1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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.
8. 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
9. 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 2ndyear 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
10. 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.
11. 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
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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
15. 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
16. 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.
