Psych journal1

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT ENVIRONMENT
NAME: DANIEL SONG CHENG HOCK
STUDENT ID NO: 0320155
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [PSYC0103]
GROUP: MONDAY 4-6pm
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT ENVIRONMENT
JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT 1
LECTURER: T. SHANKAR
SUBMISSION DATE: 27/APRIL/2015

February 14th 2015
Social Psychology
Entry 01: Social Conditioning
In trying to understand how one interacts with society as an individual, we use tools like
concepts of social conditioning in order to find out how one forms perceptions of others or
oneself, and in turn, how this affects the way in which an individual or groups of individuals
function in given situations. These perceptions are formed by the presence of social influences,
which form the thoughts/perceptions of a person/groups of people which go on to affect the
social interaction which occurs.
The intersection of these three factors, social perception, social influence, and social interaction
form the basis of social conditioning. I see this principle prominently in how in my own life,
seeing that it is such a fundamental aspect of the development of my identity, and how I relate
to others as a social being.
As an example, I draw from my experiences as a student. Beginning as a student, I was, for
lack of better description, a blank slate. Totally new to the entire experience. Didn’t know about
how one acts as a student, the types of obligations that entails this, the ins and outs of being
one, and the like. The process of education as a student, according to my own experiences,
would have been forged in the early days.
Unfortunately, the beginnings of my academic journey in the public school system, was wrought
with much hardship, adjusting to new conformities, new social situations, contexts, and
expectations, which contrasted greatly to my days in kindergarten. I remember being harshly
reprimanded for the most trivial things, such as not bringing an exercise book, for forgetting to
wear a certain uniform, or for not knowing the lyrics to our national anthem. It seemed as though

teachers were a constantly moody bunch, always seeking to find fault in a student, in order to
have that fault rectified.
This poured into my experience as a student obviously, in how I viewed school, education,
fellow students, and consequentially, the social actions I took as a result of these perceptions. I
viewed education as a very linear, mono-directional affair. Listen, keep your head down, and do
what you’re told. You won’t get scolded that way if you’re lucky.
Being a young individual, in the process of maturation, I was not capable of breaking out of
these social perceptions, which formed out of imprints of memory formed because of past
experiences. It involved social influences, like the way I was treated by my friends when grades
were involved, how one was held in esteem before teachers, and the like. Being unpopular,
these social influences, formed the basis of my social interaction with other social entities,
namely, my peers, teachers, and the like.
The social interaction that arose out of it was something very submissive in nature, timid, and
agreeable, not wishing for conflict. While, some of these manners of social interaction have
been salvaged for the better, it is still somewhat unavoidable to remove the imprint from my
mind, about being a student, which was formed in the beginning of my days.
We see here, that the way you react as an individual relies heavily on the types of social
perceptions carried formed on imprints from past experiences, social influences, which affect
one’s thoughts, which finally translates into the social interaction.
What can be gained from this is the fact that the experience, is the heavy deciding factor on
deciding the manner of interaction. How one learns from an experience, good or bad, is

ultimately what decides how he reacts in a similar situation in the future. This shows that the
manner of interaction varies from individual to individual. What then is the standard for a socially
accepted response? Who decided the criteria for analysing this?
Can any response be deemed acceptable?
February 20th 2015
Social Psychology
Entry 02: Confirmation Bias

We have the ability as sentient beings to choose which pieces of information to accept,
and which other pieces of information we filter. This can be seen as both necessary, and as an
inherent fault in the system. On the one hand, it allows us to logically and reasonably decide
which pieces of information are necessary and worth taking in. On the other hand, we have
deliberate/indeliberate act of suppressing or ignoring information we deem unnecessary towards
the goal of making sense of what happens around us. The fault in the latter statement really
becomes evident when preconceived notions/perceptions are present in situations which involve
our judgement and action. This becomes what is known as confirmation bias, which is the affair
of accepting only information which allows us to confirm/justify the notions.
This kind of logic clouds our judgement, and nullifies our rationality. Moving along this
line, we shall examine the circumstances which surrounded the prosecution and eventual
incarceration of one of this nation’s most influential political figures, Anwar Ibrahim. The
circumstances behind this lawsuit were very charged and tensed. Clear battle lines were drawn
out. Stakes were called. A man had been accused of rape and sodomy towards another man in
a very conservative, religiously saturated nation. He also so happened to be the figurehead of
Malaysia’s political opposition coalition.
Throughout the entire proceeding, I have had friends and relatives taking up sides.
Hearing opinions was a very interesting pastime. Inadvertently, both sides laid out their
arguments with much passion and vigour, with one side demonising the person in question, and
the other claiming to fight for justice in the man’s innocence. Although I too have an opinion
pertaining to this case, for the sake of understanding the phenomenon of confirmation bias, we
shall not hear it.

I recall clearly, an incident in which I had been listening to a supporter of Anwar’s
incarceration and a supporter of Anwar’s innocence discuss the matter, albeit rather heatedly.
The former was stating that if the court of law found Anwar to be guilty, it was to be credited to
due diligence, evidence, and cold hard facts. The latter, pointed out the many holes in this
argument, laying out his suspicions in the evidence, the manner in which it was collected, the
manner in which the defendant had been treated in past incarcerations, and many more. He
brought out newspaper clippings, data on the rate of decay of seminal deposit, holes in data,
and the like. The supporter of the prosecution, would go to great lengths to rebut, to deny, to
disprove to little efficacy. At the end, worn and tired, both sat in quiet frustration. I asked the
“prosecution”, why he was so adamant, despite all the evidence thrown out. In fact, the burden
of proof lay on him. Instead, the only one who had thrown out cold hard proof was the one on
the side of the accused. The aggressor said that he would not change his mind, no matter what
proof was displayed. He cited a conspiracy to cover everything up, to win public opinion over to
Anwar. I asked him, how he drew that conclusion up. He could not give a single, well developed
answer. It should be noted that he is also a supporter of the incumbent party currently holding
power, who stand to benefit from Anwar’s incarceration.
The gist of the matter, was that in trying to hold on to a preconceived conclusion, borne
out of personal political inclinations, instead of properly gathered data, and study, an individual
had thrown out information deemed sound. We all practice confirmation bias to some extent,
daily if I might add. Be it, to support your notion that your parents are perfect, or that your
friends will remain friends forever, or that God does or does not exist. It permeates every single
person, who has the ability to decide for himself.

February 22nd 2015
The Self
Entry 01: Self Efficacy
When I learnt of this concept, I managed to align it and fit it into a lot of situations and
circumstances in how one develops his concept of self. Personally, I was jarred by this, and
from it, came many quandaries. Basically, the link between self efficacy, the ability or imagined
ability within oneself to complete a task; and the formation of the concept of self becomes clear
when the degree of self efficacy in individuals is examined. One who doesn’t believe he has the
ability to complete tasks, has a very defeatist, negative outlook on himself, and consequentially,

life. One who has a high degree of self efficacy, sees life as something to “be accomplished”.
How does this concept come into realisation for the person? Is there any disposition within
certain individuals to attain the varying degrees of self efficacy? How do we diminish the
negative effects of self efficacy concepts in people? Isn’t the concept all in the individuals head?
What do these answers mean for the realisation of how we operate as humans, seeing that a lot
of what can and cannot be done may be in one’s head.
With all these questions in my mind, I examined self efficacy within myself. How often,
do I achieve something which I set out to achieve? How often do I finish something I start? In
answering these questions, I realised that self efficacy is not definite in all aspects of a person’s
life. I like to think that self efficacy and willpower are interchangeable at times. My self efficacy,
or willpower, can be strong in areas I hold dear, for example, in family. I am self efficous in
developing lasting relationships with my family, come what may. However, my self efficacy, can
be so contrastingly weak, in areas of less importance, realised or unrealised. By this, I speak of
areas which are important, but of no realisation to me, for whatever reason. For example, in how
I build relationships outside of my familial circle. I am very weak at maintaining friendships. I
lack the ability to intentionally meet up, to rekindle old fires, and the like, even though I intend
every relationship I begin, to be meaningful. These points of self efficacy in their separate areas,
has formed who I am, as seen to be a closed off person, who can be distant to people I do not
know/have not begun to know in depth.
The question evident from this reflection then, is, what causes this self efficacy, to be
differing in the different areas of one’s life? It is definitely linked to something preceding it, which
forms areas of importance, and areas of less importance to individuals. Are there more angles
to it? Definitely so. The only thing that can be done for now, is to understand self efficacy, to

maximise its positive potential in developing the self, and to minimise the negative in the same
process.
February 22nd 2015
The Self
Entry 02: Social Comparison
I enjoy sitcoms at times, and one of the ones I more regularly follow, is “Everybody
Loves Raymond”. One the character dynamic evident, is the one between Raymond, the main
character, and his brother, Robert. In this sitcom, Raymond is favoured by his mother, leaving
Robert very much in jealousy, struggling to compete for recognition and his mother’s love,
amongst many other things throughout most of the series. Robert lives with his mother, does not
have a girlfriend, does not seek to advance his career, and is clearly envious most of the time
towards Raymond.

While both Ray and Robert are very pessimistic characters, Robert is a character I pay
attention to more. This is because, I ask myself, why does his character seem so unsatisfied
with life? Why is he seemingly so, “handicapped” and stagnant, when he could clearly achieve
more in life? Then it dawned upon me, that largely, his concept of self which was negative,
stopped him from advancing. Why? Because he compared himself so often with his more
popular, favoured, independant brother. He was stuck every corner of the path, comparing
himself to his brother, anchoring himself on his brother’s image, from which he compared
himself. He was too busy comparing himself with his brother, that he neglected to carve his own
path.
Such a stunted view, is detrimental to the development of one’s self, but this behaviour
indicates the negative concept of self a lot of us have. Unavoidable, but, diminishable. While a
healthy amount of comparison with others is, somewhat necessary, imagine the comparison like
this, to see it in a more accurate light. Throughout various stations of life, you assume roles as
social beings, be it as a student, a musician, a leader, etc. You have peers, sharing similar
roles, as well. However, everyone, being given their own stages of development, their own
capabilities, personalities, is vastly different. Comparing oneself to another would be so erratic,
errorful, and widely unhelpful to healthy self development. If a ruler were to be used to draw a
straight line, and other human beings to be juxtaposed in this analogy as rulers, we would draw
ourselves as such crooked lines. From this, we fall into the trap of negative self discrepancy,
where the conditions we seek to satisfy are so damned unachievable/unrealistic.
Social comparison, probably has very limited use. It does give us a glance into how a
person sees himself/herself. What would be more effective, and positive towards healthy self
development, would be a state in which one realises where his identity is rooted in, and what
that means moving forward.

March 5th
Social Cognition
Entry 01-Automatic & Controlled Processing
A DDOS attack is a cyber weapon designed to cripple an enemy’s computer networks
and digital infrastructure in order to render these services incapable. DDOS stands for
Distributed Denial Of Service, and much like what its name suggests, it denies users the ability
to use digital infrastructure. The methodology of the attack simply put, involves overloading a
system or network with endless amounts of useless information, like files terrabytes in size,
causing its ability to process information to become useless as memory capacity is required to
receive and read this information. The overwhelming amount of data received causes systems
to crash, and can physically damage servers and computers.

The human mind, is akin to a computer. If it is forced to process too much information in
an instant, it can “crash”, and become incapacitated. That is why, our brains have been built to
distribute the burden of perceiving the world into much more manageable parts that don’t take
up massive amounts of our brain’s limited processing capacity. This is where automatic and
controlled processing comes in. Automatic processing occurs on the fly, and eases the burden
of making sense of the world we live in. Automatic processing proliferates every area of our
lives, from how we decide what to eat for breakfast, to how we treat strangers and familiars
alike. Controlled processing, is inferior to automatic processing, in the sense that it occurs far
less often, it is often preceded by automatic processing, and that requires more effort to carry
out. It entails properly thinking through things, weighing in all kinds of factors, and coming up
with more accurate perceptions and conceptions. An example of this processing is in how we
study, form arguments, and think objectively, to make sense of subjectivity. As stated, our
brains cannot process every single thing in a controlled manner, lest it becomes overloaded.
That’s why we unconsciously relay a lot of tasks to automatic processing.
For me, I see these processes so often in daily life. Especially in high stake situations. I
wish to see this principle as it is applied in a game of paintball. When you put on a mask you
can barely breathe in, in environments you’re not used to, with a gun in your hand, your brain
kind of shuts off the side of it that controls your conscious, more careful thoughts. You work
solely on adrenaline as a beginner. I can remember my first game vividly. I was so bloody
excited, and my thinking was all fuzzy. Trying to calm down was out of the question. Running
from bunker to bunker, I avoided bullets, and put shots in the direction of shooters on impulse.
Trying to think was just going to slow me down, so I shot first, and thought later. One particular
instance, I heard shots hit the bunker I was taking cover behind. Once the shooting stopped, I
moved out, and opened fire at the first person I saw. Unfortunately, it was the game marshall.

Her body was covered in paint. Shoot first, think later. Of course, as I grew more accustomed to
the game, I learned to incorporate controlled processing into my playstyle
Balancing automatic processing and controlled processing in such situations is crucial in
life. Too much of one or the other means missing out on a lot of what life is meant to be.
March 15th
Social Cognition
Entry 02- The Availability Heuristic
When I think of heuristics, I think of wormholes. Both are “cheat” methods, cutting short
distances between location and destination, through the use of short cuts. While wormholes
deal with bending space theoretically, to shorten the distance between point A and B, heuristics
deal with circumventing a myriad of mental process to get from a problem to a solution, through
the use of similar shortcuts. For example, when considering a situation where you are in a
burning building, you don’t cease all action, to consider what is happening, whether fire is bad,
what fire could do to the building you’re in, how bad it is, what potential actions to take, etc. You
simply see fire, and your mind skips all these processes, and orders your body to move to get
out of the building. You decide to evade all danger because a heuristic was formed in your
mind, probably from learned experiences. Heuristics helps us to make decisions faster in allows
the processing power of our minds to be more distributed.

The availability heuristic is basically a shortcut the mind takes based on the most
available imprint, or information the mind can come up with in response to stimuli. For example,
if I say a cup of cocoa, you think Milo. If I say instant noodles, you say Maggi Mee. These brand
names were the most available examples your mind could think of to make sense of what was
required. The availability heuristic is something you come across more often than you realise in
life.
One of the instances in which the availability heuristic pops up is during periods of
arguments or falling outs with other people. Imagine you had a falling out with your closest
friend. It was bitter, very tense, and did not resolve itself. You go your separate ways embittered
towards each other. From then on, whenever this friend of yours appears, physically, in
conversation, or the like, you will respond negatively. This is because, the availability heuristic is
at play. The most available heuristic you have of your friend, is the most recent, most intense
memory you can recall of him. Since it was negative, you will respond negatively. All the
previous qualities, attributions, traits you had of this friend, are overwhelmed by the most
available heuristic you have of this person. Nevermind the fact that you both helped each other
out of sticky situations, that he attended the funeral of your mother, that you once helped him
get a girl he liked. You respond automatically negatively towards this person, because of the
availability heuristic.
As seen, the potential this heuristic has to be detrimental is present. However, this is not
always the case. Always, be sure to engage the cognitive, more controlled processes in
situations that call for it, lest you be blinded by the availability heuristic.

Mar 21st
Social Perception
Entry 01-Correspondence Bias
We interact with people daily and we rarely notice the huge role perceptions play in how
we do so. How we perceive people, makes the difference between how we interact with a floor
cleaner, a professor, and a friend. Perception itself, as crucial as it is to the human experience is
not fully understood, and many theories exist pertaining to it. However, the attribution theory is
one of the largest areas in the field of perception. Very simply, most attribution theories involve
two important aspects, which are dispositional attributes, and situational attributes. Dispositional
attributes are attributes which arise out of the person/group in question, as a result of their
individuality. Situational attributes are attributes which arise out of the person/group in question
as a result of the circumstance or situation at hand, and not necessarily is the result of the
person’s individuality.
Within this field of understanding, lies the correspondence bias. The correspondence
bias states that people are more willing/able to infer that dispositional attributes are responsible
for the choices and actions other people make. This means that a person’s actions are more
likely to be said to be caused by his personality, etc. In converse, it means that we are less able
to make a correspondence to the action to the situation. This opens up a lot of possibilities. It

could be interpreted to the negative, and the positive. Simply put, if someone does something
negative, people automatically assume he did something bad because he is by nature bad. If
someone does something good, he is by nature, good.
I’ve seen this far too often in life. I knew this friend in secondary school. Quiet guy, who
often spoke of video girls more than he did of the opposite gender. A little socially awkward, and
not quick to anger. However, there happened to be a day, when he was enjoying a drink along
the corridor of the school, and accidentally bumped into another boy. Luck had it that the other
boy had to be rather hot blooded. My friend also, rather unwisely pulled of a smart remark
before apologising. The boy shoved him hard, and things escalated quickly. Thing’s ended with
my friend smashing the glass bottle into the other person’s head, causing him to bleed from the
wound. The discipline master managed to stop things before it went any further. However, the
consequences were heavy upon my friend. The authorities really went at it on my friend. He was
almost expelled, because they deemed him too dangerous to be around other students. The
remarks they gave, was that he was a violent person and prone to violent actions. This was all
based on their observation of the other person’s wounds and his story. It was more visually easy
to understand that my friend was the aggressor. Not to downplay my friend’s actions, but he
was not the initiator of the events, and the heat of the moment caused him to have to defend
himself with whatever he had.
What happened here, was that everyone immediately assumed that his actions were
credited to his disposition to violence. However, like I said, he is not disposed to such actions
and had never hit another person before.
The authorities had not seen enough information, and could not make proper attributions
or judgement to the situation. It does require more effort to consider the situation more carefully,
but it should have been done to ensure proper justice was meted out.
It should be noted that collectivistic cultures are more likely to make dispositional
attributions,

Mar 23rd
Social Perception
Entry 02- The Halo Effect
Dealing with perceptions, very often, and unfortunately, we also deal with the area of
biases. That should tell you a lot about how humans perceive other humans. It is often with a lot
of error. The halo effect, is just another cognitive bias which occurs in our perception of other
people, or other groups of people. In simple terms, if one sees a good attribute/quality in a
person, he is quick to see many others, imagined or real in the subject of observation.
It appears in a lot of situations. Take for example, the fact that good looking people are
often perceived as more likely to succeed. This can be explained by the halo effect. Our
perceptions of people are very contingent upon our first impressions of others, and often, the
visual aspects of a person stand out. We tend to like people who do look more aesthetically
bestowed, and it goes to become a positive attribution towards the person. This escalates fast
to assuming and “seeing” or actually seeing other manifold positive attributes in the person.
One practical way this is manifested is in the fact that teachers do tend to expect better
looking students to succeed. Like mentioned in the previous paragraph, this is attributed to
what is the strongest initial positive attribution teachers can make of the student. However, this
factoid should be qualified by the fact that this impression usually does not last for long, if
controlled cognitive processing is employed by the observer, which is in this case, the teacher.

The thing about the halo effect is that it often blinds people, and makes reality blend with
their imagination, because we so want to believe subconsciously that the person in question is
an angel. Hence, the name the halo effect.
I personally experience this effect often, and am also subject to the effect of this
phenomena. This often, is the reason of our disillusionment upon others. We place high
expectations upon others unconsciously when the halo effect is affected upon us. We wish to
see only good in people, and in converse, wish to believe that nothing bad exists in the person,
despite what our mental faculties believe of human nature.
When something wrong does occur, and the person in question is seen as imperfect,
often, we become disillusioned, and the consequences upon the person is often to their
negative. All this, because the halo effect forced us to see only the good, or to make up the
good in the other person.
Controlled cognition of people should be constantly engaged in our interactions with
others as social beings. The effect of this will be a much more matured interaction between
members of society.

April 10th
Attitudes
Entry 01- Classical Conditioning
The brain, often is paired with many analogous objects, in order to aid our understanding
of how it functions. One analogy that often appears is that of the computer. Many argue that in
some ways, the brain is like a computer, which stores information, and can be made to act on
certain information, depending on how it is programmed. Classical conditioning can be likened
to programming the human brain. However, instead of lengths of code being programmed into
the brain, exposure is the element which programs the brain to operate/behave differently.
Basically, classical conditioning examines the area of responses and stimuli, conditioned
and unconditioned. Unconditioned responses are responses which are natural and innate to
natural stimuli, such as the shielding of one’s eyes in extreme sunlight. Unconditioned
responses are responses which do not arise naturally as a result of neutral stimuli. Once
conditioned responses respond to what was formerly neutral stimuli, the stimuli becomes
conditioned stimuli. An example of a conditioned response and its conditioned stimuli is seen in
how a driver slows down his car when traffic lights turn orange. The conditioned stimuli is the
orange light, and the conditioned response is the slowing down of the car.
Classical conditioning is an area of social psychology which is linked to behaviour
modification, and although it may seem rather dubious to be able to modify a human’s
behaviour by means of “programming”, it actually perforates many areas of everyday life,
without our awareness of it doing so. In specific towards attitudes, classical conditioning can be
seen in how a one’s attitudes towards a brand name or business is influenced and formed over
time as a result of classical conditioning.
Car shows and magazines actually employ this a lot. Did you notice how automotives
and automobiles are often linked to girls? In particular, physically attractive girls? This is a result

of marketing, and classical conditioning. As a business, there is a need to engage customers in
a positive manner, to ensure they have positive attributions towards your company and brand.
Often, in car shows, or advertisements, a model is pictured posing with the car. The more
attractive, the better. Operationally, you see the car and the girl paired together, closely
associated. As you perceive the model as attractive, and desirable, you link these emotions to
the car brand, and the company, thereby increasing the chances of your expenditure into that
company. Your attitude towards the company has thereby been engineered.
In this example, the conditioned response and stimuli was actually to do with the the
car/brand name being the conditioned stimuli and your openness towards buying in on that
company’s products being the conditioned response. The unconditioned stimuli was actually the
attractive girl you paired with the car, and your attraction towards the girl the unconditioned
response.
Conversely, unconditioned responses and stimuli are seen in the lives of war veterans in
the negative. Seeing certain things, and hearing certain sounds can actually trigger responses
which were not present before, which usually ends in panic attacks, and severe anxiety. This all,
as a result of the experiences gained in battle.
Clearly, this area is a huge component of attitude formation, as are many others. Much
can be learned, if one as a layman recognises its place in formation of attitudes, and takes
action to engage cognitive processing, when and where needed.

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