This document contains a student's journal entries summarizing concepts from their social psychology course. In the first entry, the student discusses the concept of social loafing, where individuals put in less effort working in a group compared to individually. They provide a personal example of experiencing social loafing in a school group project. The second entry examines Charles Cooley's looking glass self theory, and how the student was affected by worrying about how others perceived them. The third entry defines stereotyping and discusses issues with gender stereotyping. The final entry explores the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies and how negative expectations can become reality through one's own behaviors and actions.

1. Name: Pui Chun Shian
Student ID: 0323470
Group/Session: Monday (8am-10am)
Subject: Social Psychology
Course: Foundation in Natural & Built Environment
Submission Date: 16 November 2015

2. Journal 1: Social Loafing
Entry: 1st
November2015
In psychology, Social Loafing is a concept in Chapter 1 which can be defined
as individuals who will make less effort when in a group than they would if they were
attempting to achieve the goal on their own. In 1883, Max Ringelmann conducted a
study from which he concluded that an individual’s performance actually becomes
worse in the presence of others. This concept usually occurs during group work
when an individual’s performance cannot be identified. Honestly, I had experienced
this for as long as I can remember. Not only once, twice, but possibly every group
project I have ever been a part of, I experienced it.
For me, I see Social Loafing as a bad character trait. People tend to think that
group work is more efficient and can be done faster. But, that isn’t the case.
Obviously in every group, there must be a leader. Most of the members of the group
would wait for instructions from the leader, thus contributing less effort than what
they would have given if it were to be individual work instead. They tend to rely too
much on those who are more responsible and motivated to finish the task for them. It
isn’t fair for those who put in a lot of effort compared to those who just wait for
instructions and do what they are told to do, and not providing any extra effort to
improvise their work. Some are even worse, they just wonder around and do
absolutely nothing! In the end, all the members will have the same mark which is not
fair at all.
I experienced this not only in high school, but in Taylor’s here as well. I’m not
saying that I despise those people, but I find them rather annoying. During high
school, when I was in Form 4 which was around 2 years ago, our chemistry teacher
gave us a week notice, telling us that there would be an experiment during her class
in the following week and we were required to form into groups of 5. She gave us a
list of things we were required to bring. Of course we all would want to form groups
with our closest friends, but it isn’t a really good choice to be with your close friends
in a group experiment or assignment. First of all, we tend to talk to each other. A lot.
And this would consume our precious time and we would have less time to prepare
the things needed. We eventually decided on the things each member should bring
for the experiment. I remember that day before the experiment, I messaged my
group members in our group chat and asked them if they had already prepared the
things needed. Literally all of them forget and no one prepared what they were
supposed to buy. So, I had to call my parents and ask them to bring me to the store
and get the things I needed to cover for my group mates. That’s not the worst part.
The next day during class experiment, they did not even try to help me prepare the
apparatus needed. I had to do almost everything alone. What they did was only
reading and writing down the values of the carbon dioxide gas. They did not even put
in effort to help me set up, such as helping me close and open the burette. Even
though we had obtained the result and it was pretty accurate, the marks given
weren’t fair since they did not do much. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that when
people work in a group, especially a group of friends, they tend to not give their best
in our group work because the work has to be done between 5 people. But when

3. people are doing their own individual work, they will focus more and give more effort
since the work has to be done alone. Thus, they will be more motivated to do their
work.
But Social Loafing isn’t 100% bad. Sometimes during group work, people are
just shy to ask if they could help. They are also shy to share their opinions because
they are afraid of being judged by others. These kind of people tend to wait for the
head’s orders to ask them to do work. Besides that, some people just tend to do
better when they are alone. Some even prefers individual work than group work.
They hate being a part of a group work so they try to avoid any participation. This
also shows that they have a very low level of motivation in the group work. Thus,
they would probably look for the least amount of responsibility and contribute as little
as possible. There are also some who just feel that their contribution does not even
matter. For example, if a group is big, then some of the members would provide less
productivity because they are more people to pick up the slack. All these problems
will then create a burden on the remaining members of the group.
In conclusion, I too myself encountered this problem. This problem actually
held me back from doing the stuff that I liked to do even until today. I hope that
throughout my life in college and even in university, I would actually become more
confident in the things I do and I would overcome this problem so it does not hold be
back from being the best that I can be. I hope that someday, I would actually lead a
group of people to accomplish something together, which will then make me feel
proud about it since it is still something that I’m still trying very hard to overcome
today.
952 WORDS

4. Journal 2: The Looking-Glass Self Theory
Entry: 7th
November2015
The Looking-Glass Self Theory in Psychology was created by Charles Horton
Cooley. As the wise man once said, “The mind is mental, but the human mind is
social”. This quote totally describes what this theory means. In this modern era, we
are afraid about how others see us. The way we portray ourselves to others is
actually not 100% true. We show ourselves by what others think of us and eventually
we will become what they think of us, which isn’t our true self. Becoming what others
think of us will definitely prevent us from maturing well in life. The looking glass self
theory of how others see us can be either a good or a bad way.
I’m sure that everyone has experienced the looking-glass self theory before. It
cannot be denied that we all want others to see us in a good way. For me, I was
raised in a strict family. I wasn’t allowed to go out with friends. I wasn’t allowed to go
to any birthday parties. All I did was staying at home or helping out at my
grandparent’s shop. Eventually I rebelled and went out with my friends. At that point,
I was about 15 years old. Having my last 14 years not hanging out with friends will
obviously give me lots of insecurities. I didn’t have much stuff to talk to my friends. I
felt that I was the odd one out and that I would be better off alone. This gave me
really low confidence in life. Sometimes if I talk, I would see how they react or look at
me. Sometimes I overthink and I always doubt myself of whether should I continue
hanging out with them or not. I did have the things that I want to share with my
friends, but since I did not hang out with my group of friends a lot, I’m afraid that I
would be judge by them. I’m also afraid of saying stuff that would offend my friends.
This gave me a hard time communicating with them and also dealt a bad impact on
my life.
The Looking-Glass Self Theory really applied to me in my life when I began
understand looks. In our generation, teenagers are very conscious about how they
look. During my last 14 years, I never really cared about how I look. I was fat and I
still kept eating. Not doing any physical exercise. But when I started hanging out with
my friends, I also began to mature and I felt very insecure about how I look to others,
especially my weight. I was so afraid to be judge by my others that my self-esteem
became worse. Having the thought of being judge by others makes me feel even
more insecure. And the people that I hang out with are mostly average size people.
Some were even fit and muscular, which made me feel worse. Besides that, I wasn’t
really likable in class because of my sensitive-ness of my size.
There was a point in my life where I started losing a bit of weight. I had
enough of people saying that I’m fat. I thought to myself that if I lose weight, I would
probably be accepted more. Sometimes I tried to lose weight to the extent that I
would starve myself until dinner and I would only have an apple for dinner. During
the period of time when I was losing weight, most of my meals did not made me full
at all. I remembered that I was 90+kg in Form 3. About half way through Form 4, I
became 79kg. Then one day, my mum and I decided to go and have lunch at one of
my favourite restaurants. She ordered my favourite butter prawn, fried chicken and

5. some vegetables. I ate only the vegetables and a bowl of rice. My mum was furious
and she scolded me. I remembered her quote well which changed me. “You do not
have to please others by changing yourself, just be who you are”. I was also caught
up with the whole “losing weight” plan. I mean it is not 100% bad because losing
weight actually makes me much healthier. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I’m
losing weight because of I’m insecure and scared of how others see me, and I
shouldn’t be doing that. So I stopped losing weight and I became fatter again. I
turned out find and have wonderful friends who support and care for me until today.
In conclusion, even until now I have the thought of losing weight. Everyone
wants to look beautiful and that includes me as well. I always wanted to be fit and
become much healthier than I am now. Losing weight is tough but I won’t give up.
Even if fall, I will stand up and continue on. Well finally I would like to say that just be
yourself. Don’t care what others say or how they judge you because their words can’t
affect you in your life. God created us the way we are for a reason. You are born to
be yourself.
858 WORDS

6. Journal 3: Stereotyping
Entry: 13th
November2015
Stereotype in social psychology can be defined as a thought that can be
adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things.
Stereotype is very common in our life especially in this modern era. Humans
nowadays stereotype comment others without even realizing that they are doing so.
Some of the stereotypes are true but most of the stereotypes are viewed as a
negative criticism. There are a few types of stereotyping action. For example, racial
stereotyping, gender stereotyping and finally religion stereotyping. These are the
commonly known stereotypes that are used even until today. Each one of us have
our own stereotype facts, whether they are harmless or not. The harmful
stereotypes, meaning to say the negative stereotypes can be a great impact to
someone and may make him or her to feel insecure or have a low self-esteem about
themselves.
As for this journal, I’m going to talk about gender stereotyping. Ever since
young, I’ve learned lots of different personalities and the roles of both the genders.
By interacting with others or watching movies and many others, it is a fact that men
are the strong ones while women are the soft, gentle ones. This gender stereotype
gave woman a disadvantage in their lives, whether it is at their workplace, home or in
the human society, women are always below men. There are even some beliefs
saying that a woman can only do a man’s job if only she has the sufficient amount of
masculinity in her. This belief makes woman to be powerless against men in the
society. This not only lower the self-esteem of women, but also downgraded their
stand in their life.
As for me, I disagree with the gender stereotype which implements to women.
I think that the world today should not discriminate women at all. I think that women
have the same rights as men. Woman are capable of doing things that men can do
as well. Woman can be the head of the family. Woman can also start up a company
by themselves and be the owner of it. The society nowadays are so messed up that
they think that woman should be the ones that cook for the family. There is also this
stereotype fact which discriminate women in their job position. For example, women
are nurses while men are doctors. I’m so annoyed that the fact that this belief is still
passed down up to our generation.
To support my stand, my mum is an amazing businesswoman. Before she
married my dad, she was just an employee of my grandpa’s business and to be
honest, my grandpa’s business wasn’t a big deal yet. After my parents got married,
my grandpa obviously trust her more and he even gave her the power to improve the
business. She brought in foods and drinks and made sure that the prices of the food
are sold at the cheapest. She made my grandpa’s shop success and up to today, my
grandpa’s shop has expanded and they had just opened their 3rd shop in Kuching.
My mum also raised me and my siblings alone. I’m not saying that my dad did not

7. help. What I’m trying to say is that most of the time my dad work in the overseas,
leaving my mum the responsibility to take care of us, as well as helping my grandpa
to run his shop. This is one of the few things that man can hardly do.
On the other hand, men can also do things that women can do. Women are
usually the ones who cook but men can do it as well. Up to today, the top chefs are
mostly guys. I’m not saying that women chefs are not good but the men chefs are
much better in this occupation. Besides that, man can also teach. During my high
school life, about 9/10 of my teachers are female. But my sister who studies at the
same school as I studied before told me that half of the school’s teachers are male.
What’s more surprising is when she told me that her male class teacher is able to
handle her class especially when her class is the most rebellious class in her form.
In conclusion, the world should not discriminate both the men and women.
The world should change and be fair to both genders. Not only the gender
stereotyping but also the racial stereotyping and religion stereotyping. By
commenting those stereotypes to others, we may offend others. What if others do
the same thing to you? Will you feel good about it? Why not change the belief and
make the world a better place to live in. A place where there is gender equality. I
think that the next generation should not experience this. In politics, there’s a saying
that goes, “If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a
woman”.
821 WORDS

8. Journal 4: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Entry: 16th
November2015
Have u ever had the experience of waking up after having a lousy night’s
sleep and thought to yourself that today’s is going to be a crappy day? And at the
end of the day, it turns out that your predictions were spot-on and that you probably
would be better off staying at home? The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a psychological
concept that can be defined as the beliefs about ourselves which can become true
by behaving in a manner which is consistent with those beliefs. This concept can be
either a positive or negative effect depending on what the individual believes and
how they behave towards those believes. The individuals actually create the very
condition of their expectation to happen. Even if the expectation is least likely to
happen, they fear that it will happen and act on the basis of the expectation. Our own
personal attitude may influence our expectation which in the end relate to other
people and their response to our behaviour.
Self-fulfilling prophecy often leads to unfavourable outcomes. Having a
negative effect from the self-fulfilling prophecy will most likely cause the individual to
have low expectations from themselves and they will hardly succeed in achieving
their goal. People who tend to be caught in this negative self-fulfilling prophecies will
also probably have low self-esteem and they have very high level of insecurities.
They will also have pessimistic views in their life. For example, you are going to a
party where you do not know most of the people there and you are trying to make
new friends but at the same time you are afraid of people ignoring you or judging
you. You will probably enter the party awkwardly and shy. This gives a bad first
impression of yourself to others and they might actually ignore you, which reinforce
your belief.
I have experienced this negative self-fulfilling prophecy for like a lot of times.
The negative self-fulfilling prophecy first implied into my life when I started to
understand the meaning of “liking someone”. I remember that I was into this really
beautiful girl in my high school. She was one of the top prettiest and hottest girl in
our school. At that point of my life I was quite plum, so my self-esteem was already
low. I kept thinking that she would probably just reject me or even ignore me if I act
weird or stuttered when I talked to her. Plus, she has so many wooers who were all
fit and quite muscular and I knew that I was her last choice. And what’s worse is that
I have never ever been together with anyone at all so I do not understand how a
relationship works. I eventually told her about my feelings towards her but I stuttered
and acted weird in front of her. Obviously she rejected me. From this event, I had so
many negative thoughts that I would not succeed if I acted weird or stuttered but I
still acted that way.
On the other hand if someone have an optimistic mind set, you may perceive
others to influence you in a positive way. In other words, they experienced positive

9. self-fulfilling prophecy. People who think optimistically will tend to succeed more in
achieving their goal. They would also have a high level of confidence in achieving
what they want. For example, your teacher gave you an assignment and you have
an amazing idea which you think that your teacher would like and accept your
proposal. Obviously you would be very motivated and enthusiastic to complete it.
Whether if it’s an individual or a group work, you will strive to do your best so that
your teacher would approve your proposal. You would understand the assignment
brief and meet her requirements. You would also probably spend more time on this
assignment that other assignments. I’m not saying that it is a 100% that you will
succeed but the chances of you succeeding will be much higher. Besides that there
is an interesting example of the self-fulfilling prophecy that is the placebo effect. The
placebo effect has been demonstrated and tested in studies. It shows that
improvement in health not only can be cured by medication or treatment, but the
patient’s belief in the treatment will enhance the immune system, and lead to faster
recovery.
In conclusion, try and avoid in having negative self-fulfilling prophecy. Even
until today, I struggle to avoid this concept. I know that I won’t be easy but as long as
I have my confidence that I can do it, I can do it. The society now needs to increase
the awareness on how to avoid negative self-fulfilling prophecies which may be for
the good not only for the individuals themselves, but also the society as a whole. As
Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re
right!”
817 WORDS

10. Journal 5: The mere-exposure effect
Entry: 20th
November2015
The mere-exposure effect in psychology is a term which indicates that
humans tend to develop a preference for things with repeated exposure merely
because they are familiar with them. Familiarity principle is also known as the mere-
exposure effect. People would form a positive attitude towards that thing if they are
repeatedly exposed to the thing. This does not apply not only for objects, but for
living things as well such as us human beings and even animals. People can get to
like most things if given time. They can even also get to hate the things more that
they dislike. People make choices by choosing the familiar over the unfamiliar. As
the saying goes, “Better the devil you know”. There are 2 types of the mere-exposure
effect, the positive effect and negative effect.
The negative mere-exposure effect enhanced a person’s hate or fear for
something or someone. If the person is exposed repeatedly by the things he hate,
then he will dislike it even more. That person would even ignore and try to avoid that
exposure. A person with acrophobia, meaning a fear of heights, would avoid going to
high places. Besides that, a person who hates being in the dark would avoid being in
a dark place. The negative mere-exposure effect also implies that people would
avoid things that they are not familiar with. For example, ever since young, we are all
told to stay away from something or someone that we are not familiar with to keep
ourselves from any danger. As a child, my parents always told me not to talk to any
strangers even up to today. People who does those things which are unfamiliar to
them would have negative effects. If I were to be approached by a stranger and I talk
to that person, I have a risk of being in danger. That person would probably be a
kidnapper.
The mere-exposure effect becomes much stronger if people are not aware of
the repeated experience. When they are not aware of it, they simply experience
greater influence which results in greater liking. Not only that but they would also
show positive attitude towards that experience. Adverts also use this effect. By the
repeated exposure, the viewers will gradually start to like the product without even
having to try it. But exposures can be overdone as well. After a certain amount of
exposures, people would ignore it. If the exposures are being repeated, they would
even get irritated and give negative responses to it. In advertising, viewers would get
annoyed at the same advertisement. They are so sick of the endless repeated ads
that they would criticize the advertisement and will not even be interested in the
products at all. Thus, adverts will have to regularly change their advertisement to
keep the viewers’ attention.
I have also experienced the mere-exposure effect as well. When I first came
to Taylor’s, everything and everyone was unfamiliar to me. I was very afraid to try
and fit into any groups at all. I was in the March Intake of FNBE. I have a high school
friend who is also studying in Taylor’s but she is in the January Intake of FNBE. I
chose to hang out with her and her new group of friends because at least I have
someone that I’m familiar with inside the group. Once, there were a group of people

11. from my intake who invited me to lunch. I knew that I would be very awkward since I
do not know them well so I went lunch with the January Intake people. But as time
passes, I was forced to be in a group with the people from my intakes. Through
those group assignments, I began to make new friends and those people become
more familiar to me. I did not realized that they have been exposed to me till I started
to like to be their group. Now, in semester 2, I would find those people I’m familiar
with to be in the same group for group works. After experiencing group works in
semester 1, I avoided to be in the same group as certain people. In semester 1,
there was this guy who was in the same group as me. He did not even attend any
single meeting, needless to say providing any effort in completing the project.
Therefore in this semester, I would totally avoid him so that I would not have to go
through that experience again.
In conclusion, we all would have our ups and downs in our lives. Whether we
had experienced some bad things, we all have to forgive and forget to make our lives
better. Holding grudge can cause very bad effect on our lives. Our lives are very
important and each of us have one life only. Better safe than sorry right?
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