1. The document is a journal entry by a student named Ng Sheng Zhe describing three experiences related to concepts in social psychology. 2. The first entry describes an experience with social loafing where the student puts less effort into a group project expecting others to do more work. 3. The second entry discusses an experience with self-serving attribution where the student takes credit for success but blames external factors for failure in a marching competition. 4. The third entry involves counterfactual thinking where the student reflects on missed opportunities to confess to a crush and feels regret (upward counterfactuals).

1. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
( PSYC 0203 )
ASSIGNMENT 1 : JOURNAL
NAME : NG SHENG ZHE
STUDENT ID : 0323830
INTAKE : FNBE MARCH 2015
LECTURER : MR SHANKAR
CLASS : MONDAY , 8 – 10AM
SUBMISSION : 16TH
NOV 2015

2. Entry 1 : Social Loafing ( Chapter 1 )
Date : 5th
August2015
Time : 10pm
In social psychology, socialloafing means individuals make less of an effortwhen
in a group than they would if they were attempting to achieve the goal on their
own. This is because we rely moreon our groupmates and we think they would
take their responsibilities to do more work than we would. Besides, social loafing
occurs when persons areperforming a task as partof a group and individual effort
cannot be identified. This theory is conducted in 1883 by a French professor
named Max Ringelmann fromwhich he concluded that an individual’s
performanceactually gets worsein the presence of others. In real life, social
loafing actually happens in my life when I was in the firstsemester of Taylor’s
University LakesideCampus.
We weregiven a task which is to bulid a 3D game board by our lecturer as the
final assignmentfor Creative Thinking Skills subject. There were5 people in my
group including me. As I was always lazy, I often found excuses for not being able
to stay up late with my groupmates in the university to rush our projects. Social
loafing occurs as I expected the other male groupmates to finish the 3D game
board which was the hardestpart of the projectwhile I did the lighter task which
was to design our poster and booklet. For these, I could spend more time at home
doing my task instead of sacrificing my precious time doing the 3D game board
with my groupmates. Besides, I left them the hardesttask because they had more
people and I will justfinish my task alone since my task was not as hard as theirs.
On the last night beforewe had to submit our assignment, we still cannot
manage to finish our assignment. Therefore, every one of us had to stay up late to
rush our projects. We started our assignmentafter the class on that day ended. I
started being slightly hardworking than usualbecauseit is our final day to
complete our assignment. At firstI thought we could complete our assignmentby
my dinner time but I have never been so wrong in my life, the assignmentwas
only 85% donewhen it was already night time. Therefore, I decided to stay with
my groupmates until 10pmto continue doing our assignment.

3. Our work was not done even it was already 10pm, thereforemy group leader
told us to stay until the next day to finish our assignment. As I am already very
tired at that moment, I started finding excuses to leave as soon as possible. Due
to my group leader perseverance, he insisted on not letting me to leave unless
the assignmentwas 100% completed. I told them that my parents would be
worried if I was still not home at that late moment, but the answer given by my
group leader was still the same as justnow. At I was a little frustrated at that
moment, I started talking louder than usual to show that I was satisfied by the
answer given by him.
My group leader finally cannot resisthis anger and started quarrelling with me.
He said that I did nothing as they werethe only one doing the hardestpart of the
project. At that moment, I was very shocked. I cannotbelieve that he looked at
me that way since the beginning of our assignment, he did not know my
distribution on the designing part of poster and making of booklet. During that
moment, social loafing occurs as individual effortcannot be identified. I started to
lose my temper at that moment and we started arguing with each other because I
was angry that he did not even appreciate any of my effortin the assignment. The
argument was eventually stopped by another groupmateof my mine as we still
need to work as a team.
After some time, I was given another task which could be completed at home
and they decided to let me leave earlier. My groupmates continued doing the
assignmentand I went home. When I went back home, I completed my task
quickly and went to sleep as I was too tired. I knew that my groupmates
completed the assignmentat 3am in the midnight after I was told on the second
day. We still managed to presentand submit our assignmenton the second day
to the lecturer although the outcome of the assignmentwas not that perfect
because wedid not finish the assignmentearlier than we should be.
As a conclusion, socialloafing occurs in my university life as I makeless of an
effort in the presence of my groupmates and my effort in the projectis not
identified because I do it individually.

4. Entry 2 : Self-serving attribution ( Chapter 2 )
Date : 30th
January 2015
Time : 10am
The topic I am going to talk about is self-serving attribution. In social psychology,
attributions means deciding who or what is responsiblefor a particular outcome.
Besides, attributions can be influenced by a number of factors such as age,
gender, culture and more. For examples, older people tend to make more internal
attributions while men tend to make moreexternal attribution. Attributions can
be divided into two parts which are internal attributions and external attributions.
We make internal attributions for positive outcomes while we makeexternal
attributions for negative outcomes. We make positive attributions that allow us
to see ourselves in the best possiblelight. Internalattributions tends to give us a
boostin confidencewhile external attributions make us feel better and less guilty
when we make mistake in life. In other words, wetake credit for success butwe
do not take responsibility for failure. For instances, we praiseourselves when we
do well in a particular thing while we tend to blame others or environmentwhen
we do not do well in a particular thing. I had actually experienced self-serving
attribution in my real life during my days in the camp when I was picked to join
the national service.
The moment when I knew I was picked to join the national service, I felt a
sudden depression in my life. This was becauseI had so many plans for my
holidays after my SPM exam which is the hardestand most stressfulexamin my
secondary school. I was supposed to be hanging out with friends and family every
week while enjoying myself in the days without having to study. I only had the
opportunity to rest for 2 weeks after my exam ended before going to Teluk
Rubiah, Perak to join the national service. Itwas supposed to be only one week
rest but I managed to get permission fromthe headquarter of national service
department to have another one week restto join my class trip with my friends.
Going to the class trip was the best memory for me before joining the national
serviceas I get to enjoy the life outside instead of being in the camp with a very
slightly chance for us to go for an outing.

5. When I went to the camp, everything felt so strangefor me as I was not used to
living by myself without my family’s care. As I needed to survivein this camp for
as long as two months, I tend to fit in by knowing new friends and get used to the
environmentthere. After a few weeks, I was starting to get used to the life there.
Itwas not that bad for me until I knew someof the mostenthusiastic and friendly
friends there. They treated me well and therefore I treated them as well as I
treated my old classmates. We had an interesting activity here which is marching.
We were trained to march weekly to learn the rules of obeying orders given by
commanders and leaders. I get used to the marching style here quickly as I once
joined the police cadet in my secondary school. I also join the marching
competition to show my interest in this activity. Furthermore, I wished to get
myself a medal as an honor before leaving this place.
As there were only certain numbers of participants were chosen, I was glad to be
one of them as it was not easy passing the test to join the marching team. To be
well prepared for the marching competition, we were trained a few times in a
week. It was quite tough and tiring as we needed to be trained under the hot sun
and we only get to rest once we did well in our practice. After mastering the basic
moves, we weregiven the task to learn the more professionalstyleof marching. It
was different fromnormalmarching as this was only needed in the competition. It
was also not easy for us to remember all the moves as they were hard to be
memorized. We doubled the time of our practice when the competition was near
the corner.
It was finally 30th
of January 2015, theday which I worried the mostas I was
worried that I will make careless mistakein the competition. After wishing every
teammate good luck, we group into position and waited for our turn to perform.
We were the third group to performthereforewe waited patiently in our own
position. When it was our turn, we started marching and it was a good start in the
beginning. I was not surewhatwas the main causes becausemy teammates were
starting to make mistakes in the middle of our performance. For me, I performed
well until the performancewas nearly ended. At that moment, we had to turn
back after some steps but I turned back earlier than my teammates. At that
moment, I knew I messed up because I could not keep up with my teammates
anymore. My team went neat again until I corrected my moves.

6. After the competition, we gathered at the hall for the announcement of the
champion. My teammates and I had expected not getting the champion as we
made quite a number of mistakes in our performance, weonly aimed for a second
or third place for the competition. When the results wereannounced, we were
shocked as the results wereout of our expectation, we were the last place
although we thoughtwe were better than somegroups. When we went back to
our dorm, one friend of mine came to me and asked me if I was doing well in the
competition. I immediately said I did well in the competition by ignoring the
mistakes I had made during the ending of our performance. I told him I did well
because of my hard work during the practice. Another teammate of mine heard
this and approached me. He asked me how did I feel about the mistakes I had
made as he noticed my mistakes. The conversation suddenly wentawkward and I
thought my teammate was blaming me for the loss. Not thinking too much, I told
him it was not my fault as the road was so rough I miscounted my steps. Besides, I
mentioned that the hot weather influences my concentration on the competition.
That was the moment when internal and external attributions occurred in my life
as I take credit for success and blaming other factors for failure. My teammate
gave me a disappointing look and left after I spokethe sentence. Eveything went
fine justas usualat the second day after the competition.
As a conclusion, internal attributions occur when I was taking credit for success
for the performancewhile external attributions occur when I was blaming other
factors for my mistakes. Internalattributions wereused to make myself confident
while external attributions wereused to make myself feel less guilty for my
mistakes.

7. Entry 3 : Counterfactual thinking ( Chapter 3 )
Date : 5th
December 2014
Time : 10pm
In social psychology, counterfactualthinking means imagining different
outcomes for an event that has already occurred. This theory is usually associated
with bad or negative events. Besides, this theory can be used to improveor
worsen your mood. Counterfactualthinking are divided into two parts which are
upward counterfactuals and downward counterfactual. Thekeyword in upward
counterfactuals is “If only” while the keyword in downward counterfactuals is “at
least”. For upward counterfactuals, individuals will feel regret for the action they
have taken. For downward counterfactuals, individuals willfeel fortunate for the
action they have taken. Therefore, upward counterfactuals will worsen your
mood while downward counterfactuals willimproveyour mood. In my life,
upward counterfactuals occurs on the day when I was going to confess to my
crush.
My crush and I knew each other at the age of fourteen, although we had met
each other since standard two because we werestudying in the same primary
school. My crush satin front of me in the class on the firstday of schoolin the
second year. I remembered she was the one who started our firstconversation,
therefore we knew each other after the conversation. Since then, we always
discuss our homework given by the teachers together. We also chatted through
the internet when we werenot able to meet each other in person. Itis very fun
chatting with as shewas very friendly. She was one of the few girls that could
make me laugh because I was a guy that was hard to be entertained. I was not in
love with her until one of my male friends told me aboutthe rumour spreading all
over the class. I was told that my crush was actually having an interest in me. It
was the first moment that made me fall in love with her as knowing her liking me,
although it was justa rumour that was not confirmed.
It was strangethat we were so fortunate to be in the same class for the next four
years. Both of us were already seventeen years old and we weregoing to face
SPMexam at the end of the year. That was also the last year for me to be with her

8. and I was not surewe will continue to be friends after formfive. Although it was
already the last year for both of us in our secondary life, I still did not manage to
confess to her becauseI am afraid to break the friendship bond between me and
her. Sheonce told me I was her best male friends becauseI had been through
most of the important times with her. Itwas a tough decision for me because
there were many things to be considered beforeconfessing. SinceI realized that
we still had many days to meet, I tried to forget the thing about confession first
and focus on being a good friend to her.
Time flies, we had finished our SPMexam and the whole formfive wereinvited
to the promnight held at Centro Klang, Selangor by some student leaders. My
crush and I were also going to the prom and that was the final day we could
actually meet because I was going to the national service soon. We satnext to
each other at the same table. She dressed like a beautiful princess and I thought
that she was the prettiest girl in my eyes during that night. As a gentleman, I
volunteered to bring her food and served her the best as I can. She accepted my
serveand gave me the sweetestsmile on her face ever. I was glad to be the man
that made her smile at that moment, but I actually wished to be the man that
could make her smile, forever. After the prom ended, everyonewent to the hall
to take their very last photos with their most precious friends. Itwas one of the
saddestmoment as mostof us probably will not meet each other again after the
prom. I had the same feeling justlike the others, I was afraid that I will not have
the opportunity to see my crush again as wewill soon go to the college we
desired. That was also the night that I had to make a serious decision whether to
confess to her or not because it will only has two outcomes. The firstone was her
being my companion, the other one, which was the bad one, not being a friend
anymorebecause of getting rejected. Therefore, I felt that it was very important
to make decisions because it will lead to different outcomes.
After the photoshoot, it was already 10pm, therefore I invited her for a cup of
coffee at the ground floor so wecould have some lonely time together. She
agreed and we walked together there. We had a small talk during our way to the
coffee shop. I can feel that shewas also quite sad as that was the final day which
we could gather together. When we reached the coffee shop, shewaited outside
for me while I queued to buy the coffee because there were many people in the
coffee shop. When I was queuing, I was thinking whether to confess to her or not

9. because it was the final hour of us being together. Justas I was still queuing for
the coffee, I received a text message frommy crush. Shetold me that shehad left
because her parents had reached there to fetch her home. I was very nervous at
the moment, I did not care aboutthe queue anymoreand ran outside. When I
came out of the coffee shop, a slight of despair went through my heart as I
realized she was not there anymore. I did not even have the chance to confess to
her anymoreas we could meet anymore. I did not have the mood for coffee
anymore, thereforeI decided to go home.
The moment when I was in my bed, I went into a deep thinking mood. I was
thinking if only I confessed to her earlier instead of justbeing silent for the whole
time, shewould havebeen mine by now. Upward counterfactuals occurs at that
moment because I think that if some actions weretaken, the outcomes would be
more favourable. I blamed myself for wasting these four years that I could have
the chanceto tell her I like her. I did not know why but it was the toughest thing
to say even though it was only three words. Atthat moment I could not think of
any outcome anymore, I was only blaming myself for not making the first move.
That was the day I lost the woman I like the mostin my secondary life and I felt a
deep regret in my heart. After that day, we did not contact each other anymoreas
I went to the national servicesoon.
As a conclusion, upward counterfactuals occurs when I thoughtI should have
confessed to my crush earlier because if some actions were taken, the outcomes
would be morefavourablewhich was my crush accepting me as her companion.

10. Entry 4 : Firstimpressions ( Chapter 4 )
Date : 10th
June 2015
Time : 6pm
In social psychology, firstimpressions arethemental image created when we
firstmet someone. Firstimpressions areneither deliberate nor intentionally. They
are not formed by watching others’ actions. Besides, they may be instantaneous.
According to research, it is proven that impressions aremade after only 0.10
seconds. A schema will be formed when we meet someone. Even when lots of
evidence is presented to the contrary, wewill still stick to the firstimpressions of
the people we met. Example, if we met someonewith a scar on his face, we
assumehe is a gangster or someonewith a bad background, even if he did lots of
kind acts. I also make first impressions when I meet someonenew, and this
happens in Taylor’s University LakesideCampus, the current university I am
studying.
When I firstcame to the university, I saw this guy pressing his phone. He looks a
little chubby, wearing a pair of spectacles, with a shorthaircut. Besides, his
dressings wereneat and tidy. Therefore, the firstimpressions he gaveme was he
was a guy that likes to read books, diligent, friendly and a good listener. Although
we had met each other in the university, we still don’t really know each other as
we did not talk to each other. We only knew each other until we were assigned in
the samegroup. We were given a task by the lecturer to go interview someone
involving in a construction industry and design a magazine full of information.
There were six people in my group. I was glad at firstbeing in the samegroup as
him because I thought he was going to be contributing a lot of helps and ideas
into this group. After we knew each other, westarted chatting with each other.
When we talked, he gave me an impression that he was a nice and friendly guy
because he was willing to listen to my words patiently and he talked to me in a
nice and polite way. I believed that we will soon be good friends and I felt lucky
meeting someonelike him in this university.
On 10th
June2015, I gathered all the group members in a roomas we needed to
continue finishing our assignmentas the submission datewas around the corner.

11. The other group members reached on time which was 3pm. The one thing that
sadden me was that he did not reach on time. He came late which was after one
hour, his actions clearly influenced us becausewe would have lesser time to
complete the assignment. Besides, he did not apologize for being late to our
meeting. I was notmad at him as I thoughthe was my group member, I had to
tolerate with him so our friendship could last longer. After he reached, westarted
discussing our assignment. Thediscussion weregoing well at first, we had the
same opinion and each of the group members were given a task to complete. It
took us 2 hours to complete our task on that day, although the assignmentwas
not finished, we did manage to complete about 80% of the assignmentand I
thought that was quite a success.
It was already 6pm, we gathered our information together and typed into the
laptop. We checked together for our mistakes to make surethe assignmentwas
perfect. Suddenly, he noticed there was a mistakein the part of assignmentI did.
He mentioned that an important phrasehad to be added into one of the
paragraphs in the assignment. After I read the paragraph for second time, I did
not think it was necessary to add that phraseinto the paragraph as I thought it
was already correct. Out of my expectation, he started shouting at me and
insisted he was the one with the correctidea. The other group members stayed
silent as they were shocked by his actions and they cannot decide which of us are
the correctone. I had no idea but to add his phraseinto the paragraph butI
thought I should be adding his phraseinto another paragraph. When I was
thinking, he thought I was ignoring and he started shouting at me again as he
thought I was ignoring him. I told him to be patient because I was thinking, but he
did not bother me anymore.
I finally found a paragraph that was suitable to add his phraseinto it. Although
the problemwas solved, he remained silent. I did not talk to him either because I
thought he was angry of me. After a while, he started talking to the other
members, ignoring my appearance. I felt sad for being ignored by him as I thought
we had the potential to be good friends. Itwas already late so I decided to leave.
When I said goodbyeto everyonein the room, everyoneelse responded except
him. We did not talk to each other since that day although being in the same
class.

12. As a conclusion, the firstimpression my friend gave me he was a guy that likes to
read books, diligent, friendly and a good listener but it was a wrong impressions
because he was rudeto me when wewere doing our assignment. Therefore, we
cannot judgesomeone by firstimpressions.

13. Entry 5 : Racism ( Chapter 7 )
Date : 27th
January2015
Time : 11am
Racism is a discrimination directed at a specific racial group in socialpsychology.
Racism is a specific form of prejudice as it is negative. The definition of race is
commonly refers to an ethnic group originating on a specific continent, such as
people of African, European or Asian descent. Though progress has been made,
racismremains a significantproblem in the whole world. Many people still use
racisthumor and "laugh it off" as a joke. In my opinion, racismis the main
problem that influence the unity of people in each country, to make a country
successful, theidea of racismshould be eliminated. One of the countries that has
the mostserious racismissueis America, African Americans living there were
usually discriminated by the whites. There are even case that African American
was killed by white police officer although the victim was unarmed. We also
cannot deny that racismissuehappens in Malaysia. Although a lot of campaigns
have been organized, there are still discrimination happens among races in
Malaysia. I experienced racismissuewhen I was in the national service camp.
Before I went to the camp, my family was worried aboutme becausethey heard
the rumour aboutracismissuein the camp. They mentioned that they could not
protect me when I was alone in the camp if I was discriminated. I told my family
that I will be fine as my senior told me there were no racismissuein his camp.
When I went to national service, I noticed that most of the people there were
Malays, the second lesser wereChinese while the least wereIndians. The
population of Malays in the camp was about70% of the whole camp, while the
Chinese and Indians werethe remaining 30%. Onething I have noticed being
inside the camp was each races werehanging out mostly with the people with the
same race as them. Therefore the teacher in the camp did not allow a group
having all the sameraces when we were given a task. Each group formed by the
teacher will have3 races for sure. I thoughtthat was quite nice becauseit will
make us united and worked together without caring each other’s race.

14. Although we were working together with each races in the class, everything
changed when the class ended. I can clearly notice that almost everyonewas
hanging out with the people with the same race as them when they were outside
the class. That situation occurred when we werehaving our meal at the canteen.
Malays will be having their meal with Malays, Chinese having their meal with
Chinese, Indians having their meal with Indians. Besides, when wewere playing
sports , I also noticed that almosteveryone played the same sports with the
people in their races. For instance, the Malays playing futsal with Malays while
the Chinese playing basketball with Chinese. Although they did not hang out with
other races during their break, I felt fortunate because at least there wereno
discrimination happened in the camp.
At firstI thought there will be no discrimination between each races in the camp,
but then I was wrong until discrimination happened on myself. On 27th
January
2015, my friend and I went to the canteen together after finishing our class. My
friend was a Chinese and I knew him becausewe were staying in the samedorm.
After taking our plates, we went to queue for lunch. Itwas a long queue but we
decided not to cut line as we wanted to be nice to others. When it was almost our
turn, a Malay came in frontof me and cut my line. I tried to persuadehim to
queue properly because my friend and I had waited very long for our lunch. Out
of my expectation, he started scolding me and said some rudewords regarding
my races to me. I was a little mad scolded by him as I did not do anything wrong. I
once again warned him that if he did not queue properly I will reportthis issueto
the teacher. He thoughtI was threatening him and he pushed me as he started to
be pissed off by my warning. I fell off the ground and my back hurta little. He
stared at me telling me to be careful. My friend told me to stop arguing with him
as this will only made things worse. I decided to tolerate with him and not to
argue with him anymoreafter I stood up. I felt sad being discriminated and the
whole day did not go well for me.
As a conclusion, racismis a discrimination directed at a specific racial group. In
my case, I was discriminated by a Malay guy during my national service becauseI
am not the samerace as him.