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1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING
AND DESIGN
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL & BUILT
ENVIRONMENT (08/14)
Name : Cheok Jian Shuang
Student ID : 0320089
Group/ Session : Monday 2pm
Subject and Course : Social Psychology (PSYC0103)
Assignment 1 - Individual Journal
Submission Date : 27/4/2015

2. JOURNAL 1
19/4/2015, 3:08PM
ENTRY 1:
Social Facilitation
Social facilitation is the idea that you will likely do better on a simple task when other
people are watching you. However, you would tend to do less well on complex tasks where
you were being watched or evaluated. Social facilitation helps us to appreciate that our
motivation for doing a task is also influenced by how good we perceive ourselves to be at
the task and whether we are being evaluated by others. Motivation is high when
performing an easy task that others observe. We are likely to get positive feedback as a
result. Motivation is lower for more difficult tasks because we fear making mistakes and
this could result in unfavourable comments from others.
There is a saying of “I can do better when you are watching me.” This explains “social
facilitation”. One of a good example about social facilitation in my daily lives was my
experience in the gym yesterday. I was running on treadmill alone first. Then a friend came
over to talk. I was just getting ready to plank at the time. With her watching, I focused more
on what I was doing and was able to plank substantially more than I had before. When my
friend was watching me did this simple task, I wanted to impress her so I plank more than
usual. My behaviour changed due to that situation and also exemplified social facilitation.

3. ENTRY 2:
Social Loafing
Social loafing refers to the concept that people are prone to exert less effort on a task if
they are in a group versus when they work alone. The idea of working in groups is typically
seen as a way to improve the accomplishment of a task by pooling the skills and talents of
the individuals in that group. But, in some groups, there is a tendency on the part of
participants to contribute less to the group's goal than if they were doing the same task
themselves. Social loafing has negative consequence for both the group and the
individuals in the group. The group dynamic is affected when certain individuals are seen
as weak contributors to the group purpose. It tends to split the group and fosters a lack of
cohesion.
For example, when lecturers assigned us to work on a class project with a group of ten
other students, since I am a part of the group, however, the social loafing tendency makes
it likely that I would put less effort into the project. Instead of assuming responsibility for
certain tasks, I might simply assume that one of the other group members will take care of
it. In contrary, if, I were working on my own self, I would have broken down the assignment
into steps and started work right away. This happens to me everytime when it comes to
either group assignments or small group activities in classes.

4. JOURNAL 2
21/4/2015, 2:45PM
ENTRY 1:
Motivation (Intrinsic & Extrinsic)
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than
from any external or outside rewards, such as money or grades. It is the self-desire to
seek out new things and new challenges, to analyse one's capacity, to observe and to gain
knowledge. The motivation is driven comes by the pleasure one gets from the task itself or
from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on a task.
My motivation for producing artworks and designs is entirely intrinsic. I love doing arts
and crafts that I could caught up in between for hours. I am fully engaged in the world of
designing; doing own research, trying on different tools and mediums, so on and so forth.
Fine arts and good designs get my attentions. I would rather spend time doing designs and
crafts just because the motivation within incites me to do so. It brings me happiness and
joy.

5. Extrinsic Motivation
"Extrinsic motivation refers to our tendency to perform activities for known external
rewards, whether they be tangible (e.g., money) or psychological (e.g., praise) in nature."
(Brown, Psychology of Motivation, 2007). Extrinsic motivation refers to external incentives
(such as money, grades, or prizes) for a person to perform a given task. Extrinsic
motivation can be contrasted with intrinsic motivation, a highly desired form of incentive
that stems simply from a person's internal desire for self-satisfaction or pleasure in
performing the task itself.
Although I am fortunate enough that I was not born and raised in a typical Asian family,
the fear of losing will forever emerge when it comes to exams. I forced my self to study all
night long, memorise all sorts of formulae and historical facts when I was having my SPM,
just because the thoughts of “I ought to get good grades”, or “I need to win them all with
my grades”. I had no joy in learning. I was entirely obligated to do what I had to do, and
when the result slips were out, there was no joy, instead, just relief.

6. ENTRY 2:
Cutting Off Reflective Failure (CORFing)
BIRGing means basking in reflected glory. It's a social identity theory that is exclusive to
sports, but it certainly applicable while CORFing is the flip side of that coin; cutting off
reflected failure. Which means an individual disassociates themselves from the failure of
another.
I tend to refer to the Arsenal as they. Certainly I have a connection to the team, I grew up
watching the matches, my dad is a loyal fan, but the team sucks and I want to cut myself
off from they're failure. See, I CORFed right there. I CORFed by blaming an external
influence. For instance, people in the comments and on Twitter implied that matches may
be fixed. There was talk about a "rich club" bias. There was little to no discussion of poor
play.

7. JOURNAL 3
23/4/2015, 8:34PM
ENTRY 1:
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
A Self Fulfilling Prophecy is a prediction that causes itself to come true due to the simple
fact that the prediction was made. This happens because our beliefs influence our actions.
In other words, an expectation about a subject, such as a person or event, can affect our
behaviour towards that subject, which causes the expectation to be realised.
Our actions toward others impact their beliefs about us, which dictates their actions
towards us, which then reinforces our beliefs about ourselves. This, in turn, influences our
actions towards others, which brings us back to the beginning of the cycle.
I was once experienced self-fulfilling prophecy during my high school time. I was one of
the members in my high school. When I first joined the team, my volleyball coach expected
that freshmen like us to be less skilled, so she didn’t not put neither me nor my friends in to
play very often. When she did put us in, our skills were really rusty and did not do well,
thereby fulfilling her expectations.

8. JOURNAL 4
24/4/2015, 11:34AM
ENTRY 1:
The Halo Effect
The halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person
influences how we feel and think about his or her character. Essentially, our overall
impression of a person ("He is nice!") impacts our evaluations of that person's specific
traits ("He is also smart!”).
The halo effect is also known as the physical attractiveness stereotype and the "what is
beautiful is good" principle, the halo effect, at the most specific level, refers to the habitual
tendency of people to rate attractive individuals more favourably for their personality traits
or characteristics than those who are less attractive.
Once, in the classroom, my high school history teacher who saw a well-behaved student
might tend to assume this student was also bright, diligent, and engaged before she has
objectively evaluated the student's capacity in these areas. Later on, the halo effect
became evident; he was stuttering and unsure of his phrases, but my teacher was
unconsciously ignoring the fact and believed still held high regard for that student.
It felt really odd thinking that he didn’t act like the way he looked.

9. JOURNAL 5
25/4/2015, 12:01AM
ENTRY 1:
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of
learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behaviour. Through operant
conditioning, an association is made between a behaviour and a consequence for that
behaviour. Operant conditioning relies on a fairly simple premise - actions that are followed
by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future.
Yesterday, as usual, I saw my misbehaving dog getting its fixed of positive punishment;
for barking and running around my house insanely and creating mess, it was being
punished by not receiving any feeds of food and snack, which of course, made it bark even
louder and uncontrollable. On the other hand, today, it was, surprisingly behaving nicely
and obedient to instructions. Therefore, I, as its master, rewarded it with positive
reinforcement by taking it for a small walk and feeding it with its favourite snacks so on and
so forth. In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, the response and behaviour are
strengthened by the addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward.