Assignment 4

During this time, I struggled to think of things I could do for strangers but I tried to think of things that would make my day if done for me. The first thing that came to mind was a girl in my philosophy class who always comes in wearing the cutest outfits. So I complimented her on it on the way out of class one day and she seemed really pleasantly surprised. It made me feel really good about myself to one: make someone smile and two: get out of my comfort zone to talk to new people. The next act wasn’t planned. I went to the mall with friends on Tuesday and an older lady dropped a piece of paper out of her back pocket. I’m still not really sure what it was exactly but we stopped to pick it up and give it to her. She was also taken off guard and thankful that we brought it to her attention. It made me feel nice but it wasn’t anything that any other person wouldn’t have done. At least I want to believe they would. 

The third act was similar to the first one but I didn’t go out this day. I complimented someone’s post on instagram. We may follow each other but we don’t personally know each other. I won’t be able to really know how they reacted but I just commented, “so pretty” and they liked the comment and replied, “thank you!!”. The next act was letting an older man in front of me in line at Food Lion. I was buying groceries for my dorm so I had a lot more items while he only had a few. He was so sweet and thankful and he called me a beautiful young lady which made me so happy. After that I was on a roll and decided to get Starbucks and pay for the car behind me. I won’t know how they reacted but I know I would’ve been super grateful if it was me. I felt pretty good after all that. I definitely think my life would change if one good act a day was a requirement. Not only would my self-esteem be higher but the lives of the people around me could improve too. I also have a difficult time getting out of my comfort zone and talking to people I don’t know so this would probably help me make friends.

Assignment 3

I was surprised to see how much my means differed from those of my gender. The only score close to the norm was the one about love and friendship but I feel like that’s an easy one because genuine love obviously requires friendship but doesn’t need to start with it. I actually agree with my scores. It was definitely surprising to see how much physical attraction played a part in my relationship but I’ve always thought it was important because I believe you need to be physically attracted to your partner. A sexual relationship doesn’t define a relationship but it can be a big factor. I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with scoring high in Ethos, in fact I would say it’s a good thing so I agree with the score. I strongly disagreed with all of the ludus questions which I ultimately scored a 5. I don’t believe love is a game. Love is genuine, honest, and vulnerable. The manipulation that happens between two people stems from attraction and infatuation. It can turn into love where there shouldn’t be any manipulation. I already touched on storge. I scored low in pragma. I do believe that you have a lot of control over who you fall in love with so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with love planning but in my circumstance, there wasn’t and won’t be that much forethought. We’re stuck with each other and now we have to keep each other in mind when we plan for the future. I scored high in mania just because I’m new to such a serious relationship and I’ve been disappointed a lot. Not to mention the anxiety. I have never considered suicide because of my own insecurities though. My partner has been so patient and he tries to be understanding and make things comfortable for me. My score for agape is pleasant. It’s very high for being giving and non-demanding. We basically live together so we share a lot of things. Not to mention I’m willing to move to a different part of the country for him by myself. 

The relationship I’m in is relatively new but at the same time we’ve been together for what feels like forever. I’ve known him since I was 16 but we started dating officially only 7 months ago. The only reason it’s not over a year is because he’s in the Navy and went on a deployment in 2021 for 7 months. We had only just reconnected before he left. But we emailed each other for 7 months and made it official a month after his return. I do expect the scores to change where I am less bothered by less attention or an argument just because our relationship will be so much stronger and I’ll hopefully feel more secure in that. My priorities have shifted SO much while being with him and I know his has too. We’re planning on getting engaged sometime this year or the next. Priorities have changed to make sure we are financially stable and together. Not much else matters besides that.  

Assignment 2

Assignment 1

Heuristics are mental shortcuts used for problem solving and judgments. The first is representative heuristic and it’s making a judgment based on characteristics resembling a given group that they are part of that group. An example of a representative heuristic is assuming a person born in the country who regularly attends church and dresses very old-fashioned is politically conservative. But they live in New York City. The problem with this assumption is that most condensed cities contain more liberal people so it’s technically more likely that they could be democratic. Availability are conclusions we come to based on personal experience, familiarity, and extremity. An example of an availability heuristic is hearing someone cough anytime during 2019 to now. Covid-19 is in the forefront of every person’s mind and what may actually be an awkward swallow or a common cold can cause worry of coronavirus. This heuristic fails to recognize the realisticness of situations. The true conclusion is not always the most dramatic or obvious. Anchoring and adjustment is using an anchor or starting point and adjusting it to come to a solution. An example of anchoring and adjustment could be a teenager asking their parents to extend their curfew for a night out with friends. The teen has a curfew of 9PM and wants to be out till at least 10PM so she starts off by asking her mom for an 11 o’clock curfew and they adjust until they agree on 9:30PM. The problem is that in more grave situations, the starting point can seriously affect the result. Because the adjustment is made to be a compromise, the result may not always be fair and people can be taken advantage of. The last is the status quo which is the belief that old is better than new. An example is a family looking to move into a house and they prefer an old one built out of bricks than a new one built out of vinyl sliding in a tract housing area. The problem with this is that when it comes to things like political figures, food, products ect; it becomes hard to evolve, improve, and experience new things. 

I actually had a good time reading the textbook and putting all this information together. It was interesting to learn the actual terms for things we do all the time in our everyday lives without even noticing. I have definitely done all of these things within the past week at least. I see a person in one of my classes and assume their major (representative), get nervous when someone coughs (availability), debate on what to do with friends (anchoring and adjustment), and get the same iced caramel macchiato at starbucks (status quo).