KEN WONG CHUN THIM

0315534

MONDAY 4pm – 7pm group

Social Psychology [PSYC0103]

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

Foundation of Natural Build Environment (FNBE)

Submission date: 12 May 2014

Entry 1

Written on

Date: Tuesday, 8th April 2014

Time: 10:00 PM

Self-fulfilling prophecy is the process of one becoming the prediction that one has

about themselves. When I feel unmotivated to do a task, I usually utter the phrase,

“I am so lazy.” The repeated use of this phrase has probably caused me to become

a lazy person and thus fulfilling the prophecy that I have set for myself.

Besides that, I have also been told that I am a shy person and don’t talk very much

since I was a young boy. Whether or not it is biological or psychological, I am quite

sure I believed those words and reinforced the idea in my head after hearing the

same thing repeatedly from different people. The schema became deeply rooted

that even if someone were to tell me that I am a confident and outgoing person,

confirmation bias would kick in and filter it out. Confirmation bias is the

strengthening of the schema if the information is relevant and the filtering of

information if it is against the schema.

In my daily life, I have heard many sentences that go, “You’re fat”, “You’re

inconsiderate”, “You’re selfish” and etc. It would then be followed with, “You should

be more…” While these people are thinking of the welfare of the other person, I

think that they are actually doing more harm than good. They would keep pointing

out the flaws of the other person and not realize that the person reinforces the idea

then becomes it even more thus fulfilling the prophecy. In my opinion, if we want to

help another person change their behavior to a more beneficial one, we should use

positive statements.

Entry 2

Written on

Date: Monday, 21st April 2014

Time: 7:47 PM

It’s Monday and I only have one class which is Social Psychology. In class, we’ve

been given a lecture on “Prosocial Behavior” which discusses why we choose to

help people. Class ended at 5:30PM and I decided to go home since it’s the only

class that day. Unfortunately, it was raining. I had no umbrella and my car was

parked in the free parking area. I was actually rushing home for dinner because

there’ll be a traffic jam so I used my bag as a cover from the rain. As I was walking

towards the parking area, a girl approached me and offered to share her umbrella

with me. I politely said that it’s alright as my car was just around the corner and

isn’t far. Honestly speaking, I was pretty darn happy and delighted that a girl

offered to share her umbrella.

However, her next sentence was,

“But I’ll feel bad if I don’t share the umbrella with you.”

From today’s lecture, I have actually learnt about the Egoistic and Altruistic model.

An Egoistic model would mean the help is given for the benefit of one’s self and an

Altruistic model would be help is given without expecting anything in return. Now,

which of these models would fit the girl in that scenario?

It would obviously be an Egoistic model since she’s actually helping me in order to

avoid feeling bad for not sharing an umbrella with another person. She helps for the

benefit of her own hence it could be seen as an insincere gesture, at least for me.

That said, I can understand where she is coming from. If I were to switch positions

with her, I would have expected a thank you or something similar after lending a

hand. In fact, I actually contemplated offering her a ride to her car to return the

favor but I didn’t since I was in a rush and too shy. The “Cost-Benefit Model of

Helping” plays its role here where I felt it was too much effort to send her to her car

and it doesn’t really benefit me other than feeling like a kind person.

Being on the same topic, I would say an Egoistic model fits me very much as I

always help others for my own benefit. For an example, when I help others with

things related to the computer, I do it so I would seem like a reliable person in this

area and it boosts my self-esteem.

In terms of Altruistic model, I don’t think I have ever helped anyone selflessly

without expecting anything in return. In fact, I believe helping someone with no

benefits to gain from it is very rare. It is because of the notion that people will most

definitely feel good after helping another person. It feels good to help so that is why

they help in the first place. The only possible way I think we can help someone

without gaining anything is when we truly care about the person we’re trying to

help. When we truly care about someone, we do not think about the gains from

helping them but rather what benefit can they receive from the help given.

Entry 3

Written on

Date: Friday, 25th April 2014

Time: 6:15 PM

From my observation, some students have a tendency to criticize the teacher

whenever they are given low marks or been scolded for a valid reason. The concept

related here is self-serving attribution where we make positive attributions for

things that improves our self-image. External attributions are made when a

negative result is produced and internal attributions are made when a positive

result is achieved. It basically means we take credit for our successes and blame

others for our failures. I have seen cases where the student disses the teacher for

giving low marks even though the student knows that he or she didn’t actually

produce a good work and did it half-heartedly. When they receive a negative

outcome, they would blame the teacher for having high standards. On the flip side

when they receive a positive outcome, they would say it was due to their cleverness

and hard work.

Being on the topic of attributions, correspondence bias is also something common

that people do. It is the tendency to make dispositional attributions for others’

behavior. In other words, we often blame the person for their behavior and not the

situation. This normally occurs when we don’t have information to make a correct

attribution. For an example, when I see a homeless person on the streets, I would

usually see them as a person who is lazy and a parasite to society. Sometimes, I

feel like they deserve to suffer on the streets because they do not seem to do

anything to fix their situation. This is probably the just-world hypothesis kicking in

where I believe they have received the misfortune they deserved and it is only fair

that people that work hard can live a good life. I would always question why can’t

they work and earn a living for themselves. However, I did not make a situational

attribution to take into account the situation he’s in like he is too weak to work and

no one wants to employ him.

Entry 4

Written on

Date: Friday, 9th May 2014

Time: 11:10 PM

I am sure everyone has stereotypes of different groups of people. Stereotype is the

belief that we have about a group of people whether it is positive or negative. An

example would be my aunt, she has this stereotype where people with dark skin are

dangerous. This stereotype formed as a result of the news often reporting dark

skinned people committing crimes. The availability heuristic can be seen occurring

here as it is based on how likely it is to happen based on how available the

information is at hand. She then forms this prejudice where she thinks dark skinned

people are drug addicts and would rob for money. Prejudice is when we see a group

of people in a bad light and have a negative attitude towards them. So every time

she sees this group of people, she tend to avoid them and stay away from them.

Discrimination occurs when we act negatively towards those people. This can also

be called racism as it deals discrimination towards a specific racial group.

In Malaysia, there are traces of modern racism where there are indirect and hidden

emotions directed towards a specific racial group. An example would be the

minority racial group feels unfair of the status given to the majority thus having ill

feelings towards the majority racial group. The unequal status causes a disorder

between the two groups. Gordon Allport has proposed one of the four conditions to

decrease prejudice which is to have equal status between groups. I would say this

can definitely help in resolving this issue in our country.

Entry 5

Written on

Date: Saturday, 10th May 2014

Time: 8:37 PM

It was raining today and I remembered an incident that occurred when I was around

8 or 9 years. It was also a rainy day when my family and I went out for dinner. We

parked outside this restaurant and alighted the car. The distance wasn’t much so

we decided we could just run into the restaurant without umbrellas. And so I ran,

blindly. I ran into a bar and slid downwards. My head was ringing and eyes blurred

by the tears. This was the day I learned not to run in the rain. Since that event, I

would avoid running and walk in the rain instead. Even if it meant being drenched in

the rain, I will still choose to walk.

The operant conditioning theory can be applied here as it mentions the use of

reinforcement or punishment can increase or decrease the likeliness of the behavior

being repeated. In my case, the pain I took from my fall would serve as the

punishment and it would inhibit my behavior of running in the rain as I will do it to

avoid falling again. In another context, my mother have used this theory in

reinforcing my behavior of studying hard for exams by giving me rewards if I were

to get good results.

On the same topic, I have also realized I have experienced classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning is the pairing of two stimulus to produce the same response.

An example would be I listen to a particular song in the car every day when I first

started going to university. I was new to this environment so I felt uncomfortable

and anxious. After a few months, I have started to like going to university as a result

of the mere exposure effect. The mere exposure effect talks about how we like and

feel comfortable after being repeatedly exposed to an object. Now in the present

even though I am comfortable, when I listen to the same song, I would experience

the same emotions I had when I went to class for the first time.

Another example would be the time I had food poisoning from eating chocolates

containing coffee beans. I had to vomit a few times and the taste of the coffee

beans would linger in my mouth. Now, every time I drink coffee I will often get a

headache and feel like vomiting. The unconditioned stimulus of the taste of coffee

beans and the unconditioned response of vomiting has been conditioned.