Assignment Takeaway

AT A5

The picture above shows a woman and a child who are seemingly happy. To me it spoke volumes of strength, and that the woman has no choice but to stay strong because she has a little one depending on her. The picture also is a representation that we may not know exactly what the next person is going through and that was my takeaway from Assignment five.

I found the information that I learned in assignment 5 to be extremely relevant because it was a reminder about why I chose to study Psychology and that is because of the lack of psychological health representation in my community. The information in the study provided more proof of that lack of representation. During this assignment I had to critique a journal article dealing with psychological disorders in a country of my own interest. I learned almost nothing because what I assumed were the results were actually the results. For that matter it was nice to know research is being done in lower-income areas of Nigeria, and being provided at clinics where patients don’t have insurance. My findings reminded me of a lesson from Psychology of Women that speaks on women’s health. From that lesson I was taught that women of color have an under usage of therapy. This is a piggy back of the information provided in the study that the Nigerian people (people of color) were dealing with Depression and anxiety but were not or weren’t able to utilize psychotherapy to help in the management of such disorders.

AT A3

I chose to include a visual representation of the Nigerian flag being that is where the student did her studying abroad. It seems like everyone takes a lot of pride in their flags, and I thought it’d be nice to include it being that she had a positive experience.

The biggest take-away I have from this assignment is to never give up on your dreams. The assignment required us to read a student’s blog, and then report on their experience as it pertains to what we were currently learning. Imani, the student who’s blog I chose to review, never gave up hope that she was going to study abroad in Africa, and she has now inspired an older student like me to never give up as well. I have made many excuses about why I have missed the opportunity or any other opportunities for that matter. But, I realize if I don’t believe in my dreams then no one else will, and I’ll never gain the momentum to achieve anything. Imani’s experience reminded me of my own experience studying abroad while studying the Culinary Arts. Going to another country and experiencing life in an unfamiliar way is extremely eye opening. The things that I learned while traveling through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand were not technical things, but merely to appreciate what I have at all times.

So, like I said earlier, my biggest take-away is that I’m going to Nigeria. Like Imani, I want to see where I come from, and I’m going to keep speaking that until it becomes tangible.

AT A2

I believe as Americans we place a lot of emphasis on the flag and what it stands for, but not enough emphasis on the action that it takes. So I thought including the glorified flag as my visual representation was necessary, based on my own views as an American

In our last assignment we had to discuss the differing values that Americans can have over other countries. The things that we make mandatory in our daily lives without thinking, are values that we have been taught to be important. Yet if we traveled or lived in another country these same values would be confusing to others. I learned that some values I see as universal values such as time and change, are surely not universal values. Once reading the article I thought myself silly for ever having these thoughts at all. It reminded me of my study abroad experience in Asia. The amount of thankfulness for a mere dollar, or the priorities put on daily activities such as family dinner time were things that opened my eyes even more to my opposing lifestyle. Also, in my past studies in Industrial Psychology we talked a lot about the preparation in working overseas, and how you have to be attentive to the values of other cultures that you may work with. In order to offer the best management services for other individuals you have to know what would be best for them, and sometimes that brings on a learning curve for people in higher positions working with outsourced employees. The opposing values learned in assignment two brought back up these past learned topics.

The American flag brings anger to a lot of other countries, and some countries have an undisputed hate for the citizens of the U.S. Something that people honor in one country, would be severely destroyed in another, and our differing values or beliefs is what brings on this riff.

AT A1

I included the above image showing different cultural people holding hands as a symbol of togetherness.