Blog 10: After rereading my Blog 1 entry, I can see that my expectations for this class were accurate. This class has been very informative and engaging, especially through the assignment papers. I think I did pretty well achieving my goal of succeeding in this class and doing so by following the rules I set out for myself. I don’t think my attitude towards Social Psychology has changed. I have always thought that the social side of psychology was fascinating and something I wanted to learn more about, and I still do. One thing I did underestimate was exactly how much time should be devoted to this course, and if I took this course again, I would set aside more hours of studying. Sometimes I caught myself a little bit behind because I didn’t accurately account for how content dense certain chapters were. In this course, I have grown more aware of how others affect me and my life even when I don’t consciously realize it and how I may interpret others or affect their lives without realizing it. Through the assignments, I was able to see how I relate to aspects of social life that I didn’t think I related to, like my use of self promo or my use of certain heuristics. So, the one skill I gained that I could use in my professional life would be the ability to relate or put myself in the position to relate to others.
Blog 9:
After reviewing all the items in my e-portfolio, three things stand out to me because I either learned a lot from the assignment or it was just fun to do. The first one, and the one I am most proud of, was assignment 3. Although that paper isn’t included on my site, ATA 3 allowed me to reflect on what I learned. I know that prejudice and discrimination is very prevalent, still, in our society. But, I learned that something so obviously prejudice to you can be seen as simply as a “temper tantrum” to others. The second item in my e-portfolio that was able to learn from was ATA 2. From that assignment, I was able to reflect on how much, how little, and what assumptions pictures can say about you. I found a connection from this assignment and Blog 3. Musical taste can say a lot about a person just as well as pictures. The last item from my e-portfolio I enjoyed doing was ATA 4 because, in assignment 4, I was able to talk about the love my partner and I share as well as test myself to see what kind of love give. I learned that, while these tests are extremely popular, they are not 100% accurate. I made the connection from this assignment to my Scientific Reasoning in Psychology class because, in that class, we are often asked to assess the validity and reliability of experiments, and I able to use that prior knowledge to asses the love tests ! took for that assignment.
Blog 8:
In the reading, Sexual Conflict: Uncovering the Mysteries of the
Mating Battleground, several very interesting points were brought up about how sexual conflict differs based on gender. One of the points that was interesting to me was that men tend to want to reproduce widely and women would rather reproduce wisely. In this case, you can see how women might operate from a more emotional place than men do. Another point that was shocking was that such a high percentage of men have admitted to behaving deceitfully in order to sleep with a woman, and that women take part in this behavior as well. One of the ways men upset women is when their actions don’t match their words or when men behave in a way that comes off as nonchalant and not caring. One of the ways women upset men is when women, consciously or unconsciously, give the impression to others that she is single even while she’s in a relationship.
Blog 7:
The more aware you are of your emotions, the better you should be able to control them, but it sounds easier said then done. It can be extremely hard to see through the strong emotions you encounter that can cloud your judgements. Emotional intelligence, to me, is an awareness that grows as you grow. When you’re a child, you don’t have any control over your emotions which leads to no control over your actions. But, as you get older, you become more and more aware of what your feeling and what brought those feeling about. The tricky part is being able to identify the judgements gathered by your emotions and still being able to decide right from wrong consciously. To improve my EQ, I want to try the technique of saying out loud, “I’m aware that I’m thinking the thought of..”, because often times thoughts just build up in my mind and can become overpowering.
Blog 6:
The horrid way social media and ads portray women is nothing new, but this TedTalk really opened my eyes to how bad it was in the 1960s. These ads would consistently body shame women which in turn lowered their self-esteems, starting at such a young age. It is mind-blowing to me that these magazine companies, whose target audience are teens and adolescents, still include heavy amounts of oversexualized content. And it is equally as shocking that the United States allowed this to appear in magazines but wouldn’t allow sex education to be taught in schools in 2014. This video did an amazing job explaining and demonstrating the presence of dehumanizing ads in our society for men and women and how these ads may influence us in our decisions making process unconsciously.
Blog 5:
Picture A can be seen as a credible source because it features a very well known brand of toothpaste: Sensodyne. Based of how often people see the brand, alone, can influence whether or not they trust it. Brands seen very often are more trusted than brands that are not common. It also includes an image of a doctor who may be an actor or an actual doctor to help persuade you to believe that this toothpaste is really recommended by professionals.
Picture B represents an example of a source that is not credible. A trick for identifying ads that aren’t credible, particularly political ads, is to look at the bottom of the ad and it will say who paid for the ad. In political attack ads, like Picture B, the ad will be paid for by the opposing party. Most of these ads are opinion based and cater to the people who follow the opposing party. These types of ads are typical for political parties and companies who try to persuade you why their company should be chosen over their competition.
Picture C represents an attractive source. The person in the image is a well known and well liked celebrity modeling for a perfume company. I think this ad is effective because the model, Zendaya, is indeed attractive and it makes you wonder what the perfume will smell like which could persuade you to buy it. I think this type of ad works on a lot of people because the typical thought is, “If it’s good enough for Zendaya or whoever else, then it must be something worthwhile”. Perfume companies, sports appeal companies, food and/or alcohol companies are just a few of the many companies that relay on celebrity appearances to appeal to their market.
Blog 4:
From reviewing my Exam, I was able to identify where I have been falling short in my test taking skills. I got a pretty decent score, but upon reviewing my exam I saw simple mistakes I made that hindered from possible getting a better score. I noticed that I have pretty strong skills when it comes to narrowing down the answer choices to just two options. From there, deciding between the last two options is where I struggle at the most. Of the seven questions I missed, I remember during the test being torn between the two answer choices to then unfortunately chose the wrong answer. In order to combat this, I think I should take more time to really assess what the question is asking for and apply the best answer choice as well as double checking if that is the answer choice I want to go with. Another thing I can do to test better would be to take more detailed notes while reading the chapters and make sure that I have a strong understanding of the vocabulary terms well so I can identify them in the scenario questions.
5-Important-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-when-Writing-an-Academic-Paper.png (800×600) (4writers.net)
Blog 3:
Music and relationships have such a strong companionship when you really think about it. Music is a universal element that is present in cultures and religions across the world. Music is something that surrounds us and is deeply intertwined with who we are as people. I think a topic like music is so strong a topic in connecting people to one another because it applies to everybody and everybody has an opinion or preference. Similarly, astrological signs are a topic everybody can relate to, even if you don’t follow it heavily, because every one has a zodiac sign. So personally, I have witnessed how music can bring people closer to one another especially with my partner and I. I have found that we have very similar morals, values, and goals and that can probably be linked to our common music taste.
The soundtrack I’ve constructed is compiled of all the songs that either evoke my favorite memories with my favorite people or its a song that I associate with someone I love and my feelings about them.
My Soundtrack:
Me – Too much to say – Queen Naija
My Partner – Never Would Have Made It – Marvin Sapp & Just the Two of Us – Grover Washington, Jr. (feat. Bill Withers)
My Best Friend – Wicked Games – The Weekend
My Siblings – Way Too Gone – Young Jeezy (feat. Future)
Outlook of life – The Battle Is The Lord’s – Yolanda Adams
Music Meme Templates (Page 1) – Newfa Stuff
Blog 2:
The question, “What kind of student am I?”, is a really hard question to answer because every student wants to paint themselves as the perfect, high achieving student with many accomplishments. But, the reality of it is that a large majority of students are not perfect. I wouldn’t consider myself a perfect student by any means but I continuously work towards improving myself in that aspect. The longer I have been in school, the more I have been able to adjust to the changes in workload, over the years, such as the change from elementary level work to junior high school and so on. I have also been able to develop skills along the way that have helped me to be successful. I am confident that I am a good student because I put in the effort it takes and I’m determined to be successful but that doesn’t mean I’m perfect or the best. To increase that confidence, I would like the see more consistency in my grades across all my classes. I scored a 28 on the General Self-Efficacy Scale which is pretty typical of students, and I’m not shocked. I would consider myself a middle-of-the-road student, but I am aware of my flaws that could possibly account for my average score and I’m still working to improve them.
My General Self-Efficacy Scale results
Blog 1:
After learning about heuristics, I’ve gained an understanding of how people use shortcuts, provided by the brain, to help perceive and understand the things around them. In the future, I can use this knowledge about heuristics to understand how individuals come to certain conclusions. I expect this course to be really engaging and informative. I hope to gain an increase understanding of the social aspects of psychology and learn about brain processes that I didn’t know existed. I know this course is packed with information, so I need to devote a lot of time to it in order to grasp the material efficiently. To do that, I’ll be setting out time specifically for this class and reading the book thoroughly.
Availability Heuristics at its finest.
