AT 4:

I learned perhaps why I am still single from this assignment! I also don’t really believe that my results were strictly on par with what my beliefs are now, however I think this is at least in part due to the relationship that I was thinking of when I took the test. For example, my answers more reflected a relationship that took place about 15 years ago and though I tried not to let allow bias, the ending of that relationship probably did color my responses in some way. This subject is actually in line with what I am currently studying another of my classes. I have had to take a similar survey this week as part of looking into how styles of love change from adolescence to adulthood. As such, I took the new one with an ideal relationship in mind and have received slightly better results. I think that this has opened my eyes and given me new things to consider when looking toward relationships, particularly romantic ones.

This picture doesn’t really relate to the assignment, however it does reflect how I feel about true love.

AT 3:

I found this assignment difficult to write. Personally, I don’t believe that there is ever an excuse to use the type of hateful language used by Mr. Richards, and I vehemently believe that there is no excuse for it. Irrationality induced by extreme anger that he claims to have been the source of his verbal vomit, is an excuse. An emotion did not chose his words. He did, by selecting words that were already in his subconscious thought and support ideas that he already held.

Growing up in rural Oklahoma, my grandparents were of the old school racism. They never overtly said or did anything that could have been condemned as such, but the way they spoke or acted betrayed their true beliefs. One of the benefits I saw in moving to Virginia Beach, was the hope that my son would grow up to be color blind and tolerate of all differences. In an extremely small way, I find that raising my child to understand what racism is helps to not propagate the issue to the next generation.

AT 2:

This assignment was somewhat enlightening. I went back through years of pictures to find the ones that I wanted to use. The ones that I felt represented me best, however when looking back, I realized that the older pictures don’t really represent who I am now. Maybe at one time they did, but I have grown and changed in the time since. It also made me wonder at the practice of having a photo montage at a person’s funeral service. The pictures are nice, but they mean something different to each person and they don’t do justice to a full life lived.

Each of the pictures I chose represent some aspect of me, but together, they do not make who I am. The graduation picture doesn’t show all of the late nights and missed meals I sacrificed to get that degree. The picture of us at Hamilton will never be able to tell you how truly happy I was that day. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it will never tell the full story.

AT 1:

I found this assignment and the subject matter especially impactful. We use heuristics so much in our daily lives, that understanding them, and their limitations are extremely important. In a society where the idea of acceptable outward appearance has changed over the last 2 generations particularly, it is vital that we constantly check our heuristic schemas to ensure that we are not “judging a book by its cover”.

The heuristic that really hit home for me, and on that I tend to actively use, would be anchoring and adjustment. My sister and I are avid flea market shoppers, and though we have done our research on most things we purchase, haggling is a constant activity in that environment. I have attached a picture of some of our purchases from the Brimfield Flea Market in Massachusetts this summer. Each time the vendor would give us a price (an anchor) and I would make an offer less than what they asked (adjustment). This would go on until we agreed upon a price or agreed to disagree and we would walk away.