#2

I have chosen six photos of myself that I believe truly reflect who I am. Below is a collage of the six photos for reference. The first image, in the upper left corner, represents my athleticism. I have always loved being active and seeing what my body can do. After not practicing gymnastics for upwards of 12 years, I was proud of myself for being able to accomplish this pose this year. The image directly below it is of me and my father which represents my identity as a daughter. My family is very important to me and my parents are some of the most caring people I know. They dedicate themselves to my siblings and I’s well being and I love them so much for that. I am proud to be represented as my fathers’ daughter. In the bottom left corner, the image of me holding my bass guitar, represents my connection to music. I feel as though I am a musical being and that it runs through my veins just like blood cells. I am a self taught bassist, which just so happens to be my current musical endeavor. Next, I hope to teach myself how to play the trumpet. Previously, I learned how to play the piano and the tuba and taught myself how to play the acoustic guitar. I couldn’t imaging not having music in my life, so I included it in my representation of me. Fourth, in the top right corner is a photo of me posing joyously in my mirror. I included this picture because I took it in a moment of pure bliss. It was a day that was finally sunny and warm after weeks of cold and rainy/snowy weather. I love the sun and warm weather and I felt encapsulated by joy in this moment. I am a generally happy person and this represents my happiness. Additionally, in the middle of the bottom row, I included a picture of me kissing a burrito. I have found a new love for burritos this past year. They have truly taken over my diet. I will easily consume at least 3/4 burritos a week and will thoroughly enjoy every bite. Burritos have made an impressive impact on my college life, so I included it in this representation. Lastly, in the bottom right corner, there is an image of me sleeping in my friend’s bed. This represents my ability to sleep anywhere as well as my sleep schedule in general. I have always been the friend to leave social gatherings early because I am too tired or fall asleep during the social gathering. I have been known in my friend groups and family to do this for years so I feel it is only fitting that I included a representative image within my college. 

#1

A representative heuristic is a way individuals make judgments based on how the current stimuli resembles stimuli they are familiar with. An example of a representative heuristic would be a toddler mistaking a cow for a horse because they have a heuristic of a cow that is represented by a large 4 legged animal standing in a field and they see a horse standing in the field and call it a cow. As demonstrated within the example, representative heuristics may lead to incorrect conclusions because individuals may not have all of the available information to draw them. Similarly, availability heuristics are judgments people make on how often something occurs. An example would be me thinking that the majority of the population watches the show Rick & Morty because all my friends and I watch it. Again, this way of thinking leads to incorrect conclusions because it demonstrates a narrow-minded point of view. 

Another type of heuristic is called Anchoring and adjustment which means that individuals have a starting point to base decisions on already and adjust current stimuli as needed. An example of this would be how I grew up in a very affluent area that serves as my starting point, and as I explore other neighborhoods, I adjust my view and deem them as more or less affluent than my hometown. This flaw with this heuristic is that the starting point is not uniform across all individuals. Something I think is cheap may be expensive to others and vice versa. The final type of heuristic is called a status quo heuristic. This is when an individual believes that what they are used to doing is the best way to do things. An example of a status quo heuristic would be how I wear the same shoes every day because I believe they won’t let me down in any aspect and I would rather stay consistent than try something new. The status quo heuristic may lead to faulty conclusions because the individual is too closed-minded to find better alternatives. This is a common issue within politics because individuals would rather continue living with what they know than try something new.