Assignment Takeaway 5
https://www.sophie-beer.com/kindness-makes-us-strong
This image is honestly adorable, but it also emphasizes my idea that kindness and generosity can spread and uplift our communities. “Together” seems so taboo now because of quarantine and social distancing. However, we do not have to be physically together to feel together. With small or large acts of kindness, we can build our strength as a society to make it back together again.
Assignment 5 was a task of kindness. We were instructed to do five nice things for strangers, document what it was, the person’s reaction, and our reaction to completing the deed. Although I could’ve easily done five grand gestures for strangers, I decided to keep it simple to see how easy it was to incorporate more kindness into my normal life. First I gave free drinks to a girl who didn’t have enough money to pay at my job. I’m one of the managers, so this was alright for me to do. Then I bought a homeless man some food and water, helped and elderly lady with her luggages, paid ahead on metered parking, and bought the car behind me Starbucks. All acts were very on a whim, which made it more meaningful to me than planning out a deed. I was able to recognize my situation and seize the opportunity to spread kindness. My ultimate goal was to spread this generosity and hope it would go far. I did my best to greet and converse with every person I interacted with. I thought back to chapters 3 and 5 of the textbook. From my acts of kindness, I’d hoped that each person would assess, attribute, and form their own positive perceptions of people. Then they would explore the content of chapter 5. From these perceptions they can form their attitudes and then behaviors, which I hope were all positively influenced. Perhaps my good deeds encouraged these people to reciprocate the same generosity to others.
This assignment restored this sense of hope I had for society. After being in quarantine and mostly staying at home for the past year, my social interaction has depleted. I’m sure this is the case for many people across the globe. By performing these acts, they affected my attitude towards strangers. I remembered how we are not all alone in this strange part of our existence. Together we can lift each other up with the slightest gestures and spread the positivity we all need right now.
Assignment Takeaway 4
https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/psychology-love-vector-5100346
I selected this photo because I believe it resembles the way we evaluate, interpret, and choose our love partners. We often take the time to learn about someone and don’t reach that conclusion of love right away, much like a maze and its finish line. However, it does end in a strong connection depending on the different styles of love.
Assignment 4 evaluated my interests according to different love styles. The questionnaire would show which subgroups I had high and low affinities for. Afterwards, I compared my results to the average for each gender. To my surprise, I had scored lower than the female average, therefore I had a higher affinity towards majority of the styles of love. Some of the questions had asked if I desired someone I was initially friends with or relied on compatibility for the relationship to work. This made me think back to Chapter 3’s topic of Social Perception. We observe people’s behavior or attitude, attribute it to certain causes, and form impressions based on them. We use this every time we meet new people, especially when deciding on forming a loving relationship with someone. This felt relevant to me as this is how I decided to choose to deepen my relationship with my current partner. We talked for several weeks before dating, learning about each other’s attitudes, family relationships, and how we got along well. This assignment revealed to me that we should love others how they want to be loved, not ourselves. Overall, this assignment showed me a different perspective to love and my relationships with others.
Assignment Takeaway 3
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-25/U-S-human-rights-violations-through-comics-YHtiE4hBYI/index.html
This image portrays how America has conditioned itself to believe that prejudice does not exist in the country despite the numerous tragic incidents and uprise against racial injustice. As long as the country disregards its faults and how the government is unjustly systemized, racial prejudice will continue to thrive.
Assignment three explored the social psychology behind prejudice and the actions and words that are a result of it. By using an old outburst from 15 years ago by a popular TV show actor, I was able to educate myself on the reasons behind prejudice. From this assignment I learned that there is no excuse for prejudices. Discriminatory outbursts are intentional based on negative conditioning, social environment, and Fazio’s Attitude-to-behavior Process Model. To further emphasize the effects of prejudice, I analyzed the meaning behind racial slurs and foul language in general. There is valid reason these words have the negative connotation that they do, and it is because we have conditioned ourselves through generations and as a society to associate these words with their history and context they are used in.
The information I learned from this assignment can be heavily applied to our society today as we are finally acknowledging the prejudices we have been overlooking for so long. Racial prejudices are especially prevalent in American culture as they are the foundation of our “Land of the Free.” Even in public school curriculums, school officials limit the information and truth behind the history of America, further reinforcing the same racial prejudice. However, these words will never lose their meaning. I remember when reading historically accurate novels or autobiographies in class and there were derogatory racial terms, some teachers would still say them despite their meaning. Not only did it make me uncomfortable, but so did everyone else. However, that is the infamous power of these words and why racial prejudice will fail to be eradicated for as long as we let it thrive.