SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGNTHE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT(FNBE) AUGUST 2014 INTAKE

NAME: NGO JIA HAUR

STUDENT ID NO: 0320144

Group/Session: Monday 4pm

Subject and Course: Social Psychology (PSYC0103)

Assignment 1 – Individual Journal

SUBMISSION DATE: 27/4/ 2015

Motivation

Motivation is an internal process makes a person toward a goal and

causing us to act. Motivation included intrinsic motivation and extrinsic

motivation.

Intrinsic motivation means we taking certain action just for enjoyment

without any rewards from other. For me, I love to play music instrument even if

without any rewards from my parents or other, because I’m play it just for fun

and enjoyment.

Extrinsic motivation is the opposite. Extrinsic motivation means we

taking certain action for rewards, promised to other and to avoid punishment.

Example, we work for salary, we study hard to score high marks in exam and

avoid fail or retake. For my experience, when I were 17 years old, daddy

promised me he with buy a new phone as a reward for me if I score more than 5

A’s in SPM. The reward is the motivation for me to study, so I study hard

everyday to achieve the promise. Finally I get a new smart phone because I

achieved the promise with my dad.

Self-serving Bias

Self-serving bias refers to our tendency to take personal credit for success

while blaming outside sources for our failures. There two attribution in self-

serving bias, which is internal attribution and external attribution. For example,

when we score high marks in an exam, we will rewards ourselves for being

hardworking person. So we make an internal attribution for positive outcome. If

we fail the exam, we will blame outside sources for our failure like we blaming

teacher didn’t teach us as well, lecturer didn’t present clearly during a lecture, or

the subject is too difficult. So we make an external attribution for negative

outcome.

For my experience, I had failed the driving text last year. I don’t realize

my own false but blame the driving examination officer was too strict, and the

tutor didn’t teach me as well during tutorial, and I even blame the car got

problem. I retake the driving test again two weeks later and I passed it, I

rewarded myself only. So this is the theory of self-serving bias.

The Availability Heuristic

The availability heuristic means a cognition heuristic or mental

shortcut depend on something you seen or already accessed in your memory,

which can allow us to make decisions or judgments easy and quickly. Our brain

will automatically use the fastest and more efficiency method to speed solving

the problem base on the cognition from early events. For example, if you always

having meal in the same restaurant everyday, you noticed that set A is much

delicious than set B. Over time, when your friend ask you which set of meal is

delicious in the restaurant, you will automatically decide the set A is better,

because you noticed and already access Set A is better compare to set B in your

memory.

From my experience, there were several air disaster happened last year

such as missing plane of MH370, MH17 airplane shoot down, Air Algeria 5017

Crashed and Air Asia QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea. After seeing these

several news reports, my parents felt that board the airplane is very dangerous.

So they canceled all the trips. I ask my parents for permission to travel to

Sarawak with my friends last month but they rejected due to the incidents

happened which is those air disaster. So this is the theory of availability

heuristic.

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning means when two stimuli are paired together to

produce the same response in a human or animal. For example, when you are

watching television or do something, suddenly your mom shout your name

loudly and sound like not a good think. Than she start to scold or nagging you

why you didn’t help her for housework. This is the first stimuli. Over time, you

will relate when mom shout your name loudly, means she will start to nagging

you again. The next day, your mom shout your name loudly and sound like not

good again without nagging and scolding this time, but you still will

automatically help her for housework, because you think she will nagging you

again and you want to avoid it happen again.

For my experience, I’m adopted a dog names Jack, whenever my dad and

mom get home and open the garage door and making a sound throughout the

house. Over time, Jack had related the sound of the garage opening with their

arrival. So Jack will run to the door and ready to greet them excitedly. The next

day, I’m open the garage but nobody is coming back but Jack still repeated the

same action when Jack heard the sound of garage opening. So this is the theory of

classical conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning is a learning of using the method of rewards,

positive or negative reinforcement, positive or negative punishment to

strengthen or weaken a particular behavior.

Positive reinforcement occurs when a particular behavior

strengthens or increases in the hope of experiencing a positive action or

behavior. I was experienced when I was child. I do revision and study two

hours with rewards two hours TV time. Second, I help my mom clean the

living room, than mom rewarded me with candy.

Negative reinforcement is a particular behavior strengthens or

increases in the hope that a negative consequence can be avoided. This

always happen in my life. For my experience, my mom scolded me when

she saw my messy room, the scolding became a negative stimulus. So I

started to clean my room to avoid scolding from my mom.

Positive punishment is a particular behavior pattern decreases so

as to avoid dealing with something unpleasant after. For my experience,

when I was studying in secondary school. I always talking with my friends

when teacher were teaching. Then I was made to sit separately with my

friend to avoid us talking during class.

Negative punishment is a particular behavior pattern decreases so

that a positive stimulus or object is not taken away or removed. It also

always happen in my life. For my experience, I failed my English exam

when I was standard, my mom didn’t allow me hang out with my friends

and confiscated my PS 2 video game as the punishment. So this is the

theory of operant conditioning.