Assignment #4: Gender and Advertising in Culture

My final assignment for this semester had me find some images of advertisements from my culture and another culture to look at the differences at how men and women are depicted. Below is a PDF copy of my final assignment for this course.

Although I enjoyed the third assignment, I think this one came out on top as my favorite assignment to complete. As soon as I read the instructions sheet, I knew I would have some fun completing this and finding different representative images. Even though I had fun searching for images of advertisements from different cultures, it made me realize how differently we portray men and women in media across the globe. It was kind of disappointing to see the emphasis the United States places on beauty and sexuality in advertising and commercialism versus the culture that I compared it with. Of course I knew that the United States has always favored the “pretty” models or the ones with sexual appeal, but looking at it at a deeper level made me understand even more about the beauty and networking industry. It often seems as if these advertisements are made to make people feel bad about themselves so they will purchase the product being promoted and support that company or brand.

I compared advertisements from our culture to those from Asian cultures. I found it interesting how different our ways of advertising products were across cultures. In Asian cultures, though they still use the typical “pretty” model, the emphasis is on the product itself and not the person included in it. I noticed this was especially prominent in perfume ads, as perfume commercials from the United States rarely feature the bottle of perfume or cologne until the very end, when they show you what it looks like. In Asian cultures, I noticed that the people featured in the advertisements were actually using the bottle and not just running around on the beach or lounging on a boat, like they would in American ads.

Working on this assignment has given me the opportunity to think more in depth about the beauty community and advertising industries, as well as what they find attracts people to their products and what kinds of consequences can come from this type of promoting.

Assignment #3: Study Abroad Blog Analysis

The third assignment of the semester had us find a blog from a study who studied abroad during their college career. For this assignment, we were to find a student who’s blog we wanted to read and discuss how their experiences and travels relate to culture. I attached a PDF copy of my third assignment below.

I really enjoyed this assignment. Though it took me a while to find a student who’s study abroad opportunity interested me, I was thrilled with the student who’s journey I read about. Cahleb Derry studied abroad in Rome, Italy during his spring semester of school in 2019. I decided to write about Cahleb’s experiences because Italy is a place I would love to visit one day, and he wrote very well and had incredibly intriguing experiences during his time there. So far, this was my favorite assignment to work on. I enjoyed reading his posts about his study abroad journey, and there were a lot of them!

I found the most difficult part of this assignment was trying to single out one student to focus on and write about their experiences and how it relates to cultural psychology. I read through a few different students’ posts and finally settled on Cahleb Derry’s, of which I related his experiences to emotions and culture. Cahleb wrote about how he was feeling and different emotional experiences he had from before he left the United States, to his last few days in Italy. After reading his posts, I found it would be appropriate to relate his study abroad experience with cultural display rules and self-conscious emotions. Cultural display rules are relevant in every part of the world, though we may not realize it. I felt as if self-conscious emotions worked well with Cahleb’s story, as he often felt guilty while he was in Rome, which can be considered a self-conscious emotion.

This assignment has made me long even more for the day that I may be able to travel to Italy. Italy is a country full of culture, cuisine, art, architecture, and history that I find fascinating. As much as I enjoyed reading the blog entries of another student, I could not help but feel somewhat envious that I may not have the opportunity to study abroad. I am happy for those who are able to travel for their academics, as it is a great opportunity to expand their mind and extent of knowledge. Overall, I enjoyed completing this assignment and hope to experience what Cahleb Derry did during his time studying abroad in Rome, Italy.

Assignment #2: American Values

Our second assignment had us read through the 13 American values described by Robert Kohls. Some values Americans live by include change, time, equality, individualism, action and work orientation, and competition among others. I have a PDF copy of my second assignment below.

I thought this was an interesting assignment to complete. Of course, I understand what many of our values are as Americans but I found it interesting to read more in depth about them and discover how they relate to my life. Most, if not all, values could be applied to me in one way or another. The values are different for all of us, as in, we can all relate to them in a way or feel as if we are an outlier who does not value that characteristic of Americans. For example, though I feel as if I can relate to some extent to all of the cultural values described by Kohl, the one I felt the most distant from was materialism. Yes, I do love shopping and acquiring new things, but I what I have in my home does not define me. I try not to take any of my possessions for granted, as I am blessed and grateful to have what I have, though I try not to rub in what I have to others who may be less fortunate. I do value materialism, but I do so with more consideration in mind for those who are not as fortunate as myself.

Trying to decide on a value to write about and discuss my experience with was difficult. There were a few a felt strongly about, including equality, change, action and work orientation, and materialism. I decided to discuss action and work orientation, as I had strong feelings toward that value and how Americans view their work and careers. Americans place a lot of emphasis on their work and careers, more than some countries and cultures, myself included. I find myself often stressing about school and my job and how I can work the two around each other. I want succeed in school, but I also want to have a good job performance, which can cause stress while figuring out how I am going to get everything I need to done.

This assignment has allowed me to understand American values more in depth and determine how my own values and experiences fit in to societal and cultural values. It was interesting to read more in depth about what we as a culture value and think about how different we are from other cultures, as well as thinking about how they may react to our values. Completing this assignment has allowed me to understand more about values in different cultures and how we need to be sensitive when we meet people from another culture, as their values may not match ours and their values should be respected, as we would hope ours are.

Assignment #1: Intercultural Sensitivity

Our first assignment for Cross-Cultural Psychology related to our intercultural sensitivity and what stage we felt we fell into. Personally, I felt as if I fell into the stage of Acceptance of Difference. Below, I have attached a PDF copy of my first assignment for this course.

Before I completed this assignment, I did not know that there were multiple stages of intercultural sensitivity that one could be categorized as, though now that I have read the article it makes sense to me. No one person is the same and not everyone falls into the same category as another. People have different viewpoints and opinions regarding other cultures and reading through the article made me realize how different people can be with their beliefs. My hope is that people will be able to move out of any stage of intercultural sensitivity that can be considered negative, such as denial and defense against difference, and move into a more accepting stage, such as adaptation or acceptance.

This assignment has allowed me to understand the differences in people’s beliefs about other cultures. Unfortunately, working in customer service has its drawbacks as some of my co-workers have a different ethnic background, though there culture is that of most people in the United States. I have seen it happen more often than it should that a customer approaches one of my co-workers and starts to ask them about their culture and the country they are from. Of course, my co-workers being from the United States, are dumbfounded and have to respond by saying they are from here and follow cultural values and traditions of the United States, rather than the country of their ethnic background. It seems as if people confuse ethnicity and culture and I hope to help alleviate some confusion or questions through what I have learned from this assignment. It would help to avoid awkward encounters for some, plus it would help to educate others on different cultures and the different stages of intercultural sensitivity.