Deciding to continue my education at Old Dominion University was quite the bumpy ride for me. When I graduated high school in 2018, I had obtained my cosmetology license to do hair. While I enjoy what I do, I also realize that this job will not suffice me my entire life. My two older brothers were in college chasing after their own dreams to do a career they enjoy, while also landing them a good income. I did not know what I would want to get a degree in, but I knew I did not want to waste any time to get there. So, as soon as I graduated, I enrolled in Germanna Community College where I got my associates in general education. When I finished my program, I had learned the ins and outs of what it is like being a full time student and a full time worker. I also realized the love I have for human sciences and all aspects of life as humans. This is when it clicked for me; I want to major in Psychology and find a career where I can further my understanding of humans and the dynamic minds we have. As for the future, I still am unaware of what I want to do after I graduate, which can be a little nerve wracking. I believe life will take me where it needs me to be and I will find out what career is best for me.

Weekly Blog 3

This week I took the NEO personality test which tests the five major dimensions of personality; openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The results showed my top letter was “C”, which is conscientious, well-organized, high standards, and goal oriented. The lowest category was “A”, which means I should show signs of hard headedness, competitiveness, proud, and skeptical. I would say this is inconsistent with each other, as well as how me and others around me see myself. I can see the parts of both of these categories, though. I am well-organized, and goal oriented. Along with this, I can be hard headed in certain situations and I stand my ground. As far as the other dimensions, I can see them in me as well even though they were all in the middle range for my NEO test. I am emotional and assertive (extraversion), show empathy towards others (agreeableness), and I can also be moody and emotional (neuroticism). Even though a lot of the dimensions do not exactly correlate with each other, every human is complex and capable of showing each of the dimensions given the circumstances.

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Blog 4

My test taking strategy is something I have gotten the hang of over my career as a student. When I am learning the material, I jot down notes in a way that will help me remember the information. Along with this, I do study guides and review my notes prior to the text. While actually taking the test, I find the process of elimination as the best was for me to figure out the answers to a multiple choice question. During exam one, I got question 40, 43, and 49 wrong. As a way to better remember the correct answer, I wrote it on a piece of paper. This is the best way for me to remember something- to write it down. I also will have better access to these questions I had trouble with if i ever need to get to them in the future. I plan to keep this process going for the rest of the semester because I think I did pretty well for the first exam.

Blog 5

This week I learned about culture self, and identity. I did an exercise where I write down statements that i feel represent myself. These all start with “I am…”. These statements can be put into two different categories, which are independent cultural self and interdependent cultural self. Independent cultural self is focusing on individual personal attributes. Interdependent cultural self is focusing on features of the self that relate to social aspects. Not knowing why I needed to write down ten of these statements, I came up with the words strategic, good, happy, smart, lazy, and anxious for words that related to my independent cultural self. Then, I came up with the words shy, kind, giving, and respectful for words that relate to my interdependent self. I would say I fall more of the independent cultural self based on the statements I made.

Independent self: Express yourself. This means to reflect who you are as an individual to outsiders.

Interdependent self: Do to others as you want done to you. This relates to how we interact and treat others whether it be morally good or bad.

Again, I found it easier to find the proverbs for independent self. I am very introverted so I think that is why I have more independent cultural view of myself.

Blog 7

Disney movies when I was growing up usually shared the same set of cultural values and norms. I would say the basic of these movies like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White share the idea that girls are seeking a man to be her prince charming and that is how you will live happily ever after. These movies also portray women as feminine and fancy. They are usually not doing any hard work and wear dresses. The men are the ones who are wearing armor and fighting. In 2017, Disney released a live-action Beauty and The Beast remake. Not only is Belle a princess who has fought gender roles in the past, this movie had the first character who was openly gay. As children grow up with movies like these, it really makes you wonder how the message is portrayed for the rest of these kid’s lives. I think including more equal and unbiased representation between male and female characters in these movies will help kids be more open minded and accepted. A movie that has recently influenced me in a positive way is Encanto. Encanto has received some great feedback from the character Luisa because she is extremely strong, while also showing emotion and softness. The feedback of this also makes me hope that in the future Disney and other kid shows and movies will portray people in a more equal way.

Blog 8

Emotions and how humans react to them is something that seems to be a universal experience. When actually comparing the emotions from American culture to other cultures, though, there is a difference on how they are portrayed. For instance, Americans are straightforward with their emotions and react exactly how they are feeling. Example of this is when I am at work and dealing with an unhappy customer, I am the emotional type of person and cannot hide the fact that I might be getting upset and showing a frown face or start to cry. When I was in high school, I delivered Chinese food at a restaurant that was ran by a married couple who were Chinese. The wife was in charge of taking orders and dealing with customers. She had such a soft voice and never seemed upset, but always happy to do her job no matter the type of people she would need to deal with. I remember always listening in on what a customer was asking in case my boss needed any help translating. In most times, I could see in her eyes if she was getting upset or uncomfortable, and it was an indication for me to try and help out the situation. She would never vocalize anything. There were days that were slower and I could hear shouting and loudness from the kitchen of the restaurant. I could not believe my boss was able to be that loud and express herself that much with her husband. This has to do with “Display Rules”. This means there are certain rules within a culture on how they may express their emotions. In this case, the Chinese culture is very reserved and professional. They tend to hide their emotions when facing the public, but are freely expressive in their home and with loved ones.

Blog 9

Over this past semester, the e-portfolio project has taught me more about cross-cultural psychology in a more interactive way. Between the weekly blog posts and the more in depth activities through the assignment take aways, i’ve gained lots of new knowledge. The top three concepts that stick out were the intercultural sensitivity model (assignment takeaway), the independent cultural self (blog 5), cultural differences in advertisements (assignment takeaway). There was also some overlap in the concepts within the e-portfolio. For instance, the assignment takeaway, “values Americans live by” and the top artifact that deals with the item that represents culture. These two assignments both represent the values the American culture share in relation to the rest of the world. I also noticed the correlation between the cross-cultural psychology course and previous courses I have taken. An example of this is from my children’s literature class where we learned about how the literature and media that adolescence are exposed to from a young age has an effect on their mental development. This reminds me of my blog 7, I discussed how having more equal representation of genders in kids movies can effect children’s mental health.

Blog 10

As the spring 2022 semester is coming to an end, it is a good time to reflect upon my time in this course. Thinking back to when I submitted Blog 1, I have learned a lot and have had time to use the concepts during this course. The initial expectations I had for this course was learning about multiple cultures and how it may intertwine my American culture. In actuality, this being enrolled in cross-cultural psychology has taught me about cultural stereotypes and viewpoints and how they may overlap, or even conflict with other cultures, as well as how or why we do what we do based on our own cultural upbringing. Referring back to the course syllabus and the objectives, I would say I have achieved what was expected. For instance, a better understanding of the cultural diversity throughout the world, people and their perspectives, and making connections that will integrate learning in the real world. Overall, I am content with my learning throughout this course and the new concepts and opportunities that have com from it. I would say the only thing I would do differently is taking this course in person. Even though the online format has succeeded in teaching me, I would feel more connected with my class mates and instructors if we would be able to discuss course material in person. A skill I will be using in my real life from this course is being more culturally aware of people from different backgrounds from me. Being in such a diverse country like America, I will always encounter someone who was raised different than me, so keeping the concepts from this course in mind will help me be more open and understanding in those situations. Finally, when I think back to the continuum of cultural competence I used at the beginning of the course, I find myself leaning more and more toward the ethnorelative stages and could potentially see myself moving into adaptation.