Weekly Blog

Blog 10

In blog one my key tip to reach success in this class was to stay on top of my work. I stated that completing your work not only on time, but to the best of your ability usually gets the job done. In doing so the main takeaway I wanted form this class was to learn how to develop and maintain successful and meaningful relationships with the people around me.

Now that the course is coming to an end, I have learned that in order to have these relationships you must know more about yourself. With that being said, I have learned more about myself in relation to my own personal triggers, my style of love, and even my own emotional intelligence. These findings have shifted my view on social psychology because it allowed me to not only self-reflect but enhance my knowledge of the topic as a whole making it a very engaging and enjoyable class. This is definitely one skill that I can utilize in my personal life. Knowing who you are and being able to self-reflect on the positives and the negatives about yourself allows for continuous growth and breaking out of bad habits.

Overall, I think I’ve done well in achieving the course objectives. Academically I’ve grown because this is my first time creating an e-portfolio. Now that I’ve had this experience, if I’m ever asked to complete another for a different class, I know exactly what to do. This has also improved my academics by making me more comfortable with learning a concept then applying it to things in my personal life and making me better understand the topic. This is something I may not only need for future classes, but throughout my life as a whole. Lastly, if I were to take this class over again the only thing, I would do differently is completing all of my assignments. I’ve done well on each exam with the help of studying and taking notes but the only thing I fell a little short on was completing every single one of my tasks.

Blog 9

Top Three Things I’ve learned

This class has taught me more about myself than anything. Through various assignments and blog entries I’ve had to reflect on who I am as a person and connect it to things we have been learning throughout the course. I’ve also been able to connect things from this course to other classes such as women’s studies and sociology.

1. The first thing I learned about in the course was the importance of self-reflection and how this can benefit you in all aspects of life. This also tied into the first couple of blogs where I reflected on who I’ve become since entering college and who I am as student. Being aware of who you are as a person and the ways you interact with others and the world around you is the key concept behind social psychology.
2. The second thing I learned about in this class that made me more aware of who I am as a person pertains to the topic of love. For one assignment we answered a series of questions that were very telling of who we are as a lover. This taught me more about myself and my styles of love. This was interesting to me because I was able to connect this to my current relationship and apply concepts that I haven’t thought to think about in my relationship.
3. The final things I learned about that stuck out to me and taught me more about myself refers to emotional intelligence. Before doing a blog entry about this and learning about this concept, I had no idea that this was a thing. It taught me more about my personal triggers, and the things that make me happy. After completing the assignment I took an online test that told me my emotional intelligence was ” ok. ”

One thing I enjoyed learning about in this class that I connected to one of my favorite courses is how women are exploited throughout the media. This was a topic I haven’t talked about in any other class outside of women’s studies. We were asked to watch a video detailing women’s role throughout media and how we are often sexualized. As a women this topic is very serious to me and I enjoy reflecting on it and giving me opinion any chance I get. Throughout this topic and assignment I voiced the importance of more people being more aware of this issue and how it affects people perspective of women in our current culture.

Below I incorporated a quote about self growth. Like I said above this class has taught me more about myself than anything. Learning about myself and reflecting on myself is a positive form of growth.

Blog 8

My thoughts about this topic are different after reading this article. In the article Buss argues that most human sexual conflict results from “conflicts between different genes located in individual males and individual females” (pp. 3–4). The different genes predispose men and women to have differing reproductive interests. I didn’t know that this had anything to do with our genes. I simply thought that conflict arose due to outside factors and traits that we acquire throughout our lives. Though outside factors do often play apart in sexual conflict, it was interesting hearing that our genes contribute to it as well. Luckily, the article does suggest ways to stop sexual conflict throughout different stages of a relationship including before, during and after.  

The second part of the article talks about ways men make women upset and ways women make men upset. As a young woman I can think of many times or ways a man has angered or upset me. One being when a male says or calls out inappropriate things to me in public. This is something I’m sure many women have experienced throughout their lives and has caused them anger because we are constantly sexualized by men. Being in a relationship I know that one way I anger my significant other is by nagging and constantly wanting things done my way. Another way I upset my significant other is with my attitude. Men often times don’t show their emotions or let things affect their attitude like a woman does.

Blog 7

Self-regulation is the ability to control our own emotions because they are inside of us. In the video, Linda Fergurson references that how we feel plays a huge role in how we think. So, emotional intelligence is being able to get a better understanding of our emotions so that we can make better, more wise decisions and choose how we want to respond. Not only does this idea tie into our everyday activities and relationships, it ties into what we think in our own heads. An example included in the video was the thought of not being good enough. Linda suggest bringing this thought to light and questioning it in order to make the rational decision of how you want to respond to it. As an overthinker and someone who carries a lot of self-doubt, this is the part of the video that I related to the most.

Emotional intelligence to me means being in tune with your feelings. Knowing your personal triggers such as things that make you easily annoyed, or unhappy and choosing to avoid them. A personal trigger of mine is my ability to easily overthink and overanalyze any situation. When this happens, I often overthink myself into a funk and no longer want to continue with my task. Due to this, I try to avoid reading deeper into things and accepting them for what they are. This is an example of how I display my EQ and how to improve it.

Blog 6

Women being exploited throughout mass media is something that has sadly been around for many years. It is seen everywhere and in all forms. My first reaction to this video wasn’t shocking. I have taken various women studies courses along with a course titled sociology of women, that covered this topic in its entirety. I admire Jean Kilbourne for being a voice behind this issue and shedding more light on our faulty industry. These types of things are important for young girls who struggle with their self-worth and their image. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood exactly how ads distort, stereotype, and dehumanize women. That was simply due to the fact that it wasn’t something I learned about or heard much about while growing up. I think it is important that young girls and women of all ages become more aware and educated about this topic, as it affects our future generations. I have seen many women being sexualized and photo shopped through ads, and can only hope it’ll get better.

Below are five pictures of women and young girls being sexualized and photoshopped in ads. These examples shows how women are used to sexualize ads in the media in oder to persuade and draw viewers in.

Blog 4

After reviewing my exam, I learned that it is best to go over questions more than once. By doing this you’re not only gaining a better understanding of the question, but you catch things that you might’ve missed the first time. In doing so, it is also important to review the answer choices as well. Oftentimes there’s one word that is wrong, which in return makes the entire answer wrong. Unfortunately, this was the case for me and I missed out on points for questions that I knew the answers too. For the ones I missed, when going back and rereading I knew exactly what the answers were and could see why I got them wrong. Although we were given over an hour to take the test, I took it in 35 minutes. For future tests I will go back through the test to review and use all of my timely wisely. If I would’ve done this the first time, it would’ve definitely improved my overall score.

Blog 3

I believe music is essential in life. I personally use music to uplift my spirits and keep me in a positive optimistic mindset. With that being said, I enjoy happy songs that brighten up my days and my mood just by listening to them. I do believe there is a connection between music and relationships. However, I do not believe you have to have similar music taste in order to form connections. I say this because me and some of the people I’m closest to don’t share similar music taste, but we still find ways to connect. I believe that music brings people together because of the feeling you get when listening to it and that is when the connection is formed. Certain songs I listen to that make me feel connected to the people I have relationships with could be my taste but not theirs, and that is okay.

My Soundtrack:

Life outlook – W.A.Y.S (Jhené Aiko)

Me – Video (India.Arie)

Significant Other – Yo (Chris Brown)

My Niece – Candy Rain (Soul For Real)

My Parents – Butterflies (Michael Jackson)

My Best friend – Diary (Alicia Keys)

Blog 2

“What kind of student am I?” This is a question I’ve never thought to ask myself. Although I do believe self-reflection is necessary for growth, I’ve never reflected on who I was as a student. Initially I didn’t know how to answer this question. With that being said, I started in steps. The first thing I thought about was my work ethic. This is something that reflects throughout my academic work and in all areas of my life. I strive to always get stuff done on time and to the very best of my ability. Next I thought about past teachers and professors, and all the things they’ve said. These two steps are what led me to answering this question. In my opinion I’m a hardworking student and someone who likes things to be done not only on time, but correctly to ensure that I’m putting my best work forward. I always try make sure I’m engaged in class discussions by asking/answering questions, and giving my personal thoughts and opinions on whatever the topic may be.

I believe that my confidence level as a student is a little above average. I know that I always try to do my best with every assignment or task I am given. I feel like my confidence level would increase more if I didn’t procrastinate as much. Though I do complete each assignment to the best of my ability, I sometimes wait until last minute and have to work a little faster to get it turned in. I feel like if I started on an earlier date and took more time, the outcome of certain things could potentially be better. All in all, I feel as though I grow more as a student over the years. Each teacher I’ve come in contact with has given me some type of constructive criticism that I take with me throughout the years.

Lastly, looking back on my GSE results in relation to my task accomplishments. When doing this I felt like my results matched perfectly well to my task accomplishments. Most of my answers were 3’s, and some 4’s in areas where I feel like I excel in and could agree with the most. With that being said I feel like a range of 31 and a mean of 3.1 was fitting for me.

Blog 1

No-one person is the same. Beyond looks, there are many underlying things that make you, you. Your actions, the way you think, the way you handle situations, even down to the way you dress are all things that give you your own personal identity. Interestingly enough, some of these things may be a result of those around you. For example, how you interact with people outside of a race or culture other than your own. This concept is the root of social psychology, which is known to be the scientific study of the behavior of the individual as affected by other people and groups.

Attending a university has opened my eyes to the social world in a variety of different ways. Over the past three years I’ve adapted and learned new ways to coexist with people unlike myself. Another useful tool provided by the university is being able to take classes such as these, teaching me why certain things in the world work the way they do. I am hoping this course will further my knowledge of social psychology for future relations I intend on having. An example of this would be me starting my career in criminal justice, where I’ll be interacting with a diverse group of people. With that being said, I am also hoping to gain information on how to obtain and maintain successful connections and relationships with the people around me.

To ensure course success throughout the semester I simply plan on staying on top of my work and completing each assignment not only on time, but to the best of my ability. I’ve learned that rushing through things just to get it done and turned in on time does not always mean you will receive an A. Luckily in this course we are given rubrics to follow in order to make sure we receive all the available points.