This document provides a summary of 3 journal entries by a student named Kailyn Lee regarding concepts learned in her social psychology course. The first entry discusses social learning and how observing her mother's habit of conserving electricity and water influenced her to develop the same habits. The second entry describes an example of confirmation bias when discussing a math problem with a classmate. The third entry discusses self-serving attribution, using examples of attributing exam results and lateness to external factors rather than oneself. The document provides real-world examples of concepts learned in the social psychology course.

1. SCHOOL OFARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN
FoundationinNatural andBuiltEnvironments
MATHEMATICS [MTH30104]
Thissurveyisto fulfil the purpose of ourMathematics’project.Participationinvoluntaryandthe
informationgatheredwillbe keptconfidential.
NAME: LEE KAILYN
STUDENT ID NO: 0320273
GROUP/ SESSION: MONDAY (2PM - 4PM)
SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
INTAKE: AUGUST 2014
LECTURER: MR. SHANKAR THIRUCHELVAM
SUBMISSION DATE: 27th
APRIL 2015

2. Journal 1 (Entry 1) – Social Learning perspective
In Chapter 1 of social psychology, I have learnt about social learning. Social learning
perspective is a process in which individuals observe the behaviour of others and its
consequences, and modify their own behaviour accordingly. This concept happens more than
just a few times in my life. This concept was developed from my mother, it was a habit to
check whether all the electronic appliances, water tap or gas stove are all off and closed after
using it.
Many people have bad habits about wasting energy and water. I remembered my
mother has a good habit, and she will check up and make sure all the electricity appliances
including lights, air condition are all switch off before we are leaving home. I used to have a
bad habit that do not switch off television and air condition whenever I am leaving the room
or the house. I still remembered that I always nagged by my parents for wasting electricity
and wasting water. When I was in my secondary year, there was once that my parents going
out of station for few day, they left me at house alone. I did not switch off the television and
air condition before leaving to school. I leave the television and air condition on all day when
there’s nobody in the house. Few weeks later, my parents found out I was wasting electricity
and wasting water due to paying the high electricity bill and water bill. They scolded me and
tell me I need to unplug all the electricity appliances and makes sure all the water tap are
close before leaving our house. Although I already get rid of bad habits, sometimes my
mother still will call me to ask me to check up my house to make sure that I have turn off all
the electricity appliances before leaving home.
After being nagged and was reminded many times by my mother, I eventually
developed her good habit together with my whole family. Sometimes, I will tell my relatives
not to waste electricity energy and water. I even influenced my friends. I even ask them to
check up everything before leaving their house. This behavior has been gradually becomes
things I do every day.

3. Journal 1 (Entry 2) – Comfirmation Bias
In chapter 1 of social psychology, I also learnt about comfirmation bias. Comfirmation
bias is the tendency of paying attention only to information that supports our beliefs. This
concept has occurred before in my daily life.
When I was in primary school, mathematics was my favourite subject. In the
mathematics class, we were given to solve some exercise question by our teacher. After done
all the exercise questions, I was not sure with my answer for the last question so I decided to
discuss it with my classmates. We found out that we have different opinion of doing that
question. Both of us have our own ways to solve the question and both of us has the answers
are different. We explained it to each other. I even look for our textbook to find out whether
how to solve this question. He told me his way to solve this question is correct, but I did not
agree and believe with him. I still think mine answer is correct. We spent a longer time to
discuss about it. At last, we both thinks ourselves are correct.
The next day, our mathematics teacher started to discuss all the exercise questions with
us in the classroom. For the last question, my answer was wrong and my classmates that
discussed with me did it correct. This concept occurred when my classmates told me my
solution was wrong and I did not believe and listen to him. Now I realized I was wrong and I
should listen and believe to others. I just believe and think myself was the one who did it
correctly, but it turns out I’m not.

4. Journal 2 (Entry 1 ) – Self-serving attribution
In chapter 2 of social psychology, I have learnt about self-serving attribution from this
lesson. This concept often occurs in our daily life including many people. Self-serving bias is
people’s tendency to attribute positive events to their own character but attribute negative
events to external factors. It’s a common type of cognitive bias that has been extensively
studied in social psychology. When we were very young, we were still immature for many
things including our socially and academically.
When I was still in primary school, I hate attend to school. I hate sitting in the
classroom and listening to the teacher teaching. I also dislike study for my exam because I
am lazy. I always study at the last minute before exam, I always hope the exam question was
very easy. Whenever I get good results, I will think it is my hard work which makes me get
good result. Sometimes, I even think how my parents praise me if I get good results. Besides,
whenever I get poor results for my exam, I will think the teacher is not teaching well
sometimes, I will also think the question was so difficult for me.
Another example of my brother, he has a meeting on that day and he arrived late at the
office. He started to blame to his late arrival that was because the bus arrived late and there’s
a heavy traffic on the way to the office. But in fact, he was waking up late on that day.

5. Journal 2 (Entry 2) – Self-Efficacy
From this lesson, I also learnt about the concept of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to
an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to achieve behaviours necessary to produce
specific performance attainments. Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert
control over one’s own motivation, motivation, behaviour and social environment.
When I was 7 years old, my mother decided to send me to a swim lessons. At first, it
was very fun while playing water in pool with others children and it will be a very fun sport.
One day, the uncle who is teaching us, instruct us to jump into the pool at the deepest side of
the swimming pool. I was afraid of jumping into the pool because I almost drowned in the
swimming pool last time. The uncle keeps persuading me to jump into the water, as I was
fear of swimming because I am afraid of drowning. I keep refusing to jump into the pool.
After that day, I think learning to swim is very difficult and I started to avoid going to the
lesson as I think swimming is a very difficult sport. Self-efficacy occurred when I think
swimming is difficult and I will be avoiding myself not to learn how to swim. Now, I’m
already in college and I still don’t know how to swim.
For another example of my sister, she went to learnt how to drive few months ago. She
failed her driving test first time, she takes her exam again the following week and she failed
the test again and again. My parents ask her to stop taking exam, because they think she will
fail the test again. Even though she fail the test many times, but she still did not want to give
up and she thinks it is a challenge for her. At last, she passed it with high marks at the fourth
time. Self-efficacy occurred when my sister takes driving test as challenge even though she
failed many times.

6. Journal 3 (Entry 1 ) - Stereotype
In chapter 3 of social psychology, I have learnt about stereotyping. A Stereotype
assumes all members of a group share some common feature. Stereotype is a concept often
occurs in our life. In this concept, people always think students who get straight ‘A’s has no
social life at all. Here’s my example of experienced.
When I was in my secondary school, there was much curiosity about how a student
gets straight ‘A’s in their exam. I have always wondered what they have in their super smart
person head. I always thought they spend their study time more than their sleeping time. Did
they watch television program and playing video games at home? I even thought did they go
for tuition 7 days in a week and have no time to go out for sports or shopping. When I was
form 5, I knew all I think was wrong until I made a new friend, she’s a student transfer from
others school. She’s a top student and she get really good result from every exam. I was
curious so I decided to ask her how she studies for her exam. I was so shocked when she told
me that we don’t need to study hard for our exam. She told me she only go tuition for two
subjects only and ask me to follow the step to study and I will get a better result. First, never
skip class and we need to organize our time to give ourselves plenty of time to study and
sleep. We also need to pay attention in class and never be embarrassed to ask questions
because not everyone knows everything and there’s nothing wrong with not knowing
something. We must do our homework because it helps us to learn the subject and read extra
material if we have time. Besides that, she told me she has keep in touch with her previous
school friends. They hang out together twice a month. She even invited me to play badminton
or play other sports with her every weekend to relax ourselves.
Stereotypes occurred when I think all straight ‘A’s student has no social life at all, they
only have to study, study and study every day. Now I realized straight ‘A’s student life is not
only for study, they also have an amazing social life like us.

7. Journal 3 (Entry 2 ) - Counterfactual thinking
In this lecturer, I have learnt about Counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual thinking is
a concept in psychology that involves the human tendency to create possible alternatives to
life events that have already occurred or something that is contrary to what actually
happened. This concept contains of two types, one is upward counterfactuals and another is
down counterfactuals. Here’s the example I have experienced.
For upward counterfactuals, there was one time I went to Bandar Sunway area to buy
some stuffs for my project last semester. When I arrived there, I have already found almost
30 minutes and still could not find any parking to park my car. So I decided to double park
my car nearby the shop I went. After 20 minutes, I bought all the stuffs and decided to return
to my car. I realized my car was summoned just now. I was so shocked and started to think
‘my car would not summoned if I’d keep finding the parking’.
For downward counterfactuals, I remembered when I was Form 3, we were having
Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination that year. I did not study much for my PMR
examination. I remembered I get a really bad result for it, I passed all my subjects but I have
no As for any of the subjects. At that moment, I feel guilty for not studying harder and started
to tell myself ‘I got passed for all subjects, but at least I did not fail any of the subjects’.
People always make excuses and reject the truth because they want to make themselves feel
better.

8. Journal 4 (Entry 1) - First Impression
In chapter 4 of social psychology, I have learnt about first impression. First impression
is the term applied to the initial impression we have of another person when we meet them
for the first time. It contains positive and negative impressions and a sense of physical and
psychological features. It takes just a quick glance, maybe three seconds, for someone to
evaluate you. In this short time, the other person forms an opinion about you based on your
appearance, your body language, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed. Here’s the
example I have experienced.
When I was in my secondary school, my English teacher has just retired. There’s a
new English teacher arrived in our school. At first, I did not know she was going to be my
English teacher. Our headmaster introduced her to all students during the assembly. I noticed
she was always staring at people with a serious expression on her face and without a smile.
Even during introduction section, she was also with a serious expression on her face. I started
worried when the head prefect said that she was going to be our English teacher, because I
wondered what kind a person she was. The first impression she gave me was she was a fierce
and serious person. During English class, the teacher came into our class. She started
introduced herself to us and she also requested us to introduce ourselves. The students were
so funny while they were introducing themselves. Surprisingly, I noticed a smile has shown
on the teacher face. After that, the teacher started to teach in class. The class was actually
quite fun during the whole hour. After class, I went to approach her and asked her question
that I don’t understand. She was not fierce at all. She was so nice and explained in detail to
me. What I learnt from this concept was we cannot judge a person using their first
impression. First impressions are just minor information that we should use to make
conclusions about other people because they could not tell the whole story about others are
not based on our long-time observation.

9. Journal 4 (Entry 2) – The Halo Effect
From this lesson, I have learnt about The Halo Effect. The halo effect is a type of
cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think
about his or her character. The halo effect refers to the habitual tendency of people to rate
attractive individuals more favourably for their personality traits or characteristics than those
who are less attractive.
For example, my brother is a coffee lover. He truly loves Starbucks a lot. He almost
gets himself a cup of Starbucks coffee every day. For me, I think Starbucks coffee is way too
strong for me and it’s very expensive. I will prefer instant coffee more than Starbucks coffee
and lattes. I remembered there’s one day, I get myself a cup of instant coffee at night instead
of Starbucks coffee as my exam are going on the next day. I want to go to bed after I done my
revision. My brother saw I was having instant coffee, he was saying that he does not like
instant coffee because it tastes terrible and it does not taste as good as Starbucks coffee. He
did not even try instant coffee once and he said it tastes terrible. In fact, it’s not. This concept
is shown by my brother had a good experienced with the drinks from Starbucks Coffee. This
is because he does not want to try instant coffee. He even thinks all the drinks from Starbucks
coffee were very great. I had an experienced with drinks from Starbucks coffee, but it not
turn out to be what I expected. In this situation, my brother had a good experienced with the
drinks from Starbucks Coffee, thus he thinks instant coffee tastes terrible and not as good as
Starbucks Coffee. Also, he gets himself a cup of Starbucks drinks every day.

10. Journal 5 (Entry 1 ) – The Name Letter Effect
In chapter 5 of social psychology, I have also learnt about the name-letter effect. The
name letter effect is the tendency to show a preference for the letters in our own name and
stimuli that contain those letters. Since my name begins with a letter K, Kailyn. I would like
to choose things related to a capital “K”.
For example, one of my hobbies is shopping. I like to shop with my family and friends. I
usually go shopping for three until four hours. Shopping has becomes part of my life, I
started to collect some clothes, shoes, bags and unique accessories. My favourite brand was
Forever 21 and Topshop. I really love the design of clothes from these two brands and these
two brands were so famous. Other than that, most of my collection of clothes was from
Kitschen. Kitshen is a fashion brand from Malaysia. I would also love to collect the purse and
handbag from Charles and Keith. Charles and Keith is a brand who sells woman’s bag and
purse. Sometimes I even had the tendency to go all the shop begins with a capital “K”.
For another example, me and my friends is always facing the same problem. We always
can’t decide what to eat for our meals is the problem. Sometimes my friends will asked me
what we should have for our dinner, so I answered him “KFC”, “Kenny Roger” or
“Mcdonalds”. I just like to pick the fast food begins with capital “K”. At last, my friends said
fast food is not good for our health and at last we went to Chinese restaurant every time.

11. Journal 5 ( Entry 2) – Ageism
In chapter 7 of social psychology, I have learnt about ageism. Ageismis the
discrimination directed at various age groups. This concept has also been used to describe
prejudice and discrimination against adolescents and children, including ignoring their ideas
because they are too young, or assuming that they should behave in certain ways because
of their age. Here’s the example I have experienced.
Four years ago, I and my brother went to mid valley for lunch. After we had our lunch,
we decided to go for a movie. My brother decided to watch the movie named 14 Blades
because he loves to watch action movie. It was a movie director by Daniel Lee and starring
by Donnie Yen. So we walked to the ticket counter and decided to buy the tickets of this
movie, the girl who works at the counter told us this movie is an R-rated movie. R-rated
motion picture may include adult activity, adult themes, hard language, intense or
persistent violence, sexually-oriented, nudity, drug abuse or other elements. Children under
17 are not allowed to attend R-rated motion pictures unaccompanied by a parent or adult
guardian. Both of us were still under 18, and the girl who works at the counter refused to
sell the tickets to us because we does not have any adult guardian and parents with us.
Ageismoccurred when we did not get to watch the movie because we were both under 18
and did not have parents with us. At last, we choose to watch another movie which is
stated PG13 named Little Big Soldier. It was also an action movie who produced, written and
also starring by Jackie Chan.