This document is a student's journal submission for a course on social psychology and the natural and built environment. It contains 4 entries discussing psychological concepts learned in class applied to the student's personal experiences. The first entry describes how the student's stereotypes about smokers were challenged through interactions with smoker friends. The second entry explains how the student was conditioned to wake up to banging door sounds due to experiences at home. The third entry discusses cognitive dissonance the student feels between a love of cake and choosing healthier oatmeal. The fourth entry provides an example of sexism the student has observed in their mother's attitudes towards them and their brother.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENTS
NAME : LILLIAN TAN AI JUN
STUDENT ID : 0320087
GROUP : MONDAY 2PM-4PM
SUBJECT : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE : FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT
ENVIRONMENT
SUBMISSION DATE : 25TH
APRIL 2015

2. JOURNAL 1
Concept : Accommodation (Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory)
19th
April 2015, 2:53pm
I used to think that people who smoke are bad guys. I remember the first few weeks that I
began my university life in Taylor’s, I got introduced to some guys who are smokers by my
friends. Although we are classmates but I had a strong feeling of distancing myself away from
these smokers the very first moment I saw the packet of cigarettes held in their hands. I have had
stereotypes that smokers are people who fall under the average or below average category in
terms of many aspects such as the quality of thoughts, mannerism, attitudes, social behaviors and
more.
Sooner or later, we got to know each others’ names. We often wave and smile whenever we
meet each other in the campus. They would always greet me in the most friendly way by having
a big smile on their faces and calling out my name. Sometimes, they even called me by my
Chinese name, which is something that seldom done by most of my friends. I find the way they
greeted me is really warm and welcoming. I mean usually people just smile and wave, and some
aren’t even smiling, they just wave with a poker face.
Besides the hi-bye wave, of course we did have several conversations with each other. I
realize that they are actually polite and friendly people. Although they are smokers, but they
don’t smoke when they are around with their friends who are non-smokers. I’ve also noticed that
they are being respectful and considerate of others, because they will not smoke on a dining table

3. while having meals with some other friends and when they feel that they have the urge to light
the cigarette, they’d politely excuse themselves to the smoking zone.
Due to the fact that I’ve never had any smoker friends throughout my high school years, this
has become my very first time to have befriended with smokers. I initially thought that I can
never get along well with these people but the fact has proven me wrong. I realize that I should
not just judge smokers with my stereotypes because there are smokers who are kind and friendly
too, just like those friends that I’ve met. By relating this to the psychological concept that has
been taught in class, my mind has gone through a process of accommodation, a modification of
existing schemas has taken place. The beliefs that I used to have towards smokers have changed.

4. JOURNAL 2
Concept : Classical Conditioning
20th
April 2015, 10:37pm
I find myself sensitive especially towards the banging sound of doors whenever I was asleep.
Whenever I heard the sound of a slamming door while I was sleeping, I would wake up
automatically and immediately no matter how tired I am. I’ve realized that this condition
happens due to my past experiences at home.
My house has an extremely poor sound-proof system which whenever one is shutting the
door, the sound of the slamming door could be easily heard, especially the master bedroom’s
door. The problematic door always required an extra force to be closed and shut completely and
what’s annoying is that you can never avoid the banging sound whenever you try to shut that
door. My dad who stays in the master bedroom had tried several attempts to get the door fixed
but it does not seem to work quite well.
Back in the high school days when I was around the age of 12 to 16, my dad would always
knock on my bedroom door every morning to let me know that it’s time for school. He would
always shut his bedroom door first before he came to knock on my door. Due to the fact that my
house has a pretty poor sound-proof system and the problematic door, I am often awakened by
the banging sound of the door before my dad actually came to knock on my bedroom door. So,
the banging sound serves somewhat like a morning call or alarm to me, because I know that after
the banging sound is heard, my dad would come straight to knock on my door to wake me up for

5. school. So, this condition continues like a daily routine for years.
Besides, my dad is the type of person who always wakes up early in the morning, even if he
has an off day. I find myself awakened early in the morning due to the banging sound of the
door, thinking that I’ve got to wake up for school even if it’s on the weekends, the days which
most of my friends often enjoy sleeping late.
As for now, I’ve already graduated from my high school for more than a year and have
been staying alone away from home, however I still find the condition continues to persist. My
housemates who have class in the morning would slam the door shut and rush for their classes,
and I can’t help getting affected by that. I would be awakened and quickly take a look at my
timetable to ensure that it has nothing to do with my classes for the day.
To explain this in a psychological context, my experience is referred to as a Classical
Conditioning in which when two stimuli are paired together, they may come to elicit the same
response. Before conditioning, the knocking of the door acts as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
while the unconditioned response (UCR) is my act of waking up for school. The sound of the
banging door serves as a neutral stimulus at this stage as it does not produce any response.
During conditioning, the two stimuli which are the banging sound of the door and the knock on
the door are paired together, they’ve come to trigger the same unconditioned response (UCR)
which is me getting awake for school. After conditioning, the banging sound of the door acts as

6. an conditioned stimulus (CS) whereby it evokes a conditioned response (CR) by waking me up
to prepare for school.

7. JOURNAL 3
Concept : Cognitive Dissonance
23rd
April 2015, 11:21am
I’ve always been a cake lover since I was a kid. Out of so many cake flavors, I have enlisted
some of it as my all-time favorites such as the cappuccino cheese, oreo cheese, tiramitsu,
chocolate mud and banana cake. I just love these cakes so much that I wish I could have them
served on the dining table every single day. I just can’t resist the temptation to spoon them in my
mouth if they were to place right in front of me. Each time after having a meal, I would always
love to have some dessert served, and no matter how full I am with the meal, there would never
be a problem to fill my stomach up some more with them, especially when it comes to cakes.
Eating cake is an enjoyment for me. However, most of the time, I find myself having
oatmeal as a replacement for my cravings. This condition has resulted in a cognitive dissonance
in which feelings of discomfort are produced due to the conflicting beliefs, attitudes or behaviors
that I had. The cognition that I have is the obsession towards cakes (attitude) while the dissonant
element is that I am having oatmeal instead of what I favor the most.
According to Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, people have an inner drive
and tendency to seek consistency among their cognitions. When there is an inconsistency
between attitudes or behaviors, which is a dissonance, a change is needed to eliminate or reduce
the dissonance. One can either change their attitudes, add a consonant element or reduce the
importance of the cognition.

8. To eliminate or reduce the dissonance, I would always tell myself that it’s actually a
healthier choice to have oatmeal rather than cakes as cakes could be fattening and highly-
carbonated, which may contribute to weight gain (reduce the importance of cognition). I would
also feel that it’s better to save money by having an oatmeal as it is cheaper because I can just
make it by myself instead of getting it ordered in a cafe or restaurant (reduce the importance of
cognition). Besides, I would think that perhaps my quality of diet matters more than my
obsession for cakes and I do enjoy having oatmeal as a replacement as it doesn’t taste so bad
after all (change of attitude). But sometimes, I would still go on satisfying my cravings for cakes
although oatmeal is less likely to encourage weight gain, but less likely is no guarantee (add a
consonant element).

9. JOURNAL 4
Concept : Sexism
24th
April 2015, 2:15pm
Sexism is the discrimination towards a specific gender. It has always been a culture
practiced in most Asian countries, such as China, South Korea, Japan and more. It is a culture
that has been implanted centuries ago in the society and up til today, it does still exist in this
modern era. Even though the society these days have been promoting gender equality, but one
can never deny the existence of sexism, especially the discrimination towards women, and that is
why we still have campaigns going on around to fight for woman’s right.
I realize that the tradition of entitling the son as an heir to the family and that a son carries
the responsibilities in taking care of the parents when they reached an old age has strongly
influenced my mom’s attitudes and behaviors, and this has resulted in her being sexist, in certain
situations I would say. She’d always preferably side with my brother and being protective
towards him when he got scolded by my dad for talking back. However, when the same thing
happens to me, she would tell me that a girl shouldn’t have such bad temper and rebellious
attitudes.
Also, I remember once when I decided to join the Chinese martial art club as the school
authority has made it compulsory that each students should join a uniform body. My mum later
came questioning me about it, telling me that it would have been better that I join other uniform
bodies such as Red Crescent Society or St. John Ambulance Brigade. I asked her why wouldn’t

10. there be problem for my brother as he has also joined the same club and to this she answered
“Because he’s a guy.”, yeap, just simply because he’s a guy.
Besides, gender stereotypes, which are the ideas about how a man or woman should behave
also play a part in sexism. When it comes to house chores, it has become so habitual that my
mom would always ask me to do it instead of my brother, even though she knows that sometimes
I may be packed with my homework whereas my brother is enjoying himself playing the video
games. She has a gender stereotypes that a girl should be able to do the house chores and it is a
must to learn without any excuses, she thinks that by this way, I would be able to serve my future
husband better with all the basic housekeeping skills that I acquired. Frankly, I couldn’t help
getting annoyed by that sometimes.
On the other hand, I realize that my dad tends to be more soft-hearted towards me, the
daughter. Whenever I did something wrong, he would not just scold me and raise his voice to
me, but instead, he would put his words in a serious tone as a warning and reminder so that I do
not repeat the same mistake again. As for my brother, my dad would definitely raise his voice in
the first place to let him know what he has done wrong and shows a stern facial expression to
make sure that my brother doesn’t talk back to him. He always tell my brother that a man shall
not be afraid to admit his mistakes and learn from it.
To wrap this up, I’ve figured that both of my parents actually carry the traits of sexist in

11. which they showed certain discrimination towards the son(male) and daughter(female) in certain
situations.

12. JOURNAL 5
Concept : The Mere Exposure Effect
24th
April 2015, 6:59pm
Generally speaking, I believe that most of the people are well aware of the Korean Wave,
which is also known as Hallyu, has been trending wild among the teens and youngsters in the
recent years. The “Korean Wave” or “Hallyu” are the terms used to describe the flow and spread
of Korean entertainment and cultures due to the fast-growing popularity of Korean popular
music, which is often referred to as “K-pop”.
Initially, I did not follow the trend like most of my friends did nor did I find anything that
interests me about K-pop because I was brought up in a family with the influences of western
cultures. My dad was kind of westernized since he grew up studying in a missionary school
during the colonization of British, he could only speak English and the local dialects. He told me
that he grew up listening to western pop since he could only understand English. So,
undoubtedly, as his daughter, my interest and preference for music have also been influenced by
him.
I do not care what the others think about me showing a different preference for music but I
do find myself battling with the feelings of discomfort when I find no common topics or interest
to be talked or shared with my friends. Whenever there’s a party or gathering going on, they’d
played all the Korean songs, getting all excited, singing and dancing along with the songs, while
I find myself feeling alienated in an awkward position because I’m the odd one out.

13. I remember back then when I was 17, that time my friends were all being crazily obsessed
with a Korean boy band called EXO. Once, at a countdown party, they played this song called
“Growl” sang by the boy band. Nothing interests me much other than the good-looking guys in
the music video, however, that was not powerful enough to drag me into being part of a K-
popper. Few days after the countdown party, we had another gathering session where we went
for a karaoke singing, again, they played the song “Growl”. The song began to sound catchy to
me as I caught myself enjoying the rhythm of it. Apart from that, because this EXO boy band has
been so popular, I’ve been seeing people wearing shirts, caps and accessories with the EXO’s
logo printed on it when I was loitering around in a shopping mall, and again, I heard their song
“Growl” playing in the mall. This time, I got the song stuck in my head and I can’t help
humming to it due to the repetition of the catchy lines in my mind.
After I’ve gone back home, I began searching the song on the internet and digging out things
about EXO. I find that the more that I got exposed to them, the more that I’ve becoming fond of
them, until I’m becoming one of their fans. To relate this to the psychological concept, this
condition of mine is referred to as the mere exposure effect, whereby things or people become
better liked with repeated exposure and familiarity. I got repeatedly exposed to EXO and their
songs at different places, and that developed a familiarity which explains how I’ve become part
of the fandom today.