This document contains a social psychology journal assignment submitted by a student named Chia Ly Vier. It discusses several concepts in social psychology through examples from the student's own experiences, including social loafing, social identity, self-efficacy, attribution biases, attitudes, learning theories, and balance theory. The assignment provides insight into how social psychology concepts can be applied to understand one's own behaviors and perspectives. It was submitted on April 27th, 2015 for a social psychology course at a university in Malaysia.

1. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT
NAME: CHIA LY VIER
STUDENT ID NO: 0320142
TUTORIAL GROUP: MONDAY 2PM – 4PM
SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE: FOUNDATION IN NATURLA AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT (FNBE)
LECTURER: MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: APRIL 27TH 2015

2. 9 February 2015 4:20 p.m.
Social loafing occurs when a person is doing something in a group but their effort
cannot be identified. I went through this situation few times when I was in a group
project. For example, I will think that if I did not do as much as I could, the other
group members will eventually finish the part which I did not manage to do. Besides,
I often think that even if I do less, nobody will know that because we were all
working as a group, nobody can identify the workload of an individual, so I could be
lazy sometimes without others knowing it. Social cultural perspective will be
influence by presence of others and also culture. Like in my case, my family thinks
that it is crucial for every single child to do well in our studies. The whole family
thinks that if you don’t study well, you will be the shame of the family. As a result, all
of us think that it’s normal for us to study hard and it’s just like anything we do to
survive. It’s just like eating, sleeping, etc. because our family culture emphasise on
the result of our studies more than what other talents we have and this concept was
planted in our mind since we were young. Evolutionary perspective is the physical
and biological predispositions which results in human survival. For instance, every
child in our family tends to perform well in our studies because if we study well and
gained good results, we would be rewarded and praised. So, in order to be outstanding
and fulfil the requirements of being the child of the family, we all will strive hard to
perform well in every single exam or assignment. We strive hard for our own glory
and self-esteem so that we will not belittle by others. We tend to compare the results
with each other so we will make sure that our results do not have a big gap with others.
Social cognitive perspective is derived from the behaviourism perspective and it
assumes that an individual’s cognitive process is influenced by the behavioural
associations. For example, I will think that judging others through their level of

3. education is normal as my family does that every time during family gatherings.
Nobody tells me that it’s rude or wrong to judge others like that. Besides, I think it’s
not a wrong thing to be pampered as nobody will say no to my needs and wants in my
family since young. I think that it’s normal to buy whatever I want as my parents
always fulfil my desire no matter what I require. I feel that there’s no right or wrong
as it all are influenced by what I was educated since young. Social learning
perspective is basically learning from observing behaviour of others. I observed what
my parents and brother did along my growth. I learnt a lot of things such as using the
computer, watching television, eat, run, etc. through the observation since young. I
also found that young kids learnt a lot through observation very fast. My young
cousin learnt to drink beer through the observation from his father. He also learnt
singing and dancing through those video clips downloaded by his mother. Basically,
as a child, we do whatever we see and hear from others. I learnt how to swear through
the observation from my friends and also movies.

4. 2 March 2015 8:10 p.m.
Self-efficacy is the belief in our ability to achieve certain goals where people with
high self-efficacy will treat difficult task as challenges but people with low self-
efficacy will treat difficult task as obstacles. I often think that the projects which I
have now is a challenge to me but some of my course mates think that it’s an obstacle
for them to graduate from this foundation course. I think it’s the level of self-efficacy
which pushes us to whether achieve our goals or give up. Social identity is the
development of our identity which connects us with the other social groups. To me,
it’s like what I am to the others. For example, my social identity is a student in
university. This identity makes me different from those who are not from the
university, such as adults who are working, beggars, robbers, etc. It’s like I will not be
in the same category with robbers or thief. Besides, I am born and raised in a family
which taught me to be individualistic, which means stand out from others. I was
taught to be different, to think differently, to be myself and don’t follow anyone’s
footsteps. Be creative, adventurous and develop my own skills to get excellent results.
Affective forecasting is the predictions of future which is often wrong and affects our
emotions. I always think that I will get a bad result after submitting the project or after
submitting exam papers during my secondary school days. I will feel very sad and
will worry about the result until it is released. I often forecast that the outcome will be
very bad but the outcome is often better than I thought. I think that this kind of mind-
set should be abolish from my brain because it actually causes myself to become
pessimistic which I don’t think it’s a good thing to be. Self-discrepancy is basically
occurs when we are controlled by how close we are from what we want to be. For me,
it’s the distance between my achievements and the goal which I wanted to achieve. I
often think that I did not fulfil my expectations and this affects my emotions and I feel

5. very sad for it. Besides, my cousin is also affected by this self-discrepancy theory
where she is suffering from anorexia. She thinks that she doesn’t fulfil her
expectations of being slim, she sees herself as a fat girl but instead of fat, she is
actually very, very skinny. Self-perception is to gauge our attitude through our own
behaviour. People often ask me, why architecture? What makes me to choose
architecture as my future? I never know why until I learnt about self-perception
theory. People often don’t know what they exactly want but they know exactly what
they don’t want. I think I’m that kind of person too. That’s why I think I could accept
architecture, just because I like to draw. I might love architecture too. That’s how I
chose the future pathway and why my parents accepted this future that I’d chosen.
They also thought that I could do well in this course because I have they think that I
have the talent in art and I’m attracted to it. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external
pressure while intrinsic motivation is driven by internal rewards and it both occurs
throughout my education path. Extrinsic motivation occurs when I was studying as a
secondary school kid. I don’t like exams but the motivation is the pressure from the
family, I don’t want to be punished and belittle by others. Intrinsic motivation occurs
when I am now studying in the university. I strive for what I like and wanted to be.
It’s a motivation from deep inside my heart. I could feel the love towards art and
that’s why I’m working hard for it.

6. 9 March 2015 10:29 p.m.
Schema is a guide for us to understand the world better. It’s a cognitive structure used
to identify and process information. For example, the reason I know how to
differentiate vinegar and soy sauce is because I was taught that vinegar has a sour
smell compared to soy sauce since I was a child. This knowledge is stored in my brain
and it’s accessed for future reference so that I will not get confused to choose between
both vinegar and soy sauce. Assimilation occurs when we uses existing schema to
classify a new information without modifying it. For example, at first, I know only
one type of vinegar which is the black vinegar. As time passes, I found that vinegar
doesn’t have to be black but could be white too. It could have different types of
vinegar, such as white vinegar, apple vinegar, balsamic vinegar, etc. That’s when I
add new information to the existing information about vinegar in my brain and hence,
assimilation occurs. Accommodation is reinterpreting or changing the existing beliefs
from new experience to accommodate new schema. For example, I always think that
being a teacher must have a stern face, strict character, and always bring a cane
whenever they go. But as I grew up, I found that a teacher doesn’t need to be like that
as not all teachers look like what I thought. I eventually changed the interpretation
about teachers to accommodate the new facts that teachers could be friendly and
gentle to the students. It’s not a must for teacher to have a stern face all the time.
Confirmation bias is we unconsciously accept only the information compatible to our
schema but automatically filter out the information which contradicts with our schema.
For example, I always think that the native people must be really good in singing and
I eventually ignore the fact that a native people might not be a good singer. I also
think that all Japanese are polite because I went to Japan before and they are so nice
and friendly until they will actually bring us to the place we wanted to go. But when

7. my friends told me that they saw some unfriendly Japanese, I choose not to believe
them as all my experience told me that Japanese are friendly and nice people. I also
think that smokers are good-for-nothing kind of people because I hate the smell of
cigarettes. I eventually filter out the possibility of a smoker could be a nice guy or at
least someone who will work hard. Because of this, I actually stay away from smokers
no matter who you are. Stereotype assumes that all members in a group share the
same feature. For example, I always think that all women are obsessed with gossips,
so do I. I think it’s like how we group people up. For instance, I think that children are
all playful and naughty and that’s how I categorise them as children. It’s grouping a
bunch of people together and judges them without knowing them. It will eventually
cause the perseverance effect where it’s hard to change when a schema is formed.
Illusion of control is the perception of the uncontrollable event somehow could
become controllable. For example, my mother thinks that we will get good results if
we wear red (anything that’s red). I think it’s somehow a superstitious act where I also
think that I will get lucky if it comes to number 2. Number 2 is my lucky number; I
am able to get through any obstacles or difficult tasks as long as it’s related to number
2.

8. 16 March 2015 6:20 p.m.
Covariation theory bases on three factors which are consensus, distinctiveness and
consistency. Consensus is the behaviour of most people, distinctiveness is the
behaviour of an individual, and consistency is the frequency of a particular behaviour
of an individual. For example, my lecturer is giving her lecture, all of my course
mates will listen to her, so it’s considered as high consensus because I’m not the only
one who listens to her. Similarly, I do not only listen to a particular lecturer, so it’s
considered as low distinctiveness as I listen to every lecturer’s lecture. Besides, I
always attend every class and focus on the lectures, so it’s considered as high
consistency. Dispositional attributions are assuming that an action is performed due to
the internal characteristics of someone. For example, one of my lecturers chose not to
announce our project’s marks because she is too lazy to mark our projects. The
laziness of that lecturer is the internal characteristics and what she did was just telling
us to wait until the end of semester, that’s when she’s going to announce the marks.
Situational attributions are assuming that an action is performed due to the external
environment factors. For example, my friend did not manage to hand in his project 1
and skipped several classes because he had an accident and was admitted to the
hospital. The action he made was skipping classes and also the due date for project 1,
because of the accident, which is the external factors causing that action.
Correspondence bias is assuming that when others do something, it’s because of this
is how they are, which is because of dispositional attributions. For example, I’d
experience that one of the KFC waiters did not serve me with a smile; I assumed that
he is an arrogant and unfriendly person. Besides, last time I went to a café and saw the
waiter serving me with trembling hands and unnatural smile, I assumed that this
person is actually a shy person and has a nervous kind of characteristic. The actor-

9. observer bias is making dispositional attributions for others but making situational
attributions for ourselves. For example, I used to think that when I got bad results is
due to the difficult exam questions, but if my brother got bad results, I will think that
it’s because he is lazy and does not want to study hard for the exam. Similarly, I think
that the reason of me banging into others car is because the car before me stops
suddenly, but when it comes to my friend, I think that it’s because he did not pay
attention when he’s driving and he is indeed lacking driving experience too. Self-
serving bias is taking credits for success but is not responsible for failures. I used to
think that I got good results for exam is because I am hardworking and I prepared a
lot for the exam, on the other hand, when I got bad results, I will think that it’s
because the teacher did not explain well about the topic and did not teach the subject
well enough for us to understand or simply just because of the exam hall is too cold
for me to rack my brains.

10. 23 March 2015 7:15 p.m.
Attitude is an evaluation of a specific stimulus with affective, behavioural and
cognitive component. Affective component is emotional based, behavioural
component is action based, and cognitive component is knowledge based. For
example, my attitude towards bee is evaluated by feeling scared towards bees
(affective component), so I stayed away from bees and will run away if I see one or in
contact with one of them (behavioural component), and then I believe that bees are
dangerous because they stings (cognitive component). Attitudes can also be
ambivalent where both positive and negative attitude occurs at the same time. For
example, I know there’s a friend of mine who loves chocolate but she’s allergic to it,
because she will surely have pimples if she eats chocolate. She loves chocolate but at
the same time, avoiding it. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli are paired
together; they may stimulate the same response. For example, I used to have a friend
who was always criticised and punished by my history teacher no matter what he did.
He was afraid of that teacher because the teacher will punish him by making him to
do more homework or deduct his marks purposely. He eventually dislikes history and
this situation continued throughout his whole secondary school life. The mere
exposure effect occurs because we like things more when we are familiar to it. For
example, I like to draw but hate exams because drawing is something I am familiar
with while exam questions is something I will never get familiar with. Similarly, I like
the taste of chocolate because it’s something I eat it since I was small, I am familiar
with it. Observational learning is watching others’ behaviour and repeating those
actions. For example, when I was a primary school kid, I always watch my mother
smiles to my neighbours, and then, I will also smile to them and I was praised by both
neighbours and my mother for being polite. Besides, I once played a game with my

11. baby brother, where I smiled to him and he will smile back, I made a silly face and he
will try to imitate my silly face expressions too. I found that he could actually learn
very fast and was impressed by him for the power of observational learning. Post-
decision dissonance occurs when we have to reject the other choice and we devalue
the one we abandon. For example, I used to choose between studying in Taylor’s and
Singapore Polytechnic. I had a hard time choosing and at the end I chose Taylor’s as I
think that studying in Singapore Polytechnic is a waste of time as it is a 3 years course
and I think that studying in Singapore is very expensive compared to Malaysia. I
eventually devaluate the pros of Singapore Polytechnic and magnify the bad side of it
in order to make myself to feel better and strengthen the will of choosing Taylor’s.
Balance theory occurs when we feel comfortable with people who share the same
thoughts but feel uncomfortable with people who do not share the same attitude like
us. For example, I feel comfortable by working with my usual group members as I
know that we all are the ones who is willing to work hard and strive for good grades, I
feel uncomfortable by working with those lazy ones in the class because they think
that it’s normal for them to slack and I do not have that kind of opinion.