This activity stated that there were some reasons to believe that some social psychologists have thought that “Similarity leads to attraction.” But then some also say that “opposites attract.” The reason why I feel like similarity leads to attraction is because I know that when I am looking for someone that I am looking for someone that is just like me in a sense. I say that because I want someone that has similar values and morals that I do. I also want to do things with someone that likes the same things that I have interest in. I’m not trying to sound self-centered but I am grown and I know exactly what I want in my life partner. 

Other social psychologists say that opposites attract; I have definitely heard that all of my life. I am more for similarity leads to attraction but I also agree with opposites attract. The reason that I agree that opposites attract is because being with someone that is different from you can be beneficial. I say beneficial because you can learn from people that have opposite views from you; you can see different perspectives of things. Also the person might introduce you to new and exciting things that you aren’t used to. Therefore, I do agree that at times that opposites do attract. 

In my opinion, I feel as though that similarities and differences/opposites go hand and hand with one another; ideal relationship. I asked a total of 6 individuals the same questions about what they look for when looking for a partner; do they look for similarities or opposite traits. My results showed that 2/6 said that opposites attract, 2/6 said that similarity leads to attraction and 2/6 said that both play an important factor when it comes to a great relationship. I was surprised that no one’s responses outweighed one another. I love hearing different views because I understand all of the reasons behind it. 

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I think that the way that reporters inform us on the news at times can make some people feel like it’s a whole minority of muslims, arabic etc that are all bad people. For example ISIS, people always like to assume that all of the members are middle easterners. By those individuals taking in the wrong information can cause those nationalities to get targeted more when it’s not everyone. Another example would be when reporters reported where covid “originated’ from. By the news accusing and blaming everything on China caused so many problems. Many individuals would literally just go up to asians after that and abuse them; how can we accuse a minority for this virus? In closing, certain news outlets reported that Antifa and Black Lives Matter were involved in the January 6th insurrection, but the evidence showed that they weren’t involved at all. Therefore, they tried making the blacks out to be the problem. The news needs to do a lot better when it comes to overemphasizing cases. 

I was extremely surprised while I was watching the 20/20 report because this shows how the media really exaggerates what’s really going on in the world. I was surprised that the crimes weren’t going up like the news was making it out to be; when in reality the evidence proved that in reality the crimes were actually decreasing. This is truly unfair to everyone. The way that they are reporting information is not legit because they are leaving out certain crimes, population growth etc because all of that comes into play. This really shows that cases aren’t going up but peoples’ perception about it is going up due to the media. 

This blew my mind because all of my life I heard about lead poisoning in Aspen, but in reality people really don’t go to the hospital because of lead poisoning but they mainly go for skiing accidents.  

I enjoyed completing the Behavior Survey. I  liked answering the questions that were asked. The questions were the same and different at the same time. When I think about dissonance I think about the inconsistency between the first few emotions between the first set and the second set of questions that had different feelings between the two similar questions. But a certain kind of wording can change what’s being asked and the way you feel towards it. For example, the first question #6 was talking about having a designated non-drinker can reduce alcohol accidents. Then the other #6 was asking if I feel like regularly designating a DD before jumping around to different bars. They both are talking about DDs but one is talking about it reducing accidents related to alcohol and the other one is talking about just assigning a DD before going out. Therefore, there asking somewhat the same thing but different at the same time. My attitude was pretty much the same for each question but some were more direct/serious than others to me. The way that I reduce and restore the balance between attitude and behavior is by seriously thinking and talking with myself before reacting. I have to be logical in any situation because the old me wouldn’t think before actually really thinking. An example of when I experienced dissonance would have to be when I found out my ex betrayed me like no other. After all the tears made me want to just destroy everything but then I just wanted to listen to music, be by myself and relax my mind. The way I was able to justify my actions was by talking to myself and surrounding myself around clear minded individuals. 

Throughout this activity, I feel like regardless of change people may see over time that there isn’t really any drastic change. In my opinion, the world and how others perceive one another is getting worse; there’s a lot of injustice. For example, I got all of the adjectives right for the Blacks and Asians. The world hasn’t changed when it comes to stereotypes toward blacks for sure. Other nationalities in reality have negative stereotypes even when they say they don’t. This is just the world that we live in. The world is a racist place that can’t change unless people want to change. 

For starters, the thing about me is that I don’t live by the social norm; I like being me and being my goofy self. For example, when I go into the store with my mom I do funny things infront of her to make her laugh. When I do things like that I also notice that other people laugh at me also. That makes me feel good inside because I brought a smile to someones’ face. Even the other day during my car ride going to the Blue Ridge Mountains; we got into a lot of traffic when a great idea came into my head. So I decided that I would open my window and just start singing loud to people while we waited in traffic. All of the people that I did that to look absolutely shocked in the beginning, but smiled after and some even sang along with me. I never really get back negative feedback and I feel like that is because I give off positive energy. I’m not all for social norms because I feel like the norm is boring and my family brought me up to laugh through life. Therefore, I’m using this picture that was taken by my cousins’ girlfriend during an elegant family dinner. During the picture, I was singing loudly and dancing with my purse as though it was a person on a date with me. I did that because everyone was with their partners while I was there single. So I made jokes about it and they had a good laugh as I embarrassed them; we don’t get embarrassed because laughing is healthy for us.

After tallying up everything, I noticed that the most tallies went to happy people that are unselfish; the total for that was five. I had two for unhappy and selfish people. One for unhappy and unselfish. In closing, I had one that was both happy and unhappy but they were unselfish and then one was for both happy and unhappy and also being a selfish and unselfish person. People can be both happy and unhappy because life has so many ups and downs and some don’t know how to balance between the two so their emotions are unbalanced. The one that I said was all of them being happy and unhappy and both unselfish and selfish because once again life can be tough and sometimes you may be very generous but at times its easier to be selfish to protect yourself. At times it’s ok to be selfish but not all the time.

The one that I believed was the most aggression would be number 11 and 13 because it’s talking about harming others intentionally. With harm to living versus non living things has to do with people that have a bad temper. Accidents isn’t something done on purpose but when you intend to do something on purpose. With actual damage versus no physical damage; the difference is that words being said which hurts. But physical harming and words hurt. Self defense is when you protect yourself and not intentionally hurting someone just to do so. With survival it’s things you have to do to survive and it could either be good or bad ways etc.

In my opinion, happiness is at times something that is hard to explain and discuss. A lot of the time when I talk to others about happiness they say that happiness is when they feel most at peace and that not everyone is perfect but we have to find peace with those flaws; which turns into happiness. But many people have different perspectives on it; at times people say that money buys happiness. But why is it that so many famous people are so unhappy and at times they kill themselves because of how unhappy they are. But when I think about happiness, I feel like happiness has to do with yourself; no one should ever be in control of your happiness. Happiness is you making yourself happy when things are making you sad. For example with me after my recent dark place that I was in, I had a serious talk within myself and I told myself that I can’t waste years being sad when I can be happy. Therefore, when I feel sad I snap myself out of it because I don’t want to regret being so down when I can make myself happy. Happiness is what you make it. I feel like expectations is the downfall in society because expectations lead to disappointment and unhappiness. If you don’t put yourself to match expectations than you will be the happiest in my opinion. Cultural expectations perception determines if others are happy by their social class and things of that mature but at times they aren’t even happy. Having happy life is through yourself and whether or not you choose to have a happy life for yourself or not.

Artifact 3:

My recent item to archive that I really enjoyed the most was module 11 archive, “Are people who help happier.” I liked that one the most because it’s something I can relate to now on a higher level. The other day I was talking to my dad about all the people that I’ve helped that hurt me in the end. He told me that from now on he’s going to be selfish because people did him wrong way too much. I told him that I will continue to do for others but the only thing that I’m going to do differently is only pretty much do for those that do for me. But to a certain extent I’ll do it for others because I’ll get my blessings in the end. I don’t need things in return. 

This assignment taught me that you are in control of your own happiness. For a while I just wanted to be a selfish person but instead it made me feel like a bitter and unhappy individual. I told myself that I can’t have expectations because with expectations comes with disappointment. Therefore, you just have to do things out of the kindness of our hearts. I say that because I know a lot of unhappy people and they are like that because they always expect things back and you can’t live like that. You will have a miserable life if you live like that. Learn how to be happy and if you expect stuff back then just do for those you know will reciprocate it. 

Artifact 1:

All of these artifacts that we completed made me reflect on my way of thinking about many things. I learned so much these last couple of weeks about myself and others perspectives on certain things. The archived item that I enjoyed the most was module 3 on whether or not people look for similarities that lend to attraction or do they look for opposites attract. The reason why I enjoyed this module the most is because I learned a lot from others and our exchanges of point of views. I thought that everyone would have said that opposites attract when it comes to what individuals look for in a relationship. But in the end, everyone had different perspectives on this certain topic. An equal amount of people said either similarities lends to attraction, opposites attract or just both. I loved this discussion with the individuals I talked to. We can all learn from eachothers perspectives. But at the end of the day, we all agreed with what one was saying. 

Throughout this assignment it has taught me that maybe in my future relationship I should look not for just similarities; I should also look for opposites, because I feel like they go hand and hand with one another. With having both traits I feel like that balances out many things. It’s good to have similarities but by also being opposites can make partners look forward to things; never a dull moment. 

The image that I chose was from my favorite love movie, “The Notebook.” The reason why I chose that is because even though the two main characters were from different walks of life they still had many differences and similarities. But that showed me that with those qualities that that builds a strong and stable relationship.