This document contains a student's submission for a social psychology course. It includes the student's name, student ID number, class schedule, and submission date. The document then discusses several topics related to cognitive biases and social comparisons, including confirmation bias, downward social comparison, and mood-congruence effects. Examples from the student's own experiences are provided to illustrate each concept.

1. NAME : THOMAS TING SHII KAI
STUDENT ID NO. : 0323962
SESSION : 3:30pm-5:30pm (Monday)
SUBJECT AND COURSE : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
[PSYC0103]
SUBMISSION DATE : 30 NOVEMBER2015

2. 10 January 2012
Confirmation Bias
Based on my understanding, confirmation bias defines as a mental that you only care about the
things that can support your thinking or ideas and in contrary you do not bother anything that
does not support your beliefs. In other way, it can also be called as myside bias as it makes you
believe in all the things you want to believe only. To make it simple, people tend to describe
someone is stubborn as stone. But actually it is one of the masterpiece of confirmation bias in
our mind. It keeps us not to accept the things that break our beliefs. Even if the information
provided are truth and specific but people still wish to keep our dream or hope. Not only that,
with the help of confirmation bias it can make someone to stay positive instead of facing the
failure or falls. From my experience, when I was in Form 3 of my secondary school, I was being
transferred by the systemof school to a better class as I got a good result from the previous
year. For the first time, I met my classmates and they look like quite obedience yet hardworking.
But after a few months, I was getting closer to them and I started to know few information
about my friends. I remembered one of my friend called Chieng Kai Zhong, who sat next to me.
He is not so hardworking yet naughty who always made fun in the class. I really could not
believe those traits he has because before I got into this class, many of my friends from the
class of previous year, they told all of the students in the class are very hardworking and
obedience. But once I saw them, it does not match basis on the information given from my
friends. Not only that, I also heard from my friends that the guy sat beside me "Chieng Kai
Zhong" does smoke. At the moment, I was like " What the hell? Are you guys serious or just
fooling me around?" I was totally unable to believe this situation that a Form 3 student smokes
because according to my schema that smokers are normally above 18 or adult.
Apart from that, when I grew up to become a normal teenage who desires for love and a
partner to share everything in my life, from the medias of my life which taught me that girls
nowadays are more likely to get a rich boyfriend. To make it specific, there has no such pure
love from one another. My dream was destroyed and my imagination of everything just got
evaporated. In addition, there are more and more "gold diggers" in the world. Girls are being
very realistic and they rather to do anything to get money or become richer. They can even
marry someone rich without knowing him much. This makes me feel disappointed till I have no
more courage to get a girl. But, I still believe in my dream that there will be a girl who does not
care about any condition but loving you because she knows you and she just merely likes you.
This is the true love that I'm looking for. I am more willing to pretend to people that how poor I
am instead of showing people what I have got. Money makes greatness but love built by money
is really tired.

3. Not only that, as a self-abased me, I really wish to grow taller so that overall of me can look
better. However, I am 18 now and I know reality sucks. I think I do know how genes work in my
body. Actually, I would feel like hopeless to grow taller in the future and I think it is the limit
now. In spite of that feeling, my friends and family still remind me that it is possible to grow
taller until 21 years old. This information is quite scientifically but it is really hard for me to
believe it. I do not know why but I am just feeling impossible for me to grow to a better height
anymore. I do remember once my neighbor was having a classic chat with my mom and she
told me: "Eh, Kai(me). Don't worry lah, look at my son he was not so tall before, but after he
came back from the place he studies, he becomes taller! Trust me, you will grow taller and you
are still young." Even though there are a lot of information that support me to become taller in
the future but I just cannot put myself into those information. I was thinking maybe this is how
confirmation bias works in my mind.
7 October2014
Downward Social Comparison
From this concept, it can be described as people tend to compare themselves to the others
who are weaker than them. The theory of social comparison was first started in 1954 by
psychologist Leon Festinger. He trusted that we engage in this comparison process as a way of
creating a standard by which we can make an exact evaluations of ourselves. In fact, this theory
was already implemented by myself since I was in a younger age. Not only in the younger age, it
is still applicable in current age and maybe in the future. There were a lot of scenes happened
with this theory during my high school. For an instance, the most common one which was I
would like to compare my examgrades with my friends. As a student in the best class, everyone
likes to compare their marks and grades with one another. Too much competitions around
everybody and we were like not to let anybody win you or own you. I can still remember a few
images in my mind that it was the day my teacher, Ms Nancy was going to return our history
exam papers. As a typical annoying teacher, she likes to speak out the marks of the exam
papers from low to high. In that moment, the circumstance was very intense and quiet because

4. the faster to be called meant to be having a lower mark. Then, Kevin who got called by Ms
Nancy among our gang of friends and we were like having a reassurance because he got the
lowest marks between all of us which was 74%. But, unfortunately I was called after Kevin. At
the instant, I was really shocked because I thought I did well in the exam and I must deserve a
better and higher marks like at least 80%. Then, I went to collect my paper and I saw I got 78%
and it was close to 80%. My hands were holding the paper and I felt even because it was merely
2 more marks to be 80%. Nevertheless, a lot of my friends got higher grade than me and it
made me in vain. Although that demolished my confident and self-esteem, whenever I looked
at Kevin's paper with 74% above it and I was temporarily turning to a better mood. I was talking
to myself in the deep down there: " Oh my gosh, I am so evil! This is so bad!" I also questioned
myself: "Am I being too arrogant? Why do I feel great when I see my friend, Kevin got a lower
mark than mine?" I shook my head quick and gently as a symbol to get rid of that dirty and
wicked mind. I could not reject those mind out of my head because it really able to comfort my
depressed heart. Now, I think it was downward social comparison working during the time to
make myself feel great and keep positive.
Apart from that, another example is wealth of my family. When I was an immature kid, I was
pondering why my family is not that wealthy like the others. Why my father did not bring family
of us to go and play all around the world? This question was like a maze in my head when I was
in the age of knowing nothing. But when I grew up, I started to compare myself to the poorer.
Every time I saw some beggars women with kid aside them, African kids suffering famine to
death, orphans and also children without a round and happy family, I do really feel better and
gain a lot of happiness. Since then, I will not to blame about how wealthy my family is and I am
an adult now. I do not want to spend my father's money all the time and I should have to take
care of myself in every aspects.
In addition, sometimes I do sense like I am so useless because I cannot do a lot of things and I
am unable to make as plenty money as I desire to have. Occasionally, I would like to compare
myself to those superstars and celebrities who are young or at the same age of mine. I
wondered why I do not have any talents that they consist of. Why I do not have the great voice
like them? I felt like my life sucks because all I do now is studying and it seems like nothing big
to me. I would be glad to make my life turn into something better and much more
awesomeness. But at the end of the day, I will recover whenever I compare my life to the
others who have worse than mine. Some people do not have a chance to get into a college life
and few of them cannot even survive as long as mine due to some diseases or accidents. This is
the masterpiece of downward social comparison. It can make me shine back from the dark side
and also make me feel satisfy of what I have got. It improves my life to have less complains but
more satisfactions.

5. 21 May 2002
The Mood-Congruence Effects
After the day Mr. Shankar taught me about the mood-congruence effects, based on what I had
learnt, it can be explained like when we were in a good mood, we can remember positive or
better things of the event. In contrary, we can also remember bad details of the event if we
were in a bad mood. I remember when I was at the age of 7 or 8, my father came back from his
work and brought my brothers and I a lot of sweets. It was almost at the midnight and my
father came home with sweets, at the instant I was talking to myself in the deep down there:
"WOW! My dad is back! With the 'Monster Sweets' too!" I was really joyous because my father
is a pilot who sailed for long time and he will only be back in 2 to 4 weeks. On the other hand,
especially the "Monster Sweets" which was very famous in my age and a lot of my friends had it
in the class. People called it "Monster Sweets" due to the sweet could change the colour of
your tongue when you consumed it. It looked cool to have different colour of tongue and
looked like a monster. I was pretty excited to take a monster sweet but my mother disallowed
me. She told me that: "It is nearly midnight now, no sweets are given to you as it will corrode
your teeth! Kai(me) it is time to sleep now." I was sad in a second but I thought I might still able
to have it tomorrow which made me really cheerful. So, this childhood memory is a very clear
and transparent part among the other memories. I did really able to recall this as it was indeed
an amazing surprise from my father. This shows that I can strongly remember the good details
of the event when I was in a good mood.
Apart from that, there was a really bad detail I could remember when I was 10. It was a night of
the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. My Uncle, Tony came by to our house to have a fun visit.
Then, my parents were supposed to fetch all of my family members together with Uncle Tony
to visit someone's house. But, things went super bad when my eldest brother went to his friend,
Jacky's house and play video game - PS2. At that time, my father was out for a while and my
curiosity made me wanted to have some fun. Hence, I rode my bicycle to Jacky's house whom I
got to know too. The street was dark even though it was lighted up by a few lighting poles. I
rode along with my small bicycle but I merely forgot my mother told me: " Dad will be back
soon, so don't go out since we are planning to visit someone's house with Uncle Tony."
Unfortunately, I was obsessed by the PS2 and neglected the planning of my parents. On the
way to Jacky's house, a car suddenly honked me at the back and I stopped my bicycle at the
side of the road. I was thinking: "Who is it? I am riding beside the road already and why are you
pushing to honk to me?" I turned around my head and saw the green car. It was my parents and
Uncle Tony inside! I assumed that father might be coming to fetch me to celebrate Chinese
New Year in someone's house and I was actually feeling great. However, my father came down
from the car and hit me in the stomach. He started shouting at me: "Get home now! I want to

6. see you staying at home after I send Uncle Tony back!" I cried so hard and so loud because that
was the first time father beat me. Even though how naughty I was, he would only scold at me
but never beat me and he did it that night. Few seconds later, my father drove away. I was
feeling scared and quickly riding home. I could still remember the flash when I was on the way
riding home and I really cried so hard. I could not stop my emotion because I was going to be
punished soon. When my father came home, he scolded me and my brother for going out at
the night just barely wanted to play video game. I knew he was not angry about we screwed up
his plan to make a visit with Uncle Tony but he was worried about our safety. After that night, I
woke up on my bed and I saw my mother sat beside me and talked to me. She asked: "Why
were you going out so late at the night? I had told you we were planning to go somewhere." I
was speechless and I rubbed my stomach. I told my mother: "Dad beat my last night, I still can
feel the pain." But, my mother said: "Really? When was it? Why I didn't see it?" I was so
confused that she was sitting at the passenger seat next to my father in the car last night and
how could she did not see it? After this incident, I am still able to remember this event. I can tell
almost all the bad details from that event. Now I understand how the mood-congruence effect
works when I am in a bad mood.

7. 20 March 2003
Social Learning Perspective
From this concept, social learning perspective that I had learnt from the class. It is like people
try to learn something new by observing manners or actions from the others of the society.
According to the work by Albert Bandura in the 1977s, it shows that how humans learn new
behaviors, values and attitudes. Bandura shows that manners are learnt from the environment
through the process of watching people or studying them. Actually, I had applied this principle
in life even since I was in a very young stage. Observe and study then act like how it supposed
to be like. I try to simulate how they be like and how to be in a good way. Not only that, I watch
TV to study how people act to one another and also the newest topic recently. On the other
hand, social learning perspective can be rigid or not. For example, when I was young like during
the kindergarten period, my father started smoking whenever the feels knocked him. It is just
like a drug which bothers him all the time. My mother always tells me that smoking is not good
for our health and also 2nd hand smoking is even worse. It will cause lung cancer which
probably lead you to the deadly end. I did not learn from what my father's cause I know the
feeling as a 2nd hand "smoker". It is really a terrible experience while you are in the house and
someone is smoking outside but the smokes are lingering in the house. It is so choking and
uncomfortable. Hence, this is why I mention that social learning perspective will not implement
in life whenever we realize what is good and bad.
Apart from that, as a Chinese, I speak proper language - Mandarin. But, since I got into primary
school and also got closer to the society, I heard a lot of people speak something different from
what I learnt from my school. After a few period, I studied what were they talking such as "LAH",
"LO", "MEH", "WALAO" and other else. These words are called SLANG which is very specifically
adding in the sentence of your conversation. It seems to make your communication better
instead of talking it normally. For example, "Really meh?" , " YA LAH", "YA LO" and "WALAO
EH". "Meh" is like expressing how u are confusing or questioning about something. Then, "LAH"
turns your words into more correctly and confidently. "WALAO" and "WALAO EH" are actually
sharing the same meaning of words which define as WOW. Therefore, these few words started
to get into my life and I tend to use them during my conversation. I think they are indeed a
good way for me to show the emotions and expressions of my feeling in my conversation.
Not only that, I learnt how to make reverse talking in my real life. Reverse talking to me is like
you describe something in an opposite way and that is not how it is. For an instance, one of my
secondary friend who got a grade C in an exam but you got a grade B or A. Then, you tell him

8. that he is good which is trying to console him and make him to feel better. It can also to be like
sarcasmwhich depends on the condition and the attitude of people. I remembered once in the
secondary school, it was the day returning the papers of SEJARAH(history). Everyone knew that
the test papers were not that hard and they could score quite good marks. I was thinking myself
was in the part of them. During the class, I saw teacher asked someone to pass down the
papers, I saw a lot of my friends got an A and that made my feel more confident to get an A too.
Whenever I got my papers, it was a B! I was so depressed and upset which I was feeling like
everyone of my friends got an A and I studied so hard to get a B?! Then, few of my friends came
by to ask for my result as they like to compare and compete to one another. But then, I told
them: " Damn, I got a B....." At that moment, I saw their face and they were like "Oh, we don't
mean to hurt you or something ." Then, they tried to comfort me and told me: "Actually it is
just a B, not that bad too! I have got a lot of B in other subjects." Under that circumstance, I
knew he was talking reversely in order to make me feel better. After that time, I know how to
talk oppositely to people depends on the condition. Social learning perspective is a skill that
automatically proceed in our life since we born. We will study the surroundings and learn what
they do and how they do for the sake of to be one of them or prevent myself to be a weirdo.
This skill is not applicable sometimes as you know the thing is harmful and useless to you, so
you will not learn it.

9. 15 January 2008
Stereotype
From the lecture given by Mr. Shankar, I had learnt about stereotype. Stereotype can be
defined as a compilation of idea that people have about how someone or something like,
particularly when the idea is false. To simplify the meaning, it can also be explained like the first
impression that is deeply marked in your mind but it might not be real as how it supposed to be.
I knew when I was about 11 years old, I was in primary school and there had a teacher called
Ms Kiu. She looked unpleasant and strict to me because her face looks fierce and she is quite
tall like about 170-175cm. This height for female is really quite scary and strange. My
stereotype, which is the most impressive image of her during that time was a wicked witch. She
looked a little bit old and it was really matched to the wicked witch in the fairy tale. At first, she
taught me Science in the class and she was really harsh yet being so mean to us. If students did
not do her homework, caning will be served to them as a punishment. The cane was so thick
and long. She would bring along her cane whenever she was in our class in order to keep us
quiet and obey her. However, as the time ticked so fast, my friends and I started to get closer to
her and know her more than who she was. We found out that she is kind and we understood
everything she did to us was just for the good of us. She wanted us to be disciplined and also
obedience. She was always nagging around us so that we could become a good student and get
a good academic result. And yes, I did get an A in Science during UPSR. She is really a good
teacher and also a mentor.
Not only that, there is another experience when I got into secondary school. The first day to
meet new friends and new life, I was quite nervous and afraid of that I could not communicate
well with people because I heard there were a lot of bully cases in this puberty stage. I
remember the day I went to the class, there were a few of huge guys with tough appearance. I
was in fear and did not start a conversation with them. But then, during the icebreaking section
in the hall where we gathered, some of the guys came by me and greeted me. A tanned skin
huge guy talked to me: "Hey, I am Adam and this is my friend Rowen." His friend said: "Hi, I'm
Rowen! Nice to meet you." And of course I replied:" Hi, I'm Thomas. Nice to meet you too."
They gave me a shook with a strong and firm grip. That grip was totally like a man. After few
months, I was utterly befriend with them and we talked a lot and did a lot of stupid things. I
found out they were just huge guys who kept on doing idiotic and funny moves around. They
are really funny and interesting.
Moreover, the first day of class and it was Chinese class. A male teacher, Siew Kung Ung, he
walked in our class and showed us a fierce face. The condition was very cool and terrible. That

10. was my stereotype at first. Yet, he started speaking with an extremely high pitch of sound to
teach. The voice of him is just like a woman. Then, the next period of Chinese class began again.
He tried to choose people from the name list to read out the content in the textbook.
Afterward, he gave us a lot of homework to pressure us. At first, we were good students. While
we got to know him, we started to be naughty and lazy during his class because he was not that
strict at all. He was just pretending to be a harsh teacher! He told us that he did play those
Facebook games which were pretty famous during the time and yet he got obsessed in them.
His high pitch of voice turned into something amusing topic when my friends and I were trying
to study and copy his style of speak.
These are just few of the experience of stereotype cases in my life. My stereotype of people
were mostly incorrect. I really cannot study people just from their stereotype that I have made,
but when I get to know them and I will discover interesting things. Stereotypes do not closely
match to how the people are, but sometimes some of the stereotypes close to be like who the
person is.