The document summarizes key concepts from a social psychology journal assignment. It discusses two examples that demonstrate the concepts of social facilitation and social loafing. For social facilitation, the author describes running better on a treadmill when others are present compared to alone. For social loafing, the author puts in more effort than their group partner on a school project. The document also examines self-concept based on perceived appearance and the evaluation of others.

1. FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT
ENVIRONMENT
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PROJECT 1
JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT
NAME: LEE YET YEE
STUDENT ID: 0322328
LECTURE CLASS: MONDAY 10.00-12.00AM
SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
LECTURER: MR.SHANKAR

2. 27 August 8.00 pm
The roots of social psychology are divided into two which is social facilitation
and social loafing. Social facilitation is where a person’s performance is
improved and enhanced when there are other people watching them or even
with the presence of others. According to the lecture given by Mr.Shankar in
class, in the year1898, Norman Triplett stated that competitive cyclists
performed better during races than during solo rides. On the other hand,
subsequent research confirmed that a well-learned performance is enhanced in
the presence of others. At the beginning, I doubt the fact that people do
perform better in the presence of others as I am a person that works well when
I am left alone as I am able to concentrate on what I am doing without any
interference from the crowd around me. But everything change when I visit the
gym to have some exercise in the morning. I am a marathon runner since high
school and I always aim to run at least 5 km every time when I get onto a
treadmill. During normal days, I am able to reach my target which is 5 km in
around 20 minutes. However, I am unable to get myself to run in a consistent
speed that particular morning. I finish 5 km in around 40 minutes which is
doubled the time of my usual record. The reason why my performance is
affected is because when I am reaching about 2 km, I felt a little tired and want
to reduce the speed of the treadmill so that I can run slower so as to relax from
the intense beating of my heart. I look around the whole gym realizing that the
guy working on the dumb bells earlier had left. I am the only person using the
gym that time as I just stopped the treadmill at once and went back to my
room to bathe. I just ran about 2 km and for about 7 minutes. I realize that I

3. was able to pull off 5 km in about 20 minutes in the normal days due to the
presence of others. I usually goes to the gym in the evening where the gym is
pack with people. I realize that I am actually always at my limit after running 2
km at high speed. But, the fear of being looked down by others who are
running on the treadmill continuously with intense speed as well makes me
continue to run so as to reach my target. My performance is boost when there
are other people running on the treadmill in the gym. Then I realize that this
has proven the concept of social facilitation where my performance is
enhanced due to the presence of others around me.
Social loafing is where an individual make lesser effort when being place
in a group compared to them attempting to achieve the goal individually.
According to the lecture given by our Psychology lecturer, in the year 1883,
Max Ringelmann conducted a study from which he concluded that an
individual’s performance actually gets worse in the presence of others. Today is
the submission of one of the project for the subject Culture and Civilization
which is on of the course I am taking in Foundation in Natural and Built
Environment. This project is in a group of two where me and another friend are
in the same group. My friend is a hardworking and productive person. I have
seen her work before and it is quite stunning and well complete. I am relief to
be in the same group with her as it will lessen up my work load. Surprisingly, it
is the total opposite of what I have expected from the start. I am the one who
is always coming out with various ideas and doing nearly all the work for the
project. When I happen to ask her some questions, she will always choose from

4. one of my ideas. I feel that she is being slightly lazy than usual as she is lazy to
think of any new ideas on her own. Throughout the whole working process,
there are many obstacles and problems that arise along the way. I hand some
of the problems for her to solve and find solutions for it. However, hours has
past but there are still no solution to the problems I ask her to solve. At last, I
am the one solving all of them. One night before the submission, she came to
my room to finish the whole project. She went to bed at 1.00 am and planned
to wake up around 1.30 am which is a half an hour nap. I try to wake her up but
she is already in her deep sleep until 6.00 am in the morning. I was the one
staying up the whole night rushing to complete the project. This project also
has an individual work. The individual work that she submit is awesome and
good. Therefore, the concept social loafing is proven by my friend where one’s
performance is degraded when working in the presence of others as she is
dependent on me and her performance during the whole process is poor but
her individual work was exceptionally good.

5. 25 September 6.00 pm
Self-concept is a mental representation or a comprehensive sense of a person
towards themselves. It comprises various beliefs a person hold about
themselves. According to Charles Horton Cooley, he related the self-concept
with the looking-glass self. The looking-glass self defined that we imagine how
we look to others where we also imagine how other people judge the
appearance that we think we present. I always think that I am a fat, ugly and
short person. I am chubby at the face and have fats at my arms and thighs
which made me think that I am fat. Besides, I have a minor skin disease on my
legs where my skin are always dry even though I have applied lotion on it. My
leg will start to crack after 4 hours I applied my lotion and it is very ugly to
even look at it. Whenever I wear a short pant which is about my knee length, I
could not bear it but to change them into long pants as I could not stand to
look at those ugly paris of legs. I am also not confident with my looks as I do
not have a fair skin color like a pure Chinese. My hands are rough due to the
house chores I perform daily like washing dishes, clothes, cleaning the house
and many more. I dislike my hands as they have a the texture like a sand paper.
I am also ashamed of my height as I am shorter than the average height a girl
should have. I am about 152 cm tall where the normal height for a teenage girl
is around 159-165 cm. Therefore, I have a self-concept of me being fat, ugly
and short. Consequently, I assume that other people will judge me the same as
I judge myself. This has cause many negative effects on me as I think that all my
friends around me think that I am fat, ugly and short. I am not confident in
front of them and sometimes I am even afraid to voice out my opinions or even

6. give some suggestions. I feel like I am not in the place to give any comments
about anything as I have a bad outlook appearance compared to others. I am
literally looking down at myself where I think that all my friends around me are
looking down at me as well.
Then there is the evaluation from others towards our self-concept.
According to Charles Horton Cooley and the looking-glass-self, if a person
thinks that the evaluation is favorable, their self-concept is enhanced. On the
other hand, if a person think the evaluation is unfavorable, their self-concept is
diminished. Today, me and my friends are eating out at Sunway Pyramid as a
celebration in accomplishing one of the big project of Introduction to Design.
We are chit chatting when I state the fact that I am lack of confidence as I think
that I am fat, ugly and short. I told them that I am unable to be myself in front
of them sometimes as I am ashamed of my outlook appearance. To my
surprise, my friends laugh so hard as they state their opinion towards my
statement which is called the evaluation of self-concept. They strongly deny
that I am a fat person as they think I have large bones but no excessive fats. In
addition, I go to the gym very often to do workouts to maintain my
bodyweight. They also state that I am not a fat but an average sized person
which is nothing to be ashamed of. The evaluation given by my friends based
on the thought that I think I am fat is not favorable as I strongly believe that I
am fat. Consequently, my self-concept of me being a fat person is diminish
where I start to re-evaluate my thought. Besides, I also state that I am an ugly
person. My self-concept of me being ugly is again diminish when my friends

7. say that I look totally fine and there is nothing ugly about my outlook
appearance. However, when I state that I am also ashamed of my height as I
always get left out when I am standing in a crowd. My friends reacted
differently compared to the previous two statement that I just said. They agree
that I am short and will be always push out by the crowd. They said that I
should accept that I am short in a positive manner. Therefore, my self-concept
of me being a short person is enhance as the evaluation given by my friends
are favorable to my statement.

8. 2 October 1.00 am
Motivation is divided into two main types namely intrinsic motivation and
extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as taking a particular action
for the sake of enjoyment. An intrinsic motivation will lead a person to be more
fully engaged with what they are doing which brings about greater curiosity
and satisfaction. I am obsess in cooking. I pick up many cookings skills after I
graduated from my secondary school where I spent half a year learning how to
cook by myself. After I started my life in university, I only cook when I go home
every weekend. Even though there are many assignments to do, I still find time
to cook. Today, I am very tired as I just finish a presentation and submission
yesterday where I did not have enough sleep for 5 days. When I return home
every weekend, my parents are always looking forward to what I will cook for
them as they miss my cooking very much. But, it is not my parents that
motivates me to continue cooking despite how hard it is to find time to cook.
Every time I cook, I can feel the joy in me. Besides, I also find enjoyment in the
whole cooking process. I enjoy preparing the ingredients where I get to work
every ingredients from the start. The sound of the knife cutting on the
chopping board is better than no other sound. The thing that I enjoy the most
is I get to gain more knowledge about all kinds of proteins, vegetables,
seasonings and many more. Thus, the enjoyment I get when I am preparing the
ingredients for every dish that I plan to cook motivates me to continue cooking
even though I am very tired at that meantime. On the other hand, due to the
intrinsic motivation towards cooking, I am always fully engaged when I am
cooking. I do not feel tired or even have any complaints of being stressed out

9. whenever I cook. Whenever I complete a dish or even a set of meal, I feel the
satisfaction when I am able to pull off stunning dishes. I am very satisfied with
the outcome of my dishes as my family and friends enjoy my food with all their
thumbs up. I am also satisfied with my own ability to cook as in this an era of
technology, there are hardly girls at my age that are very passionate in cooking.
I am able to continue cooking until today due to the intrinsic motivation where
I am always fully engaged when I am cooking with much enjoyment and
satisfaction.
Extrinsic motivation is defined as taking a particular action in response to
external pressure or obligation. The action carried out is to avoid punishment
or to earn a specific reward. After cooking, I feel very tired, but I still have
many assignments to be completed. I sit down on my working desk, looking at
the checklist of unaccomplished assignments which I do not feel like doing.
However, there is a feeling of fear that motivates me to continue my
assignments. I am taking Taylor’s University’s scholarship. It is quite a large
amount of money where I need to maintain my grades to earn it. The
scholarship will be forfeit if my CGPA is lesser than 3.5 . Therefore , this
extrinsic motivation motivates me to work ad strive harder to achieve splendid
grades so as not to have my scholarship forfeited. On the other hand, I am also
afraid that my parents will be disappointed at me especially my dad. He is also
an architect. He was an outstanding student who graduated from the National
University of Singapore. He has high hopes for me to be as superb as him. He
also hopes that I will be able to take over his company which is SW LEE

10. Architect in the future. Consequently, his high hopes towards me has become
an extrinsic motivation for me to do my best in all the assignments given to me
so as not to let him down. On the other hand, my parents have agreed to bring
me for a trip to Korea! Only if I get good results for my Foundation In Natural
and Built Environment. They wanted to make this agreement to give me a
motivation to work hard in achieving good grades. The last time I visited Korea
is when I was 6 years old where I barely even remember. I love watching
Korean drama since high school. I have tried to make arrangements to re-visit
the beautiful country, Korea. However, my parents said that we have visited
Korea and there is no point going to the same country again. Thus, my parents
agreeing to bring me to Korea again is an extremely huge reward for me. This
reward has become an extrinsic motivation for me to stay focus and strive hard
fsor excellent grades. Korea! Here I come! I sincerely hope so.

11. 10 October 9.30 pm
According to the lecture Mr.Shankar had given to us, counterfactual thinking is
stated as the imagining of different outcomes for an event that has already
happened. It Is usually associated with negative events that has happened to a
person. Counterfactual thinking is divided into two types which are the upward
counterfactuals and the downward counterfactuals. The upward counterfactual
thinking focuses on how the situation could have been better and what they
could have done differently. Today, my family and I decide to go to Sunway
Pyramid to have a family dinner there. We made the decision a moth ago
where we planned to dine at one of the delicious buffet at Sunway Pyramid
Shopping Mall which is “Seoul Garden”. “Seoul Garden” is a well known
korean buffet where there are up to 140 food choices ranging from meats,
vegetables, soups, sushis and many more. We start off from Seremban around
4.30 pm to make it on time for the dinner. We are very excited to eat at “Seoul
Garden” as we heard many good reviews about this buffet. We reach Sunway
Pyramid around 5.50 pm. Unfortunately, the parking spaces are almost fully
parked. We manage to find a parking after half-an hour. We then walked to the
buffet restaurant which we spend almost 10 minutes looking for the location of
the buffet restaurant as we are not very familiar with that shopping mall.
Finally, we reach “Seoul Garden” knowing that the whole restaurant is full. The
workers apologize to us and suggest us to find another option to have our
family dinner as most o the customers has just arrive. Most of the customers
will spend at least 2 hours to enjoy their meals which means that we will have
to wait for minimum 2 hours and end up with no empty sits. Therefore, we

12. choose to eat at another buffet which is a Japanese buffet named “Shogun”.
After choosing our food, we start to chit chat while eating. My mom blurt out
that if only we made a booking for the Korean buffet earlier, we would not
have to eat at this Japanese buffet. I continue our conversation as I mention
that if only we start off our journey a hour earlier which is 3.30 pm, there might
empty spaces left for us. The reason why we start off our journey to Kuala
Lumpur at 4.30 pm was because we need to wait for my brother to return from
his university which will take him at least 45 minutes to reach home. My mom
pointed at my brother and stated that if only we did not need to wait for him
to travel home but to meet him at Sunway Pyramid, we would have already
been eating at “Seoul Garden” right now. When we were looking for a parking
earlier, we actually spotted a few empty parking spaces at another row.
Unfortunately, as soon as we turn into that particular row of parking, another
driver got the upper hand where they drove into that parking slot right before
we reach that row. I stated that if only we did not miss so many of the empty
parking slots, we might reach earlier and there might be an empty table for us.
An upward counterfactual thinking occurred in this situation as me and my
mom were giving statements on how the situation could have been better.
Downward counterfactual thinking concentrate on how the situation
could have been worse. In this scenario, a person can make themselves feel
better about the outcome because they realize that the situation is not the
worst it could be. With my mom and I having upward counterfactual thinkings,
my dad and my brother are protesting against what we have said. My dad state

13. that we should be still happy about it because at least we still get to eat in a
delicious and well-known Japanese buffet, “Shogun” rather than any other
normal food store. In addition, all the food are well cooked and prepared in a
professional manner at “Shogun” compared to other buffets in Sunway
Pyramid. He also stated that at least we got a seat at “Shogun” rather than
having no places to sit. On the other hand, my brother stated that at least we
got to eat at “Shogun” without even booking for a table as “Shogun” has
many customers as well. My dad added on with a statement which is we should
be grateful to be able to even eat at such luxurious place compared to the
other kids at my hometown which barely even have the chance to eat at a
buffet on normal days. In a nutshell, my dad and my brother are having
downward counterfactual thinking as they think that eating a buffet at
“Shogun” is not the worse scenario it could be.

14. 1 November 12.00 pm
Observational learning is one of the way people acquire their very own
attitudes, fears, opinions, actions, and specific behaviors. Observational
learning, also referred as modeling, occurs by observing, retaining, and
replicating behavior or actions seen in others. Observational learning can occur
at any stage in life, but it is extremely important during childhood. I go to
church every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is where all adults, youths
and kids are gathered together in the sanctuary to worship our god, Jesus. Our
praise and worship starts on 9.00 am where all the people from the youngest
to the oldest will gather at the main sanctuary which we call the grand hall to
have our praise and worship session. Me and my mom is in charge of taking
care of the children and toddlers so as to make sure they do not cause any
trouble. Today, there are 2 new children at the age of 3 and 5 has join the
service. When the worship starts, the worship leader of that particular week
will always start with a prayer. When a prayer is going on, we have to bow our
heads, put our hands together in a praying form and close our eyes. At first, I
want to teach the newcomers the proper way to pray but the prayer has
already begun so it is quite impolite to move around or to talk when someone
is praying. I close my eyes as I decide to teach them after the service has
ended. I did not close my eyes when the prayer is going on as I have to keep
an eye on the children. Then, I realize something quite interesting. The two
new children are observing how the prayer is done. First, they try to put their
hands together. Although it is an easy action, but they are unable to get it right
at first sight. Then the 5 years old elder brother look at the children beside

15. him, who is a regular comer and knows the proper way to pray. He look at his
hands and look back at his own, trying to imitate the gesture of the his hands.
Within a minute, the elder brother manage to get the hands right. He then
teaches his younger sister by demonstrating how the hand is put together.
Both of them learn the proper way to put their hands just by observing and
replicating the action of the people around them as they pray. Then, they
slowly bow their heads with their hands held together in front of their chest.
For christians, when someone is praying and you agree on what the person is
praying, we will say the word, “Amen”. All the adults are saying “Amen” at the
ending each sentence the worship leader prayed. In the beginning, the children
did not say “Amen”, but as the prayer goes by, the children starts to say
“Amen” as well. However, they are just saying “Amen” after the adults as they
still do not understand when is the right time to use that word. Same goes with
the worshiping session where the children imitate the adults as they held their
hands high as a sign to glorify and to worship our God. After the praise and
worship session, me and my mom lead all the children upstairs to have their
class we call, Sunday School. My mom is in charge of teaching the children all
about Jesus and to help them with their bible knowledge. I am her assistant so
I am also a part of teaching the children. My mom began with a question today:
How often do you read the bible? Some children say everyday and some say
none. Those who read the bible everyday are the ones where their parents
read the bible everyday in front of them. In contrast, those who do not read
the bible are those who are from a non-christian family where their parents are
not christian but was brought to church by their friends or relatives. This shows

16. observational learning as the children’s behavior reflects the exact behavior of
their parents. When the class is about to end, the children start packing their
things to go home. Suddenly, a cockroach appear out of no where where all the
children are in shock. One of the child shouts in a loud voice saying that we
should use a newspaper to hit it and it will be dead. He states that he saw his
parents did that before and it did killed the cockroach. Another child bump
into the conversation by denying there first child’s method as he proposed that
we should hit it with a slipper because that was what her parents did.
Observational learning is again use as they have observed the ways their
parents deal with cockroaches and without denial, they will do the same when
the same situation happens to them. However, I calm the children down while
my mom gets the mosquito spray and kill the cockroach. Some of the children
are amaze looking at the magical cockroach killer, which is the mosquito spray.
I believe through this experience, all the children find out the best way to kill
the cockroach with touching it through their observational learning.