Blog 8 – (3/27/22)

The article is interesting to me because I can also see that men and women change their behavior in order to attract a partner. I have personally experienced guys pretending to be emotionally invested for their own ulterior motives and I have also see girls use their sexual prouuis to get guys to do things for them with no sexual ‘reward’. The difference between what each gender uses to get the other’s attention seems to be indicative of what they value. Men may value ease of mate as the article mentions the quote “men choose widely” and women may want someone who is emotionally available as they “choose wisely”. Both make evolutionary sense, as the article mentions, because men don’t have to deal with bearing a child and women want a man who is willing to help raise a family.  

One way in which a woman angers a man in heterrosexual couples is when they are indecisive to a fault. This is bothersome because as the man is trying to appeal to the women by letting her decide something, the woman now feels burdened with choice. Evolutionarily, women “choose wisely” so when it is time to make decisions, she is most likely weighing the pros and cons of each option whereas the man “chooses widely” and may come off as almost dismissive of the future outcomes by having an ambivalent perspective. 

One way in which a man upsets a woman in heterosexual couples is when they don’t discuss their personal issues thoroughly. Women tend to find it important to communicate deeply with others to maintain a strong and consistent relationship. Men tend to bond with others through action, and have deep discussions on rare occasions. Within relationships, the lack of sharing from men to their women may cause sexual tension because the women wont feel as close as she wishes with her male counterpart while the male may feel berated with his partners personal problems.

The image below represents the tension between a women who wants to speak and a man who does not want to listen.

Blog 7 – (3/20/22)

Emotional Intelligence is one’s ability to understand their own emotions. Self-regulation is one’s ability to manage and control their emotions. The relationship between the two terms is a positive one, with a higher level of emotional intelligence, higher levels of self-regulation are also present. To me personally, emotional intelligence is the ability to understand why I am feeling a certain emotion. Being able to figure out what is causing me to feel a certain way helps me figure out how to deal with and self regulate my emotions. I feel like my emotional intelligence level is rather high. Most recently, I was feeling really hurt by an action that my friend did. The action was too small to rationally be attributed to my scale of emotion so I thought about what was really going on. I came to the conclusion that it was truly a deeper trauma response rather than anything that my friend did to hurt me intentionally. During this time I was careful not to make any rash decisions or be hurtful towards my friend. I think this example illustrates my level of emotional intelligence quite well.

I included a screenshot of my Emotional Intelligence quiz that I took that demonstrates that I do posses a high level. Here is the quiz that I took.

Blog 5 – (2/27/22)

While looking at different types of advertisements, I found 3 that stood out to me. 

The first one, the Oral-B ad, is an example of credibility within advertising. This is because it shows advertising against one’s self interest. Oral-B claims to be the #1 dentist recommended brand of toothbrush and within the ad it even states that dentists use this toothbrush themselves. This goes against the self-interest of the dentist because in order to financially benefit, individuals must have bad oral hygiene. If individuals have good oral hygiene, dentists will see less patients and in turn make less money. 

The second advertisement, the Goop ad, is an example of non-credible advertising. Goop is Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand so she holds a personal stake in the company. Her goal is to make money from her brand, which will personally benefit her. The Goop brand has already faced many allegations about their health products not working and some of them are even dangerous to the consumer. This show’s that Gwyneth Paltrow cares more about the money than making sure her customers receive quality products.  Even though her ad is visually appealing and claims credibility from doctors and by being a New York Times bestselling author, the advertisement is non-credible due to her personal stake and past actions. 

The final ad is an example of attractive advertising because Selena Gomez is selling Pantene hair products. I do not find this type of advertisement effective because I do not believe that Selena Gomez actually uses Pantene products. Another example would be the commonly seen Aveeno advertisements that featured Jennifer Aniston. I never believed that Aveeno was the brand of choice for her either. I believe that the problem is when celebrities promote affordable products because it’s difficult to believe that with their assumed wealth, they would use the same products as average people. 

Blog 4 – (2/20/22)

For the first exam, I implemented my usual study tactics. I reviewed the material and began making flashcards about a week prior to the test. To ensure that this process would be as efficient as possible, I made sure to take thorough notes each week as we discussed each chapter. I would supplement information not included in the PowerPoints with the information from the textbook. I would also take notes on the material that we reviewed in lecture that differed from the notes I had previously taken. By doing this, I did not have to change my notes as I studied to include more relevant information. I was happy with the grade that I received on the exam and I feel like it is a good indicator of the amount of effort I put into studying. I only missed 3 questions, and after reviewing them, I understand why the answer I picked was incorrect. Aside from misunderstanding certain concepts during tests, I also have a tendency to answer quickly and I not look over my work thoroughly. This often hurts my grade because I miss silly mistakes, and that was the case for a couple of the questions that I missed. I am actively working on spending more time on exams. I think that looking over tricky concepts more thoroughly and spending more time on my exam will help increase my grade in the future. I will also continue to space out my studying over the week prior to exams because that did help me retain the material better than cramming the night before. I would infer that my score would have been lower if I tried to only study the couple nights before instead, so I will not be trying that on exam 2.

Blog 3 – (2/13/22)

After reading the Soul Meets Body Article, I agree that music is an easy way to gauge someone’s values. The findings in the Rentfrow and Gosling (2006) study are consistent with my personal experiences as well. Whenever I meet someone new who I deem could be a potential friend or romantic partner, I always ask them what their favorite musical artist is because I believe that it tells me a lot about their own personality and general way of being. I also connect strongly with the discussion of “musical bonding” because if me and someone else share our music with each other, it is early in our relationship and I always feel closer to them afterwards. That being said, the majority of the people closest to me all have a similar music taste to me. Generally speaking, I enjoy listening to most types of music, but indie, R&B, and alternative hip-hop truly have my heart. Often, one of my friends will play a song I thought only I enjoyed listening to and it will surprise me in a positive way. Moments like this make me feel closer to the people around me with whom I also share many of my personal values and ideals with. My friend group and I think similarly about many major topics and I do believe that their music taste is an indication of that. 

The 6 people in my life that I would like to choose a soundtrack for are my little sister, my mom, my dad, my best friend Mathias, my other best friend Carolyn, and myself. The song I would pick for my little sister, Leah, is “Fireworks” by Katy Perry because she is always empowering those around her. She believes in the best of people and will try her hardest to help them see that when she can. I love that about her. The song I would pick for my mom’s soundtrack would be “Kodachrome” by Paul Simon because it is about not only seeing the world but appreciating the beauty that it holds. My mom is good at helping me notice the little things that make our world a happier place to live; she is always one to point out pretty flowers or butterflies and I appreciate that about her. Third, I would pick the song “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock for my dad’s soundtrack because of the bass line in the song. It is so interesting and unique just like he is. He is always showing me cool musical artists that truly broaden my musical pallet so this song perfectly encapsulates that. For my best friend Mathias, I would pick the song “Doing the Unstuck” by The Cure because he always brightens my mood. His positivity is truly contagious and he really is one to turn your poor mood into utter euphoria. He knows how to get me ‘unstuck’ when I am down, so I think this song is perfect for him. For my other best friend Carolyn I would pick the song “We R Who We R” by Kesha because she has shown me how to have fun and be confident. Carolyn has been confident in herself since I met her and it has yet to waiver. She also is impeccable at making social situations entertaining without diminishing her own personality in any way. Kesha’s song embodies being a young, attractive woman that knows her own worth and also how to have fun and that is Carolyn. Finally, for myself, I would pick the song “Far Away” by EASHA because it is a song about wanting to leave your hometown and go somewhere completely different. For as long as I can remember, I have always been one to anticipate new beginnings. I transferred high schools because I wanted to and I was never nervous about moving away from home and transitioning to college. I love moving around and meeting new people and this song embodies that. 

Blog 2 – (2/6/22)

I believe I am a great student. I turn my assignments in on time and do work outside of class to ensure that I am prepared for the lecture that day. I also prepare for quizzes and tests ahead of time to avoid cramming the night before. I try my best to do well on everything that I turn in, and thus far, my grades have reflected that. Because of this, I am a fairly confident student. I believe that with enough time and effort, I can do well on any assignment. What I have done so far in my academic career to increase my confidence as a student includes; looking over assignments ahead of time to see if I have any questions, leaving more time than I anticipate completing the assignment will take in case it becomes more time consuming than originally thought, and I ensure that I thoroughly understand the material before taking any exam or quiz. Using these tactics, I have excelled academically and will continue to do so. I cannot think of anything else I can be doing that is feasible or realistic to increase my confidence levels as a student. 

My score after taking the General Self-Efficacy Scale evaluation was a 3.8. I scored 0.9 points above the mean scores from different populations (Kusukar, 2013). This makes sense to me because I have always been able to help myself. I am an independent person and seldom rely on others for help in any aspect of my life. I have been problem-solving and advocating for myself since I was young. My life has been far from stable, which has forced me to think critically in stressful situations. This makes academic problems very easy for me to find solutions to as well as stay calm. Scoring high on the General Self-Efficacy Scale directly correlates to my academic success because I believe that I can solve problems and I am more likely to put in the effort to do so. If I scored lower, I believe that I would be more inclined to ask for help when it is unnecessary and/or give up on tasks I am capable of accomplishing. I am glad that my score reflects how I feel about myself as a student.

Blog 1 – (1/30/22)

After reviewing the course syllabus, I believe that this social psychology course aligns very well with my plans for the future. Personally, I would like to continue learning about human behavior and how we interact with each other and the world. Within my career, I would like to become a child psychologist and one day open up my own practice. Luckily, this course helps me with both of my goals because this course goes into depth about certain behavioral topics, like prejudice and our relationships, that will further my understanding of human behavior as well as introduce key concepts that I feel would be important for children to have a better understanding of as they grow up. Within my projected field I feel that if important concepts such as prejudice are identified and explained at a young age, it will help make the world a more open place.
During the duration of this course I hope that by gaining a better understanding of social psychology, I will be able to identify the concepts in my personal life. I enjoy understanding why people act the way they do and this course explains exactly that. As a new psychology student, applying what I have learned in class to my personal life is what keeps me wanting to learn more.
I expect this course to require a significant amount of out-of-class work in order to fully understand each concept, and I am prepared to do so. I plan on reading the chapters and taking hand-written notes prior to each class. I also plan to utilize flashcards to help me prepare for each exam. In addition to that, I will be trying my best to minimize procrastination and ensure enough time to properly finish each assignment. Because I truly want to learn the information taught within this course, I am more engaged with the material which manifests in success within the course.