journal

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
NAME: Boon Li Ying
STUDENT ID NUMBER: 0323839
SESSION: MONDAY (8AM-10AM)
SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY(PSYC0103)
COURSE: FOUNDATION IN NATURAL and BUILT ENVIRONMENTS
LECTURER: MR. T.SHANKAR
SUBMISSIONDATE: 30th
NOVEMBER2015

2. Concept: Confirmation Bias
“If one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human
reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirmation bias
would have to be among the candidates for consideration.”
-Raymond S. Nickerson
Where do our beliefs come from? We are like most people,
we probably like to believe that our beliefs are the result of years of
experiences.The reality is that all of us are susceptible to a tricky problem
known as a confirmation bias. While we like to imagine that our beliefs are
rational, logical and objective, that fact is that our ideas are often based
on paying attention to the information that supports our beliefs only and
disregarding to the information that conflicts with our existing beliefs.
A confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret the new
evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.
Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favouring
information that confirm previouslyexisting beliefs.Forexample,a person
holds a belief that left-handed people are more intelligent than right-
handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both
left-handed and intelligent, they will place greater importance on this
“evidence” supporting their already existing belief. Confirmation biases
also is a systematic error of inductive reasoning. Confirmation biases
contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or
strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.
Probably the best example of confirmation bias that an
intellectual person experiences is with “studies” as cited in the news. I’m
a liberal, if there’s coverage of a study on how effective it is to just give

3. very poorpeople money, I often nod. If I hear a news story saying ‘a new
study shows that giving people money when they’re unemployed just
makes their lives better,’ I instantly start asking questions and looking for
flaws in this ‘study’. Like a lot of the classic ‘biases’, there’s actually a
rational explanation for confirmation biases.If I know something because
of previous research, then saying a study disproves it is of course going
to be something I question. For example, I’m going to question their
methods if have a new study shows the sun is blue and the sky is green.
Confirmation biases also impact how people gather
information, but they also influence how people interpret and recall
information. Forexample,peoplewho supportoropposeaparticular issue
will not only seek information that supports their beliefs, they will also
interpret news stories in a way that upholds theirs existing ideas and
rememberthings in a way that also reinforces these attitudes.
A number of experiments conducted during the 1960s
demonstrated that people have a tendency to seek information that
confirms their existing beliefs.Unfortunately, this type of bias can prevent
us from looking at situations objectively, can influence the decisions we
make, and can lead to poor or faulty choices. For example, during an
election season, people tend to seek out positive information that paints
their favoured candidates in a good light while looking for information that
casts the opposing candidate in a negative light. By not seeking out the
objective facts, interpreting information in a way that only supports their
existing beliefs, and only remembering details that uphold these beliefs,
people often ignore the important information that might have otherwise
influenced their decisionon which candidate to support.
Moreover,socialpsychologists have identified two tendencies
in the way people seek or interpret information about themselves. Self-

4. verification is the drive to reinforce the existing self-image and self-
enhancement is the drive to seek positive feedback. Both are served by
confirmationbiases.Inexperiments where people are given feedbackthat
conflicts with their self-image, they are less likely to attend to it or
remember it than when given self-verifying feedback. They reduce the
impact of such information by interpreting it as unreliable.
Confirmation biases can be a powerfulthing. When you have
a strong belief in something,you would set out to verify your belief with a
mixture of motives because of youwant to know if what you believe is true.
Confirmationbias happens when we preselectforour attention only those
information which support the beliefs we had before we even began our
quest to find the truth. As long as we can find the easy ways to disregard
all information which contradict our preconceived ideas, we will find that
the remaining “evidence”perfectlysupports whateverwe thought from the
beginning.
It’s a clever trick our minds play on us, but if we are ever to
learn how to think critically, we must learn to recognize this processbefore
it blinds us to the things we’d rather not allow ourselves to see.I think we
all still have much to learn because we are too blinded to see not only with
our own perspective.
(805 Words)

5. Concept: Self-Concept
“Who am I? What am I? What do I stand for?” I believe that
these questions have baffled the minds of humankind for centuries since
it refers to making a distinctive decisionof what we aspire to do, and what
we want to achieve in our lives. These questions also is the most critical
issue because the most difficult person to understand in our life isn’t
others person, but is our own self. It is the reason that I believe the
discoveryof one’s true “self” is one of the mostdifficult things.
One’s self-conceptis a collectionof beliefs about oneself that
includes elements such as academic performance, gender roles or
sexuality, and racial identity. Generally, self-concept embodies the
answer to “who am I?” Self-concept is made up of one’s self-schemas,
self-efficacyand interacts with self-esteem,and the socialself to form the
self as whole. Self-conceptis differs from self-awareness,which refers to
the idea that when attention is brought on ourselves. Self-concept also
differs from self-esteem because of self-concept is a collection of self-
schemata whereas self-esteem is an evaluation of our own self-worth.
The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how
someone thinks about, evaluates or perceives themselves. To be aware
of oneself is to have a conceptof oneself.Inour society,the child is asked
at a very young age what he would like to be when he grows up. The child
invariably replies, “I’m going to be a doctor,” or maybe a lawyer or
engineeror teacher orpolicemanorfireman. The adult will nod in approval
and commend the child on his fine choice of professions.However,as the
child ages and matures, he mostoften realizes that he really doesn’tknow
what he wants to do. This problem of indecisionis magnified in the junior
and senior years of high school when students must begin to make

6. decisions on university or jobs that will affect the rest of their lives. The
more of students reflects upon his choices, the more he examines his
motives,his goals, his ideals, and values in life, the more he is perplexed.
This problem also ground rooted in my mind when I’m in high school.
Self-concept is so powerful that it can also affect the
individuals’ future behaviour and that of others through self-fulfilling
prophecies. This occurs when expectations are influenced by behaviours
that make them come true and there are two ways to make it possible;
self-imposed.Self-imposed occurs when your own expectations influence
your behaviour. On the other hand, self-fulfilling prophecies sometimes
are influenced by an individual’s expectations to governanother’s actions.
This notion is considered to be a powerful force that shapes the self-
concept. For example, patients given placebos are persuaded by the
doctor, they are persuaded that when taken, they will be cured of illness,
which in turn, shapes their attitude and behaviour.
Changing our self-concept is difficult to do, but not
impossible.The first step is not expecttoo much of yourself or you’ll drive
yourself to the path of unhappiness. Next, have realistic perceptions of
yourself to avoid inaccurate perceptions and recognize your strengths.
Gain the will to change, the effortto improve your self-concept.Do notsay
“can’t”, instead say “can”. In regards to integrating this concept into my
life, I focused on improving my self-expression towards others by
increasing my competence, disregarding irrational thoughts, increasing
self-awareness,and at the same time, gain a higher level of self-esteem.
The first thing I found that I should improve on was feeling
comfortable around those who I perceive as superior. I have this fear,
which leads to disorganized thoughts, of communicating with someone of
a higher rank than me because of theirlogic and high-level use of English.

7. To me, having the ability to speak “good or proper” English is a big
advantage, and it is just one skill that I still need improvement on. I find
myself lost of words when spoken to, and most of the time I end up
stuttering them and leads to “not making sense”. Don’t get me wrong, I
can write, but it is difficultly for me when it comes to a face-to-face
conversation or having a presentation in the front of all classmates.
However, I will discoveredthe way forhow to overcome this flaw of mine.
Looking deeplyinto one’s self canbe very painful experience.
Only once one knows who he is and what he wants out of life will he be
able to decipherwhat is “right” from what is “wrong”.
This end may only be achieved through a long and trying
process of self-evaluation commonly called “adolescence”, which refers
to a period of intense self-distinctionand discovery,and a terribly difficult
period of growth for today’s youth.
(800 Words)

8. Concept: Stereotypes
Stereotypes is a general belief about a group of people. A
stereotype assumes that all members of a group share some common
feature and it’s differs from prejudice that which can have positive or
negative connotations. Stereotypes are a part of our everyday life. We
hear stereotypes everyday and everywhere. Sometimes we can find
ourselves in a situation where we make stereotypes for a large group of
people. Stereotyping is a way that people group each other. Each group
is called by name, that doesn’treally fit to everyone in that specificgroup.
Stereotypes affect people’s social lives, emotions, and how people
interact with their environment.
Stereotypes have an enormous impact of how we feel. That
makes people have no motivation, therefore they won’t have good
performance at any level in their life. For instance, if a kid is stereotyped
as black and obese, how can these words make him feel goods, so that
he can move on to the next level? This can create psychologicalpressure.
Other people face stereotypes as a threat. For example, there is a
stereotype that says women are bad drivers. It puts even more pressure
on how they feel, not only being around people who are labelling them,
but being around people that they trust. They will try to prove to them that
this is just a stereotype and it doesn’texist.This occurs in situations where
people worry for their performance and how they look like. Besides that,
people don’twant their poorperformance to lead to negative stereotypes.
Members of stereotyped groups worry of what they are doing, and this
makes them stressed because they think that they have to be perfect in
all aspects of their lives.

9. People gettired of being criticized all the time. When there is
no one able to close people’s mouths, they start to become isolated. In
the same way they don’t talk because they are afraid to say something
wrong, so that they won’t looksilly. They are afraid of failure. Forexample,
people seem surprised when they saw men cry or being emotional. They
think that men are not allowed to express their feelings or men have no
feelings at all. The truth is men are not unconscious, they have feelings,
but that is just a stereotype and a generalization from our society. It is
easy to see that with are actions and sayings we are trying to kill emotions
and thoughts. We should learn how to control our feelings and emotions,
instead of letting stereotypes controlthem because our surroundings can
be affected as well.
Stereotypes canbe an obstacle as to how open you are with
people and how you make people feelwhenyou are with them. Therefore,
changing stereotypes is largely the job of individuals. The first thing that
we should do are each of us have examine the assumptions that we make
about others and ask ourselves where those assumptions come from.
Even in the most escalated conflicts, not all of the “enemy” is as vicious
and immutable as they are often assumed to be. Most groups have
moderates and extremists,people who are willing to listen and work with
the other side, and those who are not. Rather than assuming all of “the
enemy” are evil and unwilling to hear your concerns, try to get to know
people as individuals. Just as that will reduce the stereotypes youhold of
others, it is also likely to reduce the stereotypes others hold of you.
Furthermore, stereotypes are a big problem in our society. It
puts labels about how a person should act or live according to their sex,
race, personality, and other facts. This could affect individuals who
perhaps like differentthings or do differentactivities, but feelashamed of

10. doing so because of stereotypes.Stereotypes have created a distortionof
how every individuals should be. We should know how these stereotypes
could affectus as individuals. We should learn not to judge and prejudge
about people because of what we think they should be like, and should
change our point of view about the stereotypes that are deeply rooted in
our society.
Stereotypes also are creating a false idea of how they
interact with other individuals. So that, we as the new generation should
do something to avoid this problem. We canstart changing our perception
of stereotypes. We should be aware that all stereotypes are bad
regardless if they are good or bad because it cause prejudgment. We
should learn to respect and understand other cultures, religions, and
countries. We should start paying more attention of how unique each
personis, instead of focusing on all the mistakes of each person.We can
change our perception of the stereotypes that are deeply rooted in our
societywith all of this. This could avoid many discriminationand make our
societybetter.
(813 Words)

11. Concept: Prejudice
Prejudice is an incorrect or unjustified attitude usually
negative attitude towards an individual based solely on the individual’s
membership of a social group. Prejudice can be based upon a number of
factors including race, sexual, age, socioeconomic status, nationality and
religion. Some of the mostwell-known types of prejudice including racism,
sexism, ageism,classicism,nationalism, homophobia. Common features
of prejudice include negative feelings,stereotyped beliefs and a tendency
to discriminate against members of the group. There are various types of
prejudice happening all over the globe,but the prejudice that I would like
to talk about is racism that happens in the Westerncountries.
Prejudice has become a complex problem in nowadays and
much of ourworld’s history is based uponsuchhatred. Inthe 1600’s,white
men used Africans as slaves and treated them as if they were not human.
“Coloured” people were not even allowed to use the same drinking
fountains as white people because until the mid-1900’s. Our society is
riddled with such hatred based upon peoples’ beliefs or origins and it
seems millions are fighting each other for no relevant reason at all.
I do believe that we can greatly reduce the amount of
prejudice in our world today, but I do not think that it will ever completely
go away. Society has seemingly come to except all races, genders,
religions and supposedly has achieved “political correctness”, but there
will forever be individuals who discriminate based upon these issues.
These individuals often form large groups that recruit new members to
enforce theirhatred of those with a certain religion or skin tone. Obviously,
no one can tell these people that they can’t have their own opinions or
beliefs for they have the right to hate whomever they like. However, I

12. believe we need to accept all people, no matter what god they do or do
not believe in and what colour skin they may have.
We, as the human race, need to stop judging people before
we even get to know them for who they are. Today, there are so many
differentpeople in this world that stereotypes are almost always incorrect,
as many people choose not to be followers, but to be individuals. For
example, I know many white people who, if they see a young black boy
standing on the corner,wearing a certain type of clothing, will discernthat
he has intensions of hurting others. How could someone say such a thing
when all they have seen is one’s appearance? The boy standing there
could be a great student in schoolwho helps others and plans to become
someone importantin future. Prejudice will create a misconceptionof how
people are and how they live in other cultures, religions or countries. This
misconceptioncould cause the big problem such as discrimination in our
multicultural society. So that, a personality is a gateway into knowing
whom people truly are and personalities do not lie on the outside of one’s
body, but in one’s mind.
I believe people need to stop “following the crowd” and form
their own opinions. People join the racist and religiously biased groups
because they feel it will make their lives better,not caring about the others
who will be affectedby their hatred.
In addition to looking at the reasons why prejudice occurs,
researchers have explored different ways that prejudice can be reduced
or even eliminated. One of the method that has shown considerable
success is training people to become more empathetic to members of
other groups. By imaging themselves in the same situation, people are
able to think about how they would react and gain a greater understanding
of other people’s actions. Besidesthat, passing laws and regulations that

13. require fair and equal treatment for all groups of people, gaining public
support and awareness for anti-prejudice social norms, making people
aware of the inconsistencies in their own beliefs and increased contact
with members of other social groups also is the techniques that are used
to reduce prejudice.
I believe that we would live in peace and be able to let others
believe in what they wish and acceptthat everyone is differentif everyone
in this world had respect for one another. I believe it all comes down to
educators and parents teaching the next generation right from wrong in
our world and raising them in an environment that is around acceptance
of different ways of life and cultures of people. We will be closer to
accepting that a person’s character is based upon the content of his soul,
not his religion, gender, ethnicity, or the colour of his skin in our future if
we all change our ways. I hope people will not creating a conceptof one’s
based in what they see,but in who the personreally are.
(802 Words)

14. Concept: Pro-social Behaviour
Pro-social behaviour are the positive social actions that
intended to help others. Pro-social behaviour is characterized by a
concernabout the rights, feelings and welfare of other people.Behaviours
that can be described as pro-social include feeling empathy and concern
forothers and behaving in ways to help or benefitotherpeople. Pro-social
behaviour also refers to the phenomenon of people helping each other
with no thought of reward or compensation. You may have thought this
didn’t exist, but it’s been known to happen. Pro-social behaviours are
actions or patterns of behaviour rather than motivations. The motivation
to do charitable acts is called altruism. For example, if a person gives an
unmarked box of clothing to a shelter anonymously, the action of giving
the box is the pro-social behaviour. The person’s motivation to give the
box would be altruism.
According to Batson, pro-social behaviour is a ‘range of
actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself
behaviours such as helping, comforting, sharing and cooperation. For
example, if you volunteer to work for a charity to impress your friends or
to build up your resume for future job opportunities, you are not acting
altruistically in the pure sense of the term. Pro-social ranges over a
continuum from the most selfless act of altruism to helpful acts that are
motivated entirely by self-interest.
Pro-social behaviour is driven by a combination of egoistic
and altruistic motivations. Altruism is often seen as a specific kind of
helping with some additional characteristics that concerns the helper’s
intensions and benefits. Researchershave reserved the term altruism for
cases in which the benefactor provides aids to another without the

15. anticipation of rewards from external sources for providing assistance.
However, egoism is when we are motivated by self-interest which refers
that we help because it makes us to feelgood aboutourselves.Pro-social
behaviour occurs every time in all human societies,butit seems likelythat
helping serves some valuable functions, not just for societies but for
individuals as well.
Altruism is sometimesseenas aform of pro-socialbehaviour,
but some experts suggestthat there are actually differentconcepts.While
pro-socialbehaviour is seenas a type of helping behaviour that ultimately
confers some benefits to the self, altruism is viewed as a pure form of
helping motivated purely out of concern for the individual in need.
However, that reciprocity actually does underlie many examples of
altruism or that people engage in such seemingly selfless behaviours for
selfishreasons,suchas to gain the acclaim of others or to feelgood about
themselves.
We have all probably helped other people at some point in
our lives and most of us help others many times each day. Our giving of
help need not be complex. It may be nothing more than holding a door
open for someone loaded with books or shopping or a parent carrying a
child and may also help the proverbial old lady to cross the road. For
situations like this, we may define helping simply as the giving of
assistance to another person.
We tend to help people as described above and helping
makes us to feel good about ourselves in different ways. For example,
some people give their unwanted clothing, shoes, toys and so on to
charities because they felt somebody might benefit from them. We can
link this back to religious attribute to pro-socialbehaviour that people who

16. listen to the word of God are more likely to act pro-sociallywhen they see
a needy fellow.
There are also situational factors which contribute to pro-
social behaviour, involving concerns of extrinsic incentives. Besides that,
introspectionis another major factorin pro-socialbehaviour. With concern
over one’s self-image, individuals often try to self-evaluate their own
actions from a neutral, third person point of view. If the motives are
acceptable,they are typically transformed into behaviour. Another reason
that individuals engage in these helping behaviours is that they have
empathy for others. The term empathy refers to a person ability to
understand the needs and feelings of other people because they share in
those feelings.
In conclusion,I found that when you help someone out,even
if it’s something small, it may end up surprising you how big it is to the
other person.I also realized that how something so little can have such a
huge impact on someone else’s life.Being able to help others makes one
feels like one belongs to a greater community because helping others
bring happiness to oneself fromthe smile that the others give off.Itdoesn’t
matter how much one can help others. Even a sweet smile and a huge
can encourage other people. I also found that helping others brings out
the best in us which can inspires hope in each other. There is a powerful
of pro-socialbehaviour.
(806 Words)