As I reflect upon my initial post (Blog 1), I come to the realization that this class has been very fulfilling and has nailed the syllabus to the door. This course and the material within has helped clarify many of my life’s unconscious truths. From musical to visual entertainment, from my everyday decision making to emotional intelligence, and from relationships to communication methods, social psychology has been the driving force of my very being. Though I had a deep down, mild understanding of who I was, how I felt, and why I felt that way, I never had the terminology and scientific understanding of it all. This course has helped me develop a deep appreciation for social psychology and human reasoning. I have been able to trace back to my childhood and recount many of my past memories, turning them into a more clear story. This has helped me realize a lot of my decision-making habits, hone in on my communication skills, and find purpose in some of the emotional feelings I have found to be unnecessary beforehand. I deeply value all I have learned in this course and hope that I can use some of the knowledge I have gained to help others come to understand who they are on a more scientific and intimate way.

This is a screenshot of my computer with dual windows open. In the window to the right, my first blog post (Blog 1) is opened as I read over it to reflect on my initial expectations for the course and to gather my thoughts for this post (Blog 10). In the window to the left, I have opened my rough draft of this post. This is the way I have always worked and utilized during this course. I have had a pleasure working at this course and have learned more than I expected to.

I find this article very interesting and wish I would have had it at my side before, during, and even after some of my relationships. As humorous as it may seem, some of the simple truths laced throughout the sexual conflict article by Nathan DeWall, are clear and concise enough for the average Joe or Jane. Though sexual preferences and habits are deemed personal and touchy subjects, this article could be of good use to many, if delivered on time and in good taste. I believe having this knowledge could help prevent men and women alike from making those simple, yet drastic mistakes most of us seem to make before, during, and after our relationships take flight…and often crash.

I believe, at least in my experience, that women upset men with simplicity, well because that’s all it takes – and that is not to say that their upsetting behavior is always done intentionally. Before I say anything else, my marriage is fantastic – don’t get me wrong, but my wife and I both do our fair share of upsetting one another. One thing my beautiful gem tends to do that bothers me is…well…the photo below explains it all…

I chose this photo of our toilet paper holder in its unsatisfactory, depressing, and frustrating state because it is something that upsets me. Though a simple fix, this dilemma is a household nightmare that causes stress, depression, and inconvenience…for me alone 😉

Self-regulation and emotional-intelligence work hand-in-hand to help bring a person’s awareness of their inner self to surface. These two psychological characteristics do so by giving a person the opportunity to distinguish judgments from feelings and rational thinking from emotional feelings. Furthermore, self-regulation and emotional-intelligence do the same in reverse, by assisting us in aligning our judgments to our feelings, and our rational thinking with our emotional feeling, both in which complement the other and offer an individual a higher level of self-awareness and understanding. Together, self-awareness and self-regulation help us respond to life’s occurrences more critically, with more understanding, and with more rationale.

Emotional intelligence, to me, is having an intimate relationship and understanding of how we feel about, process, and react to the diverse situations life throws our way. I believe emotional intelligence is a reflection of a person’s inner awareness and reveals their personal characteristics, especially in moments of high stress and uncertainty. Also, I believe emotional-awareness is something we all have a tendency of underappreciating. So often, we seem to react with a ‘knee-jerk’ and do not take the time to develop useful and meaningful thoughts that lead to positive reactions.

An example I like to use for how I display emotional-awareness is when my children have mini meltdowns. Often my five-year-old and four-year-old twins have a hard time processing their emotions and can be a lot to handle all at once. In these situations, I like to take a short but needed moment to process the situation and give as much patience as possible. I come from a family with a history of high-stress anxiety so I am always on alert and try to stay aware of my stress levels. I always take my time through talking with my girls collectively and individually, followed by taking time to reflect on each situation to have a better understanding of how to make the next one a little easier for everyone.

I chose this screenshot of a post I added to Instagram a short while ago as it is a fine representation of what I wrote of above. The verbiage tells the story and I find it perfect for the assignment. Also, I love the humor aspect of it!