my
SPM and I have got a B+ for it. My mum reasoned that as I have stayed in the
condition that every one is English educated, the atmosphere has allowed me to
‘look’ and ‘feel’ like one of those who are English educated. Well, I was not fully
Chinese educated as well but I was definitely born in an Chinese based family. My
friends said that I do not even look like a SJK©, Chinese based primary school
student. They thought that I am a full ‘banana’ as I was so used to English that I
looked blur when they were speaking Mandarin, like other typical ‘bananas’.
There are few types of common stereotyping among the teenagers
nowadays. For example, the ‘LALAs’, named after the typical Chinese people, the
Malays, and the Bollywood. There are also people that could not be grouped in
any of them as they are just placed in the middle of nowhere.
Although stereotyping is frequently seen among the society but it does
not mean that we could frankly group a person as certain stereotype because of
what he is born with. For example, the most common mistake done by most of
the people nowadays, racism, or in cases around me it is more like color -ism.
Few of my generation I know and mostly the older generation judge people by
the color of their skin. People are not born racist, but are taught to be racist.

Date: 3rd November 2014 (Monday)
Time: 2223hr
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy is when we are the cause of our own expectation
to come true by illicit expected behavior from others. It is when the predictions
we made caused us to take certain action that result in the prediction to become
reality. I believe that everyone has been through situation like this before,
regretting what you have done that caused your previous forecasts to come true.
It was during the trial exams before the official SPM. We tend to stress
more for our forecast result compare to our official SPM result, as most of us
used it to apply colleges and universities so that we could go for the earlier
intake. However, trials are always harder than the real exam to boost the
motivation of students. Everything was fine for me, except for my Chinese
subject. As I was quite active in my co-curriculum activities and sports in school,
I tend to miss out all my Chinese classes that were carried out after school. It as
not placed in our proper timetable during school time as there were only few of
us took the subject Chinese for SPM and our school did not take into account
about it.
Hence, I did not give much attention to my standard of Chinese too until
the very last minute. If I am not mistaken, I only started to have my Chinese extra
lessons three weeks before my trials started. My tuition teacher even told me
that if you were able to even pass Chinese for your trials, it would be a miracle.
Hence, the end result was disappointing of course. I knew my parents were going
to be disappointed and angry. I was too afraid to show my parents the result,
especially my mum, I hid my exam paper and I informed them that I did not
receive the paper.
It was when they needed my forecast result to help me apply for
university, as to prevent going for NS by going in for the earliest intake. My mum

realized that I did not have my grade for Chinese. Hence, she went to my school
office to ask for it. She found out that the result was already out long ago and the
paper was in my hand.
So, everything ended up like what I have predicted. I got the scolding and
the lectures and the amount of extra lessons increased right after the incident.

Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is usually use by formal systems like schools,
universities, condominium committee, government etc. It is a technique where
people use reinforcement or punishment to strengthen or weaken a particular
behavior. Operant conditioning could be seen everywhere in this era as humans
are more civilized and knew the ways of controlling and guiding.
This happened to one of my friend. As she was on the way of going back
home, she lost her purse and she could not get into her apartment, as it is
necessary for each and every resident to have his or her resident card to gain
access into the apartment. She was informed to go to the management office to
create another card. The staff told her that if she were going to get a new card,
she would have to paid RM100 as fine and she will have to wait for one month
for the particular card. It was written clearly in the terms and condition list
behind the card that whoever that lose their card will be fined RM100.
As for her purse and other important documents like our Malaysian
MyKad, her driving license and her credit card, she was fined by certain amount
of money too and she was so angry and sad about it. She was complaining how
bad was her day and the money she lost for all these cards and documents.
The main purpose of the fines was not to gain extra money from the
citizens but to ensure them to be aware of their belongings. If every one could
have a new resident card easily right after they lose it, it would be tragic as there
will be tons of people queuing up outside the management office, requesting to
have a new resident card.

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