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1. ASSIGNMENT 1: JOURNAL
Name: Teoh Sze Ming
ID: 0317838
Subject: Social Psychology
Course: FNBE Feb 2014
Group: Monday (8-10)
Lecturer: T.Shankar
Date: 10/11/14

2. TOPIC 1
Entry 1
CONCEPT: Confirmation Bias
Sometimes friends with friends we will go off topic and start talking other stuff. We
started talking about food; movie and it would then lead to deep conversations about personal
matter such as like secret among friends. There are two of my friends Mr.A a nd Mr.B. I let
them know that the result of the relationship between us was stronger than the others. So I
told them my secret.
On March of this year, Mr.A told me that the secret seemed like had been revealed to my
gang of friends. I was wondering how the secret would be spitted to them because there was
only three persons knew it, Mr.A, Mr. B and me. That was impossible the secret would be
shared to them. By that time, I confirmed my mind that this just a rumour because I was
pretty sure and trusted they would not tell to the others. Until today, I attempted to ask all
from my mates that how they knew the mystery. They did not will to let me know at the
starting. After my few compelling, I had finally figured out that the one to uncover my
mystery was Mr.B.
I was completely dazed by that and could not take that was the actuality. I put that much
certainty and trusted on Mr.B, but he truly had frustrated and harmed me as a blade infix to
my heart. Indeed, Mr.B had imparted to them immediately after a few days that he knew the
mystery. When I knew the reality, I truly needed to discover and whip him to the extent that I
will yet when I was reminding those magnificent minutes that we used to together, I loosed
myself straight after and chose to give it a chance to go. Confirmation biases contribute to
overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of
contrary evidence. Hence they can lead to disastrous decisions.

3. Entry 2
CONCEPT: Social Learning perspective
I used to be someone who was lack in confidence, I doubt everything I did, I always ask
for comments since I cannot really make decision by myself, I am fear of getting things
wrong and be responsible for the consequences. As I got into university I told myself to be
more confidence, I wanted to be confidence, but I just could not since I joined a bunch of
friends who are shy and never go out of their comfort zone, I maintained as the one I used to
be, never try to approach people and make new friends.
But once, I met a new bunch of people who are really friendly, they approached me and
talked to me, they were all from different states but due to their extrovert attitude, we met up
and became good friends, and on the first day of meeting them, they already offered to walk
me back home as the sky seemed to darken. For my own safety, I said yes, during the time I
walked back, I realized all of them live very near to me, and they invited me to join them for
dinner every day since I lived close, I was really glad that I met them.
Soon, I joined them more often and since we are taking the same course, we also did
homework together and hence built up a strong relationship among the group of friends. In
class, they always initiate to answer questions, for homework, they also put in efforts and do
their best; these are what I always wanted. The day I started to join them, I started to see
changes in me, I will raise up my hand and answer questions, no more stammered in
presentation and I always have confidence in my own works since I put in efforts, during
group works, I am not that shy on giving out opinions anymore. This group of people really
changed me; I never take the initiative to greet people, now I can even talk fluently with
strangers to ask for help, etc.

4. TOPIC 2
Entry 1
CONCEPT: Motivation
In the second lecture, I learned about two types of motivation which are intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation. Motivation was important to keep me work hard and not
give up. The different of the two motivations, intrinsic motivation which is for sake of
enjoyment and extrinsic motivation is to avoid punishment.
I think I am more similar on extrinsic motivation, I think is because my parents are quit
strict to me and I am scared to make any mistake to make them punish me. When I was
standard 4, my parents bring to a lot tuition centre and at that time I was not even interested
in studying and lazy to do tuition’s work. Until one day my tuition teacher kicked me out of
class. I get cane by my mum that night.
I felt disappointed to myself and do not want to experience the same situation again. So
starting at that day, I study hard and work hard to get better grade. I continued this motivation
till now; I didn’t let my parents down. This motivation made me work hard and avoid another
punishment.

5. Entry 2
CONCEPT: Mead’s self
I have best friend, Samantha which is currently studying Foundation in Mass
Communication in Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. We knew each other since we were
standard five. We studied the same class in the same school until now the same university.
Our friendship were like true sister that just born by different mother. One day of November,
a boy she like so much that came from went to Kuala Lumpur and the boy asked her to have a
meet up.
She told me to accompany her when she is going to meet him on that day and I promised
her. So on that day, about six in the evening I took a bus from PJS 7 to Kelana Jaya LRT
station to take the LRT to Bukit Bintang which was the place that the boy dated her. It took
me two hours more to reach Bukit Bintang and once I reached there to find her. She said that
she don’t want me to join them for some reason at that time so I wasted my two hours to find
him.
The first thing to came into my mind was “You can tell me earlier if you don’t want me
to join you but you told me last minute.” but I didn’t said that because he was my best friend.
I was kind of angry but I said that it’s okay to me and I asked her to enjoy the time with the
boy. I took another two hours to reach home from Bukit Bintang and I didn’t even have my
dinner.

6. TOPIC 3
Entry 1
CONCEPT: Counterfactual thinking
I was attracted to one of the sources of bias which is counterfactual thinking. It means
that we imagining different outcomes for an event that has already occurred. There are two
types of counterfactual thinking, the upward counterfactuals which is negative thinking and
downward counterfactual that is positive thinking.
I remembered I had an upward counterfactuals when I got my SPM results last year., it
really brought me down because I had bad results and most of my friends got good results. I
really cried for many days. I just stay at home feeling I am such no use, I let my parents down.
I kept asking myself if only I would study more in the previous. So that I could get a better
results. I keep on thinking why I didn’t study well.
This is upward counterfactual lead me to a more depressing mood because I can't do
anything to change the results. I'm grateful that I learned from this lecture and my past
experience, I should be more careful to avoid any future counterfactual thinking and think
positive more.

7. Entry 2
CONCEPT: Stereotype
I remembered once I had no choice but to take a taxi back to hostel from subang airport.
That was the first time I took a taxi ride for the past 18 years, I was so anxious and I felt so
insecure, but still, I bought the taxi coupon and got in the taxi.
I sat at the back and started to think of ways to run away if something really happens, but
then, the driver started to talk to me, I was stunned, but then I still politely answered his
question then thought of stopping the conversation, but the driver was too friendly, he start to
ask me questions, I lied about some of the personal details like course I am taking, etc. Even
though he tried hard to ease the awkwardness, I still could not let my guard down. When I
finally reached my hostel, I quickly got my luggage then walk away, I still could not stop
worrying.
Since I do not have a car in here, there is always time that I need to take taxi, when I am
riding alone I will be really alert and try to recognize the road. When I am taking taxi with
my friends, I will still be very keen on taking pictures of the taxi’s details, which is attached
on the dashboard to send to other friends who are not on the taxi to keep us safe and know
who to go for if emergency happens. Sometimes I will even open an app, “find my friends”
for other friends to keep track of our location. Even after so many tours by taxi, it is still
difficult for me to let my guard down since articles of these crime cases are still coming out.

8. TOPIC 4
Entry 1
Concept: Self-serving bias
This is one of my favourite concepts as it somehow relates to me. For SPM, moral
studies and history were set to be compulsory subjects, whereby every candidate need to
register for these two subjects in order to take part in the exam and I was the one who always
get low grades for Malay language. “How am I going to get higher grades for those subjects
which are taught in Malay?”, that was what I was thinking about. I blamed the language, why
were the subjects not taught in my mother tongue, which I will do better if there are, I blamed
the government, for setting moral and history as compulsory subjects, if they did not, I would
not have to suffer to study for these “lame” subjects.
I blame everything, and I always emphasized that my Malay is bad; therefore I do not
take these subjects seriously. But once, there was luck in me, I got quite a high grade for my
moral studies, my friends were surprised, they asked me how did I improve and since when I
started not to resist this subject. In order to have a good reputation, I told them I worked hard
on this subject and put a lot of effort in improving my language that was not true, that was
just lucky. You will not get any pay if you do not put in effort, so, luck was just once, two of
these subjects got worse after that. I was regret that I did not put much effort in improving my
language and blame others instead, I told myself not to adopt the same thinking anymore for
future studies.

9. Entry 2
Concept: The Self Fulfilling Prophecy
The Self Fulfilling Prophecy states that if a belief or an expectation was put upon a
person or a group of people, the belief or expectation may come true if the person acts
accordingly to the belief or expectation that has been put upon them.
Back in high school, I have seen many cases of self- fulfilling prophecies, especially
among students that have been labelled as “troubled”, “disturbed” or “lazy” by teachers. Most
of them couldn’t be bothered to improve themselves simply because no one believed that they
could. Teachers pay less attention to students placed in lower classes because to them these
kids “don’t even want to study.” Double standards were also imposed to different types of
classes because they produce different grades.
Personally I don’t even believe in classifying students according to their grades. It
pushes forward the self- fulfilling prophecy even more, it increases stereotypes and double
standards and it also increases the gap between students from the higher class and the lower
ones. How are these students even expected to excel if nobody cares enough to do anything
for them.

10. TOPIC 5
Entry 1
Concept: Observational learning
Back in my hometown in Penang, I had a very close friend back in school. He came
from a broken family. His father took off when he was very young, and never came back or
checked up on them. His mother didn’t remarry, was always busy with work and according to
him they never really get to spend time together. To make things worse, he was an only child
so his life was pretty much surrounded by nobody except for himself. Because of the situation
he was in, he grew up to be an introverted person that is very distant and keeps everything to
him. Because his parents never really cared about anything but themselves, he too didn’t feel
the need to care about anything at all.
He also claimed that he doesn’t believe in life, or love because to him people will
eventually end up leaving and at the end of the day you only have yourself. It’s a sad thing
really, to see someone so bottled up and it’s not even their fault to begin with. Parents, being
the role model that they are should’ve been prepared to provide as much support as they can
as soon as they decided to raise a child in the first place. Children have no one else to refer to
besides their parents and that’s why most of them become a carbon copy of them. If the
parents show positive behaviour, then chances are their children will become positive- and if
parents show negative behaviours, children will most likely become negative too.

11. Entry 2
Concept: Balance Theory
I found that the balance theory was reflected to my attitudes toward my friends. Balance
theory stated that people desire 'cognitive consistency', it means that we feel comfortable with
others who share our attitudes but feel uncomfortable with others who do not share our
attitudes.
When I was in school, I was still quiet and shy person so I often mixed around with
friends who are similar to me, it made me felt more comfortable because we understand each
other, we can even became talkative together. But it did not meant that I did not made friends
who were different from me, I felt uncomfortable with them because they saw me as a
different and weird person.
However, I still tried my best to fit in with them by sharing some similar interest that
we had. It was not easy but I did improve a lot until today. This theory had differentiated the
balance state and unbalance state between my friends and I, I learned to balance the
relationship between us.