SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE,

BUILDING AND DESIGN

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

( FNBE )

NAME : YEOH SIN YUEN

STUDENT ID NO : 0323737
PSYC0103 - SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
GROUP/SESSION : Monday 8:00am - 10:00am
LECTURER : MR SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE : 30 November 2015

ENTRY 1
Date : 11-11-2015

Time : 10:00am

Concept - Motivation
In chapter 2 of Social Psychology, I have learned about the concept of motivation.
Motivation is what drives you to take action. It's your inspiration for doing something.
Without motivation, you would accomplish very little. There are two types of motivation,
are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation means taking a certain action in response to external pressure or
obligation. Based on this psychological concept, I can relate my experience while I was
having my SPM last year. As I remember that two months before SPM, my parents
promise me they will bring me to Japan at the end of the year if I score above 6As in
SPM. Japan is a place that I yearn to go for such a long time. This is because Sushi was
one of the things I was most looking forward to eating while in Japan as it is the
birthplace of sushi. The shopping there is something very different, Shibuya 109 is a
mutli-storey shopping centre just for teenage girls. And Akihabara in Tokyo is know
solely for its electronics and games. Besides, Japan is very unique too. From the snow
and ice festivals in Sapporo in the north and more ancient or traditional festivals with
priests and shrines. I can imagine that how excited if I have a chance to have a vacation to
Japan. Hence, I really need to score well in SPM so that my wish to Japan can achieve.
To score well in SPM, I put a lot of effort as I started my revision two months before
SPM. I planned a timetable to divide the study date and time for each subject and attend
tuisyen classes to reinforce each of my subject. I paid more attention during all the
classes and jotted down all the important notes. I did a lot of exercise and completed all
the homework. When there was free time for me, I will did the entire trial exam for every
subject of all states. Actually I was a student that always get B or C grades for my exams
Even though I was motivated to study, but I found that it was hard for me to focus on my
study. I started to yawn after reading a few pages. After 2 hours of study, I started to
move around and find something to eat. Sometimes I even fell asleep while I am

studying. Every time I felt tired, I will force myself to stay focused while thinking about
the Taiwan trip. After thinking about it, I feel motivated and continued my study. After
two months of struggling, finally I can relax. When the SPM result is out, I was really
happy because I get straight 7As. Although I do not really like study, I was very satisfied
that the extrinsic motivation forces me to study and I am able to score well in exam and
my wish to travel to Taiwan is achieved. This proved that a task might be done to earn a
specific reward using the extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation reflects the desire to do something because it is enjoyable. If we
are intrinsically motivated, we would not be worried about external rewards such as
praise or awards. Example, I have high intrinsic motivation on playing piano. Since I had
watched an impressive pianist playing an inspiring classical music with that grand piano,
I started feel interesting playing piano although I was only 9 years old. I take the initiative
to ask my mum for letting me attend piano class. At first, my mum still hesitate to
approve my permission. I played the keyboard everyday and I really interested to learn
those challenging music pieces. So, I was motivated to managed to learn it and perform
the piece flawlessly through my dedication and hard work although sometime I will
encountered some difficult problem. I always told myself, " while I still have a long way
to go, I am closer to my goal then I was yesterday". Without piano lesson or teacher, I
still can learned the music pieces through Youtube or other tutorial videos. Seems like
nothing can stop me from playing piano. As I really take this as my favorite hobby, thats
why I have high intrinsic motivation to learn piano. I dont even care about my grades
and whether there was piano classes for me or not, I just care about how much I learned
and how I enjoyed playing piano. Now, I can perform some music pieces and also the
pops without getting it wrong. I appreciate this kind of motivation, because it motivate
me get closer to my target and willing to get over those obstacles.
As conclusion, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation are both important ways
of driving behavior. To comprehend how these can be best utilized, it is important to
understand some of the key differences between the two types of motivation including the
overall impact that each can have on behavior.

ENTRY 2
Date : 20-11-2015

Time : 10:30am

Concept - Confirmation Bias

In Chapter 1, I have learned concept of confirmation bias. A confirmation bias is a
type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that matches previously existing
beliefs or biases. It is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's
existing beliefs or theories. Confirmation biases not only impact how people gather
information, but also influence how people interpret and recall information. Confirmation
biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and make someone paying
attention only to information that supports their own beliefs. Hence, this concept also will
lead people disregarding and loathe whatever information that conflicts with their beliefs.
I think majority of the people in this world can relate to this concept at any point in
their lives. As I said majority of the people, obviously I am the one of them that
experienced it. I have encountered a number of situations whereby this issue comes to the
surface. I was not blessed with a picture-perfect face, a flawless figure or having an ideal
personality. I always hoped that I can own a beautiful outward just like other beautiful
girl. For the longest time, I was always feel inferiority and lack of confident about my
physical features.This is because I knew that I wasnt the typical girl-next-door who
instantly turned heads as she walked by. In my life cycle, most of the people that I mix
with are all having quite nice appearance and it might very obviously to show out that I
was the only one having a very normal appearance. Hence, sometime I will be a little
sensitive when it came to discuss the topic about beauty. When I was younger, I was
always teased by those boys with my appearance. They would made fun of me and said
that I was not enough beautiful to let boys get interested on me. Gradually, I accepted
those ill-mannered judgments about my physicality without thinking twice about the
criticisms. I suppose it was because I was oblivious to the qualities that defined me.
Whenever someone talked about bodily features, I always focused on the negative parts
about myself and never really thought about the good ones I was blessed with. Moreover,

I deeply believed that everyone especially boys will only seek for those beautiful or
typical girls and be friends with them.So, I rarely be friends with boy as my in-confidence
always remind me that I am not a typical girl in their eyes. I automatically ignored any
compliments offered about my natural features because I constantly believed that I was
not inclined towards the beautiful side of society. Every time someone was praising me, I
just thought they were just flatter to me. Actually it was disappointing for me at first but
eventually learned how to establish the assumption that I possessed unpleasant features. I
also firmly believed that everyone especially boys are like to emphasize the external
beauty of a girl and non of them will concern about the internal beauty of a girl compare
to external. Confirmation bias was clearly shown by all these behavior.
I bring this mindset along these few years until that year I was assigned by teacher to
sit with a boy, he said something changed my mindset. He is my first heterosexual best
friend as he is my desk mate. One day, he recognized that I wasnt too happy about
myself and decided to counsel me with the intention of raising my self -worth. He
advised me to be more grateful about my blessings instead of being ashamed of them.
Furthermore, his attitude and behavior prove me that not every boys will really take girls
physical appearance important than internal. He accompanied that advice with some
words of motivation to convince me into thinking that everyone has their own positive
and negative features that define who they are. After listening to his wise guidance, I
realized that even the most beautiful person in the world has her own flaws, but it is how
she chooses to be confidence to herself and deal with those that makes her more
attractive. Confidence is the key that helped me in boosting my self-esteem.
The concept of confirmation bias is relevant as I favored information such as the illmannered judgments of social or my physicality that confirmed my previously existing
beliefs and biases. I had a tendency to interpret new evidence (criticisms) as confirmation
of my existing beliefs. There is a scientific method to minimizes different types of bias. It
is a process for conducting research as I had listened and tried to be friends with my
heterosexual desk mate. At last, I accepted his council and I changed.
ENTRY 3

Date : 23-11-2015

Time : 10:30am

Concept - Self- efficacy

Self-efficacy is one of the concept I had learned from Chapter 2. According to Albert
Bandura, self-efficacy is "the belief in ones capabilities to organize and execute the
courses of action required to manage prospective situations." Bandura described these
beliefs as determinants of how people think, behave, and feel. In other way, self-efficacy
plays a major role in how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached. There are two
types of self-efficacy which are low and high self-efficacy.
A people with low self-efficacy will see difficult tasks as obstacles or something to
be avoided. As my personal experience, I was low self-efficacy in regarding to school
when i was younger. This is because I was struggling to make a well grade. I was
wondering how to skip those bored classes, tons of homework everyday. I preferred to
play around with my friends than do revision with them when the PMR get closer. I was
not a bad graded student but I also not a good graded student. At that moment, PMR
seems important for us because it can decides our Form 4 courses. I scared of PMR as the
date getting closer and closer because I havent done any revision yet. Actually, I was
afraid of PMR without taking any action as I thought that get good grades in PMR is
impossible for me, also impossible for those who would not paying attention in class
instead of chilling with friends. Every time my mum urged me to attend lots of tuisyen
classes or do revision for the imminent PMR, I will tried to change the topic or avoid it.
PMR just like a big rock that rolling down towards me. It made me suffocated and
wishful thought that I could dodged from it. At the end, I did not get good grades for my
PMR result because I gave up to study harder. I dont even try to overcome the study
problems that I encountered. I already lose confidence in my personal abilities and I only
focused on personal failings and negative outcomes. This incident shows that I had low
self-efficacy when I was facing a challenge, PMR and hence I get bad grades in PMR and
disappointed my parents.
After two years, there was another decisive examination during my Form 5, SPM. I

get good grades that surprised everyone around me in my SPM. The reason I can get
good results is because I changed become motivated and high self-efficacy when I was
facing my SPM. When I received the task that I was not good in it, I still can finish it
with my ability. This time I told myself that I should not avoid it again and should get
over to it. I must get above 6As in my SPM but the subject of Additional math and
Sejarah is really hard for me to score A. There were a lot of formulas that I couldnt
understand and memorize easily. Although my Additional math result was terrible but I
did not give up on it. I signed up for a tuition and done plenty of exercise questions given
by the teacher. I do also think a simplest way to memorized all the formulas.I also done a
lots of past year questions and exercises to improve my Sejarah It was really hard for me
to memorizing those rigid and bored formulas or historical stories. I took this problems as
my challenges and I needed to find other ways to solve it. So, I drew out a storyboard for
each topic to let myself developed deeper interest in Sejarah and hence I can memorized
the story easily. This can form a stronger sense of commitment to my interests and what
problems I am going to solve. I really study hard and try my best to overcome every
obstacles that I have encountered. When I still cannot handle my Additional math, I
would recovered quickly from setbacks and disappointments then continue to put extra
effort for me to solve it. I tried to convince myself and believe that I can get good grades
in my SPM if I put in lots of effort. Fortunately, it implement what I believed. I really
achieved 7As in my SPM result. I will never forget that moment my mum cried when she
saw my SPM results. She is really proud of me because of my high self-efficacy that lead
me to achieve my target.
In conclusion, only the people who have high self-efficacy will be the one who really
success in their life. This is also an important lesson for me. If I believe myself have that
capabilities to be success in something and try my best to achieve it, I will deserve for it.
Low self-efficacy should not be bring up in our own. We should train ourselves for being
high self-efficacy so that we managed to solve all the problems in our life instead of
avoid it.

ENTRY 4
Date : 27-11-2015

Time : 10:30am

Concept - Counterfactual Thinking

In Chapter 3 of psychology, Counterfactual thinking concept impress me the most
because I always fulfill this concept in my life. Counterfactual thinking is literally
thinking counter to the facts. It's that 'if only' or 'what if' reasoning that we engage in,
sometimes rather frequently. Counterfactual thinking also refers to mental constructions
of alternatives to past events and usually associated with negative events. It has a big
impact on our emotional response to an experience. It can be divided into two types
which are downward counterfactual and upward counterfactual.
Downward counterfactual is a situation that when a person recognize the
consequences could have been more undesirable. To illustrate, particularly after an
unfortunate event, individuals sometimes consider how their predicament could have
been even graver. It also can at least momentarily, improve their mood, because
individuals feel fortunate in comparison. Last three years, my family faced an incident
that can shown as an example of downward counterfactual. As I remembered, that day
was a holiday for all of us. So, my dad decided to have a small family trip to Pulau
Pangkor. We really had a cool trip there as everyone was excited when we were having a
lots of fun at the beach. After we enjoying the seafood with an inspiring sunset view, we
decided to and take a look for the signature of Pulau Pangkor. We did not book a hotel
there so we need to go back home although it was quite late that time. We reach home
around 2:00am that day. Everyone was tired and quickly get into sleep after we bathed.
Suddenly, I was awaken by my mums screamed Thief!. Dad jumped off the bed and
quickly went down to catch the thief. Unfortunately, the thief successfully escaped with
his plunder. After we reported to the polices, then we found out that we lost around
twenty thousands. My parents still feeling that luckily the thief did not come upstairs
when my sister and I were asleep and no one was hurt by thief. They think of the worst
compare to reality. They felt lucky that everyone was safe and just a lost of money.

Alternatively, especially after an unfortunate event, individuals sometimes consider

how their predicament could have been better. That is, had some action or event been
changed, the consequences might have been more favorable or having a happier ending,
this is called an upward counterfactual. It might not, but at least will initially improve
mood. But this time they do uncover insights or knowledge that can be used to enhance
performance in the future. The experience that appropriate to this concept the most is
about one of my test. Just a few days ago, I finished an Account paper test. Although I
done the revision last minute, but I was very confident that I can get full marks for my
Account paper. This is because I know how to answer every questions and I already extra
focus on the ledger that I always get wrong. I checked the final figure of my balance
sheet and also ledger almost three times in case I was being careless again. Yesterday,
teacher posted the Account paper results on Facebook. I was thunder shocked when I saw
my marks was only 35/40. After that I found out I lose the 5 marks because of my
careless mistake at the front part questions. I started to imagine if I did not lose focus at
the front part of the questions, I can get 40/40. Or if I checked the whole paper questions,
I would changed my answer and then I would be able to get full marks for my Account
paper. Although I felt regret for my careless mistake but I cannot changed the reality
outcome. So, I just tried upward counterfactual to let myself more comfort with the
imagined outcome with other inputs. At the same time, it reminds me that what should I
concern and what action should I took during my next test to avoid these tragedy happens
on myself.
As a conclusion, if individuals are more inclined to consider upward instead of
downward counterfactuals, they are not as likely to procrastinate on tasks. This shows
that they are more likely to learn adaptive behavior from past experiences. People who
express in upward counterfactual are perceived as more understanding, trustworthy,
likeable, intelligent, and open-minded. It can be a relatively harmless process, but it can
also make a bad experience, such as a traumatic event, even worse by reliving it over and
over again.

ENTRY 5
Date : 29-11-2015

Time : 10:30am

Concept - Observational Learning

Observational Learning concept is included in Chapter 5 Psychology. Observational
learning is an important area in the field of psychology and behavior science more
generally. It can be referred to as shaping, modeling, and vicarious reinforcement. So, an
observers behavior can be affected by the positive or negative consequences. While it
can take place at any point in life, but it tends to be the most common during childhood as
children learn from the authority figures and peers in their lives. This form of learning
does not need reinforcement to occur, but just instead a model is required. This concept
identified by Albert Bandura who is known for the classic Bobo doll experiment in 1961.
As observational learning is commonly practiced among the children that being in
the learning state, I would like to share something about my cousin as the example of this
concept. My cousin is only 5 years old. He has high ability of learning everything,
especially dancing. One day, my sister linked her phone to the television and playing
those KPOP song that really rhythmical. My cousin started gazing to the television while
the KPOP MV was playing. That song is I Got A Boy by Girl Generation. He just gazed
to those girls dancing with that rhythmic song. After a while, he tried to follow their steps
and danced like them. Although he look awkward and little clumsy when he started to
learn how to dance like them, he gradually catch up their dance after a few minutes
practices. Everyone just shocked by him and they encourage him to practice more. My
cousin seems like very interested to learn how those beautiful girls dance. He was paying
attention on the MV and observed how they dance. Next, he went through the retention
stage and then he started to dance according what he had saw and memorized. To help my
cousin to complete observational learning, we gave him lots of encouragement to
motivate him to continue his learning. He observed a dance model is really cool and
hence he learn to behave in the same way. This example shows us that the observer will
imitate the model's behavior if the model possesses characteristics and other things such

as talent, intelligence, power, good looks, or popularity that the observer finds attractive
or desirable.
Furthermore, here is another example for observational learning. When I was still
young, approximately 8 years old, I had created a big lie to my parents. As I remembered,
My mum always remind me not to leave schools alone even with my friends except she
bring me out. I promised mum that I will not leave school until she come and fetch me.
Although my mum still worried but she trusted on me. Until one day, my friends told me
that there was an ice-cream stall outside our school just a few distance. They tried to
convince me went outside of school with them to buy ice-cream. I did not forget what I
had promised to my mum, but finally I was fascinated by ice-cream. So, I went out school
with my friends when we finished school. When I was too concentrate on the ice-cream, I
did not realized that mum come to school earlier than usual and her car just parked beside
the stall. She saw the whole process how I broke my promise. After that, I get on the car
as usual and still realized nothing until mum ask me why I was late. I not even dare to
admit that I broke the promise, so I decided to lie to her. Mum very angry with my
attitude and guess what? She dropped me beside the road and leave. That time, my sister
was on the car too and she watched how mum pull me down from the car and leave me
just because I went out from school with friends and still lie to her. Since that time, my
sister never went out from school unauthorized and the lies also reduced. This case shows
that the observer will react to the way the model is treated and mimic the model's
behavior. When the model's behavior is rewarded, the observer is more likely to
reproduce the rewarded behavior. But oppositely, when the model is punished, an
example of vicarious punishment, the observer is less likely to reproduce the same
behavior.
In conclusion, observational learning is not the same as pure imitation of another
behavior. Observational learning occurs as a result of witnessing another person, but is
performed later and cannot be explained as having been taught in any other way. This
type of learning also encompasses the concept of behavior avoidance as a result of seeing
another person behave in a certain way and receive a negative consequence.