This document contains journal entries from a student discussing various concepts in social psychology. In the first entry, the student describes how they completed an accounting exercise faster when doing it alongside a friend, demonstrating the concept of social facilitation. The second entry discusses a friend who prefers individual work over group work due to differing opinions, showing social loafing. The third entry describes building confidence and viewing challenges positively, relating to the concept of self-efficacy.

1. Name: Yeo Dor Een
ID: 0316224
Group/Session: Monday 4pm
Assignment: Individual Journal
Subject: Social Psychology
Course: Foundation in Natural and Built Environment
Submission date: 10 November 2014

2. Date: 18 October 2014
Entry # 1
Concept: Social Facilitation
I used to be a slow person no matter what I do. I can hardly finish a
task in a short period of time given since I always need some time to think
and take response. However, I realised something about myself during
account class that I never realised before. Our lecturer asked us to record
the time we used up to complete an exercise because he hoped that all of us
were able to finish the exercise as fast as possible so that we can get used
to do account quickly and effectively. My friend who sat beside me always
finished account exercise in very short time. When I saw him doing so much
faster than me, I tried to write faster as well. Lastly I found that the time
taken when I was doing account exercise with my friend was shorter than I
was doing alone in my room. This situation showed the concept of social
facilitation which means people can performed better during competition
than solo assessment. Well-learned performance is enhanced in the presence
of others.

3. Entry # 2
Concept: Social Loafing
I have a friend who is a smart student but she does not like to talk
and hates to socialize with other people. Once we had a chit chat session
during our free time. She told me that she always prefer individual work
than group work. She found it hard to communicate with people because
everyone has different opinion in different things. She was not able to
perform better in a group work than individual work. She claimed that her
ideas were always different with her group members. This problem troubled
her so much in her studies every time and she gained bad results from that.
This situation showed the concept of social loafing. Social loafing means an
individual’s performance can actually get worse in the presence of others.
People make less effort in a group than they would if they were attempting
to achieve the goal on their own.

4. Date: 25 October 2014
Entry # 1
Concept: Self-efficacy
Before I entered university, I was a shy person with low confidence
towards myself. I used to be pessimistic in everything happened to me.
When I met some problem that upset or troubled me, I just felt bad and
disappointed to my own life. Sometimes I did not really think into the
problem thoroughly and never try to find a proper solution to solve it. Self-efficacy
is our belief in the ability to achieve certain goals. At that time I
had a low self-efficacy which means that I see difficult tasks as something
to be avoided. However, I had learnt a lot after I entered university. I knew
that I must be rational enough in solving every problem because I still have a
long way to go in my future life. Now I try to build confidence and high self-efficacy.
I must see difficult task or problem as challenges and try my best
to cope with it.

5. Entry # 2
Concept: Extrinsic motivation
During my secondary school life, there was a subject that I hated the
most, that was Chemistry. I was not interested in this subject because I
think I am not going to be a chemist one day. However, I have to force
myself to study Chemistry as hard as I could since I wished to get good
results in SPM. SPM is the most important exam for us in secondary school.
With good results, I could enter the university I wished to enter and pursue
my studies easily. Furthermore, I did not want to disappoint my parents
since they put so much expectations on me. I was motivated by the pressure
and pushed myself to take certain action which was to study hard. This is an
example of extrinsic motivation. Since I knew that Chemistry was always my
weakness, I put more effort on it to improve my result.

6. Date: 15 September 2014
Entry # 1
Concept: Confirmation bias
Last Friday, My family and I went to a restaurant for dinner. While
we were waiting for the serving of dishes, there was a woman walked into
the restaurant carrying some fruits like bananas, strawberries and
blueberries. There was a little girl following behind her carrying some fruits
as well. We watched them came in knowing that they were selling their fruits.
They started to drop by each table separately. The little girl dropped by our
table and asked whether we want to buy. My mother was attracted by the
big and fresh strawberries, so she asked for the price for one box. The girl
answered, ‘’thirty ringgit’’. My mother was shocked because she did not
expected that small box of strawberries cost that much. She thought the
girl was mistaken since she was too young. The girl claimed she was not
mistaken but my mother still doubt about that. The woman came and told my
mother that the strawberries really cost thirty ringgit since they were
imported from New Zealand and taste really good. Finally my mother
believed them. From this case, my mother showed the confirmation bias
because she thinks the girl is too young and she might don’t know a thing.
She trusted the woman because she is a mature adult. Confirmation bias is a
type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People
display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or
when they interpret it in a biased way.

7. Entry # 2
Concept: Counterfactual thinking
Sometimes people like to imagine different outcomes for an event
that has already occurred. That event usually associated with negative
events. This counterfactual thinking can be used to improve or worsen our
mood. Here is a real example. One of my friend is a pessimistic person. She
always think the negative side of any incident happened. On the other hand,
I had another friend who is very optimistic. He usually has a bright view even
bad things happened. There was a time we had a gathering at our friend’s
home. That gathering was at day time. When we were enjoying eating and
talking, suddenly electric power was cut and last for few hours. The place
became so hot without fans and air-conditioners working. My pessimistic
friend showed a despair face and said, ‘’Why are we so unlucky? If only we
gather another day but not today’’. My optimistic friend said, ‘’ Luckily this is

8. not at night’’. If this took place at night, we may not only feel hot but we
could not see others as well because there would be only darkness. My
pessimistic friend showed upward counterfactual while my optimistic friend
showed downward counterfactual.

9. Date: 22 September 2014
Entry # 1
Concept: First impressions
I still remember the first day when I entered secondary school, I wished to
get some new friends. I tried to find a friend that could become my best
friend so that I would not feel lonely throughout my study life. There was a
girl in my class who talked to me first but my first impression to this girl
was that she was an arrogant girl and I don’t really like her. So we did not
talk much since our characters and qualities were not matched. After that I
saw another girl who looked nice to get along with, I tried to talk to her. I
got to know her and we became friends. In the few days beginning of
secondary school, we are really closed friends. I followed her wherever she
went. However, after about a month, I realized she was not as nice as what I
thought. She was quite a selfish girl. She never help me when I need her

10. help even though I always helped her when she had problems. She only
thought about herself but never care about others even I was her best
friends. Our friendship became worse day by day and soon we had our own
other friends. Surprisingly, the girl that I thought she was arrogant was not
that bad after we got along for longer time. I realized in fact she had many
good qualities. She was funny, friendly and kind. We became best friends for
5 years of secondary school time. This experience showed that first
impressions to someone may be instantaneous. We should not count on our
first impressions to others too much.

11. Entry # 2
Concept: Non-verbal communication
Non-verbal communication usually convey by non-verbal cues which
means the behaviors, gestures and expressions that convey thought or
emotion without words. This is very common in our everyday life when we
communicate with other people. Vivian and I were best friends in primary
school. We talked everything and share happiness and sadness all the time.
After we graduated from school, we still always kept in touch. Due to our
own busy studies, the frequency for us to get in touch was getting lesser
time by time. Last year, I saw her in a shopping mall when I went to shopping.
She was in a glass elevator from a distance. I waved to her realizing we
almost lost contact for two years. She saw me and waved back to me happily.
Since we were in a long distance, I conveyed my thought to her by sign
language telling her I would call her and maybe go out for a tea next time.
She replied me ‘’no problem’’ by sign language as well. This incident showed
that non-verbal communication is very important and efficient to convey
message in some situation like when people are in a long distance and cannot
hear what the other say.

12. Date: 29 September 2014
Entry # 1
Concept: Operant conditioning
One of the rules in our university hostel is that we are not allowed to
cook. If any resident get caught by cooking in their unit, they would be fined
for minimum one hundred ringgit. If the case is serious, they may asked to
leave hostel immediately. Despite of this, one of my housemate always
cooked in our unit’s kitchen. Sometimes another of my housemate advised
her not to cook too often otherwise she may get caught. But she was not
willing to do so and still cooked everyday as usual. One day she finally got
caught and fined for one hundred ringgit. She dared not to cook again from
that day. This is called operant conditioning, means using reinforcement or
punishment to strengthen or weaken a particular behavior. In this case, high
fine required as punishment weaken the residents from breaking the terms
stated in the rules of hostel.

13. Entry # 2
Concept: Observational learning
After I entered university, my study life was so busy and I lacked of
exercise. Even I have free time, I always stayed in my hostel room and
watched drama from some websites. I went back to my hometown two weeks
ago. I usually go back at least once a month since I always feel homesick. My
mother suggested me to go yoga class with her since she knew that I rarely
do exercise. Every time she asked me to go, I refused to do so. But that
time I agreed because I must do some exercise to keep myself fit and
healthy. That time I was the only new student for yoga class. There was a
part of yoga which is dancing. Other students already familiar with the
dancing moves and they could do it easily and correctly. I could not follow
them very well since that was my first time for the dance. That was really
hard for me. So, I tried my best to observe and learn the way my mother
and other students dance. I went to the class again the next day. I realized
that time I was able to dance better and the moves were not that difficult
for me anymore. Observational learning means watching others engage in
behaviors and then repeating those actions. I was able to follow other
students and dance well through observational learning.