PSYC0103

ASSIGNMENT 1 : JOURNAL WRITING

NAME : ADIBAH BAHIAH BT AWANG

ID : 0316318

SUBJECT : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC0103)

COURSE : FNBE JULY 2013

GROUP : MONDAY (4-7PM)

DATE : 12 MAY 2014

Journal Entry #1

April 16, 2014 2.30 pm

The Self Fulfilling Prophecy states that if a belief or an expectation was put

upon a person or a group of people, the belief or expectation may come true if

the person acts accordingly to the belief or expectation that has been put upon

them. Back in high school, I have seen many cases of self fulfilling prophecies,

especially among students that have been labeled as “troubled”, “disturbed” or

“lazy” by teachers. Most of them couldn’t be bothered to improve themselves

simply because no one believed that they could. Teachers pay less attention to

students placed in lower classes because to them these kids, “don’t even want to

study.” Double standards were also imposed to different types of classes because

they produce different grades. Personally I don’t even believe in classifying

students according to their grades. It pushes forward the self fulfilling prophecy

even more, it increases stereotypes and double standards and it also increases

the gap between students from the higher class and the lower ones. How are

these students even expected to excel if nobody cares enough to do anything for

them. This will then only cause them to have a lower self esteem, because

nothing is being done. They’re already being placed in a class that is labeled as

the last class, stereotypically fit for lazy, uneducated kids- that alone would affect

their mindset greatly.

Journal Entry #2

April 20, 2014 9.00 am

Self Concept, Social Influences. The development of one’s self comes a lot from

their surroundings and the environment that they were brought up in. Since we

were little, we spend almost 100% of our time with our parents, family or close

relatives. We take in everything they feed us and we believe every word they

say- that is, before we step into the real world and are able to think for ourselves.

I for one, was raised in a collectivistic, and conservative culture. Since I was little,

my parents have taught me about Islam, how to live my life, what to do and not

do, etc. I was also sent to an Islamic school where all of my friends are muslims,

and have the same way of thinking as I do. However, when I entered high school I

started being more active in debate, and this is when a lot of times my beliefs

were challenged. I had to think out of my comfort zone and I had to learn how to

talk to people differently, because not everyone shares the same belief as I did. I

also had to be more open to topics that were “sensitive” and “controversial” to

my religion such as abortion, evolution, etc but to be honest, I’m glad I was able

to be apart of debate. Most of my friends back in school, they learned everything

they could get their hands on about religion, but they failed to understand that

this world is being occupied by so many types of people and sometime you just

have to open up to new thoughts and ideas in order to move forward. I believe

that sticking to your beliefs and roots are very important, but it’s also important

to think for yourself sometimes, in order to grow. After that thinking process

takes place, then only you can decide what to believe

Journal Entry #3

April 22, 2014 11.00 am

Stereotypes are thoughts that are adopted to label a certain group of individual

based on how they act, etc. I personally think stereotypes can be harmless,

people use it all the time for entertainment purposes- but to a certain extent,

they can lead to things such as double standards, prejudice, racism, sexism and

other things related. A few years ago my family and I went for a holiday in

Australia for a week. We were moving a lot there and in some places I noticed

weird looks and gestures that were given to us. Once I was waiting for my

parents to finish their grocery shopping and a little boy passed me and showed

me the middle finger for absolutely no reason. There were also times when

people would shout, and speak to us word by word like talking to a two year old

as if we don’t understand English- or we don’t understand how the human

communication works. I think the media plays the biggest role in spreading

stereotypes. After 9/11, every muslim is an individual that everybody needs to

be extra careful with- and that’s why my dad was searched with extra

precautions at immigration, because he had a beard and his name had an Ali in it.

People will always try to understand or read someone they just met, and most of

the time the easiest way to do so is by imposing a stereotype on them.

Journal Entry #4

April 30, 2014 11.05 am

Observational Learning is one of the ways of acquiring attitude, where people

observe and repeat certain behaviors that they were exposed to. I had a friend

back in school. He came from a broken family. His father took off when he was

very young, and never came back or checked up on them. His mother didn’t

remarry, was always busy with work and according to him they never really get

to spend time together. To make things worse, he was an only child so his life

was pretty much surrounded by nobody except for himself. Because of the

situation he was in, he grew up to be an introverted person that is very distant

and keeps everything to himself. Because his parents never really cared about

anything but themselves, he too didn’t feel the need to care about anything at all.

He also claimed that he doesn’t believe in life, or love because to him people will

eventually end up leaving and at the end of the day you only have yourself. It’s a

sad thing really, to see someone so bottled up and it’s not even their fault to

begin with. Parents, being the role model that they are should’ve been prepared

to provide as much support as they can as soon as they decided to raise a child in

the first place. Children have no one else to refer to besides their parents and

that’s why most of them become a carbon copy of them. If the parents show

positive behavior, then chances are their children will become positive- and if

parents show negative behavior, children will most likely become negative too.

Journal Entry #5

May 2, 2014 12.15 am

Counterfactual thinking is the act of imagining different outcomes for an event

that has already occurred. I lost my brother to cancer a few years ago and as I

recalled, throughout the period of him having cancer, counterfactual thinking

took place almost everyday in my family’s life, especially from my mother.

Everytime he was admitted to the hospital or when he gets sick I would

remember my mom always saying things like, “if only we did this” or “if only we

did that” trying to imagine the things that we should’ve done when it was already

too late. And when he died, a lot more of these thoughts surfaced. I would try to

imagine what would’ve happened if we looked after him better, or if we paid

attention even more, or if we increased the hospital visits or doctors

appointments of if we actually did a bone marrow transplant, things like that. It’s

stupid to think about all of these things only when it’s already too late because

nothing can be done anymore but I just couldn’t help it. Counterfactual thinking

takes place from the smallest of matters such as assignments to more serious

cases like death. You feel guilty for what has happened, therefore you try to find

a way to comfort yourself by imagining possible outcomes that could’ve changed

fate, when fact it- fate is fate, and you just cannot change what has happened.