Journal

1. Name: Agnes Yeo Shu Yuan
Student ID: 0318668
Session: Monday, 4pm-6pm
Subject: Social Psychology [PSYC0103]
Course: Foundation of Natural Build Environment (FNBE)
Batch: August, 2014

2. JOURNAL 1
ENTRY 1:
I’ve learnt the concept of observational learning from psychology class. Observational
learning is learning that occurs through observing the behaviour of others. In the process of

3. watching others and imitates these actions himself, in psychology, this is known as
observational learning. When I was very young, during primary school, I had a maid that will
clean everything for my family. My brother would always leave his plate on the table after he
is done with his lunch or dinner. I was told by my parents to place my plate in the sink after I
am done eating. But, every time when my brother did that, my parents did not scold or nag
him. Hence, I think it is the right way to just leave it on the table after having a meal. So, I
actually learnt this bad habit from my brother as I have observed his action and followed him.
There was one day when my grandmother visited us and she had lunch with me and my
brother. She scolded my brother for leaving the plate on the table. I was afraid that she might
scold me too, so I placed it in the sink after I am done eating. From that day onwards, my
brother would place his plate in the sink. I, again, observed his behaviour and action,
followed him by placing my plate in the sink every time now. Since my brother is older than
me by 4 years, I always see him as my role model. Therefore, he plays an important role in
teaching me doing the correct things. I’ve learnt to place my plate in the sink through
observational learning by observing my brother’s behaviour.
ENTRY 2:
There is another experience that I have encountered when I was young, during 2nd
year of high school. I have learned how to make my bed every morning. I have a bad habit

4. where I always leave everything for maid to do. I never make the beds, not even mine every
morning when I am awake. There was one time when we sent our maid away and decided not
to hire maid anymore because I was big enough to take care of myself. I never once help my
maid with house chores because I was depending too much on her. Ever since my maid went
back to her home, my mom will have to do the house chores. When I was having my
holidays, I stayed at home almost for a week. There was one time I saw my mom making her
own bed, arranging the covers on her bed nicely and neatly. At the moment, I was thinking
that I should do the same thing, I should arrange my own covers on the bed so that it is clean
and neat. I observed how my mom folded the blanket and how she placed the pillows to make
it look neat. I have been cleaning my room after observing my mother’s behaviour and
action. I think that observational learning is very important in our life. Parents plays an
important role as well to educate their children, as children learn how to behave and respond
by observing how their parents acted.
JOURNAL 4
ENTRY 1:
I’ve learnt the concept of cognitive dissonance. The definition of cognitive dissonance
refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. This will lead to a

5. feeling of discomfort in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. When I was young, during
first year of high school, I started to love to eat sweet food. I will always buy a lot of candies
and soft drinks whenever I am shopping for grocery. My mom tried to stop me from eating
too much of sweets but I never once listen to her. There were many people who kept telling
me to stop eating so much of sweets because it is bad for health and it will lead to diabetes. I
told them that I don’t eat it every day and I even exercised four times a week so there is
nothing to worry about. I never listen to them even though I know that eating too much of
sweets are really bad for health. In this situation, I added an excuse to reduce the importance
of the cognitions which is telling everyone that I exercised to prevent diabetes. I was making
myself to feel better for eating too much of sweets by adding an excuse. By adding something
to reduce its importance of cognitions can be one of the ways to reduce dissonance.
ENTRY 2:
There is another situation in which I have experienced cognitive dissonance. I love to
play video games since young. My parents had scolded me for so many times for spending

6. five to six hours on my computer. They scolded me almost every day and asked me to stop
playing my computer because it is bad for my eyes. I did not care about the advice that my
parents gave, and continued playing computer even though I know that it is bad for my eyes.
I kept telling myself that I did not play that much compared to my friends where they could
play for the whole day. I told myself that not everyone who plays computer will have bad
eyesight. So I had convinced myself that spending five to six hours on computer will not
affect too much on my eyes. Hence, I have reduced dissonance in adding new information
that outweighs the dissonant beliefs. For example, I have been telling myself that not
everyone will get their eye affected when they spend so much time on computer. I was
making myself to feel more comfortable even though I know that I was wrong. The theory of
cognitive dissonance starts from the thinking that we only seek consistency in our beliefs and
attitudes where two cognitions are inconsistent.
JOURNAL 3
ENTRY 1:

7. I’ve learnt the concept of confirmation bias during psychology class. Here is an
example that I’ve experienced. During my second year of high school, I had this project for
science where I have to work with another 3 classmates. We were not allowed to choose our
own group members. However, one of my members, Josh, was very weak in science and he
always fail in exam. I was very upset and angry at the same time for having him in my group.
I really wanted to score well in the project but I felt very disappointed for having him in my
group as I thought that he won’t be able to be helpful in this project. Every time during the
discussion, I ignored his ideas and opinion on the project because I think that he is not smart
enough to give a good idea. In the end, my teacher liked his idea the most, and because of his
idea, we managed to get an A for the project. I was shocked at that moment. I realised that I
was wrong for being so biased. I think that I was biased in the beginning for thinking that he
will not be able to help us in this project because he was not smart in class. In this situation, it
is defined as confirmation bias. We tend to find evidence which matches with our beliefs and
ignore evidence that could disconfirm our beliefs. I rejected Josh’s idea because he is not
smart and will not be helpful throughout doing this project.
ENTRY 2:

8. There is another situation where I’ve experienced the concept of confirmation bias.
My parents once told me that smoking is for bad people. They told me that I should stay
away from people who smokes. From that day onwards, I will always think that people who
smokes are gangster and they are bad. When I was in high school, I realised that most of my
schoolmates smoke almost every day. Well, I stayed away from them and did not want to be
influenced. I have this friend from my class, his name is Daniel. I never wanted to be friends
with him because he loves to smoke. I have this thinking that people who smokes are bad and
I should stay away from them. I avoided him because I was afraid that he might influence me
and it will affect my grades. There was one day, when we received our results for the final
exams, I was shocked that Daniel was the only one who got straight A’s. I think I was being
biased as I thought he was a bad student and will not succeed in his exams. But I was wrong
and I felt bad for avoiding him and assuming that he was a bad student because he loves
smoking. I can relate this to confirmation bias as I only believed in what I want to believe. I
was being biased and I think that people who love smoking are bad and I want to believe that
Daniel is a bad student but he is not.
JOURNAL 2

9. ENTRY 1:
The definition of social facilitation is we will most likely to do better on a simple task
when other people are watching us and we would tend to do less well on a complex task
where we were being watched. I had been in this situation before and that was during
September, 2014. I can relate this when I was doing my Introduction to Design Project 1. To
be honest, I am not very good in sketching and I do not have any art foundation before this. I
was very scared and nervous when I received this project in which we have to produce 10
sketches. I felt comfortable when I was sketching at home alone and the outcome was good.
But there was a few times that we have to sketch during the tutorial classes where the lecturer
will guide you and watch you while sketching. I felt the pressure while being watched
because I am not very good at sketching. It was true that my sketches were not good
compared to the sketches that I did at home. I felt a lot more stress and was not able to do
well while being watched by my lecturer and it affected my performance.
ENTRY 2:

10. During my 4th year of high school, around the month of July, I was a prefect back then
and we have to come up with a proposal on how to improve the school discipline. We were
divided into groups to produce a proposal. Throughout the whole process of producing this
proposal, I realised that I did not put all my effort in doing this proposal. I was depending on
my group members to give some good ideas for the proposal instead of me thinking on how
to improve the school discipline. I realised that when it comes to an individual work, I will
put a lot of effort and spend most of my time doing it. In this situation, it is called social
loafing. Social loafing is the phenomenon which people exert less effort when working in a
group than when they work alone. I remembered that there were 8 of us in a group. 5 of my
group members worked very hard on this proposal whereas the other 3, including myself did
not contribute much on it. I did not put as much effort in a group work compared to an
individual work.
JOURNAL 5

11. ENTRY 1:
Operant conditioning is a way of learning which an individual’s behaviour is modified
through rewards and punishments. There are few components of operant conditioning,
reinforcement and punishment. When I just started primary school, I was very nervous when
it comes to exams. I told myself that I need to get good grades because my mom would
reward me with a present if I did well in every exams. I know that I will get rewarded if I do
well in my exams. Hence, I studied very hard on every exams so that I can get the present
from my mom as a reward for getting good grades. In this case, it is a positive reinforcement.
Reinforcement is an event that increase the behaviour. Positive reinforcement is adding
something to strengthen or increases the behaviour. By praising or reward someone will
increase the probability that the behaviour will continue in the future Mt mother is adding
something, which rewarding me if I get good grades. Study hard to get good grades is the
behaviour that I was showing. Therefore, this is a positive reinforcement.

12. ENTRY 2:
There was one time, during my last year of primary school, 2008. My whole class
planned to cheat for our history exam. We did not want to study because it was less important
during that time compared to other subjects. The teacher who taught us history is not that
strict so we decided to cheat when we are having out history test. On that day itself, some of
us took out the textbook to copy and I was discussing with my friend who was sitting beside
me. The teacher warned us but we did not care that time. He did not scold us but he called the
headmaster instead. The headmaster came in to our classroom and scolded everyone. He
canned each of us who cheated on the exam. In this situation, it is a positive punishment.
Positive punishment is a punishment which adding something to decrease the behaviour. Our
headmaster canned us so that we know cheating is wrong and we should not cheat next time.
The punishment that was given to us is canning to decrease the behaviour of us cheating.
Hence, this is a positive punishment.