Journals Final PDF

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT ENVIRONMENT
!!
NAME: TAM ZHAO WEI
STUDENT ID: 0322587
ASSIGNMENT TITLE: INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL
MODULE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
MODULE CODE: PSYC0103
SESSION: MONDAY 10.00AM BATCH
LECTURER: T. SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Social Psychology : Journal 1 - Social Loafing
In the social psychology of groups, social loafing is the phenomenon of people
exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work
alone. In 1883, Max Ringelmann conducted a study from which he concluded that an
individual’s performance actually gets worse in the presence of others. This phenomenon
is very common in our present society despite age, gender, races, classes and etcetera.
Social loafing often occurs in group work when there are more than a few people involved.
There are a few of my own experiences that can show social loafing.
I’d say that I truly encounter social loafing when I reached Taylor’s University. In my
course, Foundation in Natural and Built Environment, it is an assignment based course.
This means that almost 80 percent of work are of assignments but not examination. There
was once a project, I forgot which project it was, I was grouped in a group of six. Among
the six people, there are only two of my friends. The other three were new friends to me. At
first I thought that group would be much easier as there will be more people helping out
each other. But it was just an imagination. When the assignment goes on, I slowly found
that the three of them are not helping at all. Only me and my the other two friends were
busying for the assignment. I was quite annoyed then. After that we had a serious talk with
them and they did a promise saying that they’ll give a hand in the assignment. Obviously,
they didn’t. Then, I heard rumours saying that they don’t want to help out in the
assignment because there were already three people doing it which are me and my two
friends. Outrageous! Luckily I got to evaluate them after the submission. Thank God for
that. In this case, social loafing took place. The three of them saw us giving our best in the
assignment and hence they think they can just relax and do nothing and count on us.
There was another example from my experience. I had one friend, I’ll just call him
John since it wasn’t that convenient to reveal his real name. John is the kind of person
who gives his very best in doing individual work but when it comes to group work, he gives
least contribution. Why is he doing so? Simple. It’s because he knew he could count on his
group mates and hence he didn't have to worry much of it. It’s a group work, it means that
everyone gets the same mark after the submission. The one who contributes the most got
a grade A, so as the one who contributes least. John had this mind set at first. But after a
week, the lecturer posted a peer evaluation form and that was when John first whatsapp
the group to ask what he had to do. Ever since this incident, nobody wanted to group with
Tam Zhao Wei 0322587

John because every one knows that John makes less efforts when there’s people helping
him out. This is social loafing.
Furthermore, social loafing can bring negative consequences to both the individual
and the group. For example, there was a group of four which my friend Stephen was
involved a month ago. If you never know that every group is of minimum four people, you’d
thought that Stephen was in a group of two. I wasn’t joking around. This is serious. I as a
friend, had always seen him doing the group project all alone or sometimes with another
partner of his. It was sad to see him doing the all the work of four people. Social loafing
sure gave him a critical strike. His group members were never punctual for any meetings.
Some even didn’t come for meetings. This is because they thought Stephen could do all of
the work by himself. As a result, the outcome of the project was not as good as Stephen
hoped. He didn’t managed to do the best as he was busy with the annually held
architecture workshop at Lim Kok Weng University. It was a last minute work because his
members were not making any progress when he wasn’t around. The lecturers
commented negatively on their work. In this case, it proved that social loafing can cause
negative outcome to an individual or a group.
Lastly, social loafing occurs due to the group size. Research finds that, the larger the
group, the more likely it is that social loafing will occur. There was this incident that
happened few months ago. I was arranged in a larger group that consists of ten people.
Because of the large amount of people in the group, some of the group members tend to
hide themselves and totally ignore their responsibility held towards the group. They never
come for meetings, never did their assigned jobs, never took initiatives to help out the work
in the group. Why? This is because they knew that the group have another nine people to
pick up the slack. They think that a person slacking won’t give big impact to the outcome of
the project. They knew that in order to get good grades, their group mates will still give
their best to cover their zero contribution. They will all get the same grades anyway.
Hence, they just do nothing and await their dream grades. This is all due to social loafing.
Social loafing occurs when people are performing a task as part of a group and
individual efforts cannot be identified. Just because individual efforts cannot be identified,
they don’t have to worry not making any contributions to the group. Nobody will ever know
if the outcome is still perfect. Every one will only remember that the group did a great job
but not knowing who actually did the “great job”. This is how and why social loafing occurs.
(994 words)

Social Psychology : Journal 2 - Extrinsic Motivation
In the second lecture of the module, Social Psychology, I was first exposed to further
understanding on the word “motivation”. There are two types of motivation which are
intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as an individual
performing an action or behaviour because he or she enjoys the activity itself. Whereas
extrinsic motivation means that one performs an action or behaviour for the sake of some
external outcomes. I personally undergone both the motivation above and I would like to
explain some of my previous experiences on the extrinsic motivation.
It happened when I was still in primary school, at age nine or ten if I wasn’t mistaken.
I had one very strict science teacher that we named him Mr. Strict who always carries his
rattan stick as to punish those naughty students. To him, a naughty student is one who
doesn’t brings the books that he had reminded to bring, one who doesn’t enter class on
time and had no valid reasons, one who makes noise during his class, one who doesn’t
hand in the given exercise on time and many more. The incident is pretty typical for a
Malaysian primary school student though. Everyone was afraid of that Mr. Strict of course.
Therefore, everyone in the class including those playful ones would give hundred percent
attention during his class. Nobody ever dared to disobey him as his rattan stick would
definitely give no mercy on our tender palms. I call this an extrinsic motivation given by Mr.
Strict because some of the students who obeyed him were not from the bottom of their
heart. They were afraid of being punished by him. It wasn’t because they like the module
or they like him neither. Hence, in this case, an extrinsic motivation is said to be given by
Mr. Strict to me and my friends.
Next, an incident that happened to practically every teenagers I supposed. A gamble
between me and my beloved parents on what I got for return if I got a good grade in
exams. This is a very popular or I would say common incident during my study days. It
was in 2012, when I was 15 and was about to face the second government examination,
Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR). I remembered I offered a gamble with my parents
saying that if I got how many As and above I got this and that. My parents they agreed as
a way to motivate me. The gamble really did motivate me. I put all my heart in studies.
Months later, the results was as what I dreamed for and I got my prize. Another example of
extrinsic motivation but in a another way. This extrinsic motivation worked not because of
the presence of any punishments but a specific reward.

Extrinsic motivation is not always useful to everyone. It depends on how one uses it
and to whom one uses on. I encountered an incident that best represent the above
statement. The incident happened when I was still pursuing education at Kuen Cheng High
School. There was this case where one of my friend, from those so called “bottom classes”
who had a serious argument with his Bahasa Melayu (BM) teacher. It was because he
didn’t finish his work on time and was falling behind in his studies. Therefore, the BM
teacher forced him to stay back late after school in order to complete his assigned work
and if he refuses to do so, he would get a warning letter from the disciplinary office. A
student like him was so definitely not afraid of getting a warning letter. So, he didn’t stay
back to do his work. This caused the BM teacher to get so mad that she brought him to the
disciplinary office right away on the other day. This case took almost a week to settle and it
was one hot topic then. Relating the case to extrinsic motivation, the BM teacher gave an
extrinsic motivation to a rather stubborn student and it turned out useless on the student
due to his stubborn and disobedience personality.
Lastly, the timing to use extrinsic motivation as well plays a very important role for the
outcomes. The statement can be explained by an incident I experienced during my
university life. It happened a few months ago, when I was still in my first semester. This
foundation in natural and built environment is not an easy course, I would say so. This is
because the number of submissions tend to get so fully packed during the mid and end of
the semester. Unfortunately, there was that one week, week 14 if I’m not mistaken, there
was a total of two major submissions and a few major tutorial classes. All of the lecturers
were demanding progress from the students. And if there’s no progress shown, the
students would get no marks for his or her progress marks. Hence, all of the students had
to work out few module’s progress to be shown during tutorial classes while rushing for the
submission. It was a freaking tired week. Therefore, some students didn’t managed to
show their progress to the lecturers and they were absent during the tutorial classes. This
incident shows that the extrinsic motivation given by the lecturers was not working
because there was this wrong demand at the wrong timing.
All in all, extrinsic motivation can be used to motivate one to pursue certain goals but
it has to be used wisely. The target and timing are two major considerations of using it. I
learnt that I’ve encountered extrinsic motivation in my past and it will be accompanying me
in the future as to make me a better person.
(960 words)

Social Psychology : Journal 3 - Stereotyping
In aspect of Social Psychology, a stereotype is basically defined as a simplified and
standardised conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by
members of a group. It is caused by the action stereotyping which means to give a fixed
form to a particular person of a group. Stereotyping is one behaviour that everyone may
encounter in their daily lives. This action helps us to categorised people into different
groups according to their personality, appearance, habits, attitude and etcetera.
When I first started my primary school education at age seven, I was arranged in a
“middle class” where all students are with the not-so-bad and not-so-good standard. In that
class, I made friends with those with common features as I did including having the same
hobby, same idol, similar personality and so on. I tend to keep a distance with those
having contrasting features with me. For example, girls that were really girly that they
have to speak with that high-pitched slang. I really cannot get along with this kind of girls
even until now. To me, girls who purposely raise their pitch when they speak really did a
great job to annoy me. Every time I met girls like this, I would say to myself, why this
affectation. Deep in my mind, there was a sound murmuring “these girls are all
hypocritical, not worthy, not sincere …”. This is how I stereotype all girls with high-pitched
voice. Hence, I didn’t really approached them and make friends with them.
Next, there was this incident which my parents were both involved in it. I made
friends with a few playful kids when I was young. They were called “the Mischievous”
because what they did at school was just having fun. Homework, exercises were never in
their consideration list. I bet “have fun” is the only goal to their everyday school lives.
Anyhow, we became friends. I don’t quite remember how we became friends but we were
great pals. Just saying that, I still did my part as a student even though I befriended them.
But what my parents see in this case was that I slacked in my study because of “the
Mischievous”. They assumed that “the Mischievous” was affecting my study attitude and
was leading me to a deadly path. I’d say that my parents were really creative when come
to imagining negative stuff. They forced me to unfriend “the Mischievous” but of course I
refused to do so. We had a serious argument. All thanks to the random meet up at
McDonald, my parents and I spotted them revising and studying at the corner. This totally
changed their attitude towards them. They apologised for being such irrational that they
stereotyped “the Mischievous” with those evil gangsters and teens.

Sometimes, stereotyping can be of the positive side. I’ve encountered a case when I
was in my high school. There was this one girl who appeared to be very popular among
the guys because of her appearance. Yes, I’d admit that she really do have the face of an
angel. Pretty, I would say. We were friends as well. When days goes by, I slowly found that
she wasn’t as perfect as everybody think she was. Her personality was a big contrast with
her beautiful appearance. It’s because she put great effort in hiding her negative behaviour
in front of the people she wanted to impress. I realised this when we spent time together. A
few of my friends as well noticed this “dark side” of her but we just kept quite because we
didn’t want to raise any more gossip topics. But things got a bit tangled up when our friend,
Adrian fell for her. He was so madly in love that he refused to accept our advice to him. To
him, she was the flawless goddess. She was too perfect to him. Even though he heard of
her negative news, he ignored them. He was too blind to see the true side of his goddess.
From this incident, we knew that Adrian stereotyped the pretty girl to the his goddess. It
was difficult for him to let go of his belief and faith towards her and accept the negative
side of her. This is called the perseverance effect caused by stereotyping.
Lastly, stereotyping of a person occurs when one has common features with a
particular group of people. A previous experience of mine can best reflects the above
statement. I have a group of fabulous, fantastic, marvellous and superb pals. We became
friends when we were at the age of 14. Knowing them is the best thing I ever had in my
entire life. It’s a group of five including me. We’ve been through so many things together
during high school. We find happiness through small little things and we can laugh at it for
a very long time. The main reason we got to get along that good is because we share the
same interest, have similar perspective on things, have similar personality. Maybe we
didn’t have that much of similarities at first. But when we spent time together, we started to
accept being a part of this small group. Slowly, five of us turned to be really great friends.
The action stereotype happened among us. We find that we are of the same kind of
people and think that it’s comfortable to get along with each other. Hence, our friendship
strengthened. We are still very best friends until today.
In conclusion, stereotype can happen among ourselves and the people around us. It
is a way we categorised people and decide who to befriend and who to keep a distance
with. Stereotyping helps us to determine different kind of people of a particular group.
(972 words)

Social Psychology : Journal 4 - The Halo Effect
The halo effect is a a type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a
person influences how we feel and think about his or her character. Essentially, one’s
overall impression of a person impacts his or her evaluations of that person's specific
traits. For a quick example, Tom met a nice girl and eventually he thinks she is also
intelligent, kind and understanding because he learnt that the pretty ones are the good
ones and the ugly ones are the not-so-good ones since young. The halo effect as well
speaks to the importance of a good first impression. It can occur without our active
awareness. There are a few realistic examples that I’ve gone through.
One great example to show the halo effect is our overall impression towards
celebrities. This incident happened when I was at age ten, I was a big fan of Johnny Depp
This is because he played the role Jack Sparrow in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean
which was one of my favourite movie of all. I liked how Johnny Depp brought the character
Jack Sparrow to life by his superb acting skills. Hence, I was so into Johnny Depp that I
think he was a very intelligent, hilarious, generous, loving, caring person. My perception
towards him was all because he played the role Jack Sparrow and I insanely liked his
character and personality. In the movie, Jack Sparrow is a smart, amusing, daring person.
Unconsciously, I related Johnny Depp to the fictional character Jack Sparrow. This is how
the halo effect occurred. I perceived Johnny Depp as a great person because the
character he played, Jack Sparrow is a great person.
High school incident. I had a friend named Lee who lost his father a year ago. His
father died of cancer. We expressed our deepest mourning to him as friends. This news
then spread among the whole class. After that, even students from the other classes knew
it. Everybody shows sympathy to him by giving him consolation. In this case, we see the
spreading of the halo effect starting from Lee’s close friends, then the classmates, lastly
the students from other classes. The feeling of sympathy spread along with the halo effect.
When one sees a person expressing sympathy towards Lee, they followed the act and do
it as well. This is the halo effect. It started within a small circle and eventually it spread to a
larger circle. The halo effect caused people to feel sorry for Lee even though some might
not be Lee’s friend.
Moreover, the halo effect is often determined by first impression. A good first
impression might brings about a positive halo effect but on the other hand a bad first

impression might results in a negative halo effect. In psychology, first impression is the
event when a person encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person.
It is not deliberate, not formed by watching others’ actions. It is an instantaneous act that
researches find that only 10 seconds are needed for one to form his or her first impression
towards a person. Why do statement says that first impression can brings about halo
effect? For example, I saw a quirky guy who walked the same corridor as I did at my high
school. The first time I saw him, he had that grumpy, annoyed, angry face on him, a messy
untidy hair and he wore yellowish-brown uniform with dirty shoes. Bad first impression. I
thought this guy must be an aggressive kind of person or maybe a psycho path? Who
knows. The guy who gave me a bad first impression stimulated me to develop negative
opinions towards him. This is because his appearance matched those typical badasses I
saw from television shows. The halo effect occurred when my friends perceived him as a
badass like I did. Without awareness, I affected their perspective towards the guy.
Lastly, the halo effect is said to occur without our active awareness. This means that
the halo effect is not deliberate. It is not planned nor set up. I encountered this kind of
situation before when I was at age 16. There was a gangster at our school and there were
tons of negative rumours of him. People said that he was so bad that he was never polite
to all teachers and even to his own parents. This started a halo effect of how people
perceived him. Nobody wanted to befriend him and eventually he was being boycotted by
his peers. He was alone all the time, with no friends to accompany him. In fact, everyone
was too afraid to befriend him due to the rumours spread. Nobody ever knew the truth
behind those rumours and nobody ever dare to go reveal the truth. It is because of the
halo effect, all students were influenced by the rumours and they started to believed in
them. Without awareness, they’ve already form bad perception towards him even though
they were not clear of the truth.
In a nutshell, the halo effect occurs in our daily lives that we don’t notice it is actually
happening. Without our active awareness, we already perceived one by his or her
appearance and behaviour. Then we started to relate them to the images we have in mind.
The halo effect will then spread among people around us. Eventually, people might have
similar perception towards a specific person due to rumours they heard from all kinds of
sources. The halo effect might be determined by one’s first impression as well.
(940 words)

Social Psychology : Journal 5 - Observational Learning
In psychology, observational learning is a process of acquiring information by
observing and imitating others. It can also be explained as one who watches others
engaged in a specific behaviour or action then repeating them. Observational learning is
the birthright of every ever since we were born. One doesn’t have to teach a person to
know what is observational learning. We all acquire this ability when we were born. For
example, a few months old baby saw her parents waving to people over the street and
unintentionally, she imitates the waving action and she learns it. Since then, the baby will
do the waving action whenever she sees people standing over the street. This is
observational learning. You observe it, you learn it.
I’ve got a realistic example here which happened within my relatives. They are my
mother’s side relatives. It is a family of three, the father, mother and a 15 year old son. The
father was a drunkard and was not engaged in any proper work. All he did daily was
staying at the house, or going to bars. It was all because of the mother that the family got
to survive. The mother worked several jobs in order to manage the expenses of the family.
The relationship between the father and mother had gone worse by time. Arguments and
fights between the two of them was a common act. The 15 year old son who grows up in
such environment had developed mental problem. Every time he saw his parents arguing,
he would react aggressively and some times even broke things to show his anger and
annoyed feelings. Slowly, the condition gone worst. There was a incident that happened at
his school. A few school boys got totally beaten up by him due to a small argument.
Therefore, in order to cure the son’s mental problem, the mother decided to leave the
father. I don’t have any idea what happened then. In this case, the son observed his
parents actions and behaviour and he imitates them and got into a fight at school. This is
considered a negative observational learning.
Besides this, there was this incident that happened to me myself. Just saying that, I
was once a timid and shy person in the sense that I dare not voice out my opinions
towards a certain matter. I was afraid that I’d be called rude or overbearing. Then, I met a
friend named Eng Kie. She had been my desk mate for years. Eng Kie is a straight-
forward person. She never hides any of her opinions. If she feels like saying anything, she
won’t hesitate to say it despite the topic might be a little bit sensitive or awkward. I had
always been admiring her for her daring, straight-forward personality. Until one day, one of
my junior had a talk with me. She said that I’ve changed a bit, changed to become a more

straight-forward person. I was shocked! Without any awareness, I learnt to sound out my
opinions properly without causing any aspersion. The way Eng Kie showed her firm
personality influenced me. I observed her action and I learnt it. Ever since then, I acquired
that ability to sound out my opinions but not to keep it in heart, hesitating.
Observational learning sometimes allow people to acquire certain fears. An incident
that I experienced before can best shows the above statement. I am afraid of cockroach
ever since I know what a cockroach is. I don’t remember why I’m that afraid of it but
seriously I cannot stand cockroach. Not being exaggerate but honestly whenever I heard
anybody shouting out the word “cockroach”, I will definitely react like a mad man. And
when I spotted it, without hesitation, I’d run so far just in case the cockroach can fly. I
remember when I was at age eight or nine, I saw a cockroach at the living room, and I ran
out to the backyard immediately, screaming. This had been the epic joke of my whole
family. I have never been that embarrassed before. So how did the observational learning
occurs? My brother gradually infected my “cockroach phobia”. He wasn’t that afraid of
cockroach then but now, he will also give a very exaggerate reaction if he sees a
cockroach. I guess he modelled my reaction and he even improvise it. Great job!
Lastly, research finds that observational learning also do allow people to acquire
certain attitudes. My neighbour that lives opposite my house can be the best example of
this statement. They are very rich. And because of this, they have that insufferably
arrogant attitude which annoys people. For example, they always laughed at people who
are not as rich as they are. At first I thought only the parents are that kind of person and
maybe they’d groom their four year old baby girl into a better person. It was just my
beautiful imagination. It turned out their daughter being a more arrogant child. Her name is
Mia. Who would have imagined a cute little four year old kid scolding bad words to her own
uncle just because he is not as rich as her dad. If I ever did that when I was young, I’m
pretty sure my parents would serve me the best rattan stick ever for a week, or maybe a
month. It was so ridiculous! She looked down upon his own uncle. Eventually, people
blamed Mia’s parents for not educating her to be a polite girl. But I’d say Mia imitated her
parents behaviour by observational learning.
Observational learning occurs in our daily lives despite gender, age and races. It can
sometimes be of the positive side, but sometimes it might be of the negative side. It all
depends on the behaviours, personality, attitude, manners of the model.
(979 words)

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