27 November 2015

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation may be the reason or reasons that make an individual to have the urge to act or behave in a particular way to achieve the individual’s goal. Motivation is basically divided into two, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The type of motivation I will focus on would be the extrinsic motivation. So psychologically speaking, extrinsic motivation is a motivation that drives a person to carry out a task no matter how long it takes or how hard it is just to obtain a specific reward or also to avoid from being punished. In other words, a person is taking a certain action due to external factors instead of doing it from their own desire. Thus, the action that is driven by extrinsic motivation is not pleasurable and it is the complete opposite of intrinsic motivation that drives an individual to perform an action just for the fun of it.

One extrinsic motivation experience in my life would be during the last year of my secondary school days. It was the year where all my peers and myself had to face what we considered one of the toughest exams so far, which is the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, or SPM for short. During that year, I had to step up my studies to cope with the overwhelming amount of topics of each and every single subject. In order for me to achieve an excellent result for this examination, I had to greatly reduce the amount of time for my entertainment such as playing games and watching movies. I was also driven by the fact that my parents would reward me with anything that I desire if I manage to get excellent result. Moreover, achieving great results will also allow me to be able to receive a higher quality of education for my future and also obtain a scholarship that would be very helpful financially by reducing the cost to pay for my higher education.

Another personal experience of mine that is motivated externally would be when I was in a driving school, trying to get my driving license. In this case, I had to memorise the answers for nearly 500 objective questions where only 50 questions will be randomly selected for my theory test. If I fail to get at least 42 correct answers, I would have to repeat the test which can be very tedious. After completing the test, each student were given 8 hours in total for driving lessons. I had to make sure everything was in check. On the day of the driving test, I was very nervous because I do not want to fail the test which will not only cost me more money and also my time that could potentially be dragged up to a few months, but also I would not be able to drive to campus that leaves me no choice but to take the public bus which I prefer less as it can be very exhausting for myself. Because of that, I decided to make that as my motivation to pass the driving test.

Next, I am also motivated to come early to campus every day depending on my schedule. Although my class does not start early in the morning sometimes, I will still try my best to drive early to campus in order for me to get a parking space that is closer in terms of walking distance to the entrance of the campus. This is quite beneficial for myself and my friend who carpools with me as we both do not need to walk a considerably far distance and be able to prevent ourselves from being unnecessarily exposed to the scorching heat. Besides, I am motivated to come to campus everyday not only to get my attendance for actually

coming, but also to learn something new and beneficial which will help me in my architectural career later in the coming years. In contrast, if I do not attend classes, not only will I get myself into trouble by my parents, but it would also affect my attendance. Because of these reasons, I would always make sure that I come to class all the time.

As a conclusion to this concept of extrinsic motivation, it is safe to say that even though a lot of individuals would only do something if a reward is to be received, it is an essential part of our daily lives as it keeps a person motivated to always strive forward in order to achieve the desired goals or avoid any form of punishment. This also helps a person to actually set a goal for themselves and try their best to achieve it because in the end, it will be for their own good and they will be able to shape their own future.

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29 November 2015

Observational Learning

Observational learning is one of the most important methods in the process of learning. It is crucial in the sense we learn a lot of actions through observation. It is basically a process of learning that occurs by watching other people engage in certain behaviours. These people are also called social models, and these models are usually people that are close to us such as our parents, our siblings and friends. It is a form of social learning that does not need reinforcement to occur. A lot of behaviours happen around us every single day and we observe them, some of them being more positive than others. We may be influenced by positive behaviours, but it could also lead to us learning the negative behaviours as well. Observational learning probably explains how we come to acquire our attitudes, fears or opinions. This concept is very important as it largely influences on how we will behave or act as we grow old.

During my infancy, just like everyone else I have experienced observational learning to gain more understanding of the basics of life. One such example would be on how I organise or take care of myself. My parents would always told me not to litter around the house so they demonstrated to me on how to dispose unwanted things the right way. They would take any rubbish and throw it into the rubbish bin while I observe them performing that particular action. Although I accidentally threw the wrong things at times, eventually I did understand properly of the message that they were trying to tell me. In addition, I also learned how to eat using my bare hands and also how to use proper cutleries to eat certain meals. Before attending to kindergarten, my mother or my domestic helper would spoon feed me every time. At the age of 3, I received my pre-school education in Q-Dees. During free period, it was the time for us students to eat our breakfast. And of course, there were no one to spoon feed me at that time, instead I observed how other students would use their cutleries to eat and sometimes their hands to eat food such as bread and biscuits and ultimately it became a daily routine for myself up till now.

Furthermore, I have learned on how to avoid doing certain actions that could put myself into trouble. Before I moved to my current house, I used to live with my grandparents together with my cousin. My cousin is a football fanatic and he would play football at every opportunity that he gets. One day he would play football in the living room by kicking the ball to an empty wall where there were no furniture or picture frames hanging on the wall. Despite him being careful, eventually he kicked the ball hard and it got deflected to one my grandmother’s antique vases. The vase shattered into pieces so did my grandmother. My cousin received a scolding from his parents and they had to buy another vase to make it up to my grandmother. From this incident, I have observed and come to a conclusion to not play any sports in the house or do any silly mistakes that would cause me to be in trouble, instead I should be more rational which in this case I need to go to an appropriate venue to play sports.

One of the other things I have learned through observing others would be on how to play games. As for an example, I have learned how to play chess by watching my peers play back in 2010 when I was 13 years old. I found chess to be an interesting game because it is a

strategy game and it requires a lot of thinking to organise a strategy in an attempt to win over the opponent. Through observing, I learned about all the pieces and how it moves. A crucial aspect in winning a game of chess would be on where the pieces are moved. Moving the right pieces at the right moment can almost guarantee you victory. Other than that, I have also learned how to utilise skills on FIFA, a football simulation game. I was watching a friend of mine playing a game of FIFA, seeing him perform skill moves in order to trick the opposing player. I found it impressive as it adds creativity when attacking and decided to learn these skill moves. I watched my friend play again and started observing which buttons he pressed to perform those skills and later tried it myself. With practice and further observation, I have managed to execute most of these skills.

To put a close to this entry, I would like to conclude that through observational learning, many things can be done and it is beneficial to us all. As stated before, observation is crucial in the process of learning and that everyone has learned something through watching observing others, be it walking, running or even talking. It teaches us the basics in life and allows us to fit with the society. Observational learning ultimately shapes a person’s character and teaches them on what is right and what is wrong. Negative actions must be avoided to prevent morality issues in the future. With this, parents should not expose their children to bad behaviour as it may corrupt the child’s mind and will heavily affect their attitudes in the years to come.

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23 November 2015

Social Loafing

Social loafing is a concept to describe the phenomenon when an individual’s performance decreases due to the presence of other people around the individual. This concept was based on a study carried out by Max Ringelmann. In his study, he observed a team of participants involved in pulling on a rope activity and concluded that the amount of force exerted by every single individual decreases as the number participants increases. Social loafing also happens when an individual feels less connected to the members of the group, thus this person thinks that there is less need to put in more effort because this individual does not feel associated to the group and does not have the sense of belonging. These individuals tend to put in less effort especially when they are in a large group of people. They do not contribute and voice out their opinions in their group because they believe other members of the group would most probably do the work.

During my schooling days, I have been involved in many group activities. One of the examples is when I was given an assignment to prepare an oral presentation for my English subject back when I was in form 2. Initially, I was supposed to form a group of 4 people. We were free to choose any topic for our presentation and we had chosen to talk about the rate of accidents, its causes and effects. Since we were in a group, I thought that I could slack off more knowing that someone would step up and carry out the work for the team. I did not have sense of urgency compared when I was doing my individual work such as my homework. Because of this, a member of mine took the initiative to become our leader and prepared the slides while others remained uninvolved in the majority of the work. Considering he was the leader, I did not put in much effort despite it being a team work. It is not that the other members did not contribute any information but our contribution was very minimal compared to what our leader had prepared for our oral presentation. We ended up talking about our topic which was mostly the contents prepared by our leader.

Another personal experience would be a recent one. For the past 15 years, my family had a domestic helper who has been doing the house chores. My family need not worry about our laundry, daily meals and cleaning the house. However, our domestic helper had return to her hometown and leaving us for good. This leaves us with more work to do alongside the works we are already doing. We had to do the house chores and everyone is responsible for themselves. However, at times my siblings and I would try to avoid our responsibilities. As an example, we would leave our dishes around and not clean up our mess after a family dinner thinking that someone would eventually clean them up. Because of this, my mother would clean them up for us most of the time. In contrast when I am alone having a meal, I would do my own dishes after I am done eating.

Lastly, social loafing also occurs during my time playing badminton. Badminton is a sport in which I enjoy playing since I was at a very young age. I was inspired to start developing my shuttling skills by watching our national badminton hero, Dato’ Lee Chong Wei, play. During single matches, I would be putting in much more effort, playing more

rapidly and trying my best to return all shots even the ones that are difficult to reach. Although single matches are harder to play due to its extensive use of stamina in comparison to double matches, I would still give my best shot and strive to win the match. However, when it comes to a doubles match, I would put in a more reduced effort. Instead, I would rely on my partner to do most of the difficult works such as taking the drop shots which can be tedious to take at times.

In conclusion, social loafing has happened to me and most probably everyone as it happens naturally although it is a negative unconscious behaviour. However, we should always try to avoid social loafing as an excuse to hold back our progression and instead completing our tasks and works diligently no matter how tedious it can be. When being in groups, we should be more proactive and give in a lot of contribution as well as motivate other group members to also participate which also makes them feel less anonymous to the group. By doing so, the overall productivity and the quality of a group’s work will not only increase considerably, but also each individual’s self-esteem will be boosted.

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28 November 2015

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is an act where one assumes that the members of a group of people share the same common feature among themselves. Psychologically speaking, a stereotype may be a thoughts or beliefs that may not be necessarily accurate. Stereotyping differs from prejudice as stereotyping may be thoughts that are positive or negative while prejudice focuses more on negative thoughts on other people. The act of stereotyping is the most cognitive component among stereotype, prejudice and discrimination where it is most likely to be done by an individual who is in an unconscious state of mind. Despite it being one individual concept, it may lead to many other effects such as making the group of people who is being stereotyped to validate the statements mentioned about them. Furthermore, stereotype leads to how one perceive and treat one another. As a result, discrimination might occur.

Genuinely speaking, I have done a fair share of stereotyping over the years. For instance, when I see a male wearing any kind of pink-coloured clothing, I always have this thought in my mind that these kind of men are a little feminine and at times I even thought they were homosexual. This stereotype happens due to when I was a kid, I was conditioned to think that males are meant to wear blue and females should wear pink. As a matter of fact, I did grow up wearing clothing of any colour other than pink. Because of this, I find males wearing feminine colours rather odd because it conflicts with what I believe. Other than that, I have seen a few feminine males who speaks in a so called feminine manner and also using soft hand gestures while talking tend to dress up flamboyantly by wearing pink clothing or any other feminine colours. Even though pink-wearing males are not necessarily more feminine compared to other males, I cannot deny that I always tend to think about them otherwise.

In other occasions, I tend to stereotype smokers as wild and uncivilised while also being a bad influence in general to the society at large. Back when I was a child, my parents would always tell me to avoid from being involved in negative social environment. However, I have witnessed first-hand people, even children being influenced by their smoker friends so that they would start smoking, which is why I also classify smokers to be a bad influence to people. Also, I find it ridiculous that these smokers especially students would always waste their parent’s hard earned cash on cigarettes, which would ultimately cause the smoker’s health to decline. It is especially annoying when they smoke as if there was nobody around them. The resulting smoke coming from their cigarettes will constantly make people around them uncomfortable and worsens the environment. Moreover, I can also see in movies that the villains or thugs are always the one who smokes while displaying a bad attitude which cannot be tolerated. As a result, I find smokers to generally be irresponsible people although there are many people who are successful who still smokes but because of the environment that I am exposed to, I tend to stereotype all of them the same whenever I see one.

Another stereotype experience of mine would be on how I perceive politicians. With the recent political news stating that our politicians have not been truly honest with their

words. This pretty much happens everywhere around the globe in that politicians often use sweet words to twist the minds of the people to receive the support and votes from them. One such example that can be seen recently in this country is that our leaders has been abusing the power they were entrusted with by using our national funds for their own personal use due to extreme corruption. Another recognisable politician that is involved in political conspiracies would be Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been perceived as a person with a disrespectful attitude, a racist and he is currently running for presidency. And to this, I have been sceptical whenever I hear a politician doing a good deed because of this stereotype, I would think they are doing it with another intention such as just to get fame or to gain something that benefits themselves.

To end this entry, I would like to conclude that stereotypes are ultimately an unfair judgement on people. Most of the time, it will give us the wrong idea of the actual behaviour of an individual when we do not have enough information about that particular person to make a more accurate judgement. It is however an unavoidable behaviour as it comes out naturally no matter who you are. Even if we stereotype a particular person in a positive way, we should try to avoid or minimise the act of stereotyping as this will often lead to prejudice and discrimination, which in turn will make society turn against each other.

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29 November 2015

The Attribution Theory

The attribution theory is the study of events in order to explain the causes and effects of it. The concept of attribution allows us to make a prediction of future behaviour. Without the attribution process there would be confusion, frustration and surprise. The study of the attribution theory was first done with the work of Fritz Heider in the year 1958, further developed by others such as Harold Kelly. There are two types of attributions in which we can classify into. The first would be the dispositional attribution and the other would be the situational attribution. Dispositional attribution is always being related to a person attributing the individual’s action, success or failure to internal factors which in this case the individual itself. In contrast, situational attribution usually relates to a person attributing something to external factors.

Throughout my life, I have experienced the attribution concept. An example would be during the times when I played badminton. Winning a game in badminton means a lot to me and therefore I would try my very best to dominate the game. If I were to win a game, I would attribute my success of winning to myself and the amount of effort that I put into the game which is known as the dispositional attribution. However, when I lose a game, I would not put the blame on myself for losing but instead I would point my finger to other external factors. For instance, I would say that my opponent was the better player because he or she has been going for badminton training for many years whereas I do not attend any coaching lessons. In the case of double matches, if I lose, I also tend to attribute my failure to win to my doubles partner for his lack of ability to keep up with the pace of the match and his lack of coordination.

Talking about experience, I would like to share an incident that is still fresh in my mind. Earlier this year, I was met with a car accident. It happened in my neighbourhood area when I was at a T-junction. I stopped at a junction to see whether there are any vehicles and there is a motorcycle which is about 15 metres away from the left side moving at a high speed. I assumed that he would slow down when he sees me turn right so without any hesitation, I turned to the right quickly. However, I was mistaken and instead, the motorcyclist kept moving at his current speed causing him to not have enough time to brake, resulting him to crash into the back of my car. At that moment of time, I was not satisfied and blamed the motorcyclist for not tolerating as he could have slowed down instead of looming down the hill unnecessarily. In that case, I have attributed the cause of the accident to the external factor without looking at the internal factor in which I was impatient, thus making the wrong decision to perform the action although I was conscious of it.

Another dispositional attribution experience is when I receive good grades for an examination in which I tend to attribute my success to myself by putting in a great amount of effort such as doing intensive revision to recall all that I have learned. When achieving good grades, I also attribute my success to my parents and teachers where they have been supporting me by sending me to tuition centres to receive extra classes and guiding me on

how to tackle the examination questions respectively. However, in the event that I receive a poor grade in my examination, I tend to attribute the failure of achieving a good grade to other factors in contrast to when I get good grades. If I were to achieve poor grades, I would blame that the questions prepared are hard or the questions given are not relevant to what I have learned in school. Despite attributing my failure to other factors, in the end I would still attribute my own failure to myself for not using my full potential during my learning periods to actually gain knowledge so that I am more prepared.

So in conclusion, the theory of attribution can be used as a way of explaining certain incident. Attribution is a common concept that is unconsciously applied by many people in their daily lives as a means to explain a particular event. Despite it being useful sometimes, attribution is so often affected with the element of bias so the attribution made will not always be correct. One must consider the dispositional and also the situational factors to make a more accurate attribution to the situation. Therefore, a person should try and avoid bias in making an attribution and be more rational instead.

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