ATA5:

I lived in Ankara, Turkey for two years. When I first moved to Turkey, I had an 18 months old child, and was pregnant shortly after arriving there. My husband had to work a lot, which meant that I had to handle everyday situations, and appointments in a country where I did not understand the language and did not have a vehicle.  I choose Chapter 5, Self and Identity. This assignment taught me that although general self-efficacy was critical to the success of a positive self-identity, other factors contributed to how I saw myself as an individual. How I perceived myself and my abilities to successfully take care of tasks affected my self-esteem, which in turn effected and resulted in a positive or negative self-identity.

This concept is directly related to my Interpersonal Relationship course, and Research Methods course. Interpersonal Relationships helped me to identify and perceive different aspects of communication. My Research Methods course taught me that by allowing myself the option to decrease my goal disengagement when completing a task when the task became too difficult I could readjust and focus on increasing my goal re-engagement. This allowed me to decrease my stress level and focus on the fact that I could achieve my desired results in a foreign country with limited help available, if I was willing to bend in my planning. I had a positive experience which resulted in positive self-esteem, and self-identity.

I am proud of my accomplishments. The above image is of Sammy and Antonio covered in butt paste in Ankara, Turkey. This image relates towards normal everyday situations of parenthood in an foreign country.

Reference:

Luszczynska, A., Gutiérrez, D. B., & Schwarzer, R. (2005). General self‐efficacy in various domains of human functioning: Evidence from five countries. International Journal of Psychology, 40(2), 80–89. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.odu.edu/10.1080/00207590444000041

ATA4:

Sex in Ads:

Advertisements are found everywhere from magazines, to billboards, to ads in movies or television shows. Some ads are blunt about their purpose, and some ads use subliminal messaging to send an unconscious signal that if we buy this product then we can look, or feel, or touch the same things as the models. Unfortunately, all around the world, sex sells. For sex to sell, the sexual appeal needs to be stimulated by a representation of a sexual desire. In most cases these desires are represented and expressed from models. Physical beauty has changed drastically over generations. Fat people use to represent wealth during the age of starvation. Now, skinny is sexy.

Body imaging and stereotypes of sexual attractiveness are harmful to everyone, everywhere. By reducing men, women, or children into sexual stereotypes, and gender roles by we are taking away their identities and what make each individual unique from everyone else in the universe. Our society will continue to sexualize people as objects until we understand that we must discontinue reducing people in sex objects, or desires as prized for commercialization’s and products.

I learned that when you objectify a person into an object, especially, by promoting sexual desires or actions, then you are essentially turning an identity into a prize or property. If a person is property we can easily reduce their value as a human into an object. Objects can be threatened, abused, humiliated, hurt, or even thrown away as an inferior object once their value is no longer top of the line, wanted, or needed.

Image:

Parts of My Body Printable Flashcards. Preschool Health. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Parts-of-My-Body-Printable-Flashcards-Preschool-Health-2910022

ATA3: Emotion and Culture

Emotion and culture are an interesting proposition when considered together.  In most cases, I do not think about how my life is different from how other people live in different cultures. I live each day surrounded in my own bubble without care or thought of how people all over the world live their lives differently then my own. My life is extremely busy. Most of my emotions are centered around how I live, what I eat, and how my children are handling life. This assignment made me readjust some of my perspectives because I needed to think about how other cultures relate towards my own.

An important part of emotional and cultural experiences are non-verbal cues. Nonverbal communication is significant in creating a positive or negative emotional response. An open communicative body position or gesture, such as smiling, is reinforcing a positive emotional memory with that experience. Many cultures have emotional significance related with food and music. Spanish and American culture both incorporate positive emotions with food and music. Cooking and eating together or listening and playing music in a group is a bonding experience that is shared around the world. The image above shows my family cooking and laughing over Thanksgiving Dinner. It is a chaotic time with laughter, playing, and eating.

I live with an American culture mentality. My culture is centered around my home, children, and independence. Andrew Montoya’s blog was interesting because a lot of his blogs from Spain are also centered around home, food, travel, and health. However, Spain has a different perspective in relation toward how they treat people and the emotions associated with it. Andrew reported that his host family was open, understanding, and understood emotionally that respect and acceptance of each other would take time and effort. This type of open hospitality is different in American culture. America is centered on the you can do it yourself mentality. We are open to each other and try to accept differences, but we push for independent reality of achieving your goal yourself instead of a community related one. This perceptive is often seen with a negative emotional attachment because American’s seem unwelcoming. This perspective is misunderstood. We believe that you should succeed in whatever you do by yourself. Andrew’s blog showed me how different Spain’s outlook is in relation to America.

ATA2: Influences on My Life

My takeaway from assignment 2, Influences in My Life, is a complicated subject. This assignment made me re-evaluate the people I am closest to in an objective manner. When I tried to explain how my relationship effects and influences who I am as an individual, I found it difficult to closely examine what my friends, and family mean to me and how they influence my identity. The above image represents that the relationships in my life will forever influence my perceptive, and that my perspective can change with the incoming tides.

Looking closely at my relationships I have found that many of the people I associated with are surface relationships. The interaction between us are merely pleasantries, not deep meaningful connections. I realize that some of my closest family members as a child influences are now non-existed. These people who were are now only passing acquaintances. However, our closest allies greatly effect us.

This assignment interlocks with my interpersonal relationship course. I realize that my self-esteem and identity are directly associated with how my family and friends influence my perspective of who I am as a person. The people who influence me also show me what I should expect from our society. They teach us how to act, think, and which social behaviors are acceptable in the community and even in the immediate household.

ATA1: N/A