(CHOW KAH YIEN)

ID: 0320300

Subject: Social Psychology [PSYC0103]

Group/Session: Monday, 4pm-6pm

Course: Foundation in Natural and Built Environment

Date Submission: 27/4/2015

Entries 1

Date: 20/3/2015 (Friday)

Time: 2.30pm

Concept: Social Perception

Social perception is very important for us in our everyday life. It help us to

learn about other’s feelings and emotions by picking up all the information that

we had gather from such as people physical appearance, verbal and non-verbal

communication. If we don’t have social perception, we can’t know that

someone is dislike us or others. For example: You don’t know that she or he is

disagree with your idea or what you had said when you already see them roll

their eyes. So that is why social perception is very important in our everyday

life. It help us a lot by knowing that what others wanted to tell us.

I still remember the day I came Taylor’s University. My parents follow me

all the way from Sabah. They are so worried about me so they decide to follow,

send me off and help me settle all the things at my hostel and other things

before they go back to Sabah. The day before the opening school, they are going

to head back Sabah again. Before they go to airport after helped me settled all

the things at here, we settled into a shuffling kind of silence. My Dad said that

he would missed me and my Mum cried a bit while my brother seemed not to

care much either way even I know that he would definitely miss me this sister. I

cried a lot that few days because I missed them so much. That was why I ended

up crying all along the way.

The day of the opening school was so much meaning and important to me

because I want to give a good impression for everyone. I felt excited and at the

time I was very nervous because it was my first day in the University and I

didn’t know any person except a friend that are taking the same course with me

which also came from Sabah. I woke early in the morning, get myself done and

ate some breakfast before going to the lecture hall that stated in my timetable. I

go to the lecture hall with my friend.

We easily and successfully go to the lecture hall that are stated in the

timetable because the sign board can easily be seen in everywhere. We go in the

lecture hall and saw many people sitting inside and what we do was faster found

a seat and then sat down. Both of us was kind of a gossip person. After we sat

down, we looked around and talked many things. We talked about that person

was pretty and we perceive that she was smart and intelligent based on all the

information we gather after we keep observe the girl. The information that we

gathered was she dress well, put on makeup and she was talking a good and

fluent English with the people she was talking.

After several minutes, when our lecturer came in and walks to the stage all of

us suddenly became quiet. At start, I perceive him to be poorly dressed, short

and others; he initially remind me of previous teacher in high school that I

didn’t like. But later on, after I have gathered more information about the

lecturer after few days from the opening school, I re-evaluate him as humorous,

intelligent and an excellent lecturer.

In this case, I know that this is known as social perception because I am

forming an impression of others based on available information. First

impression was widely believed and are very important. Initial impressions that

we make on others will affect and shape the course of our future relations with

the people.

Entries 2

Date: 21/3/2015 (Saturday)

Time: 9.30pm

Concept: Social Influence

I think most of us don’t remember our first two or three years of life but our

earliest experiences may forever stick for us for years and even continue to

influence us well into adulthood. Just like how I experienced when I was

kindergarten. My childhood memories are quite vivid and I still remember a lot

of my childhood.

I know that some details may be incorrect but generally things that I think

happened really did happen in my life. My brother and I shared a lot of time

together when I was in kindergarten. We both still remember all those memory

we had together. My brother was older than me almost 8 years old, so the time

we spend together was become less after I graduated in kindergarten. Even

though we rarely talked and played together but we are still family. We care

about each other and always help each other when we are in problem.

There is an oval shape birth mark on my right leg. I remember that when I

was in kindergarten there was some incident happened to me. I hate to go

kindergarten in the first day because I am not used to it. Suddenly have to go

school and this place was away from my home where my Mum and Daddy

won’t be around with me during the class it make me felt sad and cried that

time. I cried a lot after they drove me to the kindergarten school and took me

inside. They asked me listened to what the teacher said and don’t be so naughty

in the class. I was so reluctant that they have to go back but I wish they can

accompany me that time even though I know that they cannot.

After that, they left me with a lady I had never seen in my life. She was

friendly and then she pointed me the way to the classroom that I should go in. I

remember that she was trying to comfort me and she told me that my parents

will come back again and get me in a few hours.

When I go in the classroom, all the student was watching me. I wonder why

they are watching me with those weird eyes and I realize that they are watching

my birth mark on my right leg. It was very big with brown in colour and was an

oval shape birth mark which they known it as shit. I hate it very much when

they said that because it was so rude. Some of them even asked me why you do

not clean the shit on your leg. They even mock and make fun of my birth mark.

I am very upset about it and some of them do not want to be friends with me

because of that birth mark. They don’t want other people gossip about them too.

After that few days in the kindergarten, I started hated going to school

because I don’t want to see them again. I feel want to cut down or rip the birth

mark that on my leg. I want it disappear and then I can be friends with all of

them. They wouldn’t laugh or mock me again and I would not feel upset about

it at all. I even tried to use plaster to cover my birth mark every time when I go

to school.

My Mum realize it and asked me all the things that happened in the school. I

told her all the things that happened and she told me that I should not think like

that. I should always be positive. The birth mark on my leg was a sign that God

gave it to me. It means I am special from others and was the only one that has

the special birth mark. I felt proud of it and it make me very happy. I should not

affected by others. Stand on what I believed even though others do not.

After that, every day I go to school happily and always be positive. My life is

getting better and I felt much happier than before. What happened was those

who did not friends with me before or even talk to me, they came and started

talk with me and we became friends. They realised how rude they are and they

said sorry to me too. It is a social influenced process that occurs in my life when

my emotions, opinion and behaviours are affected by others.

Entries 3

Date: 24/3/15 (Tuesday)

Time: 9.30pm

Concept: Operant Conditioning

Last week I sat for Account and Economic first examination for semester 2. I

had been studying very hard to prepare for the exam. I hope to get a very good

result as my parents is spending a lot of money on my education. They want to

make sure I have a bright future thus always encourage me to do my best in

anything I do. They always give me all the support and guidance I need in my

study. I understand that poor result in my exam will really disappoint them

although they rarely punish or scold me. Instead they always guide me and try

to motivate and encourage me to put in more efforts when I fail to do well. I

also remember that I was always rewarded with small gifts, weekend movie or

dinner outings whenever I did well in my studies since I was in secondary

school.

I am feeling excited and a bit nervous today. I arrived the class earlier than

usual this morning as the result of last week’s exam will be made known this

morning. I had put in lot of hard work preparing for this exam. My parents’

guidance, encouragement and constant advice is always a strong motivation for

me to excel in my studies. Needless to say with the hard work I had put in I

hope to pass the exam with flying colours. My parents has high expectations of

me and I seldom disappointed them. I hope this exam will be no difference and I

can share the good news with them as soon as possible.

While I am dreaming of how high my scores would be, the lecturer walk in

with a stack of paper in his hand. I became more nervous and excited as very

soon I will know if I score as high as I expected. After greeting the class the

lecturer started distributing the marked test paper. When I get mine I am relief

and very happy to found that my score is higher than I expected!

I feel so happy with the result and can’t wait to share the happiness with my

parents. As soon as the class finished I rushed back to the hostel and

immediately call them for the good news. They were full of praise with my

excellent result. They also encourage me to set a higher goal and plan early for

the next semester. My parents said they will fly to Kuala Lumpur to spend a

short holiday with me and will bring a mysterious gift from Sabah as a reward

for my hard work and to motivate me to do even better in the next exam.

My life experienced above is a good example of operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning means using reinforcement or punishment to strengthen or

weaken a particular behaviour. In this case, I will continue to study very hard

and try to do even better in the next exam. This is because I know my parents

care for my future. They show great concern on my studies, always guide and

encourage me to do better. Also, they reward me for excellent result in whatever

I do. This types of operant outcomes was positive reinforcement which was

under the Operant Conditioning that I had learned in the class. This positive

reinforcement occurs when a particular behaviour strengthen or increases in the

hope of experiencing a positive action or behaviour. In conclusion, I will

continue to get a good result just to get the praise and reward from my parents.

Entries 4

Date: 26/3/15 (Thursday)

Time: 8.30pm

Concept: Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is a type of learning. When two stimuli are paired

together, they may come to elicit the same response. It is a learning process that

occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally

occurring stimulus.

When I was in primary school I love to eat ice-cream very much. Especially

when the weather is hot, a cone of ice-cream would make me very happy,

cheerful or salivated.

At the age of thirteen, which I was in the first year of secondary school.

There was an ice-cream vendor who came to sell ice-cream in our residential

area in a van. Every time when I go back home from school, the van with some

children songs will always came to our residential area around 5.30pm which

the time that I was go back home. After a several times, I realised that the ice-

cream truck will always come our housing area around 5.30pm. So whenever

that time I will prepared my pocket money that I saved from school and waited

for the ice-cream van.

When I heard the songs that always played by the ice-cream van, I will

became very happy and excited because I know that the ice-cream van was

coming here. Also, the thought of ice-cream makes me crave it and when I

heard the song from the ice-cream van it will eventually make me mouth water.

After I learned many concept from the Social Psychology I know that there

are many classical conditioning can furthermore be seen in our everyday life

and I know that in this case it is known as classical conditioning. The first time

when I heard the song played by the ice-cream van it really means nothing for

me so it is known as neutral stimulus. Then, I will buy the ice-cream and eat it.

So whenever I heard the same children song that played by the ice-cream van, it

will automatically remind me the ice-cream and the thought of ice-cream

(unconditioned stimulus) makes me crave for it (unconditioned response) and

when I hear the songs played by the ice-cream van (conditioned stimulus), it

makes me mouth water (conditioned response).

The same things also happened on my dog. My dog name was Candy. When

we are going to feed Candy, there will always the metal sound because we

poured the dog food into the metal bowl. So every time when Candy heard the

sound of the metal bowl, Candy will run to the back door because we will

always put the dog food at there. Whenever Candy heard the metal sound, it

causing the dog to salivate because Candy know that the food will always put at

the back door of the house after the metal sound that we actually poured the dog

food into the bowl. I missed my dog so much. Candy passed away last year after

I finished my semester 1 in Foundation in Natural and Built Environments. My

parents did not tell me about it because they do not want to see me sad about it

especially during my last exam. They scared it will influenced my exam. They

told me once I go back Sabah and I am really upset about it.

So when one stimulus regularly precedes another, the first one can become a

signal for the second. Over time, people learn that when first stimulus occurs,

the second one will soon follow it just like how I experienced in this case. The

idea of buying ice-cream eventually will automatically elicit a positive response

from me because buying ice-cream reliably predicts those positive responses.

Entries 5

Date: 11/4/2015 (Saturday)

Time: 3pm

Concept: Observational Learning

I love to travel all around the world with my family and friends. I dearly love

journeying because it wakes me up to a world of wonder. I feel curious and

have always loved the adventure of travel. I love the excitement of it all. It

make me feel like an explorer such as discovering a new land, a new language,

new money and all the little challenges that go along with it. During travel, I

can meet new people all the time and make friends with them.

Last few years ago, I travel to Japan with my family. We had a great time

spending at there. We spend almost one week at there. I remember that one of

the day, all of us visited a tea ceremony. It was a traditional way of drinking tea

that is extremely formalized and has a strict set of rules. One of the rules of the

ceremony concern was the way of the tea was served by the host. As that was

our first time travel to Japan so we do not know about any culture or rules about

Japanese. Luckily, there are many other guests so we observed and learnt how

they do. The tea will be served while everyone is sitting on the Japanese style

tatami room with views onto beautiful scenery.

Other than that, I realised that the position of their sitting was very different

from other country. We need to sit on the front of our knees so that bottom is

next to our ankles. It was a traditional way to sat down. After that, the host bow

and gave us the tea with both hands. We were then observed other people and

also do the same things like them. We took the tea with both hands too when the

host pass it to us.

There are also some rules when drinking the tea in Japan because I observed

it when other people was doing it. The rules for drinking the tea was that you

need to hold your cup with your right hand while supporting it from below with

your left hand because using both hands means polite in Japan. The most

important things was that when you drink the tea you cannot make any noise or

even slurping it. I did a mistakes when I drank the tea because it is too hot so

what I do was I blow the tea to cool it down. Then the host told me that I should

set it down on the table to let it cool instead of blowing it. It was a great

opportunity for me to learned and experienced culture of another country.

Few days after that, my mom feel want to ate something that we are

normally eat at Sabah because she was not used to the food that normally took

in Japan. Mostly of the food at Japan like sushi, tofu, sashimi and others are raw

foods. The weather at Japan also very cold, that’s why my Mum feeling not

used to the surrounding environment. I go out with my brother and we go to the

nearest shop to buy some ingredient that we know because we want to cook

some porridge for Mum. We bought what we want in the shop and then straight

away go back. I cook some porridge for mom in the kitchen after we go back. I

thought back to a time when I watched my mom make them few times and just

followed what I remember she was doing. My Mum found it taste very good

and it was similar what she was cooked for us when we are sick. I felt very

happy because my Mum said it taste very good and it was same as what she was

cooked for us.

That was so amazing because I know all this known as observational

learning that the teacher taught us during the class in chapter 5. This concept

applies my life as well because I learned it by watching others. Observational

learning was achieved through witnessing the behaviour and then repeating

those actions.