Weekly Blog

Blog 8:

Pure Happiness- Antonio

I have had the opportunity to travel and experience many different countries over the years. I lived in Okinawa, Japan and Ankara, Turkey for two years. Both places have wonderful people and cultures. It was enlightening to see how different cultures interacted with each other, and what was acceptable expressed emotions for each culture between different social settings.

Emotions are universal and are expressed in different ways by different cultures all over the world. Children learn early what is expected of them when they express emotions from culture display rules. Culture display rules are prescribed rules that govern how universal emotions can be expressed. American’s show emotions with dramatic, overenthusiastic external gestures and facial features. From loud boisterous laughter to express joy, and severe tantrums from anger. Japanese people express their emotions with quiet composure and respect of other individuals in their area. Instead of facial movements their eyes show happiness. With both groups experiencing the same internal level of joy, their outward facial features reflected different emotional control. My work in Turkey employed both American and Japanese workers. You could immediately tell them apart by their mannerisms and how outgoing they expressed their emotions. The Japanese culture rules ensured that their people expressed their selves with respect for others, and that embarrassment by over exaggeration of emotions was kept at a minimum.

While I lived in Turkey, I had 2 small children. My son was born in Ankara. The Turkish people have a very private family lifestyle. There emotional expression is generally low keyed in public, with most emotions shown by their eyes. The families I knew were extremely conservative with their emotional levels, expressions, and mannerisms especially in public.

However, interaction with children were the exception regardless of setting. Children are extremely loved and cared for. The adults interact with children completely opposite of their quite nature. When playing with any child they show extreme positive facial cues, with joyous gestures and voice patterns. Many times, while I was out eating, the surrounding adults would “come alive” when they saw the babies. My daughter was 2 yrs. old, and my son a newborn. Most times when we were eating, the staff would come to “steal” Sammy and give her special treats in the kitchen which resulted in the happiness of all parties. In America, this would never happen. Many adults in America treat children no differently then everyone else. While American’s show joy and happiness with kids, it is a quick experience. If American’s showed the same emotional excitement regarding children as the Turkish culture, the surrounding people would question their behavior.

The different culture rules explain many examples of how people express their selves and their behaviors toward each other.

Blog 7:

Blog 6:

Morals, competence, and relatedness from academics.

Self-determination theory (SDT) states that people from all cultures share basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, but that the specific ways in which these needs are met and expressed differ according to context and culture. Humans are socially evolved to crave community, financial stability, competence, and reliability as productive members of a society which is determined by the self-determination theory.

The expectation of a college degree is now a standard social norm. This expectation for a successful career ensures financial stability as a potential mate, or partner. By following the traditional path, we hope that our degree will secure a positive finical career to offshoot the costs created by that education for a secure future. By obtaining this degree we prove that we are willing to commit to a certain path and complete an objective that shows we are willing to work and support our family and community. This objective establishes a future commitment to us and members of our society that we are conformed to culture standards and are willing to work for others. This goal is self-centered as we personally receive compensation from our career and choose who to share the benefits with.

Our pride in ourselves and our behavior forces us to be competent socially, finically, and academically. Autonomous behavior is experienced as willingly enacting and fully endorsing the actions in which they are engaged, or the values expressed by them. By not allowing failure we must be successful in our academic achievements and honor the honor system to ensure a successful chance of a future. Our competence is shown by our ability to do something successful or efficiently. This behavior allows others to sense our future level of success.

Autonomy in our culture is met academically by acting in accordance with objective morality rather than the influence of desires. This moral standard is forced into compliance by guilt and the fear of disapproval of social standards. I have a Christian background for moral reasoning. Our morality of our individual actions is self-centered to our moral obligations to conform to our standards of what we believe is acceptable for right and wrong.

By attending the University, we are establishing that we want to follow a certain pathway, we are willing to follow the moral obligations of the school and ourselves and ensure a competent grade level. Self-determination theory guarantees that to be successful in our academic education, we must be competent in our studies, and morally obligated to follow rules and regulations which ensures an honest and standard path. The self-determination theory determines a psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness of academics which values our self-identity and ensures we are a productive member of society.

Blog 5:

Role of Mother and Wife: TO DO LIST

Interdependent construal of self is when a person sees themselves as part of a larger social group and behaves accordingly.

For my interdependent construal of self, # 1, I am a white female. This is part of my identity. #2 being a mother, #3 a wife, #4 a school bus drive, and #8 a college student is a role in society that follows the rules and expatiations of my teachers to pass. I am also (#9) a friend. Friendship has its own rules to follow in order to remain friends, and #10 is a sister, which is another role in society. All of these traits play a role in who I am for my family. Most of these roles are benefited for the survival of my household and fellow members of my family. Without general roles and expectations, we would not know what to except in everyday situations. This enables us to concentrate on ensuring the best life for future generations.

Independent construal of self is a “self-centered” point of view where a person’s behavior and actions are organized completely around their own thoughts and feeling without taking in other people opinion into consideration.

For my independent construal of self, I am (#5) passionate about reading. This is something that I enjoy to do for my down time. I am (#6) a good person, and (7) understanding of others. These traits require compassion and consideration of other people’s opinions. This is independent construal of self, because I am acting certain way, because its who I choose to be as a person not what society dictates for me. This behavior is still a positive benefit toward society. These traits are personal and part of my personality, and hobbies. Most of my personality is accepting towards other people. I think a lot of this is because of the way I was raised, and becoming a friendly person is an acceptable goal for who I want to be.

Blog 4:

Blog 3:

Blog 2:

There are a couple of values that are important to me in relation to my career and education. Honesty, competition, future goals, and a good work ethic are important values to my home and personal life.

Honestly is important in all fields of my life. Professional, educational, and social. I need people to be able to tell me how to improve with honest constructive criticism. I also need to know that I have a support system in place. Honesty is important in education system. Since I am taking online classes I can not read facial or body languages to compare what they are saying to how they are acting. This means that I need to take what everyone says at “face value” unless proven otherwise. Without honesty you could not trust your fellow classmates or professors.

Honesty is important in your professional life as well. I am prior military. If I could not trust my upper command to tell me the truth in an everyday situation I could not trust them to tell the truth in a crisis. When I choose a career path I expect a workplace with certain standards.

Competition is another great aspect to farther my goal. I am a competitive person, and I also have high expectations of myself. I know that if I make an effort I can succeed in any aspect of my life. Unfortunately, on a downside since I am competitive I also compare my life to other close associates and family.

Future goals and a good work ethic go hand and hand. I plan my goals years in advance. If I have certain requirements, I need to achieve to reach my goal I sure I have time to complete it. For example, my education. I mentioned earlier that I am a prior vet. I have to finish my education goals before my G.I. Bill expires. This means I have exactly 3 semesters to achieve my goal. In 3 semesters I should have my bachelor’s degree.

My parents are very supportive of me. They pushed me to make my own choices in life. I knew if I wanted to attend college I would have to pay for it myself. I made sure that I was able to have multiple avenues available to me. I had cross country scholarships, the military, and good grades. I choose the Air Force. My family pushed me to do the best I could and learn to rely on myself. This lifestyle enables me to have a good work ethic and look towards the future. I am happy with my education goal for now. My husband and kids are supportive towards my education. They help me with anything I need so I can complete my homework on time.

My Study Corner!!!!

I choose this image because it represents my study corner to farther my education. I have spent many hours in this chair because my computer will not work without the cord. It is one of the most comfortable chairs in the house. I spend a lot of hours studying and completing assignments in this corner.

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