Weekly Blog
Blog 10
This semester has gone by super fast. I can’t believe we only have a month left of classes. After reflecting on this course, I realized just how much I have learned in such a short amount of time. In my very first blog post, I talked about how I was excited to gain skills that could help me be more open minded when talking to others. I am proud to say that I do feel like a more open minded individual now that I have taken this course. I also think I had minimal knowledge about social psychology coming into the class, but know I realize how large this field really is. I did not expect social psychology to infiltrate basically every aspect of my life. I find it so interesting that I can connect the things I have learned in this class back to real life examples that I have experienced.
I also think that I have grown as a student during this semester. This was my first semester taking 18 credit hours and it really pushed me to my limits. However, I was able to stay on-top of my assignments for all of my classes. If I had to take this class again, I would definitely study more and try harder on the exams. However, I am still very proud of myself for not dropping this course and sticking through til the end. I think the biggest takeaway from this class that I can use in my professional life would be applying things that I learn. The application of knowledge is so important in the therapy field and I think I will be able to do that because of this course.
I chose this image to because I feel like it represents my growth as a person and a student over this semester. I feel like I have blossomed into a new person recently and this course has definitely contributed to that.
Blog 9
I think the top three things that I have taken away from this course so far include emotional intelligence, learning about prejudice and stereotypes, and understanding how attitudes and behaviors are influenced by a lot of outside factors. I think these three are the most important because they have helped me become a more understanding individual to others as well as to myself. The idea of people having different selves ties into people’s attitudes and behaviors being influenced by situational factors. Understand this has helped me have more empathy for others. In ATA2, I talked about how I have many different selves. This tied into my second blog post where I had to answer the question “What kind of student are you?” Both of these assignments required me to look into my own self and contemplate why I am the way I am and how different events in my life have shaped me as a person and student. This concept of introspection is often used in my art courses. Whenever I have difficulty coming up with a concept for a project, I often look inwards for inspiration. I try to emulate my own feelings and life experiences through my art work.
Simplification
I chose the image above to represent how I took a large amount of information, and simplified it down. It was hard to come up with the most important lessons I have taken away from this class because I feel like I have learned many things. However, I think the most useful lessons include those that can help me become a better person to others.
Blog 8
After reading the article about the sexual differences between men and women, I thought about how these research findings fit into my life as a college student. I feel that sexual conflict happens often between college students because this is a time in our lives where we are figuring ourselves out. I know many college students who are navigating the difficulties of dating and relationships. When it comes to heterosexual relationships, I think that men and women get on each others nerves pretty easily. Men often upset women when they are not very communicative, or when it feels like they can’t be trusted. Women upset men when they are too flirtatious with others or when they nit pick over little things. The article also explains how women and men can get upset with each other over differences in sexual desires and needs.
I chose this image of a woman yelling at a man through a megaphone because I think it shows how women often get angry with men because it feels like men aren’t listening to them.
This image of a man yelling at a woman doesn’t really show why he is angry with her. However, I found it interesting that the majority of the stock photos I found showed men being more aggressive and violent towards women than women were to men.
Blog 7
Self-regulation and emotional intelligence are two concepts that I am familiar with because I go to therapy. In the video, Dr. Ferguson talked about de-escalating our fight or flight response. The breathing techniques she shares were one of the first types of coping skills that I learned in therapy. If people can self-regulate, then they can take a step back and be able to de-escalate emotions and think more rationally. Another point she brought up was trying to become more aware of your judgments when you are highly emotional. If people can become aware of their assumptions, they can then break those judgments down and determine if they are realistic, or if they only exist because of heightened emotions. For me, having emotional intelligence means being able to have control over my emotions. It also means being able to understand why I am feeling a certain way. After going to therapy, I think that my emotional intelligence has gotten better. I feel more in control of my emotions, and I am also able to de-escalate myself when I have intrusive thoughts. Below, I attached my results from two emotional intelligence tests I took online.
I was not surprised when I received a high score on my both tests. I took two separate ones just to see if my results matched up. The sample for the second test had a list of my strengths which included being emotionally self-aware, showing good self-control, and being comfortable with emotions in general. I feel like these traits describe me as a person very well. This is one of the reasons I want to become a therapist because I think I am very aware of others and very good at detecting how people are feeling.
Blog 6
The Ted Talk about ads was informative, but it did not really show me anything surprising. As a woman, I see how my gender is represented in the media because I get to see it everyday. The extreme beauty standards of society are an everyday reminder that I do not and never will look like these women. The Ted Talk did get into how having these hyper-sexualized images be normalized for young children can cause psychological damage. This was shocking to me. It made me think about how many almost naked pictures of adults in ads I would always see in the magazines my parents bought. I think this is what causes young individuals to become so obsessed with their images. People who have unrealistic features and proportions are always on display. I am glad that there are people in the world like Jean Kilbourne who study the problems with the advertising industry. A lot needs to be changed about the way we view beauty and female bodies. I think this issue has only gotten worse because of technology like photoshop. However, I do think that people are starting to try and advocate for “normal” body types and features being represented.
I chose these images because they all represent the “idealized” woman in our society. When I look at all five images, I cannot think of a person I have met in real life who looks like any of these women. Not only are their proportions and bodies unrealistic, their features are also sexualized. In all of these ads, the women’s breasts seem to be the focal point of the picture. What is this telling young girls? Advertising companies definitely need to work on creating more inclusivity of all body types, races, facial features etc.
Blog 5
This ad above is an example of a credible ad. It states some statistics about the vaccine as well as provides a stamp of approval from the Virginia Department of Health. When it comes to vaccines, it is very important for their ads to be highly credible so they will not turn people away from getting the shots.
This ad above is an example of a non-credible source. There is no evidence that proves that this product creates such a drastic difference on this woman’s skin. People are often skeptical of ads that claim to have very dramatic changes because we know that dramatic changes such as weight loss or skin smoothness don’t happen overnight.
This ad above is an example of an attractive ad. The beer is seen as more appealing because of the beach setting and the beautiful, tan women in the ad. Since most beer companies cater to male consumers, ads like these are used to draw men in with the attractiveness of the models.
Blog 4
My score on Exam 1 was an 84%. I feel that I am deserving of this grade based on the amount of effort I put into studying the material. I think that my note taking skills are not the culprit to my lower score. I think that I did not spend enough time reviewing the information and studying before the exam. I also felt rushed during my test because I took it at an inconvenient time during my schedule. I only spent 25 minutes on the test and I think I would have gotten a better score if I had taken more time on each question. After reviewing the answers I got wrong, I realized that some questions I did not read thoroughly enough and that is why I had chosen the wrong answer. The grade I received was a passing grade so I am happy about that. However, I am shooting to get a higher score on the next exam by studying more and planning a set time to take the test.
Test Plan
This is an image I found that is a good strategy for how to break up studying for a test. I want to try and do this for the next exam. I plan on looking over different sections of my notes at least a week before the exam date.
Blog 3
In the article “Soul Meets Body”, similar music taste was studied to understand how it affects relationships. It was found that people are drawn to those who share music tastes with them because they will then perceive those people to have the same values as them. I think this study summarizes my life. Music is very important to me because I grew up around it. My childhood consisted of U2, Dave Matthews, Kings of Leon, Jason Maraz and Lifehouse. I find that I have a very similar music taste to my parents because I grew up listening to music they liked. My freshman year of college, I met a group of girls who all listened to the same genera of music as I did. Now, I am living with those girls. I think that all of us having the same music taste helped develop out relationships with each other. It seems like we are more similar than we might actually be just because we all listen to the same types of music. I think music really bonds people. I think people make initial impressions of others based on the kinds of music they listen to. For example, I typically have a predisposition to not really vibe with people who only listen to rap music since I really do not like rap music
My Songs
These six songs all hold some sort of relevance in my life. There are some from different genres because I listen to different kinds of music around different people I know. For example, Every Storm by Gary Allan is a country song. I really only listen to country music when I am back home in PA because that is the kind of music that my friends listen to up there. Most country songs remind me of my home town. Back That Azz Up by Juvenile reminds me of my sisters because we like to play this song really loud and laugh at the lyrics because we think it is funny. I think it was hard to pick out specific songs because typically I relate different genres of music to different people and events.
Blog 2
What kind of student am I? I have answered this question in different ways as I have gotten older. When I was younger, I was a very uptight, straight-A student who would always try her best. I still think I always try my best, but I do not think I am as uptight about school as I used to be. I try to have more fun while I am learning and I try not to be so hard on myself when I get bad grades. I think I am a confident student because I am a confident person. As an art student, I have to have a good amount of self-confidence because my work is constantly being critiqued by my peers and teachers. My self-efficacy results were an average of 2.9. I think this happened because I interpreted the questions in the test in relation to outside of school problems. Sometimes when I have to deal with a lot of problems, I get overwhelmed easily and can have trouble thinking of logical solutions. An example of this was a week ago when my car broke down. I was so overwhelmed I had to call my parents to help me come up with a solution. I think if I related the questions more to school, I would have gotten a higher score.
The End of an Era
This is a picture of me the day I graduated from High School. I chose this picture because I think that graduating from high school was a big step in my academic life. I really enjoyed high school because I was surrounded by teachers who really cared and tried to push me to my best. I think this is one of the reasons I extended my education into college because those teachers instilled in me a love for learning.
Blog 1
Social Psychology is a course I am very excited to take because it is something I experience everyday of my life without even realizing. I believe this course will help me understand perceptions, relationships and social behaviors. I am most looking forward to learning about the origins of prejudice and discrimination because, as a woman, I am often affected by these social issues and I know of many people who have had even deeper experiences with these issues than myself. I think that learning about social thoughts and behaviors will allow me to make connections to my own personal experiences. Hopefully, I will also be able to become more open minded and understanding as to why people behave and think in certain ways. I am also excited to be able to apply these skills to my future career since I am studying to be an art therapist. My plan for success this semester is to stay onto of my assignments and make sure to take notes as I read the text.
The Human Network
I chose this image that I found online because I think it is a nice visual representation of how people are all interconnected to one another. I think that a big part of social psychology is our effects on others and our relationships with others as well.