SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Name: Kimberley Fay Bernard Lo

Student ID: 0324237

Session: Monday (8am-10am)

Subject: Social Psychology

Lecturer: Mr. T. Shankar

Submission Date: 30th November 2015

10th November 2015

Journal 1: What Is Social Psychology?

About: Social Facilitation

Human beings are social creatures that honestly need each other in many ways

whether it’s physically or emotionally. Relying on each other has been a social culture that

has develop overtime from the moment we are born. Being a lone island is nice sometimes

because we get to enjoy our solidarity life which is soothing in our comfort zone. Although,

the problem is sometimes too much comfort and solidarity leads to lack of communication

skills and experience. An experiment was conducted in the year 1898 by Norman Triplett

where he noted that competitive cyclists perform better during races then during solo rides

which then upraises the meaning of social facilitation. This theory has been experienced by

everyone because most people in their life perform better in groups rather than when their

alone. I for one have definitely encountered these situations countless of times in my life due

to the fact that a boost of confidence is given out to give a good impression towards other

people.

Living my life to this point I can honestly say that social facilitation has been with me

throughout my social life the moment I started making friends. I honestly must say that being

a part of this social facilitation trait is not exactly something that is of good quality of a

person. As much as I want to let go, it is quite difficult most probably because I have been

used to it since I was a child and has become more of a habit in my social features. In a world

filled with individuals of many different talents and passion in terms of music or sports wise,

I myself can say that I do have my own passion too. Although, with all this passion I myself

think that I am not good in what I have interest in hence gives a result of how I am only

confident in my performance whenever I have people I know by my side when I know I can

see them or are in the same room with me.

In all my 18 years of living social facilitation has always been applied in my life

whenever I am asked to speak in front of a crowd. Public speaking is actually something I

actually love doing, giving presentations or hosting an event is something I have always feel

excited about. My passion or admiration for public speaking came about when I was still a

child around the early ages of 8 where I could fully grab the understanding of how people

would interact with each other. It occurred to me last time whenever my parents would drag

my siblings and me to events such as weddings where hosts or emcee’s are seen holding the

event and interacting with the crowd that arouses me and made me want to do it. Back then, I

always enjoyed people who interacts with the crowd as observing them always made me

think of them as someone who gives a confident vibe that made me love what they do.

An experience that I had encountered with social facilitation that I can still

remember is when I involved myself in public speaking, whenever there were events that are

within my family where I was asked to host. Despite being asked to host I would almost

always chicken out which always ends up me being partnered with a cousin of mine. I am

absolutely ashamed of myself because of my decision whenever I am asked to do something I

am fond of but end up needing help but I guess that it is just in my human nature. Another

experience was when I was 14 and I decided to join my high school’s choral speaking team

where we are to perform a script in front of a big crowd. In spite of the fact that I performed

in front of a group of people with a team, I did have my own solos which does not actually

count as self-improvement.

As a conclusion, social facilitation is not something I am proud of. It gives problems

to me as it holds me back to something that I actually have a passion about doing. Hence, I do

hope that social facilitation will eventually change into social loafing as I mature, for me to

actually have the courage to publicly speak and interact with a crowd. This way I can finally

be confident with myself and actually be enjoying my experience to speak up as a way to

improve my social and speaking skills. Also, I do hope that one day in the future I can finally

host an event alone and actually feel proud of myself for being confident in doing something

I am passionate about since I was a child. Though, it will take time and effort, and progress

will probably be slow but I know that I am never late to face my fears.

11th November 2015

Journal 2: The Self

About: The Looking Glass Self-Theory

As said by Thomas Cooley, “I am not who you think I am; I am who I think I am; I

am who I think you think I am” collectively and accurately describes what the looking glass

self-theory is all about. The thing about us human beings is that how we see ourselves is not

actually a representation of us but of what we think others think of us and we eventually

become what others think of us without noticing sometimes. Relying on others’ thought to

shape ourselves is not what you say the best way to mature in life. It contradicts with what we

are actually made to be and in turn gives us different outcomes. The looking glass self-theory

of how others see us can be favourable and in time be enhanced but can also be un-favourable

and can be diminished. It all depends on how we see others see us and if it is either a positive

or a negative way.

A thought that I have always had in my mind everyday till this day is on how much

I want others to see me in a good way. Whenever I’m alone I always feel a little insecure and

uncomfortable that almost always lead me to self-tension. This self-tension of mine is not

exactly shown and cannot be seen but actually eats me inside and gives me low self-esteem.

The mere presence of people whenever I’m alone or sometimes when I’m with friends leads

me to self-doubt and feelings of insecurity. I tend to read people’s expressions on how they

look at me and sometimes also their body language that makes me overthink about how they

see me. The degree of personal insecurity that I display in my everyday social situation is

most of the time how I believe other people think of me. Having this thought in me is not

entirely a nourishing idea as it does not give me great benefits and it did lead me to unwell

things in my social life.

Charles Horton Cooley’s looking glass self-theory has impacted and be applied to

my life when I started to understand the thought of beauty. As what most children think

nowadays, thinking about how they present and look about themselves would be the last

thing they would think about because of how carefree they are. As a child I never really cared

about how I look and feel about how people would look at me. But as I grew older I started to

feel uncomfortable about people’s way of seeing me. Honestly I wanted what I thought

everyone think would be perfect and that was to be beautiful. The thought of being seen

beautiful has always been stuck in my mind and that what I thought the ultimate goal is to

achieve being seen beautiful or maybe just good enough for people to look at me. I never was

the most astonishing one out of all my friends and being around them just made feel more

insecure sometimes.

Something I had experienced in my life was the time I start fixating myself into

thinking how people would accept me more if I changed myself and that I thought I would be

more beautiful. It was during my senior year in high school that I realise people started

noticing me more as someone who I think they think is beautiful. I loved the fame I had when

others started to compliment me once my braces were taken off and boys started noticing me

more. In their image of what I thought myself was someone who was beautiful and I myself

honestly thought I felt beautiful too. This made me form an image of myself that I have to

always keep up with the beauty I have and not ruin it to avoid people looking at me

differently. I had to keep up with this façade of mine of always being beautiful that I started

to lose the real me. My mind got so caught up with this thought that it was this year my best

friend said on social media said how beauty is not important and I knew that she was talking

about me. Suddenly the thought I had in my mind changed, that she was right I did not have

to always impress others and that I got tired of being this way.

As a conclusion, the looking glass self-theory has thought me a lot about myself.

Honestly I must say that until now I have not actually let go the thought of always wanting to

look beautiful every time and that pleasing what I think other people think of me is important.

But I am making progress, I do find myself occasionally when I am alone that I do not have

to care about how I look when I am public. I guess this counts as self-improvement although I

do know that it will take time and effort. Letting loose is going to be hard because it is in my

human nature and that old habits die hard. Though I know that in the future I will actually be

utterly content and happy with myself and that the thought of being insecure in my own skin

will fade away even if it takes time because finding myself will be a tough challenge I am

willing to accept in my life.

12th November 2015

Journal 3: Social Cognition

About: Stereotyping

Stereotyping is commonly known in our everyday lives. As humans it is normal to

see and hear people stereotype commenting about each other everywhere and anywhere we

go. Sometimes we find ourselves stereotyping other people without even knowing we are. I

am not implying that stereotyping is a bad thing but there are times and I mean most of the

time stereotyping is viewed as a negative form of action. Stereotyping actually comes in

many different forms, some of which are racial stereotyping, gender stereotyping and religion

stereotyping that are commonly heard and used around the globe until this day. Every person

no matter how young or old, they are all labelled with positive or negative stereotypes.

Stereotypes affect people’s social lives, emotions and how they act in the environment. It

gives a great impact on someone and could actually affects a person’s ability to do something

and it makes them feel insecure about themselves.

As for this journal entry, I would like to talk about gender stereotyping. Throughout

all these years of socialising I have learned a lot about gender roles and how they developed.

As I child what I learned from watching the television, reading and hearing things I came to

know that the common traditional stereotypes of how men are all so strong and dominant and

that women are soft and submissive. This is what I am annoyed about that women are most of

the time being downgraded or never being good enough for something. Gender stereotypes

discriminate and gives a disadvantage to women in the workplace, at home and in society as a

whole. It creates bias against women that we women are constrain in the society, we are to

have ‘masculinity’ in order to do a man’s job which in most cases are given an underlying

belief. I know others who say this sometimes do not mean it in a harsh way but sometimes it

does gives a restless feeling that I as a girl am not good enough to do things that boys do.

There are quite a few times in my life where gender stereotypes are implied towards

me. Some of which are intentional and some are unintentional where the intentional ones

mostly come out from people I am not even close with. An example I would to point out is

earlier this year when I decided to take up Quantity Surveying. Telling this to people I had

receive good comments about it but there were times when people gave a bad impression of it

towards to me. It was during a university convention where I had gone with father that I met

this boy while I was waiting for my turn to talk to the university representative. We talked

and asked about each other, I learned that he was going for a medical course and after I told

him I was going for Quantity Surveying he gave a slight funny look. I asked what’s wrong

and all he said was that the construction world is full of men and that ‘masculinity’ is most

commonly used there. I denied and told him that women are also capable of doing things men

can do as well and so I guess he felt bad about what he said and apologised after.

Furthermore, I had also experienced gender stereotyping while I was in high school.

My high school years were spent in an all-girls school and I guess you could say that there

were times where we did receive gender discrimination throughout the years. It was while I

was 16 and in my 2nd year in a club I joined called Interact Club. In this club, we have this

annual inter school competition called International Understanding Day where each schools

are to represent and portray about a country they’ve chosen in terms of their food and culture.

Preparations for the competition was hard and there are times where we were tested our

limits. We gave our full heart and soul towards preparing as a way to show how an all-girls

school are able to do things same as what multi gender school does too. A day before

competition day, we were setting up our stall and heard small comments on how we were an

all-girls school and that we cannot stand a chance against other schools. Little do they know

that the next day we performed and gave it all out and to everyone’s surprise we were

champions. This proved that girls are capable of doing a boys job too.

As a conclusion, stereotyping is not something a person should or ever do. We as

humans should not judge a person based on how to look or act without knowing them first.

Gender stereotyping should stop and although I know that is quite inevitable but I do hope

that it will be improved. From what I experience, even if you judged or harassed the best way

to fight back is not through harsh words but through actions where you prove to them how

strong and great you at what you do. I believe that as we go on in life, stereotyping will be

better if we all just learn to respect and understand each other in terms of culture, religion and

also countries. I do hope that one day they will be a time in my life where I get to see

experience how stereotyping has fade away and society will be off better living.

13th November 2015

Journal 4: Social Perception

About: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

In my life, I have learned that the many events that occur in life are all related to

how a person’s idea of the self-fulfilling idea. The self-fulfilling idea is a prophecy stating

how life events that happen towards a person is because of how a person’s expectations of an

event is the outcome that is more likely to occur rather than how it was supposed to be. This

gives meaning on how a person is capable to do something without any doubt if he or she

believes they can do and achieve it. As once stated by Henry Ford, “If you think you can, you

can. If you think you can't, you're right” gives a clear depiction on how the self-fulfilling

prophecy is believed by everyone. This self-fulfilling prophecy is mostly self-imposed by a

person’s point of view. It gives impact on a person either from a negative or positive point

and it also consequently helps to mould one’s self-concept on the idea of this self-fulfilling

prophecy.

In all my 18 years of living, I can honestly say that the self-fulfilling prophecy has

influenced and impacted my life. In was applied to my life on how it mostly made one of the

biggest fear that I have up to this point. The fear that I am talking about is the fear of failing. I

know a lot of people undergo this fear and you would not be human if you say that you are

not afraid of failing. Fear of failing comes in many different forms that includes in terms of

school, friends or even family. Well, in my case the fear that I have is making my parents

disappointed. As a child of our parent of course the many things we fear and the last thing we

want to do them is of course disappointing our parents. This is because we have seen the

struggle that they have been through and we try our best to make their life a little better.

An experience that I would like to talk about in terms of the self-fulfilling prophecy

was during my high-school years. A subject that I have never exactly grasp during my early

years in high school years was history. History was never really my forte and of course there

were a couple of times where I had gotten bad grades for them. Knowing that I am really bad

at the subject history, I did not put much effort in studying the subject. This is because I fear

failing this subject that I just did not actually bother putting up the effort to study for it not

like the other subjects. Well, as a result the grades I got for history was really bad to the point

that not only did I disappoint myself but also my parents. This experience changed me and

made me want to do better in history that after that one experience I actually studied for

history and I loved it.

Another experience that I had encounter in my years was another time in my early

years of high school that I failed my examination. Being caught up with the thought of being

in high school made me not really bother about my studies, I mean I do want to get really

good grades but I guess I was just having too much fun being in high school and meeting new

people made me not study. So, it was during our mid-year examination I fear that I would

disappoint my parents made me did not really study hard like how I am supposed to. As a

result my grades came in and it was really bad that I myself was shocked that I did this to

myself. My parents were of course disappointed and I just felt really guilty that I changed. I

changed and studied harder and put in a lot effort that in the end I got really good grades in

the next examination.

As a conclusion, the self-fulfilling prophecy has taught a lot about myself and what

I am capable of doing. It developed a much deeper fear in me that made me want to

overcome it every day. Knowing I have this fear, I know that it is hard for me to overcome it

because I know that at times in life I am just too weak to do it. But then again I am human

and overcoming our fears is not something one person can overnight. It takes time and effort

to overcome our fears because it is in our human nature to have these fear of ours. The

challenge of overcoming it will take a really long time and hopefully not too long but I hope

that one day I can actually get rid of this fear of mine and actually be fearless for once in my

life. In the end, I hope that I can overcome this challenge and achieve great happiness once I

get rid of this fear of mine.

13th November 2015

Journal 5: Attitudes

About: Cognitive Dissonance

In life whenever we meet someone new the first thing we see is how well we click

them. We could either like or not like them at all based on how they act towards us. This is

why we tend to observe them to understand their personality because in life from what I

believe is that every person in the world is bound to meet someone who can instantly connect

with them and share the same belief, humour, personality, etc. Although, finding this person

who you are bound to connect with is tough and of course there are times where we go

through meeting people who are of opposites of us. Acquaintances who are of polar opposites

from us, which will then makes things uncomfortable or awkward every time there is a meet

up. This kind of relationship will bound to be either a healthy relationship or most likely an

uneasy one. What I understand from the ‘Cognitive Dissonance’ theory is that a person who

has firm believe in something will take a long time to understand people who are against their

belief.

The topic I have chosen to write for this journal is something I do undergo but not

all the time. What I am trying to imply is that there are a few in things in life where I do have

a core belief. In my life, there are times where the belief I have is tested but with the attitude

and faith that I have I deny and ignore everything that is coming in my way of changing what

I believe in. Furthermore, from what I understand of cognitive dissonance is that it consist of

three different types of relationship which are consonant relationship, irrelevant relationship

and lastly dissonant relationship. These relationship all are different from each other but in

my life I have experience all three of these from my 18 year or living. The experiences that I

about to explain all happen the year I first came to university.

For the first experience, is during my first time I was brought out drinking with my

friends early this year and honestly in all my 18 years of living that was the first time I

actually went out drinking. I was never really fond of drinking and tasting alcohol was

something I actually despised doing probably because my parents had already taught me not

drink. So after tasting a few sips of the bitterness of it I switched to a glass of water because I

could not stand the smell and taste that would almost make me want to puke. This was also

my way of avoiding myself from getting intoxicated and drunk like my other friends who

were of course drunk that nigh that I had to take care of them. The second experience I had

was after a few weeks later where my friends invited me to their condo for a few drinks. I did

not want to go at first but did not want to sound rude so I went anyways. There of course

were a lot of alcohol and I knew instantly that I did not want to get a taste of it. So while

everyone else was drinking, lucky for me there were a few friends of mine who were not

drinking that much came to play cards with me as they knew I did not want to get intoxicated

that night.

As for another experience, a few months after the card playing experience I had at

my friends condo, another drinking session was brought up but this was not an ordinary

drinking session mainly because it was one of my close friends’ birthday. Due to the fact that

it was my friends birthday party I still did not want to get intoxicated or drunk because I likes

being sober and actually knowing what I do without feeling dizzy and light headed. So there I

was at the bar drinking my water when the birthday girl, my friend who I can tell was already

tipsy, told me to drink. At first I did not want to but for the sake of her I drank anyways and I

hated the bitterness. After that first drink, I had to keep on drinking and I guess the taste just

fades away once I got a little tipsy. That was the moment when I stopped drinking though.

As a conclusion, the first conclusion is about the consonant relationship, the second

which is of the irrelevant relationship and the final experience was of the dissonant

relationship. In all three of these relationship, I must say that cognitive dissonance of me

against alcohol has gotten slightly different. Honestly right now after the third experience, my

hatred against alcohol has turned and I do not know if I should be proud of myself or not. I

know that it is not actually good that I have changed but I guess a part of me wanted to try

new things. My curiosity changed me and now it is a part of me. Right now, I am trying my

best to avoid drinking alcohol again because I feel guilty for something I despise and

eventually gave in to it. Lastly, as much as I want to avoid cognitive dissonance I know that it

is tough challenge, at least.