SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: Chia Wee Min

STUDENT ID NO: 0315186

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC 0103)

LECTURER: PANG CHIA YEE

SUBMISSION DATE: 20TH NOVEMBER 2013

Self Concept (Entry #1)

Self concept is how we think about and evaluate ourselves. Self- concept is derived

from some factors including personal traits, personal values and place or role in life. Next is

self knowledge, which is explaning our behaviour, predicting our behaviour and predicting

our feelings. I usually acknowledge my understanding towards myself is most likely accurate

but through this lecture, i learn that ouur self explanations and prediction on our behaviour are

often wrong. For example, I plan to finish my assignment today as I want to finish it early

and estimating I will finish after 4 hours, around 10 but unfortunately this plan never works

for me. Something must have always distracting me such as Facebook, Youtube and so on

and I usually finish my assignment I day later or even few days later than what i had planned.

As for predicting our feelings, through lecture I learn that even i as a female could also

mispredict what another female feels. For example, when the lecturer showed us and asked us

on how women feel if asked sexually harassing questions on a job interview, I predicted that

the women will feel angry and disrespect but actually the result is the women will feel fear. In

a nutshell, self predicting behaviour and feelings are not as accurate as I thought it will be.

Reference

 Gillian Fournier (n.d.). Self-Concept | Encyclopedia of Psychology. Retrieved from

http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/self-concept/

Saul McLeod (2008). Self Concept - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from

http://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html

Self – Serving Bias ( Entry #2)

Self- serving bias is the tendency to perceive oneself favourably. The common human

tend to attribute one’s successes to personal characteristic and one’s failures to factors beyond

one’s control. We want to believe we are responsible for good things and soneone or

something else is responsible for the bad things. These wants cause the self serving

bias.Through this lecture, i understand that almost everyone have self-serving bias that is not

awared among ourselves. For example, when I got and A in Physics because I was working

very hard for it and failed my Biology because the exam were too hard and this is one of the

examples of self serving bias. Other than that , comparing oneself favorably with others is

also one kind of self serving bias. I sometimes think that i am better than my parents and my

friends from education, sport and talent aspect but sadly to say that it is also an example of

self- serving bias. Next is unrealistic optimism, Unrealistic optimism is a well- established

illusion that one’s future is rosier than it really will be but I think that I’m not in this catagory.

For example, when my first Additional Mathematic results was announced by my teacher and

she said that only 12 out of 32 student pass this exam if im an unrealistic optimism, i will

think that I’m 1 of the 12 but I’m not. I think that I’m 1 of the students that failed Additional

Mathematic exam. Lastly, is false consensus which is finding support for our positions by

overestimating the extend to which others agree. I learn that when I state a statement than I

expect others to agree but actually is not really the truth. In a nutshell, i have a more

understanding about myself that I’m also one self-serving bias person.

Reference

Alice Boyes (2013, January 9). The Self-Serving Bias - Definition, Research, and Antidotes |

Psychology Today. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-practice/201301/the-self-serving-bias-definition-

research-and-antidotes

Bias and Belief / Optimistic Bias. (2008). Retrieved November 19, 2013, from

http://biasandbelief.pbworks.com/w/page/6537207/Optimistic%20Bias

Gillian Fournier (2013, November 18). Self-Serving Bias | Encyclopedia of Psychology.

Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/self-serving-

bias/

The Effect of color Entry #3

Colour is a meaningful constant for sighted people and it is a powerful psychological

tool. There are many colours but each colour brings different meaning for example black

means bad and white mean good but I think it varies according to people. But, through

lecture, one colour for sure I will agree with is Red. Before this lecture, I had read one article

about how colour affects our appetite and I found it really true as red colour will enhance

one’s appetite but in another way round, blue will reduce one’s appetite. This can be proven

that all fast food packaging will not left out red colour in their design for example Mc’donald

and KFC packaging background colour and we tend to eat more unconsciously when we are

having fast food. Another thing that I learn about red colour through this lecture is red colour

will leads men to view women as more attractive and more sexually desirable. Next is

reversible figure which is something new to me which is the same visual input but can results

in radically different perception. As for one thing that attract me the most is the theory of

inattentional blindness. For the video lecturer had showed us, we are asked to count how

many times people in white shirt passes the ball and I am to focus on counting that I did not

even realise that there is even a gorilla passing by during the game. In a nutshell, I learn that

colours can affect us and some other interesting facts about our vision.

Reference

Psychology of Color. (2012). Retrieved November 19, 2013, from

http://precisionintermedia.com/color