Blog 10: Course Reflection

How well do you feel you’ve achieved the course adjectives? I feel that I have achieved some, this semester has been incredibly stressful for me and I was unable to put my full attention to my classes.

How have your attitudes about Social Psychology changed during the course? I really enjoy social psychology! I thought it was incredibly interesting to read about and discover new things about how we communicate. I think my attitude towards social psychology has gone from neutral to positive.

What would you do differently if you took the class again? I would demand that my boss schedule me less so that I could focus on school, and I would also ensure to get a PDF version of the book because I need to have things printed out. I would probably also try to engage with my professor and portfolio assistant more. feel like I never really had time to speak to them which is apparently a very traditional part of going to a university that isn’t online.

Discuss how you’ve grown academically over the last few months. I feel that I have gained insight on how to rebalance my academics, I have realized that I need to work less than I did when I was going to strictly online school at UMGC. I also need to ensure I don’t miss assignments because this school is much more strict about tardy assignments.

Discuss one skill you’ve gained from this course and how you plan one utilizing it in your professional life. I have gained the ability to read online material which used to be incredibly difficult for me, I will no longer have to print everything out in order for me to understand it!

Blog 7: Self-Regulation vs Emotional Intelligence

Discuss the relationship between Self-Regulation and Emotional Intelligence. What does Emotional Intelligence (EQ) mean to you? Give me an example of how you display EQ or how you could improve your EQ

Emotional intelligence means ensuring you understand the importance of emotional regulation and how to interpret emotional reactions— between yourself or others. While emotional intelligence is the ability to control your emotions, self-regulation is how you control them.

I work in food service, so self-regulation is a constant internal process for me. I really struggle with controlling my cynical, sarcastic or overall pessimistic outlook during an given moment. I feel like I need to work on “quiet mind” in order to center myself with this issue.

Above are my EQ scores. I had looked up multiple EQ Tests but this one had results that were explained instead of just a number.

Blog 6: Ads and Women

I found this TedTalk to be very interesting, there are more subtly concerning changes in advertisements that I had never seen before and that can certainly have an effect on the mental health of a woman or girl if constantly viewed.

Have you noticed, prior to this presentation, how ads distort, stereotype, and dehumanize women and manipulate people to buy their products? I have noticed how advertisements distort, stereotype and dehumanize women over the years. It became particularly noticeable in the early 2000’s —when Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch were popular to wear—, advertisements everywhere were sexually enticing and borderline offensive towards women, creating an ideology across an entire generation of teenagers that their bodies weren’t good enough. It wasn’t until the early 2010’s that we were informed of the distortion of advertisements for aesthetic purposes.

Discuss how this video contributed to a new understanding of differential gender representation. I believe that advertisements have an important role in gender representation; Nike only came out with powerful women ads in the last five or so years. This prevented women from been seen as athletically capable prior to this international movement. There are also more subtle issues, such as Mr. Clean as seen below, showing a woman cleaning on Mother’s Day: This can prove to be incredibly dehumanizing and invalidating because women should not be the only ones cleaning in a household, furthermore women should not be responsible for certain chores around the house solely because it has been deemed womanly by previous generations.

Blog 5: Persuasion

Advertisement 1

This advertisement is credible because it is simple and plays to the audience’s needs. I found this ad attractive because it was easy to understand and quick.

Advertisement 2

I believe that this is a non-credible source because the communicator had a personal stake. I also know that Trump University was not successful.

Advertisement 3

I found this advertisement to be attractive because it appeals to my wants and style. This type of advertisement is effective for me because I usually imagine how I would feel in the clothes I see on screen or on a billboard.

Blog 3: Soul Meets Body

I believe that music highly effects how we interpret the world around us— especially how we interpret other people. I find that I gravitate towards people who mostly listen to punk rock and/or Disney soundtrack: These people often match my personality and are very easy to be around. I listen to pretty much everything, from classical and opera to heavy metal. I find that the values of whom I allow into my circle match my values; mine are inclusiveness, individuality, and honesty. I firmly believe that someone who listens to similar music to myself would share ideologies, philosophies, and values. Those who are close to me share ideals and values as well as music taste. My family, who I am not so close to, do not share most of the same ideologies and values as I do, but share a good portion of my music taste.

Playlist:

Anna, my best friend: Swim by Jack’s Mannequin (listen below). I chose this song as a defining title for our friendship because it was the song that played in the car that we both got excited about; we have been best friends since.

Bisma, my girlfriend: Love Language by Kehlani (listen below). I chose this song as a defining title because we are still getting to know each other but we are enjoying every moment.

Amy, my mother: Requiem Lacrimosa composed by Mozart (listen below). I chose this song because my relationship with her is not the best, but it’s getting better.

Myself: Be Still by The Killers (listen below). I chose this song as a defining title because I feel like shows what kind of person I am, what kind of person I want to be. I often listen to this song when I am going through a lot emotionally, for example, I played this song on repeat during my brother’s wake.

Life Event: I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers (listen below). This song marks a pivotal moment in my life because I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder shortly after this song came out— I found solace in this song and it was actually what made me seek therapy.

Outlook on Life: Batârd by Stromae (listen below). This song is probably the closest to my outlook on life because I am perceived as whatever the person perceiving me wants me to be. I cannot change this, and will never have any intentions to do so; I know who I am, what I am, who I strive to be— so why should I focus on what someone else thinks of me?

Blog 2: What Kind of Student am I?

What kind of student are you? I believe that I am the type of student that starts off really organized and then falls off about half way through the semester. I find that I am able to focus on a large amount of topics for roughly five to six weeks before my brain disconnects and loses interest. I have been battling this by creating a schedule: I first read the syllabi and put every assignment and discussion into an application called iStudiezPro, then I outline all essays I will have to complete during the course (by which I mean putting them in the correct version, exempli gratia APA, MLA, or Chicago), I then move on to making notebooks for all of my courses (most of which I never touch, but they’re there already for when I need them), and then I reread the syllabi. I’ve been using iStudiezPro for about two years now and it has kept me on track. I often lack the motivation to complete larger assignments or sometimes I fail to understand the passage of time and forget them altogether. I have had a traumatic brain injury (which to the average person, typically means you suffered too many concussions) which can make college quite difficult. This is also my first time taking a course longer than eight weeks, so, I’m excited to see what kind of student I am in the traditional sense. I am also an incredibly poor test taker.

Describe your current level of confidence as a student? This answer can vary depending on what time of the semester it is. Typically, I am fairly confident in everything except for mathematics. It is not really about my having pre-existing knowledge, it’s that I know I will obtain the knowledge from the course in some way or another.

What factors do you believe could increase your confidence levels? I believe having the book in hand would increase my confidence level for this course specifically, but as someone who worked in the medical field, I understand that the best way to increase confidence is to complete the action until it becomes muscle or primary memory. I have downloaded an application called Endel which plays music tailored to my daily habits and schedule, it has several functions including ‘deep work’ —which is what I’m currently listening to . This has greatly increased my motivation and confidence levels because I used to go to a local coffee shop to trick my brain into study mode, but now with the pandemic I am weary to be out for long periods of time— especially weary around other college students.

Explain your self-efficacy results in relation to your task accomplishments? I am honestly really confused about the results on the GSE, not because of the explanation on the GSE but due to the further explanation on the blog assignment I am now confused. On the GSE pdf it states that the results are equal to the sum of all the items; however, on the blog assignment information, it says the mean. If I follow the GSE’s grading requirement, I scored a 32, if I follow the assignment information a my results are a whopping 3.2. I believe that my answers heavily reflect my task accomplishments, because they say ‘if I try hard enough’ or ‘if I invest the effort’ because typically, I have the resources and knowledge to complete the task, it is finding the motivation or willpower to do so. I find that if I put a shorter deadline for myself, my ADHD brain will freak out and go into overdrive.

Please watch the TedTalk below by Tim Urban called “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator” (2016) for a more in depth understanding of what I mean.