Name: Yeap Phay ShianStudent ID: 0322243

Group: Monday, 1-3pmSubject: Social Psychology

Lecturer: Mr. ShankarCourse: Foundation in Natural and Built Environment

Submission Date: 16 November 2015

12 August 2015

Journal 1: Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias. It is a selective attention process that seeks to believe what we believe. Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to selectively look out for and consider information that is able to confirm one’s belief. If you think about it, where do our opinions and beliefs come from? What made us think that way? Well, like the majority it is most probably from many years of experience and information that we have which are surrounding us. Individuals might even look out for ‘proof’ that would back up what they believe and even not taking into account of things that do not support this idea. In general, people would most likely want to be surrounded with information that is the same as the way they think and what they already know.

So how does this social psychology term confirmation bias works? People already have assumptions in the beginning and what they do is that they would gather evidence and recall information from their memory. By doing this, these people would have interpret and analyze all these information altogether in a biased way. The drawback of confirmation bias is that it may lead to horrible consequences.

During my primary school days, I received a necklace from my grandmother. It’s no ordinary necklace. Well at least to me it isn’t. It is a prayer necklace. It is believed to keep me safe and bring me good luck. I instantly had a mind-set within me mentioning “Wow this

necklace is going to bring wonderful things to me.” I have to keep this safe and sound with me all the time.

As for examination period, I assumed that if I wear it, it would help me to pass my examinations with flying colours. I made sure that I remember to wear it during those days. Strange enough, I did well for the exam and that’s when I knew that that is my favourite necklace. I told my grandmother about it and she told me that this necklace was going to help me in the things I do. Being a naïve little girl at that age, her statement made me to confirm my beliefs about this even more.

Also, ever since then I tend to noticed and searched for things that confirmed my beliefs whereby this necklace would bring me good luck and ignore the relevance of what contradicts my beliefs. I never thought of the fact that maybe I have worked harder and put in extra effort. I gave credits to my necklace for lending me a hand in doing well. In addition, I was pretty certain with my beliefs about the necklace bringing me luck. As such, I decided to try out a little experiment to prove my deductions. For my history test, (the test was just a class test, not a major exam) I did not wear my necklace and left it behind at home. I really wanted to confirm my beliefs so I carried this out. I waited till the day I received my history test results, just as what I was expecting, I did not perform so well and only scored a decent result. With these facts that I observed and received, I started to

believe more and more that wearing the necklace would always help me to do well. So it is safe to say that my deductions were proven.

Moreover, I have came across stories through the Internet and heard about stories like these. They are all pretty similar to mine. Most of the stories are told by my friends whom all share similar way of interpreting these kind of things. For instance, having a favourite pen that when one uses it, he/she would pass the test. Another example would be having a lucky jersey that when one wears it, he/she would win the game.

The necklace continued to be around my neck for as long as I can remember accompanying me throughout exams after exams till it no longer worked out and did not show satisfying results. I started to questioned and doubted myself. I thought perhaps it is just this once where the contradiction towards my beliefs happened. After all, nobody is perfect anyway. The presence of bias in me was quite strong. I tried to ignore the fact that this happened and convinced myself that my necklace would still bring me the luck I had.

In a nutshell, the act of limiting oneself to other possibilities that come with the thoughts that we have never envisioned of is a result of confirmation bias. Up till this date, I still wear this necklace around my neck but the difference between the past and now is that I am more aware of the way I think and my perspective has changed for the better.

(803 words)

15 August 2015

Journal 2: Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is the belief that you have in yourself to achieve certain goals. When we face a challenge, we either feel the need to stand up and fight for our goal or we could also feel like we have sunk and be defeated. Self-efficacy plays a role in how tasks, goals and challenges are approached. This term can be viewed as people with high or low self-efficacy.

People with high self-efficacy tend to see tough tasks as a challenge to take on, they would develop deeper interest and have a stronger sense of commitment in activities that they participate. In addition, whenever they face disappointment, people with high self-efficacy are able to recover and get back up quickly. On the other hand, people with low self-efficacy tend to avoid difficult tasks. They have a mindset that their obstacles and challenges are beyond their capabilities. People who are like this are stuck to seeing their failures.

I can kind of relate to this because there are times when I had low self-efficacy back then. Well, I am glad that that is the past as I have improved. When I was younger around 9 years old, I took up swimming lessons. My parents and I thought it would be good to learn an extra skill. In addition, it is a crucial safety skill that one should know. I would admit that it was pretty intimidating to me but I told myself that I would give it my all and give it a try.

Initially, everything went pretty well. I had an amazing swimming coach who would always guide me throughout. I would say that I was a

decent learner. Moreover, I would always look forward to swimming at the deeper pool. I had a vision that I would be a great swimmer. As months passed by, each lesson became tougher and tougher. Fortunately, I was able to catch up in learning new swimming techniques such as freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and sidestroke.

After learning all of these, it was time for the butterfly stroke. I have always admired people who are able to swim in this technique and it just looks so cool and amazing. The butterfly stroke uses a dolphin-style kick, which is to say that your leg will remain straight as you kick them through the water. For the this swimming style, it is important to remember to stabilize yourself with your core and come up with a rhythm between the underwater and above-water portions of the stroke. For me, I pretty much struggled to learn and get the hang of this technique. I had a feeling that something within me just tells me that I can’t do it. Other learners who learned with me swam so steadily while I was still so left behind. I tried and tried till I was on the verge of giving up. I started to not look forward of lessons every week and I felt that I let myself down and others would make fun of me. After some thought, I was thinking well, I already know the basics, I can float on water and I can swim using other techniques, I guess I don't’ really have to continue. Therefore, that was it. The self-efficacy in me was low. I quit my swimming lessons.

Swimming wasn’t the only activity that I picked up. I also learned wushu, a traditional Chinese martial art in the first year of my high school. We had to pick an extra co-curricular in school. Besides that, my cousins were really involved in this sport so I got influenced. As such, I signed up for wushu hoping it would suit me. For the first few lessons, it turned out pretty calm and simple. As usual, the lessons

continued to be tough and harsh at times. Sometimes, I just feel that I can’t keep up with all the hardcore training. My stamina felt like it wasn’t allowing me to do so. Maybe it just wasn’t my thing. The same cycle that happened to my swimming lessons was gradually coming back. I slowly developed a mindset that these obstacles and challenges were beyond my capabilities. Despite of having doubts on whether to continue, I had to stop because I was transferred to a private school later on.

Other than sports, I had also explored a musical instrument that is the acoustic guitar. I did not have any music background. My knowledge for music was pretty shallow. This was during the middle of my high school days when I started attending guitar lessons. I learned for about two years. I felt that this was when I finally found my passion in something that I love to do. It also helped me to release my stress and to boost my mood. I found joy and happiness in this activity. Sure, learning the acoustic guitar for the first time was tough and your fingers hurt badly as the strings are made of steel. There were times when my fingers’ skin would come off and get sore. From my past experiences, I learned it the hard way to see tough tasks as a challenge to conquer. As my passion for playing the guitar grows, I developed a deeper interest and have a stronger sense of commitment to continue my learning journey for guitar.

From having a low self-efficacy to a higher self-efficacy, I’m glad that I have changed for the better. I have put my past experiences behind me and I’ll no longer be the person who would give up easily. To be a person with high self-efficacy is what I’ll keep in mind as I grow to allow me to soar to greater heights.

(947 words)

19 August 2015

Journal 3: Stereotyping

All Chinese have small eyes? That is stereotyping. I am sure that the majority has come across some sort of stereotype at certain points in their life. Stereotypes are beliefs about people based on their membership in a particular group. It is a result of incomplete information accepted as fact without question. Sex, age, race, sexual orientation, religion and physical ability are the types of categories that exist in stereotyping. The most controversial forms are sex and race. Stereotyping of groups of people in manner leads to discrimination. Stereotypes can be categorized as positive, negative and neutral.

An advantage of stereotype is the fact that it allows us to react quickly to situations because we may have experienced or encountered it before. On the other hand, the disadvantage of stereotype is that it makes us ignore the differences between individuals. As such, what we think about certain people may not be true. Most stereotypes and far more common and usually tend to convey a negative impression.

An example of stereotype that I experienced was that Malay guys are useless and awful. During my first year of high school, I went to a government school. Government schools generally consist of the three main races that are Chinese, Malay and Indian. Being in a Chinese primary school for six whole years and suddenly entering high school was quite a change for me. I had to interact and socialize more with other races more often. I was in a top class as I did well for my UPSR. From what I noticed in my class, there were only a few Malays. I assumed that their academic was not as good.

During sports day, I sat at the bleachers watching the races. I felt something small being thrown at me. It was a peanut. I just ignored it as I thought it could have just been an accident. After all, people make mistakes. A moment later, it happened again, Peanuts being thrown at me non-stop. I turned around and saw a bunch of Malay guys around my age laughing out loud after what they have done to me. I told them to quit doing what they were doing politely but they just ignored and continued throwing. This got on my nerves so I walked off and left. Since them, I had a negative belief about Malay guys.

Moreover, based of what I observed majority of the Malay guys were from classes that were not really good in terms of academic. Not only that, they were usually the people who were up to no good and getting caught by disciplinary teachers. Moving on, the schema is a cognitive framework that helps us to interpret information. Having said that, the schema I developed contributed to stereotyping. This made it hard for me to retain new information that does not confirm my established ideas because of this belief I had towards Malay guys.

“All Malay guys are useless and awful.” This stereotype was stuck in my mind for quite some time until I had to be in a group with a Malay guy for my science project. He was smart and was very determined to do well in this project. Plus, he contributed a lot of brilliant ideas and even helped me out. He slowly changed my schema about Malay guys so I might have thought wrongly. Not all of them were bad and useless. Ever since then, I started to change my schema towards them.

Another stereotype that affects me was that the students in Taylor’s University are rich, spoilt brats spending their parents’ money like nobody’s business and they go to university just to have fun. I would admit that I used to hold this belief of Taylor’s University students this way, but after enrolling to this university and being in the shoes of Taylor’s University students, I can safely say that this negative statement of us is so not true. Those kids only make up a small percentage of the entire students. There are a lot of students here who are diligent and well mannered.

I came across a few ladies, probably in their late 40s or early 50s in a café at Empire Shopping Gallery. I overheard their conversation about Taylor’s University’s students. Don’t mind me eavesdropping but the word ‘Taylor’s’ caught my attention. One of the ladies mentioned that “Eh, you know ah most of the students have their own car and drives to their university. I tell you ah their car is not some local brand okay, most of the cars are expensive ones leh, so luxurious.” After hearing this sentence, I thought about it. No, only the minority drives luxurious cars. I suppose the reason behind this stereotype was that the architecture of Taylor’s University is really picturesque and this campus has won many architectural awards. As such, people automatically had a mindset that this university is really expensive. The truth is, Taylor’s University is just like any other private university with the usual amount of tuition fees and the students in other private university are more or less similar.

As a conclusion, stereotyping is something that most people are affected with. The negative side of stereotyping would lead to misunderstanding and prejudice towards others. As such, we should at least try to reduce the act of stereotyping.

(881 words)

1 September 2015

Journal 4: The Halo Effect

The Halo Effect is a type of cognitive bias. Our overall impression of a person influences how we actually think and feel about their character. “What is beautiful is good.” This is a statement that relates to the term the halo effect. Human beings have a tendency to rate those who are attractive more favourably for their personality traits. Research shows that an individual’s positive qualities and physical appearance affect how we judge their character. This is to say that, the more attractive a person looks and behave, the better a person that we judge them to be.

The halo effect attributes personality traits to the people that we have only seen, although we have never met them. Having that said, these traits assigned to them have nothing to do with their appearance. This is a phenomenon that happens unconsciously. For instance, a beautiful person would be more friendly, intelligent and successful whereas a less attractive person would be reserved and grumpy. Having said that, who isn’t attracted to a handsome man and a gorgeous lady? That makes us sound so mean and bias but human nature works that way whether we like it or not.

The halo effect shows how making a good first impression is important. Several studies have shown that attractiveness matters in our society even when it should not. Impression is everything and it may just be able to make a difference between being approachable enough or the opposite.

I have experienced the halo effect in my life. Well, I’m sure that the majority has at some point in their lives. Whenever I want to purchase a product, say lip gloss, I would be more drawn towards the advertisement with more attractive models. Recently, I went to Mid Valley Megamall as I wanted to buy a lip gloss. My current one was almost finishing so I needed to stock up. There were a lot of lip gloss displayed on the shelves ranging from different brands, types and colours. As I observed, I caught a glimpse of a beautiful model. I made my way towards the direction of the advertisement to get a closer look. Apparently it was Lily Collins advertising for Lancome’s French Ballerine, a fragrance and cosmetics brand. Through natural stimulus, I picked up the French Ballerine lip gloss that Lily Collins used as shown in the advertisement. Advertising is a simple form that displays the halo effect that is by using celebrities as models to promote their fashion brand.

Lily Collins has a flawless face and I made an inference about her characteristics before thinking about purchasing the product. By looking at the advertisement, I made some evaluations about Lily Collins’ personality and imagining her as a role model or an inspiration. Based of the picture, her appearance instantly gave her sense of having a feminine character as well as poise and graceful. She seemed

to have a great sense of elegance and charisma. Since she is using those elegant beauty products such as lip gloss and eyeshadow, her personality must be up to par as well. Customers like me who wish to possess these positive traits would feel more compelled to buy the French Ballerine lip gloss that she advertised. I took a quick look at the other lip gloss but I instantly made a decision that French Ballerine lip gloss would be the one that I would purchase. Despite the fact that some of the other lip gloss brand were slightly cheaper and had a similar shade of colour, I was still more convinced to get the one that Lily Collins’ advertised.

This is human nature. Marketer would take advantage of the halo effect to sell goods and services. We have the tendency to perceive attractive people with positive traits and when products are associated to them, we would most likely want to use the products in order to have those positive traits that he/she has. This is because we look up to them even by just looking at an image. This shows how we are as a person by the way we perceive things. When a celebrity like Lily Collins becomes the ambassador for a particular product, our positive evaluations towards the celebrity is able to spread to our perceptions to the product itself. This is definitely an advantage for marketers to attract many more potential buyers as it will allow the marketers to maximize their profit. As such, marketers make use of this tactic.

All in all, the halo effect is a phenomenon that happens unconsciously. We are unaware of the bias that we develop within ourselves simple because of an individual’s attractiveness. Consequently, this act leads us to creating thoughts about a person. As such, the halo effect can have a powerful and strong influence on the impression that we form on other people.

(805 words)

5 September 2015

Journal 5: Post-decision Dissonance

Decisions, decisions… We make decisions everyday in our lives. It could be a small or big decision. Either way both would cause impacts to our lives. Some of the choices are tough to make, especially when the options are pretty similar. This theory, post-decision dissonance states that after we have made our decision, we would feel the tension of the possibility of it being wrong. Having said that, we would often switch our perceptions to minimize this dissonance and allow the decision to seem more attractive or comforting.

The recent post-decision dissonance that I experienced was when I purchased a Hollister winter jacket. My choices were between that and a winter jacket from Uniqlo. As I’ll be going to Europe during winter, I needed a winter jacket to keep me warm. Not only that, I have been eyeing on winter jackets for quite some time. However, the large sum of money for both the jackets were not in my favor. It was over my budget but then I really like both a lot. As I am pretty indecisive myself, I had a hard time making a decision. I thought between both of which had about the same price and were equally aesthetic. In the end, I decided on getting the one from Hollister, as the brand itself seems more fashionable. It was not on sale or anything but I could not wait to get my hands on the Hollister winter jacket. I was pretty satisfied with my purchase and was on seventh heaven.

Upon purchasing Hollister’s winter jacket after a few weeks, I noticed that the winter jacket from Uniqlo that is my second option was on

sale! I was crushed. I was just a little early in getting a winter jacket and now it was priced at a lower price. I could have been able to save some amount of money if I waited a while more and chose the one from Uniqlo instead. I decided to not fret about it since what’s done is done and what’s past is past. A moment later, I noticed a similar jacket that I bought from Hollister at another clothing store. I went in and took a look at the price. Seeing it at a higher price than what I paid for made me feel comforting. I thought that the amount I spent for Hollister’s winter jacket was not so bad after all. By looking at things this way and changing my perception, I allowed the dissonance to be reduced. Thus, my decision of purchasing the Hollister winter jacket was pretty acceptable. Another thing to add on is that post-decision dissonance will cause us to pinpoint all of the positive things from our chosen option and all of the negative things from the option that is not chosen.

Another of my life experience that revolved around post-decision dissonance was when I went to Japan with my family back in 2013. We were choosing to go to an amusement park. Two of our options were Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan. We looked up the highlights and attractions for both the amusement park to see which sounds more exciting. Since we were going around Christmas, both places would be beautifully decorated with Christmas decorations so that was a bonus for us. After researching, my sister and I came to a conclusion to go to Tokyo Disneyland.

Tokyo Disneyland was magical and so enchanting. My whole family loved the atmosphere around. My sister and I who were once kids who grew up with Disney, we truly adored and enjoyed every single moment. We still thought about Universal Studios Japan and about not going but we were quite okay as the attractions in Universal Studios

were lesser compared to Tokyo Disneyland. Not only that, Universal Studios is smaller than Disneyland. Also, it has lesser stuff to look around. On the other hand, Tokyo Disneyland is filled with exciting rides and decorations. It has provided us with wonderful memories to be remembered and it was indeed a satisfying trip.

After we made our decision on where to go, that’s when the theory post-decision dissonance comes in. The tension started to come and was typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of going to Tokyo Disneyland and devaluing our rejected alternative which is going to Universal Studios Japan. By doing so, it would make the act of choosing to go to Tokyo Disneyland much more comforting when the chance of going to Universal Studios Japan is given up. Thus, allowing us to feel better of the choice that we have made.

In brief, post-decision dissonance would happen at some point in our lives. We stress out about whether we have made the right decision. All these cannot be avoided but the least we can do is to accept whatever decisions we have made and feel good about it. Even if we don’t feel good about it, we can always embrace it and go through our choices fearlessly.

(829 words)