Blog 9
Throughout this course, the e-portfolio has helped me retain information effectively. The top three things I have learned so far in this class were the heuristics, how we interact with others romantically, and emotional intelligence. Each of these have constant been resurfacing within my other courses. For relating one of my blog posts to an assignment takeaway, I felt like the music blog post can be compared to the styles of love, since what we listen to often reflects our morals and values. Finally, one concept that I have learned in another class is being able to recall specific events primarily based on your mood. We discussed this earlier in the year in my Human Cognition class.
Blog 8
Throughout relationships, arguments seem to always ensue and overall be unavoidable. There are many sexual conflicts that can be found throughout the three stages of the mating process. Fibbing, jealousy, and stalking are examples of these kinds of aggressions. There are different ways that men and women are portrayed, however, when it comes to the term of aggression. When a man is irritated by a woman, its typically derived from jealousy and ends with a more aggressive circumstance. In contrast, when a woman is irritated by a man, its could be from lack of attention and isn’t instigated as aggressive. Although it isn’t true for all heterosexual relationships, man tend to behave in a more violent tone while women are portrayed as trying to reason within a conflict.
Blog 7
For this week’s blog post, I was instructed to take an EQ quiz. An EQ quiz is an emotional intelligence quiz to distinguish how you manage your emotions both internally and externally. In the quiz I took, the results were divided into four quadrants; self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Each these scores were scored out of ten, ten being the highest possible score. My lowest score was a 5 at self-awareness. This may have been because I do not have high standards on myself and often rely on other opinions to drive me to my goals. My next score was a 6 at self-management. A low score for this category may be because, as I explained with self-awareness, I rely on others to make decisions for me. I also have trouble keeping my emotions in check, especially when I’m uncomfortable or stressed. My next scores were both at an 8, and they were in social-awareness and relationship management. I constantly read social cues, whether it be causally or in a work environment, and try to compromise whenever I can. I personally believe that is better for everyone to be a little bit happy than one person being comfortable with an idea while another person is not.
Obviously from my results, my emotional intelligence is reliant on other people, rather than on myself. One way I can fix this is taking into consideration some of the concepts described in this video assigned to this week with self-regulation, which will ultimately help with my EQ. An example of this may be taking a negative thought and putting it into perspective from the outside. This may lead you to wondering and evaluating whether this thought it worthy.
Blog 6
In the Ted Talk, The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women, presented by Jean Kilbourne, I honestly wasn’t surprised about these advertisements. Women are consistently stereotyped and dehumanized into an unrealistic form of ‘beauty’. Photoshop provides a nonexistent expectation towards women’s beauty standards, stressing that you are only beautiful if your thin, white, and young. Not only are unrealistic beauty standards swarming women, but women are wrongfully sexualized as a way to sell a product. Women are infantized while children are expected to dress and behave older for what seems like for male gratification. Although men are sexualized through advertisements, often it doesn’t have self-degrading feelings associated with it. Often, men specifically in magazines are seen as natural, while women are altered to have a cartoon-like appearance. The ads below represent different ways women are portrayed in advertisements.
(From left to right, top to bottom)
This advertisement provides a negative connotation for being a normal weight or overweight, and implies that if you aren’t skinny you wont be liked or in this scenario, get married.
This advertisement provides a sexaual connotation towards women as a way to sell the desired product.
This magazine cover provides a photoshopped and unrealistic expectations towards women. The proportions shown in this photograph can cause low self esteem in women since this is what the media perceives as beautiful.
This advertisement attempts to assinuate that women breasts may never be perfect and saying that if your breasts are any of the following characteristics, they are imperfect.
Finally, the last advertisement shows a scenario of whitewashing. Although the makeup company attempts to include different skin tones in their makeup, the women in the advertisement all have white features.
Blog 5
Picture A represents a credible source because the information is from a primary source and approved by a government website. The CDC is a highly reliable website, and the information that is provided come from facts rather than opinion. In this particular advertisement, a woman gives a ‘tip from a smoker’ as a way to try and encourage people to either not smoke or to quit smoking. The photograph gives a visual on the detrimental health complications that may come from smoking.
Picture B represents a non-credible source because it gives a false hope for the product. In this advertisement, a makeup company called Maybelline claims that their ‘Anti-Age’ makeup product will instantly make you look younger. It claims to cover dark circles, crow’s feet, and fine lines, but in reality, it acts the same way any other makeup product would. The makeup industry constantly gives false hopes to their audience and portray a flawless picture with filters and editing. This advertisement, therefore, isn’t credible.
Picture C represents an attractive source because it not only looks appealing but provides an affordable price to feed a family. When thinking of an attractive advertisement. My mind immediately turns to food. Most of the time when I get takeout, it results from me seeing an advertisement either online or on television. This advertisement, therefore, provides an attractive array of food, as well with a price that is meant to feed a family.
Blog 4
I chose the above image because it accurately represents how I study. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F566186984387318502%2F&psig=AOvVaw39JoiJWxhEZRiHfpVr_8ir&ust=1614657118743000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCJD-9OOYju8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
For exam one, I was surprised about the score I got. I’m not the best studier and I unfortunately get distracted a lot. Much like the above image, I tend to study for a little bit before doing something else. For studying for this exam, however, I made myself study for 30 minutes every day a week before the exam, and an hour the day before. A lot of the questions I was uneasy about, but I went with my gut instinct. Prior to the exam, I took notes on all of the chapters and went over key points. For things I was confused about, I did further research on the internet to make sure I had concepts down and how to apply them to examples. For the two questions I missed, however, I went back after I took the test and thought about why they might’ve been wrong. Afterwards, I searched on the internet and read explanations explaining why I misunderstood the question. For future exams, I am going to continue to take notes on each of the chapters and looking up information I don’t quite understand. I also hope to begin studying earlier and be more prepared for the next exam.
Blog 3
Music has always been an important part of my life. Even now while writing this, I have music filling the silence. Music is both important to the mind and soul, because it can help convey feelings that the person may be going through, as well as expressing different values. I listen to almost any genre of music, which allows me to be have compatible music taste with almost anyone. Often, however, when it comes to my romantic other, we tend to have a base similarity with different artists and genres, but then venture off into different tastes. For example, my significant other prefers upbeat rock he can listen to while gaming, while I prefer more layback alternative music I can leave as background noise. Although we have our differences, we tend to listen to ‘throwback’ songs together. When I asked my significant other if what he listened to reflect his values, he said no. For me, most of the music I listen to reflects what I believe about the world today.
For my soundtrack reflecting people in my life, I chose songs that made me think the most about them. For my significant other, I chose “kissing girls: by Grady. This reminds me of the first time we met each other three years ago. For my best friend, I would pick the song “Tik Tok” by Kesha because it’s one on the most common songs we play while driving around. For my dad, I would pick “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. Not only does my dad as a teenager look like him, but he plays the song at least once a week. For my mom, I would pick Reputation by Taylor Swift because not only is she a huge fan of her, but she plays the song very frequently. For a song that represents myself, I had my significant other choose a song and he said “Sunflower” by Post Malone. Finally, for a song that represents an important event in my life, I chose the song “Graduation” by Vitamin C. This was the first song I performed on stage (in a 5th grade talent show) and allowed my confidence to bloom. Although all of these songs belong in relatively different genres, they each hold a special place in my heart.
My Soundtrack
Significant other – Kissing Girls (Grady)
Best Friend – Tik Tok (Kesha)
Dad – Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)
Mom – Reputation (Taylor Swift)
Me – Sunflower (Post Malone)
Event in my life – Graduation (Vitman C)
Blog 2
My General Self-Efficacy Scale
Throughout my academic career, it has always been a priority for me to be a successful student. In high school, concepts came easily to me and I didn’t have to study a lot. My first semester of college, however, was difficult for me. I had to learn late how to study throughout the week, and to spend hours on homework. I believe myself to be now an average student, and more confident than I was last semester. I receive decent grades on assignments and learn majority of the material. One factor I could work on to improve my confidence as a student is to procrastinate less. I work five days out of the week, so I typically put off doing homework that is due a week ahead of time until the last possible second.
For the self-efficacy results, I scored a 3.0. My highest scores (4) were at the 6thand 8thitem (see above photograph for reference). I believed myself to have higher scores for this because I can typically solve problems relatively easy, while keeping an open mind on different options I may have. For example, I have started spreading out my schoolwork throughout the week, weighing which assignments are a high priority and need to be completed first. This has also helped me slightly in ending my procrastination. My two lowest scores (2) were at the 2ndand 7thtask. Often when I get overwhelmed, I become extremely anxious. I also don’t do well when someone opposes me, and it’s hard for me to keep my ground. This scale showed me a brief view of my strengths and weaknesses as a student and showed me what I need to improve on.
Blog 1
Chapter 1 and 2 Notes
Chapter 1: 1/4 
Chapter 1: 2/4 
Chapter 1: 3/4 
Chapter 1: 4/4 
Chapter 2: 1/3 
Chapter 2: 2/3 
Chapter 2: 3/3
In chapter one, Social Psychology, it explained what social psychology is and why it is an essential part of psychology. It also discussed many of the basic terminology, such as ones needed to know for systematic observation. One new thing I learned in this chapter was the role of theory in social psychology. The figure that was shown in the textbook, you can see it copied into my notes, allowed me to make the connections toward different scenarios in a theory. I also found that it is extremely important to be open to the participants in a study regarding consent. Debriefing seemed to be the most informative and crucial in terms on consent in a study. This chapter gave me background information that I can use throughout this course and in my future field as a therapist, and overall has been a beneficial chapter.
In chapter 2, Social Cognition, it discussed how we interpret and analyze the world around us, while applying the concepts to social interactions. Here, different heuristics were discussed, as well as schemas. While heuristics are rules for making complex decisions quickly, schemas are used specifically to organize social information. Automatic and controlled processing are essential to how we communicate socially, whether it be consciously or unconsciously. Finally, our memory has a tendency or either recall or remember information that is dependent on our moods. This chapter enlightened me on the cognitive side of social psychology and gave me information I can apply to my Human Cognition 410 course. This chapter taught me a lot about heuristics and how we quickly classify people and has been valuable towards my learning so far.
As for strategies to be successful in this course, I intend to take notes throughout each of the chapters. The textbook seems to be easily laid out, and if I have any trouble I know I can contact the TA.