When I signed up for this course I wasn’t sure what to expect other than learning about social behaviors. I did not realize that this course would be so in-depth and that I would learn a lot about myself. This course has allowed me to not only delve into social aspects but also into myself. I have achieved everything I thought I would from the content and plan on taking this information with me and continuing to apply it to my everyday life. I’ve found that my attitude towards social psychology shifting more towards learning about myself and how many topics apply to other classes I’m taking.

I’ve come to realize that I would much rather take this class in person rather than online just because I would be much more engaged. Interacting with other people would have made this class much more fun, but that is the only thing I would change if I happened to retake it. After switching my major to psychology I have been more motivated and enjoyed learning the material, this was not the case last semester. I have been able to grow as a student just by being so excited to learn the information provided. As I pursue a career in Psychology I will take what I have learned from this course and apply it to professional life when the time comes. Doing so by being more perceptive and aware in the workplace.

Blog 9: What I Have Learned in This Course

I have learned many valuable things through this course that have helped me to understand concepts of social psychology. Some of my favorite concepts have to be heuristics, learning how interactions with other people form the way we perceive ourselves, and how narcissism effects relationships. I decided to include Blog 1, Blog 6, and Blog 8. I have learned a lot about these topics in my Child Psychology course as well, mostly relating to children’s social behaviors as well as heuristics.

Blog 8: Sexual Conflict

There are many ways men and women create sexual conflict because of how vastly different a person’s intentions are. When it comes to sexual desire, men want to mate with many women and women tend to be more selective. It is more common for men to deceive a woman with emotional manipulation to pursue sexual advances. However, women prefer to gauge sexual interests in order to make advances towards nonsexual resources. This is the first stage of conflict, typically done before two people engage in intercourse.

Once a relationship is formed there comes a much different kind of sexual conflict that is fueled by jealousy and suspicion. Many women, fear an emotional betrayal and will deem it as unforgivable. It is the opposite for men because they more so fear physical infidelity is worse. Then breakups can lead to stalking or manipulation which can be shared between both men and women.

It is obvious that men and women do not share the same conflicts during emotional and sexual relationships. As a woman who has experienced a couple of serious relationships with men in my life, I can say from personal experience that is typically how to works in a male and female dynamic. However, it is also my opinion that in a general sense men are becoming more vulnerable with women than in the past. It makes me wonder if these sorts of sexual conflicts may change with time.

Blog 7: Self Regulation and Emotional Intelligence

As a person with anxiety, it has been difficult to develop self-regulation over the years because every emotion feels overwhelming at times, especially when they are negative. Self-regulation is a part of the formula that makes up emotional intelligence. It’s all about being self-aware when it comes to the emotional processes. It is equally as important to be active and aware of one’s emotions.

I learned a lot of valuable information from the video. Such as, de-escalating emotions provides a more mature and coherent response that is not driven by what a person is feeling, breathing exercises help to reduce the fight-or-flight response and provide info to flow through the neocortex, and doing a body scan by closing your eyes and breathe into different areas of the body to find where the tension is held. These are all tactics I plan to use in the future.

Blog 6: The Disheartening Portrayal of Women in Advertising

As I watched Jean Kilbourne’s Ted Talk on how women are portrayed in advertising, I was not met with a shock, but a reminder. I frequently delve into my subconscious to work through the way I view myself and why to avoid larger lapses of self-confidence in the future. It’s not news to me or many other women how we are sexualized and targeted in ads of various categories. As I’ve grown into adulthood I have seen the way ads have infiltrated social media sites that were originally meant to share content to friends and family and turning them into nothing but promotions for products. If it’s not models on billboards altering women’s bodily expectations, it’s the women all over social media feeding fallacy to impressionable young women. The image of women in advertising is worse than ever due to the unattainable ideals that women are portrayed as online.

When men are introduced to ads that challenge the comfort of their own physical appearance it is not as direct when it comes to ads that target women. The stakes are much different when the female body is dismembered and hyper-focused on to better appeal to men and cause women to compare themselves through their “flaws” and “imperfections” when it is actually impossible to meet these standards. Men don’t live in a world where they are objectified and subject to the fear of rape, assault, and violence inflicted by women. This mainly applies to white, cis, straight men. When men indulge in their sexual desires it is seen as normal, but when women do it it’s not as liberating.

Since women have been portrayed this way for years it makes it more difficult to gain respect, not just in the workplace but in everyday life. Looking at the differences in body language between men and women in ads is disproportionately represented. Women in advertising are posed as seductive, provocative, yet also must possess an overwhelming sense of poise, passiveness, and grace. The fact of the matter is that women are held to various standards with this reinforced subconscious that being too sexual is bad, but it’s also unacceptable to exude sex appeal at all unless it’s at the hands of a man. Boys are encouraged to be sexually precocious and instead of educating men on sexual realities, they are overwhelmed with a misrepresented idea of sex.

Due to the fact that sex sells, women cannot even feel content with the content that is used. Marketing teams and photographers produce these ideas to appeal to a larger audience, yet women are always to blame when they should not feel responsible. Ads make people feel undesirable if they are not youthful, happy, and thin. It’s hard to feel radical in your sexuality when you are predisposed to hating your own skin. This type of objectification leaves a negative impact on women and often leads to self-harm and violence when provocative behavior is normalized.

Blog 5: Credibility vs. Attractiveness In Advertising

In a world where we are surrounded by persuasive people, behavior, and media it is easy to get wrapped up in knowing whether these sources are credible. Advertising is all about influencing people who will be attracted to whatever product is being sold. Sometimes these ads can be controversial or offensive, but in reality all that matters to the people distributing this information is income. I have put together what I found to be the most exemplary ads to represent credible, non credible, and attractive examples.

The image displayed above is the example I chose for a credible source. This is because the product being shown has all of the components displayed. This gives the headphones more credibility due to the fact that they are not deceiving potential buyers, but offering an inside scoop on what the product has to offer. Many people would be more compelled to compare these headphones to others in order to find the best option.

I chose this for my attractive source for many reasons. For the vast majority of people, having bad breath is a real fear. Nobody wants to go on a date, walk into a board meeting, or walk into a party feeling insecure about how their breath smells. The advertisement provides humor and a colorful display which makes it attractive to the viewer. Not only that, but it is logical because nobody wants to have bad breath.

I saved this example for last because, well, I have a lot to say about how wrong their vision was for this. I chose this advertisement due to the absolutely inconsiderate and inaccurate display of information. The truth is, a protein powder or supplement is not going to give someone the body of the woman pictured above. Not only that, but this is a very unrealistic body image for women to achieve. A better way to go about this would be to completely cut out the question, “Are you beach body ready?” There is no one specific beach body for men or women. While this ad was released 6 years ago and the company got plenty of backlash, it is very important to focus on the positive aspects of living a healthy lifestyle. No company should be prying on women’s insecurities with a negative-based ad for profit.

Blog 4: Exam 1 Reflection

I began preparing for the first exam a week and a half in advance to make sure I performed well. In my opinion, I was very pleased with my results and feel as though I did well for the first exam. My study strategy consists of going over previously taken notes, condensing those, typing my answers into the study, and then hand-writing to reinforce the information. For the terms, I made a flashcard presentation on Quizlet and rotated through those at least once a day. I believe that feedback on anything is helpful, especially an exam because I tend to second guess myself and am prone to testing anxiety. This allows me to reflect on my results and tweak my studying habits so that I can perform better on the next one. When preparing for the next exam I will do a more concise version of the study guide when writing it out instead of copying word-for-word what I typed, as well as, try to recite information out loud to see if I could describe it to another person.

Blog 3: My Life Through Music

Personally, music has always been a huge part of my life. Most of my core memories have a certain song attached to them. While reading the article I found it very interesting that music plays a role in personal relationships with others. I’ve made many friends through similar music tastes and one of my favorite things to do is make playlists for the people I care about based on their music taste. Music opens a new perspective through various genres and sounds. Many people, like myself, use music as a way to connect with people and also as an escape from reality. In my experience music can bring people together or create a divide based on differences in taste that can also lead to a difference in beliefs. An example would be people who listen to Country music tend to have traditional beliefs and live the country lifestyle. While people who listen to more Pop or Hip-Hop are more progressive and located around and in cities.

My Playlist:

1. My Best Friends: Good Days – SZA
2. Me: After The Storm: Kali Uchis – (feat. Tyler, The Creator, Bootsy Collins)
3. My Love of the Beach: Treat Her Better – Mac DeMarco
4. My Significant Other: Fireproof – One Direction
5. My Love for Travel: 3 Nights – Dominic Fike
6. My Mom: Rich Girl – Gwen Stefani, Eve

Blog 2: My Relationship With Academics

In high school I was never a star student, I often did the bare minimum on each assignment giving as little effort as possible. That all changed when I went to college. I surrounded myself with people who would uplift my study habits and encouraged me to keep pushing. Schooling has not always been easy for me, this may be due to the fact that I doubt myself frequently when it comes to new things. Although, when I began my undergraduate journey and surrounded myself with positive people, away from my hometown, I thrived more than I ever thought possible.

I have found that changing my environment and working under pressure actually conformed me into being a more diligent student. I believe that my constant struggle with self-efficacy plays a large part in my fluctuation in completing work to the best of my ability. Struggling with depression and anxiety has made college a much bigger battle than I ever anticipated, but I’ve learned that self-discipline will always prevail even when I am lacking in motivating myself.

I scored a 3.1 on the General Self-Efficacy Scale and I believe that was a very reflective score. It becomes difficult for me to solve a problem if I have tried various ways that do not work. However, I have the confidence in myself to eventually solve the problem. I am often faced with change so I know how to think on a situation and react appropriately even if I have doubts. For me, it has been extremely difficult to adapt to this mindset and come to terms with the fact that I cannot do everything right all the time. That is why I have worked on accepting constructive criticism and learning from each difficult task that I encounter.

Blog 1: Utilizing this Social Psychology Course

I believe what I learn from this course will be valuable to me for several reasons. Being able to discuss behaviors, how individuals perceive others, prejudice, discrimination, and connections between people can lead to developing a vital skill. As humans, we tend to focus on how we feel and how we make others feel while not always considering stepping into someone else’s shoes. The concepts we learn throughout this semester will help me in my future career, as well as, day-to-day life. I can apply my knowledge to situations between others on a professional and social scale because it is directly associated with my interactions between others.

Studying social psychology will help me to diffuse the barrier between science and social life. Social Psychology will enable me to gain knowledge through scientific studies and discussions that I can apply to my relationships with others. Whether it is a professional setting or a casual setting, knowing how to interpret body language and behavior will give me the upper hand. Therefore, my expectations for this course are quite high. I expect to be more informed on prejudice and discrimination in various aspects of life and how the origins of that have had an impact socially. Understanding other’s behaviors and how we perceive them is another objective for me in terms of material that will be covered this semester.

I have many goals for this course, one of the main reasons I took it was because I am always assessing other’s behaviors. Learning how to transfer this information from my laptop to real-life situations in a more informed and professional way is one of my main goals. I believe that learning as much as I can and reinforcing it through experience is the best way to learn. However, experience is not the only way to ensure the information is memorized. I plan on dedicating a significant amount of time to studying and reviewing the material. After three weeks of class, I have adapted to spending roughly eight hours a week studying the material. Overall, I am very excited to continue learning about psychology and how it is applied to social aspects of life.