Chapter 1 - Entry 1

Date - 25th August 2014

Topic - Social Learning Perspective

Varieties of learning perspective are taught in chapter 1 Social Psychology which in-

cludes evolutionary perspective, sociocultural perspective, social cognitive perspective,

and social learning perspective. i would like to highlight more on Social learning perspec-

tive.

Social learning perspective is the view that people learn by observing others. Asso-

ciated with Albert Bandura's work in the 1960s, social learning theory explains how people

learn new behaviours, values, and attitudes. since young, my parents has always been a

role model to me and my siblings. they are the one who affects the most in our personal

behaviour and they are the one who made who i am today.

My parents always remind us that we should treat everyone around us regardless

strangers or friends with good manners. i learnt to be polite and gentle since i was young

as my elder brother and sisters always present a good example infront of me. for example,

the slang and language that i speak today is indeed a very strong influence by my elder

siblings. I tend to replicate the way they speak and the way they act.

When i was young, for example, a child might see a sibling receive a lollipop for be-

having politely and imitate the sibling in the hope of getting a treat, too. And that was ex-

actly what i always do. My uncle was a national well known racer back in the days, i was

the only one in my family who loves auto-motive since young. Thus, my uncle loves to

bring me for a ride in the race track legally whenever there’s an event. I always observe

how he drives his car and also the skills he projected when he’s in a race. And now, i often

participate in racing competition and had won numerous medals and trophies in the past 2

years.

I would think that behaviour are reinforced most effectively by observing other’s be-

haviour.

Chapter 1 - Entry 2

Date - 25th of october

Topic - Social Facilitation

In chapter 1, Social psychology simply means that the exploration of the interaction

of an individual person and a given situation and there are several roots of Social Psychol-

ogy which are Social facilitation and also Social Loafing. Based on my experience in my

teenage life, i would like to talk about social facilitation.

Social facilitation is basically the idea that you will likely do better on a simple task

when other people are watching you. However, you would tend to do less well on complex

tasks where you were being watched or evaluated. this often happen to me in my life since

young. there are many situation and times i did this.

As for my favourite activity which is auto-motive racing, we as racer have to pre-

pare and numerous practices and preparation are required before the actual track day.

software and hardware of the car must be fine tune and most importantly, driving skills,

discipline and also driver’s health are very important in order to win the race. During the

practice laps on the track, i often practice alone and only manage to do average timing per

laps just to get the feel of it. On the track day it self where there are many spectators, i of-

ten push to the limit or sometimes over my own limit, just to get a very good timing per lap

or not to let down my team and others.

Other than that, say I were asked by my parents to perform a relatively easy task,

such as cleaning up a common work area. Social facilitation theory shows that I would nor-

mally be likely to go the extra steps to put everything in its place and make the area very

tidy if there were people watching me while I were working. But, if I were doing this same

task after-hours, when everyone had gone home for the day, I might not be as attentive to

all the details.

In conclusion, thinking about social facilitation can help you comprehend inspiration

from another viewpoint. We frequently decipher somebody's performance singularly in light

of his or her capability. For instance, if an individual doesn't perform well on a given task,

we may very well expect that he or she isn't great at it or isn't eager to advance the task

that is required to do it well. That may be the situation. In any case, social facilitation helps

us to admire that our inspiration for doing a task is additionally impacted by how great we

see ourselves to be at the task and whether we are constantly assessed by others.

Chapter 2 - Entry 1

Date - 1st September 2014

Topic - Motivation

In chapter 2 of Social psychology, i have finally learnt the the real meaning

and explanation regarding the sub-topic “motivation”. Motivation is defined as the

process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. Motivation is

what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or read-

ing a book to gain knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social, and cog-

nitive forces that activate behaviour. In everyday usage, the term motivation is fre-

quently used to describe why a person does something. For example, you might

say that a student is so motivated to get into a clinical psychology program that she

spends every night studying.

In my case, motivation has always been absent in most of the task that i en-

counter. for example, no motivation to study or revise for the upcoming test or as-

signment thus resulting in procrastinating to the last minute and resulting in limited

time to complete work or insufficient revise done causing bad result outcome.

In this case, i often mix or try to blend in to hardworking bunch of friends. they

often manage their time well for studies and also for fun times because of the slo-

gan “WORK HARD PLAY HARD”. They also produces good result in tests, by then,

it helps by keeping my motivation up and will be motivated to study and revise

whenever i am free. In order to keep my motivation up and score well for exams,

my parents came out with a way of reinforcing it, which is by “rewarding” me if i

score well in tests! That’s definitely the best way to keep my motivation up in order

to achieve the reward that might be thing i have always wanted!

Other than that, my physical appearance might appear smaller in size com-

pared to my friends. they all say by hitting to the gym regularly and discipline might

helps me gain in size and strength. I obviously know that helps but I’m still remain-

ing at my size after so much of consulting from my friends and others due to the ab-

sence of motivation of me doing so. Finally, intensity can be seen in the concentra-

tion and vigour that goes into pursuing a goal

Chapter 2 - Entry 1

Date - 1st september 2014

Topic - Social comparison

When people compare themselves to others in order to measure success, it

is called self-comparison. there are two types of self-comparison which is Upwards

social comparison and also downwards social comparison. Social psychologists

have one answer. Social comparison theory states that in the absence of objective

measures for self-evaluation, we compare ourselves to others to find out how we're

doing. Today, i will be talking about upwards social comparison which plays a very

big roll in a part of my life.

Upwards social comparison often occurs when im trying to achieve some-

thing which is better than the outcome or result that I produced. I often have a role

model for upwards social comparison to occur. for example, back in the days in

high school, i was the first choice jumper for the event long jump representing my

state which is Selangor Dahrul Ehsan. I often compare my self to national or even

international levelled jumpers. It gives me so much of motivation to strive harder

and harder and put real great focus and also heart into serious training to improve

my self and just to get close to their results or even improving my result from previ-

ous jumps or competitions.

Other than that, i always have my dad as a role model in my life. through up-

wards social comparison, i always compare my self with my dad. i want to study

hard and work hard in my life and most importantly manage my time and priorities

well in order to do better than my dad in the future. My dad has always been a very

influential role model in me and my siblings life.

In conclusion, Social comparison is a very affective ways to change an indi-

vidual’s behaviour and i think that upwards social comparison should be encour-

aged in all children’s heart and mind.

Chapter 3 - Entry 1

Date - 15th September 2014

Topic - Counterfactual Thinking

In chapter 3, we have learnt about counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual

thinking is thinking about a past that did not happen. This often happens  in 'if

only...' situations, where we wish something had or had not happened. This can be

so powerful we can change our own memories, adjusting the facts and creating

new memories. It can happen to cover up trauma or may be just excuses to avoid

facing uncomfortable truths. It can also be to explain what is otherwise unexplain-

able. There are two types of counterfactual thinking which are upwards counterfac-

tual thinking and also downwards counterfactual thinking.

Both upwards and downwards do occur in my life. As a long jumper repre-

senting state, I have undergo and participated in many many events and also com-

petition during my high-school time. upwards counterfactual thinking will occur

when i got a silver medal for a particular competition and i would have a thought

that i should have done better or even get more rest at the night before the compe-

tition leading to regretness.

Downwards counterfactual occurs when the closeness to winning causes

much regret and I would need to excuse myself for my “failure” thus coming out

with numerous of excuses saying that “at least i got a medal instead of nothing” or

even “im better than those who didn't get a medal” and even “im good enough al-

ready for being able to represent my state for competition.

Chapter 3 - Entry 2

Date - 15th september 2014

Topic - The mood-congruence effect

In the sub topic of chapter 3, im going to talk about the mood-congruence ef-

fect that are present in my life. Mood-congruence simply means that a memory

process that selectively retrieves memories that match (are congruent with) one's

mood. Quite simply, when something happens that strongly affects your mood the

memory will be retrieved when experiencing the mood again which are a common

relation between the mood you are in and memories. depending on your mood, you

will start thinking of the past memories that are related to your current mood.

for example, when Im happy, i usually thinks back stuff which happened in

my life which brings much joy in to my life. For instance, whenever i score good re-

sult in my test, my mum would reward me and that makes me very happy causing

me to think back how lucky am i to revise much earlier before the test comes and

also recalling memories like the good times i spent with my mum and family and re-

member all the good memories i had with my mum for example spending our time

for vacation in overseas and others.

for the downwards part, when i am down or moody, I start recalling bad mem-

ories that happened in my past that has caused me pain or even heartache and

dwell on them. for instance, when i got caught in the traffic jam and im late for col-

lege, i would start thinking about negative stuff and putting the blame on my siblings

or whoever that made me stucked in the traffic jam due to delayed departure.

Chapter 4 - Entry 1

Date - 22nd September 2014

Topic - Comfirmation Bias

Where do your beliefs and opinions come from? If you are like most people,

you probably like to believe that your beliefs are the result of years of experience

and objective analysis of the information you have available. 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, the fact is that our

ideas are often based on paying attention to the information that upholds our ideas

and ignoring the information that challenges our existing beliefs.

A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favouring informa-

tion that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. For example, imagine that a

person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed

people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and

creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" supporting their already

existing belief.

Confirmation bias do exist in my life. I tend to supports firmly what i believes

and often argue with others are are opposed with my believes. for instance, if i be-

lieve that the car BMW is faster than Mercedes-Benz, i would desperately seeking

and gathering info about how great is BMW compared to Mercedes-Benz while

there are many stuffs of Mercedes-Benz which are greater than BMW too. IN times

where me and my bunch of friends discuss about cars, i would bring up the evi-

dence and reason why BMWs are greater and better than Merz just because i am a

BMW fan.

Chapter 4 - Entry 2

Date - 22nd September 2014

Topic - Covariation Theory

Covariation theory says that when explaining other people’s

behaviours, we look for similarities (covariation) across a range of

situations to help us narrow down specific attributions.

There are three particular types of information we look for to

help us decide, each of which can be high or low which is consen-

sus, distinctiveness and also consistency. consensus shows that

how similarly other people act, given the same stimulus, as the

person in question. Distinctiveness shows that how similarly the

person acts in different situations, towards other stimuli. consis-

tency shows that how often the same stimulus and response in the

same situation are perceived.

People tend to make internal attributions when consensus

and distinctiveness are low but consistency are high. They will

make external attributions when consensus and distinctiveness are

both high and consistency is still high. When consistency is low,

they will make situational attributions.

If my mum yells at a person for instance my sister, we (sib-

lings) assume it is his nature if she is the only person to yell at that

person (low consensus), she yells at other people too (low distinc-

tiveness) and she yells at them often. However, if everyone else

gets cross with the same person (high consensus) and my mum

does not yell at other people (high distinctiveness), we assume it is

something external—probably the person being yelled at, which is

my sister. Finally, if my mum has not yelled at the person before,

we assume that something unusual has happened (situational at-

tribution).

Chapter 5 - Entry 1

Date - 6th October

Topic - Classical conditioning

Many of us may have heard about Pavlov’s dog experiment, a very fa-

mous example of classical conditioning we learned about in class. Classical

conditioning is a learning process in which two unrelated stimuli are repeat-

edly paired, and over time a reaction to the second stimulus can be

achieved by the first stimulus alone. In Pavlov’s experiment, he paired the

two stimuli of ringing a bell, and then giving food to a dog. After several

times of first ringing a bell and then feeding the dog, eventually when Pavlov

rung the bell the dog would start to salivate without the presence of the food.

With only the first stimulus (the bell), the reaction of the second stimulus

(salivating to the food) was achieved.

It’s amazing how simple it can be to condition someone or something

in this way. Examples of classical conditioning can furthermore be seen in

our everyday lives. A simple example for me would be for my dogs, Bubble.

Whenever my brother gets home from work, he opens the front gate making

an audible sound heard throughout the house. Over time, Bubble associated

the noise of the electrical gate opening with his arrival, and would stop any-

thing and everything it were doing to greet my brother’s arrival excitedly at to

door. Now whenever the electrical gate is activated, whether or not some-

one is arriving at the house, Bubble excitedly awaits the front door and are

more times than not disappointed with the presence of no one.

Chapter 5 - Entry 2

Date - 6th October

Topic - Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental

conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and pun-

ishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning, an association is

made between a behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour. for in-

stance, an example was given during the class. that example explains, when

a lab rat presses a blue button, he receives a food pellet as a reward, but

when he presses the red button he receives a mild electric shock. As a re-

sult, he learns to press the blue button but avoid the red button.

Reinforcement comes in two different forms which are negative and

positive. Positive reinforcers are favourable events or outcomes that are

given to the individual after the desired behaviour. this may come in the form

of praise, rewards, etc. negative reinforcers typically are characterised by

the removal of an undesired or unpleasant outcome after the desired behav-

iour. A response is strengthened as something considered negative is re-

moved. And the goal in both of these cases of reinforcement is for the be-

haviour to increase.

for positive reinforcement, my parents often reward me whenever i

score well in test of behaves well all the time. not only that, they would

praise me whenever i did something good or helpful to the family and also

people around me. this makes my behaviour of doing good stuffs getting re-

inforced and wanting to do more good stuff and score well in exam just for

the sake of getting praised or rewarding!

Name: Bryan Teh Qing Da

ID: 0318590

Group/Session: Monday, 12PM

Subject and Course: Social Psychology,

FNBE Aug Intake (SEM 2)

Submission Date: November 10, 2014