This document summarizes the key points from four entries in a journal. The first entry discusses social learning perspective and how the author learned behaviors from observing family members like siblings and an auto-racing uncle. The second entry talks about social facilitation and how the author performs better at auto racing when being watched by others. The third entry explains how the author engages in upward counterfactual thinking after auto racing competitions by imagining doing better. The fourth entry discusses confirmation bias and how the author favors information supporting their belief that BMWs are faster than Mercedes.

1. Chapter 1 - Entry 1
Date - 25th August 2014
Topic - Social Learning Perspective
Varieties of learning perspective are taught in chapter 1 Social Psychology which
includes evolutionary perspective, sociocultural perspective, social cognitive perspective,
and social learning perspective. i would like to highlight more on Social learning
perspective.
Social learning perspective is the view that people learn by observing others.
Associated with Albert Bandura's work in the 1960s, social learning theory explains how
people learn new behaviours, values, and attitudes. since young, my parents has always
been a role model to me and my siblings. they are the one who affects the most in our
personal behaviour and they are the one who made who i am today.
My parents always remind us that we should treat everyone around us regardless
strangers or friends with good manners. i learnt to be polite and gentle since i was young
as my elder brother and sisters always present a good example infront of me. for example,
the slang and language that i speak today is indeed a very strong influence by my elder
siblings. I tend to replicate the way they speak and the way they act.
When i was young, for example, a child might see a sibling receive a lollipop for
behaving politely and imitate the sibling in the hope of getting a treat, too. And that was
exactly what i always do. My uncle was a national well known racer back in the days, i was
the only one in my family who loves auto-motive since young. Thus, my uncle loves to
bring me for a ride in the race track legally whenever there’s an event. I always observe
how he drives his car and also the skills he projected when he’s in a race. And now, i often
participate in racing competition and had won numerous medals and trophies in the past 2
years.
I would think that behaviour are reinforced most effectively by observing other’s
behaviour.

2. Chapter 1 - Entry 2
Date - 25th of october
Topic - Social Facilitation
In chapter 1, Social psychology simply means that the exploration of the interaction
of an individual person and a given situation and there are several roots of Social
Psychology which are Social facilitation and also Social Loafing. Based on my experience
in my teenage life, i would like to talk about social facilitation.
Social facilitation is basically the idea that you will likely do better on a simple task
when other people are watching you. However, you would tend to do less well on complex
tasks where you were being watched or evaluated. this often happen to me in my life since
young. there are many situation and times i did this.
As for my favourite activity which is auto-motive racing, we as racer have to
prepare and numerous practices and preparation are required before the actual track day.
software and hardware of the car must be fine tune and most importantly, driving skills,
discipline and also driver’s health are very important in order to win the race. During the
practice laps on the track, i often practice alone and only manage to do average timing per
laps just to get the feel of it. On the track day it self where there are many spectators, i
often push to the limit or sometimes over my own limit, just to get a very good timing per
lap or not to let down my team and others.
Other than that, say I were asked by my parents to perform a relatively easy task,
such as cleaning up a common work area. Social facilitation theory shows that I would
normally be likely to go the extra steps to put everything in its place and make the area
very tidy if there were people watching me while I were working. But, if I were doing this
same task after-hours, when everyone had gone home for the day, I might not be as
attentive to all the details.
In conclusion, thinking about social facilitation can help you comprehend inspiration
from another viewpoint. We frequently decipher somebody's performance singularly in light
of his or her capability. For instance, if an individual doesn't perform well on a given task,
we may very well expect that he or she isn't great at it or isn't eager to advance the task
that is required to do it well. That may be the situation. In any case, social facilitation helps

3. us to admire that our inspiration for doing a task is additionally impacted by how great we
see ourselves to be at the task and whether we are constantly assessed by others.
Chapter 2 - Entry 1

4. Date - 1st September 2014
Topic - Motivation
In chapter 2 of Social psychology, i have finally learnt the the real meaning
and explanation regarding the sub-topic “motivation”. Motivation is defined as the
process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. Motivation is
what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or
reading a book to gain knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social, and
cognitive forces that activate behaviour. In everyday usage, the term motivation is
frequently used to describe why a person does something. For example, you might
say that a student is so motivated to get into a clinical psychology program that she
spends every night studying.
In my case, motivation has always been absent in most of the task that i
encounter. for example, no motivation to study or revise for the upcoming test or
assignment thus resulting in procrastinating to the last minute and resulting in
limited time to complete work or insufficient revise done causing bad result
outcome.
In this case, i often mix or try to blend in to hardworking bunch of friends. they
often manage their time well for studies and also for fun times because of the
slogan “WORK HARD PLAY HARD”. They also produces good result in tests, by
then, it helps by keeping my motivation up and will be motivated to study and revise
whenever i am free. In order to keep my motivation up and score well for exams,
my parents came out with a way of reinforcing it, which is by “rewarding” me if i
score well in tests! That’s definitely the best way to keep my motivation up in order
to achieve the reward that might be thing i have always wanted!
Other than that, my physical appearance might appear smaller in size
compared to my friends. they all say by hitting to the gym regularly and discipline
might helps me gain in size and strength. I obviously know that helps but I’m still
remaining at my size after so much of consulting from my friends and others due to

5. the absence of motivation of me doing so. Finally, intensity can be seen in the
concentration and vigour that goes into pursuing a goal
Chapter 2 - Entry 1

6. Date - 1st september 2014
Topic - Social comparison
When people compare themselves to others in order to measure success, it
is called self-comparison. there are two types of self-comparison which is Upwards
social comparison and also downwards social comparison. Social psychologists
have one answer. Social comparison theory states that in the absence of objective
measures for self-evaluation, we compare ourselves to others to find out how we're
doing. Today, i will be talking about upwards social comparison which plays a very
big roll in a part of my life.
Upwards social comparison often occurs when im trying to achieve
something which is better than the outcome or result that I produced. I often have a
role model for upwards social comparison to occur. for example, back in the days in
high school, i was the first choice jumper for the event long jump representing my
state which is Selangor Dahrul Ehsan. I often compare my self to national or even
international levelled jumpers. It gives me so much of motivation to strive harder
and harder and put real great focus and also heart into serious training to improve
my self and just to get close to their results or even improving my result from
previous jumps or competitions.
Other than that, i always have my dad as a role model in my life. through
upwards social comparison, i always compare my self with my dad. i want to study
hard and work hard in my life and most importantly manage my time and priorities
well in order to do better than my dad in the future. My dad has always been a very
influential role model in me and my siblings life.
In conclusion, Social comparison is a very affective ways to change an
individual’s behaviour and i think that upwards social comparison should be
encouraged in all children’s heart and mind.
Chapter 3 - Entry 1

7. Date - 15th September 2014
Topic - Counterfactual Thinking
In chapter 3, we have learnt about counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual
thinking is thinking about a past that did not happen. This often happens in 'if
only...' situations, where we wish something had or had not happened. This can be
so powerful we can change our own memories, adjusting the facts and creating
new memories. It can happen to cover up trauma or may be just excuses to avoid
facing uncomfortable truths. It can also be to explain what is otherwise
unexplainable. There are two types of counterfactual thinking which are upwards
counterfactual thinking and also downwards counterfactual thinking.
Both upwards and downwards do occur in my life. As a long jumper
representing state, I have undergo and participated in many many events and also
competition during my high-school time. upwards counterfactual thinking will occur
when i got a silver medal for a particular competition and i would have a thought
that i should have done better or even get more rest at the night before the
competition leading to regretness.
Downwards counterfactual occurs when the closeness to winning causes
much regret and I would need to excuse myself for my “failure” thus coming out
with numerous of excuses saying that “at least i got a medal instead of nothing” or
even “im better than those who didn't get a medal” and even “im good enough
already for being able to represent my state for competition.

8. Chapter 3 - Entry 2
Date - 15th september 2014
Topic - The mood-congruence effect
In the sub topic of chapter 3, im going to talk about the mood-congruence
effect that are present in my life. Mood-congruence simply means that a memory
process that selectively retrieves memories that match (are congruent with) one's
mood. Quite simply, when something happens that strongly affects your mood the
memory will be retrieved when experiencing the mood again which are a common
relation between the mood you are in and memories. depending on your mood, you
will start thinking of the past memories that are related to your current mood.
for example, when Im happy, i usually thinks back stuff which happened in
my life which brings much joy in to my life. For instance, whenever i score good
result in my test, my mum would reward me and that makes me very happy causing
me to think back how lucky am i to revise much earlier before the test comes and
also recalling memories like the good times i spent with my mum and family and
remember all the good memories i had with my mum for example spending our time
for vacation in overseas and others.
for the downwards part, when i am down or moody, I start recalling bad
memories that happened in my past that has caused me pain or even heartache
and dwell on them. for instance, when i got caught in the traffic jam and im late for
college, i would start thinking about negative stuff and putting the blame on my
siblings or whoever that made me stucked in the traffic jam due to delayed
departure.

9. Chapter 4 - Entry 1
Date - 22nd September 2014
Topic - Comfirmation Bias
Where do your beliefs and opinions come from? If you are like most people,
you probably like to believe that your beliefs are the result of years of experience
and objective analysis of the information you have available. The reality is that all of
us are susceptible to a tricky problem known as a confirmation bias. While we like
to imagine that our beliefs are rational, logical, and objective, the fact is that our
ideas are often based on paying attention to the information that upholds our ideas
and ignoring the information that challenges our existing beliefs.
A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favouring
information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. For example,
imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than
right-handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed
and creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" supporting
their already existing belief.
Confirmation bias do exist in my life. I tend to supports firmly what i believes
and often argue with others are are opposed with my believes. for instance, if i
believe that the car BMW is faster than Mercedes-Benz, i would desperately
seeking and gathering info about how great is BMW compared to Mercedes-Benz
while there are many stuffs of Mercedes-Benz which are greater than BMW too. IN
times where me and my bunch of friends discuss about cars, i would bring up the
evidence and reason why BMWs are greater and better than Merz just because i
am a BMW fan.

10. Chapter 4 - Entry 2
Date - 22nd September 2014
Topic - Covariation Theory
Covariation theory says that when explaining other people’s
behaviours, we look for similarities (covariation) across a range of
situations to help us narrow down specific attributions.
There are three particular types of information we look for to
help us decide, each of which can be high or low which is
consensus, distinctiveness and also consistency. consensus shows
that how similarly other people act, given the same stimulus, as
the person in question. Distinctiveness shows that how similarly
the person acts in different situations, towards other stimuli.
consistency shows that how often the same stimulus and response
in the same situation are perceived.
People tend to make internal attributions when consensus
and distinctiveness are low but consistency are high. They will
make external attributions when consensus and distinctiveness are
both high and consistency is still high. When consistency is low,
they will make situational attributions.
If my mum yells at a person for instance my sister, we
(siblings) assume it is his nature if she is the only person to yell at
that person (low consensus), she yells at other people too (low
distinctiveness) and she yells at them often. However, if everyone

11. else gets cross with the same person (high consensus) and my
mum does not yell at other people (high distinctiveness), we
assume it is something external—probably the person being yelled
at, which is my sister. Finally, if my mum has not yelled at the
person before, we assume that something unusual has happened
(situational attribution).

12. Chapter 5 - Entry 1
Date - 6th October
Topic - Classical conditioning
Many of us may have heard about Pavlov’s dog experiment, a very
famous example of classical conditioning we learned about in class.
Classical conditioning is a learning process in which two unrelated stimuli
are repeatedly paired, and over time a reaction to the second stimulus can
be achieved by the first stimulus alone. In Pavlov’s experiment, he paired
the two stimuli of ringing a bell, and then giving food to a dog. After several
times of first ringing a bell and then feeding the dog, eventually when Pavlov
rung the bell the dog would start to salivate without the presence of the food.
With only the first stimulus (the bell), the reaction of the second stimulus
(salivating to the food) was achieved.
It’s amazing how simple it can be to condition someone or something
in this way. Examples of classical conditioning can furthermore be seen in
our everyday lives. A simple example for me would be for my dogs, Bubble.
Whenever my brother gets home from work, he opens the front gate making
an audible sound heard throughout the house. Over time, Bubble associated
the noise of the electrical gate opening with his arrival, and would stop
anything and everything it were doing to greet my brother’s arrival excitedly
at to door. Now whenever the electrical gate is activated, whether or not
someone is arriving at the house, Bubble excitedly awaits the front door and
are more times than not disappointed with the presence of no one.

13. Chapter 5 - Entry 2
Date - 6th October
Topic - Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental
conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and
punishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning, an association is
made between a behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour. for
instance, an example was given during the class. that example explains,
when a lab rat presses a blue button, he receives a food pellet as a reward,
but when he presses the red button he receives a mild electric shock. As a
result, he learns to press the blue button but avoid the red button.
Reinforcement comes in two different forms which are negative and
positive. Positive reinforcers are favourable events or outcomes that are
given to the individual after the desired behaviour. this may come in the form
of praise, rewards, etc. negative reinforcers typically are characterised by
the removal of an undesired or unpleasant outcome after the desired
behaviour. A response is strengthened as something considered negative is
removed. And the goal in both of these cases of reinforcement is for the
behaviour to increase.
for positive reinforcement, my parents often reward me whenever i
score well in test of behaves well all the time. not only that, they would
praise me whenever i did something good or helpful to the family and also
people around me. this makes my behaviour of doing good stuffs getting
reinforced and wanting to do more good stuff and score well in exam just for
the sake of getting praised or rewarding!

14. Name: Bryan Teh Qing Da
ID: 0318590
Group/Session: Monday, 12PM
Subject and Course: Social Psychology,
FNBE Aug Intake (SEM 2)
Submission Date: November 10, 2014