Artifact 5

     My last favorite artifact was module 12’s, which was about Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk. It was probably one of the easier artifacts to link to other classes, as I’ve done plenty of research and article reviews on the topic of the body’s effect on the mind and the mind’s effects on the body. I not only made connections to earlier lessons from this class, but also other classes.  Emotions have an effect on what actions a person is willing to take, and exercise/physical activity will generally make someone feel more positive emotions. I had established that there was at least a strong correlation between the two ideas.  The video gave new insight to this idea, which gave a definitive physiological response to body language which directly influenced the thought process. It was certainly interesting that not only did the change affect the mood of the person who was producing the “power” body language, but also the audience’s response to that person. This activity was the one that I likely made the most connections to other classes since it’s part of my major to consider the ideas presented in the video.

 Source: https://prstaffing.com/2013/08/21/use-powerful-body-language-to-land-a-job-move-ahead-in-your-career/

This image shows my main takeaway from this activity. Simply from changing positions, you or the audience will perceive the “power control” of the situation very differently.  The idea was that body language will change quickly change perceptions of someone, and that your own body language will change your perception of you as well.

Artifact 4

     Module 10’s artifact about the amount of time I’m willing to wait for somebody after them being late to an appointment is my fourth favorite. It made me consider how people tend to be more lenient towards certain people than they are towards others, and how that relates to one’s personality. It’s also somewhat representative of cultural expectations, as I talked about the topic with friends who gave more leniency across the board than I did. Around this time, we read an article for an assignment that talked about how Americans were more likely to say that someone is “wasting time,” a phrase that is rarely used in many other countries. This activity extended my thoughts on that idea because it shows that we have a base level of what “wasting time” is, but that we consider different people seem more wasteful than others.  That’s a connection of multiple cultural ideas, such as how we view family, acquaintances, friends, and even employers.

 Source: http://www.oliviersoumahmis.guru/4-ways-to-manage-deadlines-on-cross-cultural-teams/

Much like how there is an actual difference based on time zones, different cultures have different perceptions of time. While many Americans believe in the idea of “wasting time,” there are many cultures that don’t believe in such a thing. Time zones signal a physical difference in the perception of time, but cultures signal a difference in how people perceive the usage of time.

Artifact 3

     The artifact about the parental values test from module 5 is my third favorite. Out of all of the points from the test, I only disagreed with my parents about one. It showed how parents are largely responsible for teaching their children values, and how people tend to hold onto those values through adulthood. I believe values come through experience, but a major component of that learning curve is vicariously obtained. Although I consider myself pretty different from my parents, this test showed that at my core, I agree with my parents on several ideas. The only reason I disagreed on that one point, which was about how past experiences continuously affect the future, was because my experiences differ from both of my parents. Out of all of the things that occurred in my life, literally one experience made the biggest difference in my thinking. This activity contributed to my learning because it demonstrates the importance of teaching values to your children, but also letting your child determine their own values by letting them experience life.

 Source: https://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/when-parents-value-selflessness-so-most-likely-will-their-children/20086

I chose this picture because it shows how although parents pass on values, a child’s experiences can adjust how those values are used. The parent teaches the child the value of giving things to others, and the child, who understands their own experiences, decided to follow suit, but with their toys. This is a demonstration of both vicarious and own life experiences.

Artifact 2

     My second favorite artifact comes from module 4, which was about Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions. While a study can’t account for every single person within a group, the numerical statement of each country’s views on certain topics was interesting. The numbers for each country gave an easy way to compare what each country thought on a general scale.  I found it amusing to see that the United States scored basically average in every category except individualism, which shows that we’re truly a melting pot of different values. Since the value is an average, that means there’s plenty of people who think on one end of the spectrum, and plenty of people who think very oppositely (or that there’s a lot of people who don’t care either way). Whatever the case, this activity made me think about the circumstances that lead to the US’ stance on various issues, and how we rank against other countries. The countries that had either extremely high or low scores showed definitive thoughts, but the middle of the road scores shows a culture that has a variety of views. It was a fun activity that gave an opportunity to compare the ideas of different cultures on a country-wide scale.

 Source: https://pacechronicle.com/opinion/2018/02/10/more-spices-in-the-melting-pot/

This picture represents this artifact because the activity gave me a numerical representation of how much America is a mixture of different culture. What I saw in the activity is that we have neutral values for most of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. While other countries that are more homogeneous culturally have values that swing one way or the other, America scored average for every category besides individualism. I believe this leads back to the idea that we’re a “melting pot” of cultures, where a a variety of values come together, therefore giving us an average standpoint in the cultural dimensions.

 

Artifact 1

     My favorite artifact this semester was from module 9 about the differences across cultures for occupational gender stereotypes. While I always considered there were cultural assumptions about who should work in the family dynamic (i.e. the woman should be a caretaker while the man works in several cultures), I never really thought deeply about assumptions of gender differences in occupations. I heard about jobs where there’s a stark difference in the populace (like much more women in nursing, more male engineers, etc.), but this activity made me consider what I personally thought about certain jobs without statistics, and what a culturally different person thought about the same jobs. There were similarities in certain jobs, but for about half of the occupations, my friend and I thought oppositely.  I had a very simple understanding of gender differences across cultures, but this activity made me think more specifically about how cultures see gender dominance in specific occupations. It was an interesting comparison that I never considered testing, and gave me a real-world application of the lessons from that chapter.

This is what comes up in  google search when simply searching “different jobs.” The search results in several different pictures with different genders representing different occupations, but almost each picture seems to show some change in which gender represents which occupation. This is representative of the idea that different people see different “roles” for each gender, but can still hold many similarities.