Journal

1. Name: Teoh Jun Xiang
ID Number: 0322099
Group: Monday 10 am – 12 pm
Subject: Social Psychology [PSYC0103]
Course: Foundation in Natural and Built Environments (FNBE)
Lecturer: Mr. Shankar
Submission date: 16th of November 2015

2. Social Psychology Journal 1
Date: 13/7/2015
Time: 9. 32 pm
Concept: Perspectives of social psychology
There are four different perspectives of social psychology, namely sociocultural
perspective, evolutionary perspective, social cognitive perspective and social learning
perspective. After learning about the perspectives of social psychology, I could recall an
incident I’ve encountered months ago that is related to this concept.
One night, when I was scrolling and reading through the news feeds on my Facebook
home page, I came across a shocking photo. The character in the photo was a friend of mine
who studied and graduated from the same secondary school last year after we completed the
SPM examinations. Her name is Anne. Though we didn’t really communicated with each
other before, we were friends on Facebook since we were studying in Form 3.
The photo pictured Anne posing on a runway with a bright smile while she was
wearing pink coloured bikinis. Moreover, white circular shaped paper circles were attached
to her wrist and her waist. After observing the photo and reading the comments on the post, I
came to a conclusion that Anne attended a beauty pageant which was held in Kuala Lumpur.
As beauty pageants in the modern society usually include a “swimsuit round”, it was no
question that Anne had to wear bikinis in front of the public during the event.
After observing the photo, I had my own perspectives and thoughts regarding her
actions. Personally, I thought that Anne’s actions were a bit too “open” or unreserved as she
was exposing her own physical body to the public without proper clothing. Although it is a
must for contestants to expose their physical beauty to the judges during the competition, I
personally thought that she could have avoided doing so by not attending the competition at
the first place. This is because she is still a teenager of a young age and she should respect
herself as well as her family by not posting any photos which portrays herself in limited
clothing.
After assessing the situation, I personally thought there were several social
perspectives on why she attended the event and displayed her body in public. One of the

3. perspectives is sociocultural perspective. This perspective focuses on the relationship
between social behaviour and culture. Social behaviour is not only influenced by the presence
of others but also cultural norms which will have a significant influence on her actions.
Culture is anything that is socially transmitted by an act or behaviour and it does not
necessarily limited to ethnicity, race or religion. Anne’s actions may be a result of the
influence of the modelling culture. This was because after she graduated from secondary
school, she did not pursue her tertiary education immediately and instead, she chose to attend
local modelling courses. By attending such courses, she may be exposed to people who think
that a professional model should be fearless and able to adapt to different situations that may
or may not favour them. As such, the culture may cause her to set aside her fears and be
brave enough to showcase her external beauty in such a manner.
Secondly, her actions can be explained through the evolutionary perspective. This
perspective focuses on the physical and biological predispositions that result in human
survival. According to this perspective, natural selection would indicate that those behaviours
that enhanced survival would be passed on to subsequent generations. The emphasis is on the
survival of the gene pool. As Anne studied in modelling courses and mixed around with
professionals in that particular field, it may be disadvantageous to her if she was too shy to
showcase herself in front of the public. As such, Anne and her course mates would be willing
to wear over-exposed garments like bikinis in front of the public as it demonstrates their
bravery and determination to flare in the modelling industry. Such a characteristic may
improve their chances of stepping into the modelling industry, which indicates their survival
after achieving their goals.
Thirdly, her actions can be explained through the social cognitive perspective. This
perspective is derived from the behavioralism perspective and it assumes that an individual’s
cognitive process influences and is influenced by behavioural associations. Cognitive
processes have not been established that identify the action of wearing such over-exposed
garments in front of the public as a serious offence in terms of cultural norms. This may be
due to the increase in exposure of the public towards the various beauty pageants held locally
and internationally. “Swimsuit rounds” are normal in beauty pageants nowadays as it aims to
judge the physical beauty of the contestants to determine who the rightful owner of the crown
is. Besides, the competition was held professionally under the supervision of experienced and

4. knowledgeable personnel in the modelling industry. As such, no cognitive conditioning has
occurred to link the act of wearing bikinis in public as a negative experience.
Finally, her actions can be explained through the social learning perspective. This
perspective argues that individuals learn from observing the behaviours of others. Individuals
will observe modelled behaviours and, in turn behave in a similar manner. As Asians, we
tend be more conservative and restricted in terms of thinking and behaviour as we tend to
obey cultural norms that were imposed by our ancestors. For example, a woman is not
allowed to wear such a limited amount of clothing as it may be a disgrace to herself and her
family. However, in the modern society, Asians are becoming more and more “open” in
terms of thinking as they are constantly exposed to Western cultures. The act of wearing
bikinis in front of the public may have been established through observation and perceived as
an acceptable behaviour.
(937 words)

5. Social Psychology Journal 2
Date: 23rd of March to 6th of June 2013
Time: 2 pm to 6 pm
Concept: Motivation
I’ve studied in a secondary school known as Catholic High School for 5 years before
graduating in 2014. Catholic High School, or SMJK Katholik, is a conforming government
school founded by Rev. Bro. Phillipe Wu 59 years ago. Catholic High School is a Cluster
School of Excellence known for the academic as well as the co-curricular achievements of its
students. Being a prestigious secondary school in Petaling district with almost six decades of
history, the school has established various cultures and traditions which are best known
among its students, and one of them is the Annual Sports Day.
The Annual Sports Day has always been a “big thing” of our school, not only because
students are able to witness athletes of different sports houses dashing in the field for glory,
but an inter-sports house marching competition will be held each year. Only Form 4 students
are eligible to volunteer themselves as a marcher for their respective sports houses, and those
who are chosen are given a chance to compete with other sports houses and be crowned the
“Best Marching Team” of the year. I remembered that I was a passive and ignorant Form 4
student back in 2013 when the committees of the Red Sports House started to recruit new
marchers for the Annual Sports Day. At first, I tried my very best to avoid being recruited as
a marcher as I dreaded the long hours of marching practices under the sun. Moreover, the
practices will definitely take most of my revision time and my academic results may be
affected. However, after repeated persuasion from the committees, I finally signed my name
in the list and officially became a marcher.
At first, when our marching commander held practices after school hours, only a few
members attended the practice willingly. Various excuses were given by the absentees and
the progress of the whole team was heavily delayed due to their selfishness. This situation
had been continuing for quite some time and in the end the commander realised that strict
actions had to be taken to curb the problem. As such, an official warning was given in our
What’sApp group and those who were absent again for the next practice will automatically be
disqualified. All marchers attended the next practice session punctually due to extrinsic
motivation. They attended the practice in response to the external pressure given by our

6. commander. Most importantly, to avoid the severe punishment which will result in their
disqualifications, the other marchers had no choice but to obey the rules set.
For the upcoming practice sessions, all of us attended punctually in fear of being
punished or being disqualified. This was because only Form 4 students were allowed to
participate as marchers for their respective Sports Houses. We attended the practice sessions
due to extrinsic motivation and nothing more. However, as time passed, things started to
change for the better. We got used to each other and we started communicating with one
another. Strangers transformed into friends and friends became best buddies in a miraculous
way. In addition, we started to talk with the commander as well and a senior-junior
relationship soon blossomed. We were not afraid to communicate with our seniors of our
sports house and we often joked around. We shared jokes and played around whenever we
had break sessions, but we also trained hard to ensure that we do not disappoint our
commander.
The marchers attended each practice sessions later on due to intrinsic motivation. The
reason was simple: We did so for the sake of enjoyment as well as happiness. This was
because we were truly happy when we met each other and we would often spend memorable
times together during or after practice sessions. The sense of belongingness and the feeling of
being in a family and being included made our bond stronger. All the marchers attended the
practice sessions willingly and this led us to be more engaged in our training.
As there are 5 sports houses in our secondary school, namely Blue, Green, Yellow,
Red and Purple, the competition among these sports houses have always been fierce. As such,
each sports house’s members tend to have high self-esteem about their own sports houses.
The evaluation of our sports house’s self-worth often leads to feelings of pride, triumph and
even confidence. The inter-sports house marching competition was initiated 7 years ago and
for the last 7 years, our sports house, the Red sports house, won all the marching
competitions. This ultimately caused the members of the Red sports house to feel confident
about themselves and sometimes, confidence often turned into pride. As our seniors were
champions themselves, they were very concerned that their juniors can achieve the same
results to continue the winning streak. As such, they often used words such as “We are 7
times champions!” and also “We are number one!” during our practices to motivate and
encourage us to work harder. Moreover, as some of our marchers had high self-esteem, he

7. often said, “We can definitely win this year. We will never lose to the other sports houses.”
From his statements, it can be concluded easily that high self-esteem can sometimes lead to
feelings of pride and over-confidence.
In the end, although the marchers displayed good team effort and bravery, we
eventually lost for the first time in history. The seven year winning streak ended because of
ous. The judges felt that our spirits were low compared to the other sports houses’ marchers.
The innate need to feel good about ourselves was not met and eventually, we were depressed
and ashamed of ourselves. Some of our marchers started crying as soon as the results were
announced. Although we didn’t win the competition that year, it taught us a very good lesson
to never underestimate the powers of other parties. The loss didn’t break our spirits, but it
motivated us extrinsically to stand from where we fell and to win back our title.
(993 words)
This picture shows our batch of marchers for the Red Sports House in the 2013 Catholic
High School Annual Sports Day.

8. Social Psychology Journal 3
Date: 3rd of March 2011
Time: 3.45 pm
Concept: Stereotyping
A stereotype is a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of
people. It assumes that all members of a group share some common feature. These thoughts
may or may not reflect reality and they are often racist, sexist, or homophobic. Being in a
society of people with various family backgrounds, religions, ethnicity and thoughts,
stereotypes are inevitable as people normally judge who we are and what we do based on
limited information they have in hand. Although stereotyping is often seen as a negative thing,
people tend to stereotype as they help make sense of the world. This is because they are a
form of categorization that helps to simplify and systematize information. Thus, information
is more easily identified, recalled, predicted, and reacted to. As much as I hate to admit it, I
myself have stereotyped the people around me numerous times and I’ve been stereotyped by
others as well.
I was a prefect for 5 years in my secondary school. The prefectorial board is a service-
based student organization of a school which aims to enforce discipline among the students.
As such, prefects were often thought to be the role models of the students or as some people
call it, the cream of the crop. We carry out our duties on a daily basis before and in between
schooling hours to ensure that students follow the school rules and to curb disciplinary
problems. There was a particular group of students who often caused problems by not
cooperating with the prefects whenever we were carrying out our duties. For instance, the
school rules clearly state that students were not allowed to carry food out of the canteen in
fear that irresponsible students may litter around the school compound after they finished
their meals. However, some students, especially the members of the Quartermasters society,
tend to hide their food in their pockets or shoe bags and sneak their food out of the canteen to
avoid being caught by the prefects. This was because the Quartermasters tend to hold
meetings during recess sessions in their room and their teacher advisor allowed them to bring
food into the room. As such, there were some problems caused whenever we caught them
with food outside the canteen. Although the number of Quartermasters who offended the
school rules was only a handful, we tend to think that Quartermasters are a bunch of
disobedient and thick-headed students. Whenever we see Quartermasters strolling outside of

9. the canteen, we had the urge to stop and inspect their pockets or shoe bags. This caused some
of them to be frustrated as we tend to see them as “outlaws”. Stereotypes were created as we
tend to assume that all Quartermasters are disobedient students based on the small number of
students we’ve encountered.
Another common stereotype the prefects tend to create is the assumption that students
wearing low or ankle socks are disobedient students. I personally thought so too as it is our
obligation to stop students who wore ankle socks or socks with low heights and ensure that
they purchase the actual school socks before we let them off. Again, the school rules said so.
Whenever I encountered this type of students back in Form 2, I would be angry and afraid at
the same time as some of these students tend to be uncooperative by being rude and defensive
when they were questioned by me. Some students even tried to run away and they were those
students with a lot of disciplinary problems. As such, whenever I see students wearing low or
ankle socks in school, I automatically stereotype them as problematic students. By doing so, I
did not give myself a chance to see the bigger picture. I often dislike my classmates who also
wore socks with low height as I tend to recall the hardships I faced to correct these type of
students during my duties. However, after mixing around with them, I got a chance to hear
their personal thoughts and opinions regarding the matter, and some of them are indeed
acceptable. In addition to that, some of these students are friendly and polite and they tend to
make good friends. My perception towards students who wore socks with low height changed
time after time after setting aside the assumptions made based on their behaviours.
Not only do prefects create stereotypes based on the type of students we’ve
encountered, the students of the school also tend to stereotype us as well. One particular
stereotype the students often impose on us is that all prefects are smart. This weird
assumption was often made and it does bother some of the prefects as the teachers tend to
place high amount of emphasis on the prefects in class in terms of their academic
achievements. This assumption was made as the discipline teachers did set a minimum
requirement in terms of our average marks in order for us to be qualified as prefects.
However, in reality, not all prefects in our school are academic geniuses. There are some who
do not pass up their homework on the due date and some don’t even pay attention during
classes. It can be concluded that prefects have good and bad sides to them. As such, we often
find this assumption hilarious and absurd as not all of us are alike. It was inevitable that when
we encountered a student whom we’ve never met before, they will automatically claim that

10. prefects are good in terms of their academic results and give all sorts of funny remarks on the
matter. I myself find it disturbing as well as the statements made do not reflect the truth. We
may be representatives of the students, however, at the end of the day, we are still normal
students.
In conclusion, stereotypes are often just assumptions of a particular group of people
based on the limited amount of information we have in hand. As such, we must be careful
and observant enough before judging others as we may not want to be judged by others as
well.
(1010 words)
This picture shows our batch of Prefectorial Board Committees for the 2013/2014
sessionafter the Annual General Meeting installation.

11. Social Psychology Journal 4
Date: 7th of January 2013
Time: 9 am to 11 am
Concept: Covariation Theory
Back in secondary school, I had a physics teacher by the name of Brother John Chin
who taught us the basic knowledge of physics in Form 4 and Form 5. Brother John Chin is
one of the very few Catholic Brothers in Malaysia who was still teaching before he retired
this year at the month of September. In addition to that, Brother John was a rather short man
who always wore a white robe during his academic services in our school. As such, he was
often seen as an old wise man who displayed tremendous patience and knowledge when
teaching his fellow students. Before our classmates were taught by Brother John, we often
thought that he would never show his tantrum towards his students as that particular
behaviour may be against his holy duties as a Catholic Brother. However, our seniors warned
us before that Brother John did show his rage when he was prompted to do so.
When we first attended Brother John’s class, we behaved ourselves as we did not
want to create a bad impression of ourselves. Brother John’s classes were considered boring
and hypnotizing as his style of teaching was rather slow paced and, in addition to the
complex theories of physics which were deemed too hard to comprehend, a lot of students
started to talk during his teachings. When the noise generated by those who talked exceeded
his tolerance, he simply paused and gave us a wide smile before saying, “Alright students,
please lower down your voices as there are other students who are interested to listen to the
class.” This “technique” was only efficient for a little while before my classmates started
talking again. What’s more infuriating was that some of my classmates even slept in class.
However, Brother John always seemed to be calm and patient whenever he dealt with this
kind of students.
After observing this for a few weeks, I kept asking myself was the behaviour of
Brother John caused by internal or external factors. Why does Brother John act the way he
normally does in a calm and patient manner? According to the Covariation Theory proposed
by Harold Kelley, we form internal or external attributions for people’s actions based on the
degrees of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency in their behaviour. Consensus is the
extent where most people would act in that particular manner, distinctiveness is the extent in

12. which that person will act differently than usual and consistency is a measure of how
consistent a person would behave in that particular manner. The consensus variable answers
the question: Do most people behave in the same way in the same situation? The answer is
simply no. Most of the teachers in our school will definitely lose their temper whenever the
students behave in such a rude manner. As such, consensus is low for Brother John’s
behaviour and his behaviour may be due to something unique about his own personalities.
Secondly, the distinctiveness variable answers the question: How unique or distinct is the
behaviour of the person in this situation? The answer is again: No. Brother John was always
patient and undisturbed whenever he faced these kinds of students for the past few weeks. As
such, it can be concluded that there is nothing special about is behaviour and distinctiveness
is low. This means that his behaviour reflects something intrinsic about himself. Finally, the
consistency variable answers the question: How consistent does the behaviour occur itself in
the same situation? The answer is: Yes. Brother John consistently showed patience and
calmness when handling the exact situation over and over again. As such, the action reflects
something intrinsic to the person and consistency is high.
In conclusion, dispositional or internal attributions can be made based on Brother
John’s behaviour if we put all the information together. This means that Brother John’s
behaviour occurred as a result of his unique personal traits and it was not caused by any other
situational factors. This was because there was low consensus as the other teachers do not
behave in the same manner in the same situation. Moreover, there was low distinctiveness as
this was not a unique behaviour of Brother John. Lastly, there was high consistency as
Brother John consistently portrayed the same behaviours for as long as students can recall.
Although it can be concluded that Brother John’s behaviours occurred intrinsically
and were due to his own personal characteristics, it is amazing to know that he can keep his
cool demeanour in most of the situations. Brother John’s unique approach when dealing with
problematic students earned him respect and salutation among the other teachers in the school.
His actions were merely due to his own characteristics which made him more respectable as
his personal values as well as moral upbringing may be the key to his peaceful behaviours.
As such, Brother John is truly on of a kind.
(813 words)

13. This picture shows Brother John Chin attending his retirement ceremony on the 11th of
September 2015.

14. Social Psychology Journal 5
Date: 17th of February 2015
Time: 10. 30 am
Concept: Observational Learning
A few years ago, my father brought the entire family to visit his old friend who lives
in Kajang during the Chinese New Year celebrations. His friend, by the surname of See Toh,
has three children consisting of two boys and one girl. The eldest child studied in a
government secondary school and the other two children studied in a Chinese primary school.
While my sister and I were enjoying some traditional Chinese New Year snacks in the living
room, the youngest child of the family invited both of us to go upstairs and play with his
siblings. When we arrived upstairs, we sat down in a corner as we were quite shy. The three
siblings were looking at a computer screen attentively as the eldest sibling was playing an
online game called Dota. As the game progressed, the siblings started to reveal their true
characteristics.
As the eldest sibling faced some difficulties when playing the game, he shouted and
cursed using vulgar languages which were displeasing to the ears. The other two younger
siblings teased him using vulgar languages as well. As the eldest sibling was a bit anxious
and excited due to the intense battles of the game, he played the game with extra
concentration and cautiousness. Seeing this, the youngest boy of the family wanted to make a
fool and he purposely hit the shoulder of his sibling. Disappointed by the disturbance caused,
the eldest sibling immediately stood up from his seat and he hit the head of his younger
brother forcefully. After making his move, the eldest sibling sat down and continued with the
game. The youngest sibling turned his attention to his elder sister by communicating to her
using fowl languages and then he hit her playfully. The sister responded by hitting his head
with great force and she cursed at him in a very unpleasant manner. My sister and I were
shocked to see the siblings conversing and behaving in such a rude and impolite manner and
we silently left the room without them noticing it.
After the visit, my sister and I were very curious as to why the younger siblings acted
and behaved similarly to their elder brother. The answer was simply because of observational
learning. Observational learning is a type of learning most associated with the works and

15. social learning theories of psychologist Albert Bandura. It is a type of learning that occurs
through observation of other’s behavior. As the parents were polite and do not behave in such
a manner, it is logical to conclude that the eldest brother is the root cause of this phenomena.
As there was a huge gap in terms of age among the siblings, it is likely to conclude that the
younger siblings behaved in such a rude and violent manner after observing their brother’s
behavior for some time. This was because the actions, tone of voice as well as styles of
speaking of the younger siblings were very much similar to him. Similar to Albert Bandura’s
Bobo doll experiment where the children were exposed to violent videos on how to hit the
Bobo doll, the younger siblings were constantly exposed to the violent acts as well as vulgar
communication styles of their eldest brother. This impacted their behaviours. Most
importantly, the younger siblings seemed to be rarely separated from their eldest brother. As
a result, they spent longer times with him and imitates his behaviours after prolonged
exposure to them. In addition, the siblings view their brother as a role model and they
followed his footsteps which explains their learned behavior.
To further explain their behaviours, we can analyze the four stages involved in
observational learning, namely Attention, Retention, Initiation and Motivation. Firstly, the
younger siblings were unable to learn unless they paid attention to what’s happening around
them. Most importantly, the entire learning process is influenced by the characteristics of the
model (eldest sibling) and after repeated exposure towards the behaviours; it catches the
younger siblings’ attention. Secondly, as the violent and rude behaviours of the eldest sibling
were very significant and caught their attention, the younger siblings were able to recognize
the behaviours and remember it after some time. The younger siblings were most likely able
to mentally or physically rehearse or replay the model’s actions. In addition to that, as the
parents may not know of the behaviours of their son most of the time, actions were not taken
against him and the younger siblings may think that it was acceptable to behave in such a
manner. Thirdly, after observing and learning to imitate the model’s actions, the observers
(younger siblings) must be able to produce the acts physically and intellectually. If they were
successful to do so, they were able to successfully initiate similar versions of the desired
behaviour. Finally, motivation may also contribute to observational learning. After observing
and learning their model’s behaviours, it was most likely that extrinsic motivation was
present to motivate them to showcase their true behaviours. The main cause of the motivation
may be the eldest sibling himself. He may have teased and challenged his siblings to behave

16. like he did to see who was better at it. The challenges motivated the younger siblings to
continue behaving in that manner.
Although it was evident that the younger siblings imitated the behaviours of their
brother, I am disappointed that the eldest brother did not set a good example to his siblings.
Such a rude and unacceptable behaviour will only indicate the lack of control Mr. See Toh
has over his children. Corrective measures should be taken as soon as possible before the
problem goes out of hand.
(941 words)