PSYCHO JOURNAL
Transcript of PSYCHO JOURNAL
Name: Yeow Jinn Sheng
Student ID : 0318797
Session: Monday 8am Class
Subject: Social Psychology (PSYC 0103)
Course: Foundation in Natural and Built Environment
Submission date: 10th
November 2014
Journal 1 (Entry 1)
For the very first chapter that been taught by Mr. Shankar,
our Social Psychology lecturer, is an introduction to this subject.
We studied about how to perceive, influence and interact with
others throughout the three main areas of interest which is social
perception, social influence, and social interaction. For example, I
saw a group of old folks was
chatting. They were talking to
each other with high volume
and loudly (social perception).
For the first impression, I
thought they were rude and
impolite. I’m not sure why
they talked loudly as if the conversation between gangsters…or
maybe their hearing sensory system goes poor as they were older?
My initial feeling is unclear of why they did so. Since my mother
told me that talking in high volume is been rude and not
encouraged (social influence). So, the “pressure” of my mum’s
words in my mind affected me to think they were rude. Therefore,
I was trying to avoid from them because I scared of they might
fear me with their high volume voice (social interaction). I was
thinking it is better if there is no any relationship or interaction
between the old folks and me.
Journal 1 (Entry 2)
Social facilitation is one of the roots of social psychology. I
understood the theory of social facilitation when I found out that
experience during 2012 160KM Century Ride cycling competition,
which participated by hundreds of cyclists. Before the race, my
friend and I were trained for couple of weeks. We spent 6 hours to
complete a 140KM training ride. On the race day, my duration to
finish the race was four and half hours. The presence of the other
participates arouses me to ride faster and get the higher ranking
as I could than others. It became a motivation for me to do better
in a race with hundreds cyclists than training ride where just two
of us. I conducted that I got the better result because the arousal
enhanced my performance by increasing my likelihood to do well-
learned task.
Presence of
other
participants
Ride faster
Enhances
Source of
arousal
Well-learned
performance
Journal 2 (Entry 1)
Today’s lesson is about self: Who am I, How do others see
us. Self-concept is how people think and perceive themselves. It
includes the belief that we hold about ourselves, where self-
schema is an individual’s belief. For an example, my ambition
was becoming a triathlete. My ambition was my self-concept.
Meanwhile, my self-schemas were more training, seeking for
more tips to win triathlon and etc. I noticed that I was welcoming
the information that consistent to my self-concept. Self-concept is
like a puzzle, while self-schema is every pieces of puzzle.
More training
Seek for
advices from
expert
Becoming a
triathlete
(Ambition)
Journal 2 (Entry 2)
Self-serving bias serves as a strategy to believe that we are
better than others. In this way, it is protecting our self from
depression. Social comparison is one of the theories that implied
self-serving bias. It can be upward social comparison or
downward social comparison. Downward social comparison
related to the self-enhancement, by enhancing our self-esteem by
feeling that we are better than others. Recalling back to the
exhibition that we were required to build a city model, from the
start we been tried so hard to get the best idea so can get a
higher marks that other group that leaded by the best student in
our class. Since she was the best, we must do a lot so can defeat
her. Until the day result been announced, our result was A while
her group obtained B+. We were happy that we “won” and even
celebrated in a restaurant. This heightened my self-esteem. I
usually compared my assignment with hers because her works
always been recognized by lecturers and got quite a high marks.
Journal 3 (Entry 1)
Today’s class is about social cognition, which is the third
chapter. Jean Piaget used his 5 key concepts to explain his
theory of cognitive development. Those keys include schema,
assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium, and equilibration.
When I was small, I read a book and saw a long and green in
color plant. My mum told me that it was sugarcane. Few weeks
later, I saw my parents brought home two long green plants for
prayer before Chinese New Year. I checked the schema of
sugarcane, it is long and green in color. But its surface was rough.
I experienced disequilibrium so I seek for reinforcement and
asked my parents, “Isn’t it sugarcane?” . My parents replied “Yes,
it is sugarcane.” Till the day I went fishing with my uncle, I saw
green and long plant by the riverside. And its surface was rough
as well. I was confused and asked my uncle, “Isn’t it a sugarcane
plant?” He said no but it is a bamboo tree. He cut the bamboo
and showed me the interior part of bamboo --- it is empty space
inside. He taught me how to identify the difference of bamboo and
sugarcane. Schema is a cognitive framework, for example, a
schema of sugarcane is long and green in color. Assimilation
occurs when I used an existing schema to classify a new schema:
I checked the schema of sugarcane when I saw the real
sugarcane in object; it is long and green in color. After I touched
the surface of bamboo and I realized that it was rough.
Sugarcane’s new schema of “rough surface” was built and added
to the existing schema. Accommodation is a cognitive process
that I learned to modify the schema of sugarcane to
accommodate the new schema of bamboo. For the first time, I
wrongly thought that bamboo was “sugarcane” because
sugarcane was long, green in color and rough surface. After I
realized the difference between bamboo and sugarcane, which is
it was empty space in bamboo, disequilibrium resolved. The new
schema of bamboo created after accommodated from
sugarcane’s schema. Equilibrium is a mental process that I
experienced when I knew that bamboo and sugarcane are
different with each other. Equilibration occurs when an individual
resolved the disequilibrium and he shifts back to assimilation.
When I first know the image of sugarcane, the initial of schema of
sugarcane (green, long) was built. Before that, I experienced
disequilibrium, which meant that I didn’t know that is a sugarcane.
After the disequilibrium resolved, I continued to assimilate the
schema of sugarcane, such as rough surface. If the process of
assimilation does not occur, a new schema will be formed. For
example, characteristic of “the empty space in the bamboo” is not
belongs to schema of sugarcane. So, there was a new “file folder”
created for bamboo.
Journal 3 (Entry 2)
There’s many bias in social cognition, one of them is illusion
of control. Illusion of control is a tendency for an individual to
believe that uncontrollable events can be controlled. They are
overestimating their ability to control something even though it is
uncontrollable for their desired outcome. For example, my cousin
and I were playing a kart racing video game. We attempted to
beat each other down by getting a higher position in the race. We
were pressing the button to move the cart. My cousin even used
his leg to press the button with his toe. He thought that if he uses
a stronger energy to press the button, the faster the cart goes. He
was so desperate to defeat me with his “faster” cart speed. Well,
I just used my finger the press the button, but we still kept the
same speed. The theory of illusion of control demonstrated on my
cousin’s action.
To obtain To control
Cousin pressed the
button with
stronger energy
with his leg toe
Overestimating his
ability
Bigger energy,
faster the cart goes
Uncontrollable event
Get higher ranking
than me
Desired outcome
Journal 4 (Entry 1)
Chapter 4: Social perception taught us how we perceive
others, how we understand others. Harold Kelly’s Covariation
theory explained why we and others behave in certain way. He
based attributions into three factors: Consensus, Consistency and
Distinctiveness. Consensus explained how similarly a people act
in a same situation; consistency explained how similarly a people
often behave every time as the certain situation occurs;
distinctiveness explained how similarly a people act in different
situation. For example, I don’t really drink beer when I was alone.
But when i was in a gathering with friends or family members, I
did drink some (High consensus). For sure, in every gathering
with my friends or family, I would like to take some beer because I
think it’s an enjoyable moment to have a conversation with them
while having beer (High consistency). I only drink when I was
with my friends or family, because I not think it’s always for me to
take beer unless gathering with them (High distinctiveness).
When three factors (consensus, consistency, distinctiveness) are
high, I was considered as made an external attribution, as known
as external cause. Situational and environmental causes are
external causes. Because of my friends and family, I just drank
some beer when I was in a gathering with them.
Journal 4 (Entry 2)
In the other hand, we can decide what do others like, by
Halo effect. This phenomenon occurs when an individual thinks
another person is good in certain group, then he/she more likely
to classify him as good as in other group. Meanwhile, our
awareness can be not involved in this occurrence. For example,
Justin Bieber. His fans think that he was a great singer, and then
must be a good dancer as well (even though he was not). They
believed him as their role model because he able to strike a good
result in his career. But those fans were not actively aware that he
was actually a guy with bad behavior such as drag-racing. Halo
effect was operating like confirmation bias since it was a specific
type of it. Bieber’s fans paid attention only to the information that
supports their belief and less inclined to find those opinions which
conflict to their idea towards
Justin Bieber.
Less inclined to
More inclined to
Justin Bieber’s
fans
Journal 5 (Entry 1)
Today, we learnt about how attitudes make evaluation about
world. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are the
process of behavior where all the actions are acquired through.
Classical conditioning is a learning process which involved
environmental stimulus and natural response. Mere-exposure
effect is one of the classical conditioning. As the exposure of the
thing was repeating, people was more likely or pleasing to receive
it since it was more familiar to us. For example, McDonald’s
advertisement. It can be seen everywhere such as newspaper,
billboard, even on Internet. I was more interest towards
McDonald’s rather than Marry Brown, because I saw it pretty
much times. It appeared in my first thought when I was thinking
about fast food unconsciously. This is because it was imprinted in
my mind and it can’t be easily erased since it was kept repeating
around me.
Journal 5 (Entry 2)
Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual experienced
the disequilibrium when he/she holds two or more beliefs. Post-
decision dissonance is one of the examples from the theory. That
particular part can be demonstrated by the story of sour-grapes.
People will feel dissonance that they might made the not-the-best
choice after the decision made. Then they will change their
perception to reduce the dissonance. For example, my girlfriend
and I went to a boutique. After we walked and looked around,
finally she chose her favorite dress. It cost about 80 bucks. Soon,
we went into another boutique, and we saw another dress with
the same design and color. She been sighed that she bought a
more expensive dress. But she never regret because she thought
that dress she just bought was better than the cheaper one from
quality. Post-decision dissonance been clearly showed on my
girlfriend. She was trying to avoid from the information that
increase her dissonance but she made her decision more logical
so she felt that she wasn’t wrong.