social psychology

FNBE 03/15 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL CHRISTINA CHUA YI MEI 0323859

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT (FNBE)

ASSIGNMENT 1: INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL

NAME : CHRISTINA CHUA YI MEI

STUDENT ID : 0323859

SESSION : MONDAY (3:30 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.)

SUBJECT : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSY30203)

INTAKE : MARCH 2015

LECTURER : MR. SHANKAR THIRUCHELVAM

SUBMISSION

DATE : 30 NOVEMBER 2015


2 | P a g e

13 OCTOBER 2015

JOURNAL 01 : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

ENTRY 01 : SOCIAL LOAFING

Social loafing is defined as a phenomenon whereby an individual tends to put in less effort when

working as a group. He or she tends to put in more effort in their own individual assignments while

paying less effort when working in a group due to the tendency of over-reliance on other team members.

Some may feel that it is unfair because of the inequality of work distribution among the team members

and different amount of contribution between the members and yet obtaining the same marks for the

assignment. This effect is term as the "sucker effect". Another type of team members are those that do

not put any effort at all into the group assignment but take for granted that other group members will do

the task for them. This group of team members are known as the "free-riders" because they try to get

marks by riding on the work of others. Every group work has its own pros and cons, social loafing is

bound to occur at one time or another. Hence, it is essential to recognize this early and tackling the issue

accordingly.

During one of the school holidays when I was sixteen, my friends and I were planning to have a

barbeque party at one of my friend's house. We invited our classmates to come for the barbeque

gathering but not everyone was able to make it, but we had about eighteen of us confirmed able to make

it to the gathering party and we decided to split the task like buying all the necessary food and utensils

for the barbeque party among the eighteen of us and that was decided approximately two weeks before

the date of the gathering, some are supposed to prepare drinks, some are asked to buy the food and fruits,

while others are to buy charcoal and fire starters for the barbeque. So when the day came, everybody

was really excited of the barbeque party. We called each other to remind everyone to turn up at seven

o'clock sharp. Some arrive early and a few of them were a bit late because of the traffic congestion. Only

than, the person who is in-charge of booking the venue realized that he did not book the venue. Another

three person who are responsible to buy the charcoal and starters did not bother to buy because they

expect other people will take care of it. So in the end, we have to change the venue to another

classmate's house and we have to rush to buy the charcoal and starter in order to carry on with the

barbeque party. I was disappointed with my friends' attitude and was a little carried away at that point of

time but all in all, it turns out to be a successful gathering and a memorable one too, all of us had

enjoyed ourselves despite the minor problem that we had encountered at the beginning.


3 | P a g e

Another example of social loafing based on my personal experience is during my high school time. I

was one of the committee member of the Tourism club in my school. When we were asked to prepare

for our school exhibition day, the teacher divided us into few groups in order to make different models

that suit our theme, which is the "Seven Wonders in the World". We are required to make models based

on these seven wonders in the world. A few members and I were given tasks to do the Colosseum and

Taj Mahal. When we held meetings for discussion, three out of five members turn up, but the other two

members were not concern about the task. Even though they came for the meeting at times, but the y

tend to lose focus easily and play with their phones or do their own work most of the times. Until a week

before the exhibition day, we were rushing all for the model preparation, trying to complete it in time

and yet some of them still did not try to contribute and neglected the whole project. We end up finishing

the model ourselves without their help. In the end, we succeeded in completing the model in time and

able to perform well on the exhibition day with the help of the remaining helpful members that are

willing to hold on until the end.

I am currently serving in my church children ministry where I have to help out in storytelling or arts

and crafts every Sunday. It was on a Christmas event, where there was supposedly to have a play for the

celebration by the children ministry and every helper and teacher were given task to prepare for the

Christmas Event. A few helpers and I were given the task of designing the invitation cards for the guests.

As the day of the celebration approaches nearer, everyone was urging us to come out with the design for

the invitation card but no one seems to care about it because we took it for granted and had neglected


4 | P a g e

our responsibility. In the end, I have to shoulder the responsibility and single-handedly completed the

invitation card by myself.

In conclusion, social loafing is a symptom of lack of responsibility and not a very pleasant attitude

to have especially towards your team members. It can happen anywhere, anytime and to anyone, be it

from school children to professionals. It is very difficult to get rid of social loafing, but we can

minimized it by implementing better working system, encouragement and recognition of work

contribution. Improving understanding and communication among team members are among some of

the ways of minimizing social loafing.


5 | P a g e

20 OCTOBER 2015


ENTRY 02 : FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT

False consensus effect is the tendency of people to overestimate the level to which other people

share their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Most people with inflated ego also have similar issue,

whereby they believe their own opinions are more superior as compared to others. People with high

self-esteem always feel good about themselves and tend to make assumptions that other people agree

with their own beliefs. If an opinion varies from their own, they might consider the suggestion as

unacceptable or improper, this phenomenon is known as the "false consensus effect". False consensus

effect is always there to support one's beliefs.

From my own experience, I had undergo some false consensus whereby I always think that my

friend's thinking are the same as mine. After finishing each assignment, I used to go for a movie with my

friends to relax. We always exchange opinions after each and every movie we watched. Last month, we

went to the cinema for a movie, 'PIXELS', after our assignment submission. After watching the movie, I

feel that the movie was quite interesting and I enjoyed it. I assumed that my friends are quite satisfied

with the movie, but their opinions towards the movie was different from mine. When we discussed about

the movie, they think that the movie was quite boring and unrealistic. However, I felt that the movie was

exciting and funny. I always like watching science-fiction movies but my friends feel that they are

unrealistic.


6 | P a g e

To me, dogs are dangerous animals. This is because I was bitten by a stray dog when I was nine

years old. I was playing with a group of friends outside my house when suddenly a stray dog came and

bit me on my leg. It was a frightening and painful experience for me. From that day onwards, I hated

dogs regardless of their sizes. I have the feeling that a lot of people have the same feeling as mine. Then

one day, a friend from my university bought a Schnauzer dog which I think it was scary. At first I

thought that her housemates dislike the dog. But to my astonishment, all her housemates loves the dog

very much.

Online video games is very addictive and popular to a lot of young people. They tend to play with

their smartphone games wherever they are. I always feel that online video games only suit young people

because I think that it is quite common for young people but not for adults and professionals. This came

to be wrong when I saw the article that my friend wrote during our English tutorial time. She wrote this

argumentative essay about online video games that stated many adult also played online video games

during their free time. Adults and professionals are even worse than children because they do not have

the time to play so they play during break and lunch, some even in the restroom. This proved that not

only children play online video games but many adult or professionals also play online video games. It

shows that all the while thinking that only children and young people play online games is a false

consensus that I always have in my mind.


7 | P a g e

The last example that I will give is concerning football especially during world cup season. Football

is a sport that the whole world watches especially during world cup season. It has always be in my mind

that man loves to watch football. During every world cup seasons, the football fever catches up all

around the world. The whole world will be talking about the teams and players that they like and support.

Everybody rushing to buy T-shirts of countries they support. I was really surprised when I see my

female classmates were also talking about the world cup and all the players they loved. When we went

shopping together, I was really surprised that they were choosing different T-shirt of different countries

that they support, planning to wear them when they watch the team representing the countries they liked

playing. I went with them to watch the games and on the screen I can see from the screen that the

spectators in the screen comprises of a lot of women supporters. All the while I have the false consensus

that only man likes to watch football games but actually around half of the spectators are women.

In a nutshell, our estimation or thought towards a existing fact is not always wrong. But this will

sometimes lead us to false consensus because our judgment is formed by our first thought in mind.

Although the mental shortcuts can help us to simplify the complex information, but yet sometimes they

might cause us to have false consensus effect on our decision making.


8 | P a g e

29 OCTOBER 2015


ENTRY 03 : COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING

Counterfactual thinking is part of our thinking to create an alternative outcome to events that have

already happened. It is a psychological part of our mind to reject the reality and to imagine how things

might turn out differently if we have done things in a different manner. Counterfactual thinking can be

very strong or powerful as it can appear to alter our existing memories by assimilating new and artificial

memories and manipulating the facts. It normally happens when we encounter impactful events in our

lives be it in physical or mental form as this helps us to avoid from facing the harsh truth.

During my high school years, I used to be in the school basketball team as a regular player. We took

part in numerous different inter-school basketball tournaments and the outcomes of the games differ

from time to time. There is one time where we lost the game, just by a one point difference against our

opponent. Hence, we only managed to get the silver medal in that competition. We were so close in

coming out as the champion but still we did not manage to make it, and we were upset by the loss. We

tend to think that if and only if we had seize every opportunity that we had during the gameplay: to get

one more point at the very last minute, or should we had defended better against our opponent team, we

could have easily won the game. We even thought up of excuses such as the opponent were playing

against the rules, or that our luck ran out that day, as we were in denial that we did not win the

competition. Another encounter regarding counterfactual

thinking was when we were playing for third placing in the

basketball tournament, we managed to get the bronze

medal which we think it is better than losing. This made us

think that at least we got something out of the tournament.

This gives us at least some encouragement and give us a

boost on our fighting spirit. In here, we see that there are

two different types of examples, the former being a

downward counterfactual thinking and the latter being an

upward counterfactual thinking.


9 | P a g e

In Malaysia, there is an exam in the fifth year of secondary school, known as the SPM or

internationally, it is an equivalent to O-levels. The results are released every year, in the month of March.

In the year of 2014 in which I completed my SPM, my results were only satisfactory as I did not manage

to score straight As. I got 10 As and 1 B, the B being the Chinese subject. Being the perfectionist that I

am, it bothered me as I kept thinking: if and only if I had work a lot harder and not during the last

minute, I would have done better and obtained straight As during this examination.

During my first driving lesson, I was driving along the road with my driving instructor sitting beside

me. I was pretty nervous as this was my first time driving along a road. When I came to the junction in

which I have to make a U-turn, I turned my steering wheel but there was not enough time for me to

adjust back the steering wheel. Because of this, I accidentally drove up the road divider and my driving

instructor quickly help me to return to the proper road by adjusting my steering wheel. At that moment

in time, I panicked and was at a loss. I did not know what to do. After that, I quickly stopped the car and

my driving instructor asked me to calm down. After I managed to calm down, we continued with my

driving lesson. However, that incident has caused me to imagine a lot regarding what had happened. It

was a shocking and traumatic experience, but I managed to comfort myself by imagining and reassuring

myself that if and only if I drove slower, or if I had managed to turn the steering wheel a bit faster; the

accident could have been avoided. This incident has taught me to be more alert with my driving, and to

always be within the proper speed limit and to be more observant and have a quicker reflex in order to

avoid accidents. However, I am extremely grateful because the incident during my driving lesson did not

cause any serious damage and no one was hurt in the process.

As mentioned earlier, counterfactual thoughts have the ability to fabricate thoughts or memories if it

is strong enough. The possibility of these thoughts could create positive or negative outcomes depending

on what it is based on. The 'if and only if' thoughts could affect one's emotion, ranging from a positive

joyous or grateful feeling to a negative angry or sad emotion. It also affects perception, as different

situations are viewed differently as the blame and responsibility shifts depending on the person.


10 | P a g e

11 NOVEMBER 2015


ENTRY 04 : SELF-SERVING BIAS

Self-serving bias is giving ourselves credit for success while blaming others for failures. We

normally tend to believe that success only comes from our own hard work while failures are always

caused by others. Normally we want to put ourselves in a favorable position most of the time. This is

normally for our self esteem. Instead of admitting our own mistakes or inferiority, we tend to make

excuses to shift the blame away from ourselves, and in doing so we are inflicting harm to others. This

bias attitude leads us to believe that we are actually more superior as compared to others.

During my second year of high school, I had 40 out of 100 marks for my Mathematics subject in the

first examination. I was at the borderline in failing the subject and then I started to blame the teacher,

accusing her that she sets really difficult questions in the examination. Usually I will get 70 to 80 marks

but that time, I was shocked that I only get 40 marks. So, I started blaming that the teacher did not teach

us properly and did not explained the topics clearly. And on the examination day itself, I tried blaming

the classroom for being too warm, and that it is the reason I could not focus during the test. The night

before the exam, my friend kept calling me, with the intention to discuss topics related to the test but our

attention was diverted to non-academic topics. I pushed the blame and the root of my failures to my

teacher, the classroom condition and also my friend instead of realizing and admitting that it is my own

fault.

I have a great deal of passion in calligraphy. I feel a sense of satisfaction and happiness everytime I

managed to complete one artwork. I was inspired to learn the art of calligraphy and this motivation

comes from a wise and passionate lover of this beautiful art, which is my grandfather. I spent most of

my time learning and exploring Chinese Calligraphy for five whole years from him, since I was in

primary school. During my school times, I had participated in countless competitions but the results

were always unsatisfactory as I did not meet my own expectations. It was until one day, when I

participated in an interclass Chinese Calligraphy competition when I was in secondary school. Finally, I

managed to secure the grand prize in that competition. After that very competition, I think that my skills

were pretty good and it has improved throughout the years. I believed that I won that competition

because I had put in a lot of effort to practice. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. However, as


11 | P a g e

that was my first time getting a first place, I assumed that this success is only from my own hard work,

and I did not give credits to my calligraphy teacher who have taught and guided me throughout all these

years.

Another example of self-serving bias that I have experienced in the past is when I was involved in a

car accident. After a long and tiring outing with my friends, I was driving home along a busy road when

suddenly, a car knocked the front of my vehicle out of nowhere. The impact gave me a shock, and I

stopped the car immediately. Both the other driver and myself came out of the car to look at the extent of

the damage caused. I noted that my car bonnet was badly dented and that part of the paint work came off.

We started arguing, and both of us blamed one another for causing the crash. After arguing for a period

of time, the opposite party finally agreed that he was at fault because he suddenly swayed and knocked

into my car. However, at that point of time, I did not realize that I too, played a role in causing the

accident and equally at fault as I was driving past the speed limit. Thinking back, I now realized that it

takes two hands to clap. In this case, both parties have their own mistakes, and that I should not only

blame the other person for what had happened. I learnt to recognize and reflect on my own mistakes and

be more aware of my 'self-serving bias' habit.

In conclusion, to err is human. All of us make mistakes at some point in time, and it is always a

good thing to reflect on what had happened. This is because we need to realize that no good outcome

can be achieved if nobody admits their mistakes because it is both parties who are at fault. It is also

important for us to keep this in mind, as it reflects our own attitude and bears a great impact in our

future.


12 | P a g e

16 NOVEMBER 2015


ENTRY 05 : OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Observational learning is the learning process which results in changing own attitudes or behavior

by noticing and witnessing another person behavior, which is known as the "Model". The observer

learns the sequence of behaviors and becomes able to perform it at will after multiple observations and

self practices. The learning process may bring both positive and negative impact to the observer

depending on the type of behavior that is being imitated. This form of learning is easily adopted by

anyone and universally made available for all. It is believed to be the easiest and fastest way of learning,

as good observational skills help us to have a better understanding and able to master the skill easier. It

requires a certain level of attention and the ability to focus, while observing the "model" performing the

task, noticing the important steps and yet not neglecting the minor details along the process.

I can vividly remember my first swimming experience. The anticipation and excitement I felt as I

attended my first lesson for the first time was simply inexplicable. I had never been able to swim

properly in the past, all I did was staying in the baby pool with a float and trying to paddle my way

through. It was a new breakthrough and eye-opening experience to me. Slowly, my swimming instructor

began to guide and lead me to the deeper side which at that point of time, I would have never imagined

to be able to set my foot in at that side of the pool. He taught me how to remain afloat without the need

of any assistance and had showed me some of the simple swimming styles. With good observation skill

from my side and a good guidance from my instructor, I managed to master a few simple techniques and

able to swim a few laps without the need of any assistance. It was truly an amazing experience and I am

grateful to have such thoughtful and patient instructor, who is willing to show the appropriate technique

step by step and performing it repeatedly to allow me to have sufficient amount of time to observe and

learn from him.

Throughout my childhood, I always wanted to sign up for drawing classes. I thought it would have

been fun if I could learn how to draw. To fulfill my long awaited wish, I took up a drawing class during

my time in primary school. The experience of taking up the drawing class turned out to be a life

changing one because shortly after the class started, I had a newfound talent. It caught my attention the

instant my tutor showed me some of her own painting and I was amazed with her artwork. She showed


13 | P a g e

me the proper way of holding the brush and mixing colors. She taught me many new techniques and

approaches to paintings and drawings, appreciating it from different perspectives. It requires extensive

amount of observational skill and be very particular to every inch and corner of the drawing in order to

be able to notice its finest details and appreciating the drawing as a whole. It is a life changing

experience because till today, I had not given up drawing and this interest of mine had lead to me to the

course I am currently pursuing in the university. I enjoyed drawing and it had became part and parcel of

my life now.

Last but not least, another observational learning that I had picked up is learning how to use and

fixing the computer from my elder brother. I was not a tech-savvy person in the past and was not good

with computers. I needed help and many assistance from my brother most of the time when it comes to

dealing with computer works. As time passes and with multiple encounters with similar problems with

the computer, it drove me to learn more about fixing and handling computer and utilizing the various

software available to aid in the school work. I tried to observe what my brother do each time he tried to

fix the computer for me and naturally, with multiple similar experiences, I had the methods and


14 | P a g e

procedures ingrained into me. I began to be able to fix minor problems and installing certain anti-virus

software to protect my computer from viruses. The desire to learn serves as a driving force for me to

keep striving further, trying to explore and learning new skills every day.

In conclusion, learning is a life-long skill. We discover new knowledge every day and learning is a

fun process only if we are able to appreciate its beauty and understand its value. Nevertheless, we can

achieve this in various manners and observational learning is one of its many forms. By observing what

others doing, we will be able to learn and discover new things depending on how observant we are and

our own desire to learn. Truly, observational learning has been with me for a long time and I had been

practicing it ever since I was a small kid. It had taught me many valuable lessons and had helped me to

overcome many difficulties and challenges in life and along the way, acquiring many interesting and

life-saving skills.

social psychology

Education