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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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