Weekly Blog
Weekly Blog 9 | What I’ve Learned
For this weeks blog we are invited to reflect on the top 3 things I have learned throughout the semester. They are as follows:
- Self Construals–Very interesting framework that has opened my eyes to how other cultures think and operate in comparison to others
- NEO Personality test–It’s amazing to see how many personality tests exist, and the different things they measure and why
- Self Determination Theory–This can applied to anything, and helps with reflecting on aspects of life
Drawing a connection between a blog post and another assignment: Self Construals and ATA2 with examining American ideals. Assignment 2 was an eye-opening one, because thinking about the ideals shaped by North American culture in the lens of immigrants, and thinking about it in the context of the entire world by comparing and contrasting was also incredibly eye-opening. It’s not as black and white as fitting completely into interdependent or independent, but again provides some framework to make predictions, and give oneself context to loosen the grip on our cultural ideals of being “universal,” as some with national pride may believe.
Drawing a connection between a blog post and another class: Cognitive Psychology, specifically perception and top-down processing. Our reality is shaped by the knowledge we gain in our environment, which is why cross-cultural psychology is so important understanding psychology in a larger perspective than just Western psychology. Culture shapes distinct, specific norms and knowledge that influence our perception and view of the world. Without having learned about perception in cognitive psychology, I probably would’ve questioned the significance of cross-cultural examination in psychology rather than it being classified as sociology or anthropology. This semester is my first semester of higher level psychology courses, so drawing the connections helps clear up underlying ignorance or burning questions.