NAME : Lee Ern Hui

ID NUMBER : 0319703

COURSE CODE : Social Psychology (PSY30203)

TITLE : Journal 1

During the semester break, my friends and I decided to go Seremban and hang out. So, we went

for a movie and then had lunch at a café. When we were waiting for our food, we chit-chat and

talk about how’s our life in college. However, I then realized that there were two of them among

us being quiet, not as active as us talking and chatting with each other. Both of them were more

entertained by their gadgets. They seem like pretty much not interested in joining us and our

topic.

Schemas are the basic components of social thought where mental frameworks are formed to

organize social information such as a person, group role or event. These schemas make us

develop expectations and expect from other’s behavior. So, when I saw two of my friends

playing with their phones, the first thought which came into my mind is that they were anti-

social and not interested in chatting with us. This is known as person schema which is a

perception formed of how you think and conclude about the personalities of others.

Besides, schema can also reduce the flow of information in our surroundings. For example, the

two of them are surrounded by information that they never realised like the laughter we made

during conversation, the smell of coffee being brewed or someone is talking nearby. In spite of

all this activities happening around them, their schema for playing with their phones helps them

focus their attention and filter out unrelated information. Therefore, they weren’t joining in our

conversation.