SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN,

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENTS
(FNBE)

Name: Yong Ai Yi
Student ID No. : 0321977
Group/session: Monday 3.30pm
Subject: Psychology [PSY30203]
Assignment 1: Individual Journal
Submission date: 30th Nov 2015
Intake: March intake

Journal 01: The Self

Entries 01: CORFing
Date: 21st Nov 2015
Time : 8pm
The concept Cutting off reflected failure which also known as CORFing means
individual tend to distance themselves or avoid people that with lower status or people that
behaved badly. This happened because individual does not want to affect their own
reputation because of others failure so they will choose to stay away or distance themselves.
People tend to categorize people in a group unintentionally. So when a person stick with a
group that always achieved failure or they behaved badly they are likely to be a group as a
failure themselves too even though they did not done anything that is wrong. For example,
there is a football team of Xs University they always win on their matches so the students
will cheer and say we win!. After few months, the team failed to win the games and keep
on loose in their matches the student will tend to say They lost again.
CORFing can unconsciously trained by anyone, so as me. The incident that I remember
is when I was in primary school. I was 13 years old having my very first day of opening school
in my hometown. I failed my BM which is Bahasa Malaysia, and failed to continue in Form 1
but luckily, school authority conduct a test for those who failed BM. Students who passed the
test shall continue form 1. After my friends knew I was having bad grades, I can felt that they
are trying to distance themselves from me. I understand that they are actually practicing
CORFing unconsciously. Because of that incident my friends are getting lesser but never mind,
I can still make new friends.
After having the test, I was successfully passed and continue to having classes in
Form1 and I actually entered the second class within seven classes in form 1. My new
classmates were shocked and surprised that I can did so well at my test (of course, I only failed
BM writings and I did scored good marks on other subject).
After few weeks I started to meet new friends too and one of them call May. She is a
friendly person and I can see that she like to socialise with other people. After few years, she
became my best friend. We often did things together such as having breakfast and lunch at
canteen and having same curriculum clubs. But friendship was not going to be sweet for the
whole time. She has did something bad that I did not know at all. My other friends asking me
to stay away from her but I did not believe in them and still believing that she is innocent and
keep continuing to be friend with her. My other friends were so curious about why I can keep
being friend with her since she is a strange person. Yes, she is kind a strange person and
different from other people but she didnt done anything wrong and I admit that sometimes
she will done things that is slightly inappropriate in some situation but still not something that
are serious enough to leave her. Then, I starting to hear something bad rumours from her

friends. Her friends are starting to distance themselves from her too. At that time, I was
confuse and I started to find what she has done. To know her more, I tried to ask things about
her from her friends. After few investigation I get to know that she actually talking bad of
me at my back. Then I started get into deep thought and think back of what has done to us. I
suddenly realise that my academic results has dropped because we always hangout and I did
not do revision. After few considerations, I decided to distance myself from her. So I let her
go and stop becoming her friend. From this I know that I was practicing CORFing because I
tried to avoid her because I was afraid that she will affected me someday and I dont want to
get in the failure position again.
From this I learned that what is CORFing it means by individual tend to distance
themselves or avoid people that with lower status or people that behaved badly just like me
distance myself from May. In my opinion, CORFing can be in any situation it can be bad or can
be right, for example it is good that for a person stay away from people that behaved badly
that is serious but practice CORFing towards family members are not appropriate and it is bad
to practice. I think we should think before we practice CORFing.

Journal 2
Entry 2: Social loafing
Date: 22nd Nov 2015
Time: 9pm

Social Loafing is define as tendency for people to exert less effort to achieve a goal
when they are in a group. Social loafing occurs when persons are performing a task as part of
a group and individual effort cannot be identified. Certain members of the group would sit
back and watch while other members did the majority of the work.The first known research
on the social loafing effect began in 1913 with Max Ringelmann's study on social loafing which
involved a simple rope-pulling experiment. He asked the participants to pull on a rope much
like they were in a game of tug-of-war. First the participants tugged on a rope by themselves,
then in a group. The study showed that the participants tended to exert less effort when
pulling the rope in a group than when they were asked to pull the rope by themselves.
Social loafing is quite common and can be found in many situations such as the group
that I was assigned by my lecturer. This happened when I was still a freshmen in Taylors
University taking the course of Foundation in Natural Build Environments. That was the 3rd
week right after my orientation day. On the lecture day, I was assigned to a group that consist
of 6 people. Thus, I had one of my group member he stayed up all late night at architecture
studio to get his own assignments done and he always pass on his assignments on time but
the action that he is in our group are different. Me and my friends were working together so
hard to get things done faster so that we dont need to rush our project at last minute. Thus,
all of us actually felt that he didnt contribute as much as we do in this group. We think that
the contribution that he had done is very less as we cant see what he had done or contribute
to the group work and whenever we assigned him some works for him, he will drag it until
last minute. Other than that we will conduct meetings to discuss about the projects and
update our progress but he only show up once in our 5 times of meetings and the worst is he
didnt even show up in our Skype meeting.
After we submitted our project to lecturer, we are going to complaint about that he
didnt made much contribution in our group. So as an outsider, only group effort can be seen
not the effort that contribute by individual. Then, our lecturer gives us peer assessment
sheets to evaluate our group members and write down the works that done by us. After we
passed up the evaluation sheet, I was thinking that as a member I did something wrong too,
because I didnt asking him and pushing him to complete the work that we assigned to him.
From this experience, I can use the concept social loafing to apply in it. He is doing his
own assignment with great effort but comes to group work his contribution is lesser than his
individual work. By doing research to understand more about Social Loafing, I found some

causes on why social loafing occurs. There are 3 of the causes that I found which are diffusion
of responsibility, dispensability of effort and the sucker effect.
Diffusion of responsibility defines as a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a
person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present. For
example, a group of students were assigned with a project, some of the students will less
likely to take responsibility because he/she thinks that other group members will do more.
Other than that, dispensability of effort is also the cause of social loafing. Dispensability of
effort is define as when a group member does not feel that his/her effort is justified in the
context of the overall group, the individual will be less willing to assert the effort. For example,
voting for president in a club. People said that it is important to vote even though a vote might
seems small in a club that full with 200 of members, so some of them would think that its
unnecessary to vote so lastly it will turn out a small amount of people were voting. The other
cause of social loafing is the sucker effect. In a group, people may feel that other group
members will leave the work or avoid works that they supposed to do and leave it to them.
To avoid being a Sucker they will wait and observe how much effort that others will
contribute. For example, employees of a company, some of the worker might having their
holidays or sick leave so some of the works will pass it to other workers, so they would think
that they might carrying unfair workload.

Journal 03: Attitude

Entry 03: Post-Decision Dissonance
Date: 23rd Nov 2015
Time: 7pm

Post Decision Dissonance is a form that when we decide something, we will feel
dissonance about it because we scare that the decision that we made might be wrong. So, in
order to diminish the dissonance that we had we will change our perspective and make our
decisions more attractive. People mostly will look positive to the decision that they made
rather than the choices that they give up and they will tend to devalue the choices that they
did not choose. After that, they will create positive reasons or aspect for their chosen option
until they totally accept their decision. Other than that, Post-Decision Dissonance is also refer
as Sour Grapes it is about a fox trying to eat the grapes but it could not reach it so it decided
to give up it by conclude that the grapes are sour. From this we can know that the fox is
making negative statement about the grapes so it will think that his decision to give up on
grapes is the right choice.

The experience that I had that can apply the concept of Post Decision Dissonance is
when I was 17. I remembered that is the year end of 2013 and I finished my SPM exam. At
that time I was going to choose the right university for me to continue my study. So, I was
wondering what kind of course I supposed to take. I do a lot of research on occupation, which
course are better, which course are easier, which one is more interesting for me to study I
even do research on what would my salary be when I get to work after getting my certificate.
Other than that, I also seek for suggestion from my parents that which course is suitable for
me. Then they suggest that Civil engineering like my brother would be great or lawyer. (I think
most of the Asian parents would answered the same thing) Besides academic studies I also
learned music, I was thinking that if I become a concert master that would be awesome but
reality always ruined my dreams. At the end, I chose Architect.

When I decided to take Architecture course, my post-decision dissonance started to

occur. I doubted at my decision that I had made so I started to search the advantage of study
architecture instead of Civil engineering and lawyer. For example, the salary of an Architect
could be higher than Engineer, Architect doesnt need to go to site frequently, Architect stay
in indoor most of the time and they dont need to do complex mathematical equations. I was
processing positive thinking on my decision to make me feel that I was right about my choice.

Other than that, the other life experienced that I can apply the post-decision
dissonance is when I was going to choose which University I should enter. Since I was going

to choose Architecture course so I do a lot on research on which University consist of the best
architecture school. I found out Taylors University, UCSI University, Lim Kok Wing University
and Sabah Institution of Art. Then I do analysis on the quality of each university and I found
out that Taylors has good teaching skills in architecture. But, my parents were refuse to let
me choose Taylors because it is located at west-Malaysia. My parents are worried about me
since I was never live alone without my parents. Moreover I come from East-Malaysia and it
is quite far from West-Malaysia so it is a problem for me to back to my hometown. Despite
my passion about architecture, finally my parents agreed to let me study at Taylors University
with one condition which is I had to stay another year in my hometown continuing Form 6 for
1 semester. It seems bad because of wasting time at studying the subject that I would not use
in Architecture. But it turns out not too bad though, because I did make new friends and learn
something new and cool such as Physics, Chemistry and Pure Mathematic. Other than that, I
got the opportunity to travel to another country which is Germany. I get to visit the buildings
that famous in Germany and get many experience I never had.
After one year I successfully enrol in Taylors University at that time I was quite doubt
at my decision whereas my post-decision dissonance occurred. So I started to think positively
and find the good reasons on why I chose Taylors University to support my decision. For
examples, Taylors University are famous university in Malaysia, it is fully occupied with
facilities, it has a nice surrounding and the hostel is very near with the campus.

Journal 04: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Entry 04: Sexism
Date: 25th Nov 2015
Time: 9pm
Sexism is an act on how people being treat differently or unequally because of their
gender. Sexism, is also a form of prejudice, is a type of bias about a group of people. Sexism
is founded in conceptualizations of one gender as being superior or having higher status than
another gender in a particular field, which can lead to discrimination. Research has indicated
that stereotypes about socially appropriate gender roles for women and men are a driving
factor in the endorsement of sexism. Many kind cultures place very different values and
expectations on men and women. Sexism can be divided into three types which are
ambivalent sexism, hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. Ambivalent sexism is discrepancy
between hostile and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism is an antagonistic attitude toward
women, who are often viewed as trying to control men through feminist ideology or sexual
seduction. Benevolent sexism is a chivalrous attitude toward women that feels favourable but
is actually sexist because it casts women as weak creatures in need of men's protection.
In my family I was the only daughter. I have an older brother which elder than me 6
years. My mom always taught me that I should behave like a girl and learn stuff that a girl
should have learned. She is giving me imprint on how to become a woman in the future. To
be honest, I am not a girly person. Remember I was in form 2 I was a boyish girl that wore boy
clothing and having a boyish hairstyle. Other than that, the things I liked might be different
than other girls. For examples, I like remote control car, watching anime, play basketball and
electronic devices. Besides that, I cant deny that I am lazy at doing housework. But most of
the time I was the one who do housework than my brother because my mom always nagging
at me that a girl should know how to do housework. She told me that, she will be very
embarrassing to my future mother in law because she failed to teaching her daughter . Then
I asked her why my brother does not do housework and you never scold him? .She
answered me that boys should not do so much housework because my brother is a man he
should not do something girly.
Another incident that I remember is I was 17 years old, finishing my studies and
thinking of which course should I take. Since I was not that girly enough I always tend to
chasing something more boyish but for me the course which I am interesting is something
challenging not boyish such as lawyer and civil engineering. After few consideration and
research I ended up choosing Architecture course. When I am studying this course for only
the first semester I nearly gone crazy because of the tones of assignments that lecturers
gave. I almost busying on doing assignments every day and I cant even rest properly when
Im having holidays in hometown. Then my mother started to worry that this course is a bit
too heavy for a girl and asking me is it okay to continue or change to another course. She
suggested me to change to those course which are more related to female course for her
such as business class and accounting classes. But I am not a person that give up on the things
I like easily, so I will continue studying architecture course. After all, my mom will always

support on my decision. That doesnt end, my grandparents were asking me not to continuing
study in University if studying is too hard for me. I answered them ha? No lah grandma
grandpa, I can do it no matter how hard it would be because I choose this pathway and I need
to continuing to achieve my goals.
Besides that, the other incident I experienced where sexism occur is when I was at my
hometown, I like to hang out with friends since it is hard for me to meet my high school friends.
So every time I hang out with them I will less likely to back home earlier because I wanted to
stay a little bit longer with them. As times goes by, I was heading home at 11pm or 12am. My
mother was so angry with me that I always going home late. Then I felt that I was treating
unfair by my mom and started asking her why my brother can be home at 3am and I cant?
she answered because you are a girl! You are not supposed to stay out until late night. I was
so speechless and sad. There is nothing I can do because she is my mother I had to listen
whatever she ordered me.
From these experiences I gone through, I would like to say that woman and man
should be treat equally. Not everything man does is something that woman cant do.

Journal 05: The Self

Entry 05: motivation
Date: 28th Nov 2015
Time: 7pm

Motivation is defined as the desire and action towards goal-directed behaviours. It

represents the reasons for people's actions, desires, and needs. Motivation can also be
defined as one's direction to behaviour, or what causes a person to want to repeat a
behaviour and vice versa. A motive gives hint to a person to act in a certain way, or at least
develop an inclination for specific behaviour. For example, when someone eats food to satisfy
their hunger, or when a student does his/her revision all night in campus because he/she
wants a good grade. Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is a person is
intrinsically motivated if the desire for change comes from within the individual. The person
may want to learn something because he or she is interested. Another person may want to
achieve a goal or task because it is something he or she feels adequate at and enjoys doing.
On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is a person taking certain action in response to
external pressure or obligation. This may occurred to someone wants to earn a prize or
reward. Other than that, pay checks and fear of punishment and coercion are also extrinsic
motivators.
I have been through so many experiences towards extrinsic motivation, the
experience that I remember is when I was about 4 or 6 years. My mom is a person who loves
music so much so she sent me to music classes such as piano class and singing class. Honestly
I was so young at that time, I can only obey her commands because I cant make any decision
by myself and I dont have any particular hobby. I was not a fan of music at that time, all I
wanted to do is eat, sleep, play and repeat that process again. When I was having few music
classes I started to feel exhausted because I need to do a lot of practices at home. Honestly,I
am a lazy person. I was too lazy to practice playing piano. When I was not practicing my mom
will start nagging at me sometimes she even using rotan to hit me. Other than that, if I failed
to play a pieces smoothly, my teacher will become very angry and scold me and even pinch
my hand. I was so scared that she will punish me again, so after every classes I will go home
and practiced. I even practiced playing piano at my teachers house while waiting my mom
come and fetch me.
Moreover, another experience of extrinsic motivation happened when I was in high
school and also in University life. When I was form 5, I was so scared and nervous to sit for
SPM exam. I was so scared that I could not get a good results and disappoint my parents. In
order to get good result I almost having tuition class every day without a day off. This same
goes to my form 3 life, when I was going to sit for my PMR exam. My mom sent me to tuition
centre that taught all kind of subjects. I was completely staying at the tuition centre for whole
day. I even had my breakfast and lunch at tuition centre. Other than that, I worked so hard

for my foundation semester 1 in architecture. Whenever there are assignments or projects, I

will done work as perfectly as I could in order to get a good result to make my parents proud.
I still remembered that I was doing projects with my teammates at architecture studio from
7pm until the next morning. Whenever I feel asleep I will try to wake myself up by pinching
my face and my hand so that I can stay awake to continue my work. Days of sufferings brings
victory at the end. I felt accomplished when I got good grades for my work. Whenever I felt
demotivated for the workload of my assignment, I always remember why I choose this course
at the first place.
When I was 17 I had complete my Grade 8 piano and continued on diploma in piano.
At that time I started to like to play piano not because of the nagging from my mom or the
punishment from my teacher. The reasons why I feel in love with piano because I can finally
play the pieces that I wanted to play which is songs written by Chopin. While I am having
piano classes I also tend to learn to play other instruments such as guitar, flute, clarinet, violin,
harmonica, drum, trumpet and saxophone. From this experience I know that I was undergo
the process of intrinsic motivation. I was doing it for the sake of enjoyment.
In conclusion, there are two different types of motivation which are intrinsic and
extrinsic. Although they are different in term but they are coherence. We need extrinsic
motivation where people push us to do something and we do that just because our duty and
obligation. We may not like it at the first place but later we will found the good in it.