Name: Yeow Jinn Sheng

Student ID : 0318797

Session: Monday 8am Class

Subject: Social Psychology (PSYC 0103)

Course: Foundation in Natural and Built Environment

Submission date: 10th

November 2014

Journal 1 (Entry 1)

For the very first chapter that been taught by Mr. Shankar,

our Social Psychology lecturer, is an introduction to this subject.

We studied about how to perceive, influence and interact with

others throughout the three main areas of interest which is social

perception, social influence, and social interaction. For example, I

saw a group of old folks was

chatting. They were talking to

each other with high volume

and loudly (social perception).

For the first impression, I

thought they were rude and

impolite. I’m not sure why

they talked loudly as if the conversation between gangsters…or

maybe their hearing sensory system goes poor as they were older?

My initial feeling is unclear of why they did so. Since my mother

told me that talking in high volume is been rude and not

encouraged (social influence). So, the “pressure” of my mum’s

words in my mind affected me to think they were rude. Therefore,

I was trying to avoid from them because I scared of they might

fear me with their high volume voice (social interaction). I was

thinking it is better if there is no any relationship or interaction

between the old folks and me.

Journal 1 (Entry 2)

Social facilitation is one of the roots of social psychology. I

understood the theory of social facilitation when I found out that

experience during 2012 160KM Century Ride cycling competition,

which participated by hundreds of cyclists. Before the race, my

friend and I were trained for couple of weeks. We spent 6 hours to

complete a 140KM training ride. On the race day, my duration to

finish the race was four and half hours. The presence of the other

participates arouses me to ride faster and get the higher ranking

as I could than others. It became a motivation for me to do better

in a race with hundreds cyclists than training ride where just two

of us. I conducted that I got the better result because the arousal

enhanced my performance by increasing my likelihood to do well-

learned task.

Presence of

other

participants

Ride faster

Enhances

Source of

arousal

Well-learned

performance

Journal 2 (Entry 1)

Today’s lesson is about self: Who am I, How do others see

us. Self-concept is how people think and perceive themselves. It

includes the belief that we hold about ourselves, where self-

schema is an individual’s belief. For an example, my ambition

was becoming a triathlete. My ambition was my self-concept.

Meanwhile, my self-schemas were more training, seeking for

more tips to win triathlon and etc. I noticed that I was welcoming

the information that consistent to my self-concept. Self-concept is

like a puzzle, while self-schema is every pieces of puzzle.

More training

Seek for

advices from

expert

Becoming a

triathlete

(Ambition)

Journal 2 (Entry 2)

Self-serving bias serves as a strategy to believe that we are

better than others. In this way, it is protecting our self from

depression. Social comparison is one of the theories that implied

self-serving bias. It can be upward social comparison or

downward social comparison. Downward social comparison

related to the self-enhancement, by enhancing our self-esteem by

feeling that we are better than others. Recalling back to the

exhibition that we were required to build a city model, from the

start we been tried so hard to get the best idea so can get a

higher marks that other group that leaded by the best student in

our class. Since she was the best, we must do a lot so can defeat

her. Until the day result been announced, our result was A while

her group obtained B+. We were happy that we “won” and even

celebrated in a restaurant. This heightened my self-esteem. I

usually compared my assignment with hers because her works

always been recognized by lecturers and got quite a high marks.

Journal 3 (Entry 1)

Today’s class is about social cognition, which is the third

chapter. Jean Piaget used his 5 key concepts to explain his

theory of cognitive development. Those keys include schema,

assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium, and equilibration.

When I was small, I read a book and saw a long and green in

color plant. My mum told me that it was sugarcane. Few weeks

later, I saw my parents brought home two long green plants for

prayer before Chinese New Year. I checked the schema of

sugarcane, it is long and green in color. But its surface was rough.

I experienced disequilibrium so I seek for reinforcement and

asked my parents, “Isn’t it sugarcane?” . My parents replied “Yes,

it is sugarcane.” Till the day I went fishing with my uncle, I saw

green and long plant by the riverside. And its surface was rough

as well. I was confused and asked my uncle, “Isn’t it a sugarcane

plant?” He said no but it is a bamboo tree. He cut the bamboo

and showed me the interior part of bamboo --- it is empty space

inside. He taught me how to identify the difference of bamboo and

sugarcane. Schema is a cognitive framework, for example, a

schema of sugarcane is long and green in color. Assimilation

occurs when I used an existing schema to classify a new schema:

I checked the schema of sugarcane when I saw the real

sugarcane in object; it is long and green in color. After I touched

the surface of bamboo and I realized that it was rough.

Sugarcane’s new schema of “rough surface” was built and added

to the existing schema. Accommodation is a cognitive process

that I learned to modify the schema of sugarcane to

accommodate the new schema of bamboo. For the first time, I

wrongly thought that bamboo was “sugarcane” because

sugarcane was long, green in color and rough surface. After I

realized the difference between bamboo and sugarcane, which is

it was empty space in bamboo, disequilibrium resolved. The new

schema of bamboo created after accommodated from

sugarcane’s schema. Equilibrium is a mental process that I

experienced when I knew that bamboo and sugarcane are

different with each other. Equilibration occurs when an individual

resolved the disequilibrium and he shifts back to assimilation.

When I first know the image of sugarcane, the initial of schema of

sugarcane (green, long) was built. Before that, I experienced

disequilibrium, which meant that I didn’t know that is a sugarcane.

After the disequilibrium resolved, I continued to assimilate the

schema of sugarcane, such as rough surface. If the process of

assimilation does not occur, a new schema will be formed. For

example, characteristic of “the empty space in the bamboo” is not

belongs to schema of sugarcane. So, there was a new “file folder”

created for bamboo.

Journal 3 (Entry 2)

There’s many bias in social cognition, one of them is illusion

of control. Illusion of control is a tendency for an individual to

believe that uncontrollable events can be controlled. They are

overestimating their ability to control something even though it is

uncontrollable for their desired outcome. For example, my cousin

and I were playing a kart racing video game. We attempted to

beat each other down by getting a higher position in the race. We

were pressing the button to move the cart. My cousin even used

his leg to press the button with his toe. He thought that if he uses

a stronger energy to press the button, the faster the cart goes. He

was so desperate to defeat me with his “faster” cart speed. Well,

I just used my finger the press the button, but we still kept the

same speed. The theory of illusion of control demonstrated on my

cousin’s action.

To obtain To control

Cousin pressed the

button with

stronger energy

with his leg toe

Overestimating his

ability

Bigger energy,

faster the cart goes

Uncontrollable event

Get higher ranking

than me

Desired outcome

Journal 4 (Entry 1)

Chapter 4: Social perception taught us how we perceive

others, how we understand others. Harold Kelly’s Covariation

theory explained why we and others behave in certain way. He

based attributions into three factors: Consensus, Consistency and

Distinctiveness. Consensus explained how similarly a people act

in a same situation; consistency explained how similarly a people

often behave every time as the certain situation occurs;

distinctiveness explained how similarly a people act in different

situation. For example, I don’t really drink beer when I was alone.

But when i was in a gathering with friends or family members, I

did drink some (High consensus). For sure, in every gathering

with my friends or family, I would like to take some beer because I

think it’s an enjoyable moment to have a conversation with them

while having beer (High consistency). I only drink when I was

with my friends or family, because I not think it’s always for me to

take beer unless gathering with them (High distinctiveness).

When three factors (consensus, consistency, distinctiveness) are

high, I was considered as made an external attribution, as known

as external cause. Situational and environmental causes are

external causes. Because of my friends and family, I just drank

some beer when I was in a gathering with them.

Journal 4 (Entry 2)

In the other hand, we can decide what do others like, by

Halo effect. This phenomenon occurs when an individual thinks

another person is good in certain group, then he/she more likely

to classify him as good as in other group. Meanwhile, our

awareness can be not involved in this occurrence. For example,

Justin Bieber. His fans think that he was a great singer, and then

must be a good dancer as well (even though he was not). They

believed him as their role model because he able to strike a good

result in his career. But those fans were not actively aware that he

was actually a guy with bad behavior such as drag-racing. Halo

effect was operating like confirmation bias since it was a specific

type of it. Bieber’s fans paid attention only to the information that

supports their belief and less inclined to find those opinions which

conflict to their idea towards

Justin Bieber.

Less inclined to

More inclined to

Justin Bieber’s

fans

Journal 5 (Entry 1)

Today, we learnt about how attitudes make evaluation about

world. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are the

process of behavior where all the actions are acquired through.

Classical conditioning is a learning process which involved

environmental stimulus and natural response. Mere-exposure

effect is one of the classical conditioning. As the exposure of the

thing was repeating, people was more likely or pleasing to receive

it since it was more familiar to us. For example, McDonald’s

advertisement. It can be seen everywhere such as newspaper,

billboard, even on Internet. I was more interest towards

McDonald’s rather than Marry Brown, because I saw it pretty

much times. It appeared in my first thought when I was thinking

about fast food unconsciously. This is because it was imprinted in

my mind and it can’t be easily erased since it was kept repeating

around me.

Journal 5 (Entry 2)

Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual experienced

the disequilibrium when he/she holds two or more beliefs. Post-

decision dissonance is one of the examples from the theory. That

particular part can be demonstrated by the story of sour-grapes.

People will feel dissonance that they might made the not-the-best

choice after the decision made. Then they will change their

perception to reduce the dissonance. For example, my girlfriend

and I went to a boutique. After we walked and looked around,

finally she chose her favorite dress. It cost about 80 bucks. Soon,

we went into another boutique, and we saw another dress with

the same design and color. She been sighed that she bought a

more expensive dress. But she never regret because she thought

that dress she just bought was better than the cheaper one from

quality. Post-decision dissonance been clearly showed on my

girlfriend. She was trying to avoid from the information that

increase her dissonance but she made her decision more logical

so she felt that she wasn’t wrong.