Blog 10
I would say that I have achieved some of the course objectives, not quite as many or as well as I would have liked to, but I have definitely found much of the course to be interesting to me and would love to learn more. My attitudes towards Cross-Cultural Psychology as a whole have not changed. I thought the topic would be interesting to learn, and I still feel the same as I knew nothing about it prior to taking this course. If I took the class again, I would try to take it face-to-face as I learn a lot better with in person classes compared to taking them online. I need the hands-on, personal interaction rather than just reading information posted online and “learning” that way. I have actually struggled a lot, personally and academically over the last several months, so I’m not sure that I would actually say I have grown academically this semester, unfortunately.
Blog 7
I would definitely agree that fairy tales, at least a good amount of them, reflect a shared set of cultural norms and values. A lot of fairy tales, as explained in the article, typically have a woman in distress, and more often than not, she is a princess to be saved by the heroic “prince charming.” She is also often forced to be the one cleaning after and cooking for the rest of the household (such as Cinderella being a servant to her stepmother and step sisters, and Snow White keeping up the dwarfs’ house, though she was not forced in this tale). This teaches girls that they have to rely on men to save them and that household duties are their responsibility.
However, there are other fairy tales that teach young girls to be themselves and that they don’t need to rely on anyone but themselves to accomplish (or even have) their goals. Pocahontas was a princess who did her own thing, despite the disapproval from her father, friend’s, and tribe. Moana saved the world by sailing herself across the sea to find Maui and force HIM to do his part in saving the islands. Pocahontas saved John Smith from being murdered, rather than her being saved by anyone at all. Moana completed her journey with complete accomplishment: bringing life back to the islands.
Sandra Bullock’s character, Leigh Ann Tuohy, from The Blind Side is one that has positively influenced me. She had to put up with scrutiny from so many people, including her so-called friends, for taking in Michael when he needed her most. She took him in out of the kindness of her heart, and her friends, as well as many others, claimed it was for charity reasons. Despite all of this, Leigh Ann provided for and loved and cared for Michael as if he were her own son, including legally adopting him. This movie in general just reminds me to always do what I feel is right, and to ignore whatever negativity may come from it, because what other people think shouldn’t matter.
Blog 6
I would say that I meet the needs for autonomy academically because I am not being forced to go to class, do my work, etc. I am responsible for all of this on my own, and choose to complete my assignments and attend any classes because I want to and because I want good grades that come from doing so. Because I do these things on my own without being forced, and I try hard to achieve (and mostly obtain) good grades, I also meet the needs for competence academically. This is due to the fact that achieving good grades motivates me to complete my work. In relation to relatedness academically, I guess I would say that I really only fit the needs for this because my family/friends are proud of all academic accomplishments that I achieve. It is more difficult to have this with professors however, due to taking only online classes and never truly interacting with my professors.
I feel that this image, or collage of images, encapsulates my competence academically because the better I did in school, the more motivation I had to continue to do well and it made me feel good about myself to do so. These are all cropped images from my short time at TCC while I was in the accelerated program. They are all letters from making the dean’s list (my first semester in which I did not have enough credits to make president’s list at that time) and president’s list my final two semesters there. There is also a letter stating that I had one of the highest GPA’s of the entire accelerated program ever.
Blog 5
1.I am a mother.
2. I am responsible.
3.I am human.
4.I am a wife.
5.I am creative.
6.I am anxious.
7.I am stressed.
8.I am honest.
9.I am trying.
10.I am a people pleaser.
As a person, a lot of people depend on me for various things. For one, my children depend on me to take care of them and be there for them, My friends also depend and rely on me to be there for them, but in a somewhat different sense. I tend to put other people’s needs before my own, and I make sure that everyone else is taken care of no matter the cost. Due to life situations, I am definitely stressed and anxious and just doing my best as most people are. I am creative in many ways, whether it be the various types of crafts that I do or how I am able to figure out different ways to achieve a goal. When it comes to the independent construal of self, I would say that number 5 may be the only one in the list to truly fit while all the rest would fit more with the interdependent construal of self. Based on this it would appear that I am more interdependent, and I guess in a sense that could be true, however I would actually say that I am more independent as I do not try to or need to “fit in” anywhere, I do things (mostly) for myself, and don’t try to be anyone other myself, no matter how many weird quirks I may have. It is easier to think of English proverbs for independent construal of self I would say, because it revolves around simply being who you are, despite what everyone around you is doing or being. I am all about people being who they are without judgment. People should be able to be open and honest about who they are to themselves and to those around them. This is also a lesson I try to teach my children. Be yourself, and ignore what others have to say about it.
Blog 3
For the five dimensions of personality, I scored as follows: Openness I scored low. This one I would have marked me down more on the high end based on the descriptions of each dimension. Under openness, the “high” description states “open to new experiences,” which I am definitely always open to, “you have broad interests and are very imaginative,” this part I somewhat fit into, but not totally. I would not say that I am very imaginative. The low end of openness states “down-to-earth,” I can agree with that part, “practical,” yes, ” traditional, and pretty much set in your ways,” which I would not so much agree with. There isn’t really anything that I could say that I am set in my ways.
Conscientiousness: I scored average. This result was very fitting and is exactly how I would describe myself by the description. I am a very dependable person. I am always either offering to help or actually helping other people with anything. I put everyone else above myself and make sure that everyone else is always taken care of. I am moderately well-organized. I am definitely organized pretty much anywhere but my own home, I try to get organized but it never lasts. I prefer to be organized, I just don’t always get there. And I have my goals set, but I do push them aside at times to deal with other things. j
Agreeableness: I scored high for agreeableness. This is another one that my personality is consistent with my score. I am definitely compassionate, good natured and eager to cooperate and I hate conflict. I do everything I can to avoid conflict.
Extraversion: For extraversion, I scored low. This does not really surprise me because I am not fond of being around many other people or out in large crowds or anything like that. However, based on the description, I would have put myself closer to average. Average states “you enjoy the company of others but you also value privacy” which is mostly true. I enjoy the company of select others. Those who I am close to and actually like to be around. And I definitely value my privacy. I am a homebody and perfectly content most of the time not being around others.
Neuroticism: I scored averagely on neuroticism, which is consistent with my personality. I deal with stress very well. With a husband who is almost never home due to deployments or having to travel for work while having two kids at home who are doing virtual learning (or even before they were virtual or in school at all) and having to run a household and be a student and still want to make sure everyone else is cared for, I manage my stress well and don’t let it get the best of me. The description also states “…sometimes experience feelings of guilt, anger, or sadness,” which is definitely true. The guilt is extremely rare and stems from me being home rather than working and being able to financially contribute to the household. Although there is no need for me to work at this time and it is better for me to not while doing school and raising children, I still sometimes feel like a burden because I could be doing more. I suffer from depression so I absolutely get the feelings of sadness at times… and anger… well, it isn’t very often, and can take quite a bit to truly make me mad, but when my emotions are all over, there are times that it takes absolutely nothing at all to irritate and anger me.
I chose these words for my word cloud because they are the first that come to mind and the ones that are used most when others describe me. I chose these colors because I felt they were somewhat calming and not too bright.
Blog 2
One main life value that is important to me, and that is relevant to my career choice is resilience. Being able to “bounce back” from hardships in life is not something that everyone is able to do, and I am lucky enough to have this quality. No matter what life has thrown at me, I overcome it. I stay positive and do whatever needs to be done to get through whatever “it” may be, and I never dwell on it, because that does no one any good. As a hopeful forensic psychologist, resilience is a quality that will be good to have as dealing with criminals, I can only imagine the hurtful things they would try to put you through/say to you. I decided to continue onto higher education because I wanted better for myself and for my kids. I wanted my kids to see me succeed and not think that a mom’s job was to just stay home and take care of the kids and house. I want them to see me work hard to get where I want to be, and to know that they can do that too. I had a lot of support when it came to be going back to school. All of my friends and family constantly push me to do better and keep up with how I am doing and are so very proud of me, which make me proud of myself. I AM proud of myself for finally going back to school, and for doing as well as I have done since going back, while raising my children and having a husband always away from home due to work. I have an amazing support system making sure I do well in all aspects of life.
This is only a portion of the desk that I work and study at. My computer, papers, and some of my textbooks. Can’t forget the coffee! What isn’t shown is the music playing and lit candle.
Blog 1
The course objectives will help me in the future because I will be able to understand how culture affects behaviors and will be able to use that when studying the behaviors of certain people, and why people behave a certain way. Understanding the culture will then help me better understand the person, and that is an important part of the job of a forensic psychologist, which is my intended career path. My expectations for this course are pretty simple. I plan to learn more about other cultures and how to best interact with people of other cultures. I would also like to have a better understanding of the differences in cultures and why these differences exist. As for the course, I plan to keep up with assignments the best that I can while taking notes that I find important and that will help me in the future. I will also have discussions with classmates on topics covered in the class in order to keep the information “fresh.”
