Blog 10

Course Reflection

Social Psychology has been an insightful course that I have had the pleasure of experiencing. It helped me grow, not only as a person, but in preparation for my future career. It started small, introducing me to how the course will be structured, and grew by teaching me how others can perceive each other and help think critically from another’s point of view. This growth is shown in the image, starting small, but growing until it is in full bloom.

When I started this course, I didn’t have much expectations other than it would improve my understanding of how others feel and the intentions behind their actions. This course met and went further than these expectations. It helped me understand that everyone has a reason behind their thought process on matters. It helped me think past our heuristics to make sure these preliminary thoughts are true or misleading. I felt anxious when I started my assignments and my exams, but knowing what I know now, I believe I could do better. When making notes, I started by making small notes on each subject, then coming back later to revise and edit where I needed. Now I write as much as I can and take more time learning what it means. Going over the PowerPoint presentations, notes I wrote from the book, and going over the Jeopardy videos allowed me to make sure I wasn’t confused or forgot to write something important.

This course has helped me attain new skills that I will keep for the my future profession. When I become a counselor, I will be able to think about what could be affecting my patients and see what could best help them. I will also be able to see why they act or think how they do and help them realize why or why not this behavior is acceptable.

Blog 9

Reflection on Social Psychology

When going over what I learned during social psychology, I first think about what all I learned. Then I thought about what made a bigger impression on what I remembered. After boiling it down, I was able to write clearly on what I learned, much like the picture of getting from point A to point B.

In chapter 2, we learned about heuristics. This showed us how we use shortcuts when making decisions or how others can affect our way of thinking. I found this important because it explains how these shortcuts can help or hurt us in our decision making. Assignment 1 allowed me to look into heuristics and find the connection of availability heuristics to the media. In Blog 5 and Blog 6, I am able to look at advertisements and see how these influence us on an everyday occurrence. While Blog 5 emphasizes how advertising is used to promote products, Blog 6 handles how advertisers are willing to stretch the truth even further to promote a product. These blogs go together showing how these advertisements can influence us. These reactions can range from wanting to buy the product to comparing ourselves to models in advertising and affecting our self views negatively. In Blog 3, I look on the connection between music and those we surround ourselves with. This blog shows how we can be influenced on who we interact with by what music we listen to. Those we have strong connections to can have a similar taste in music. This shows how we can come together and build connections over our preferences.

In Blog 8, I am able to think how men and women can make each other mad in a relationship. This can have a connection to assignment 4, which allowed me to take a questionnaire about what type of love I have a strong affinity for. While taking the questionnaire, I thought about my past relationships. Thinking about what parts of the relationship I liked, as well as what I didn’t like. These also made me think about what happened in these relationships that could have angered me.

While taking this course, I also was able to take Health Psychology. In Health Psychology, we made connections on how what we think can affect how we feel and our overall health. Social Psychology touches on this by showing that advertising can make us compare ourselves to the models, damaging our self views. Health Psychology shows how these damaged self views can also damage our overall health.

Blog 8

Problems in Relationships

When forming relationships, people can irritate each other before or even after one is formed. The mating battleground article speaks about how this can be the case. The picture above shows that even in long lasting relationships people can get on each other’s nerves. Reading this article had me think back to older relationships. I’ve seen how both sides of the relationship could affect each other, from experience or from listening to friends. Both men and women can irritate each other by lying and participating in infidelity. As well, continuing to chase after an unwanted relationship can be infuriating towards either side.

Women can upset men when they send signals of wanting a relationship, but the man finds out later on that it was only for personal gain. Women can also upset men by invading personal space. If a man is constantly under watch of anything that he does can give him thoughts of ending the relationship since there is no trust involved.

Men can upset women by pretending to listen. If a woman decides to express her feelings to a man but realizes he isn’t paying attention or taking it seriously, this can put doubts on the relationship. Men can also upset women by talking to or about other women. This can invoke jealousy or worse if it continues for too long.

Blog 7

Emotional Intelligence and Self Regulation

My results for Emotional Intelligence test show that I can express my emotions in a reasonable fashion if it is needed. I perceive myself to have good control over my emotions, but be able to express myself if I feel it is required. Both emotional intelligence and self regulation have a strong connection. Being able to know what our emotions mean to us is important to understanding ourselves. Self regulation helps us take these emotions and realize whether or not the decision we feel we should make is reasonable. Emotional intelligence shows how we feel in moments that can show a mix of reactions. I am able to keep my emotions with in a reasonable range. There are times that these emotions get the better of me. To help with this, I take time to listen to music and draw to help elevate my emotions. If it is in an argument with someone, I will take a moment to try and see things from their perspective. Being able to do these exercises every so often has helped me from giving my emotions too much power.

Blog 6

Advertising: Selling a Lie

Women are viewed in a different scope in advertising. They can be treated as objects used to sell numerous products. These are ideas that Jean Kilbourne talks about in her Ted Talk about the dangerous ways ads see women. I believed that women were affected negatively by photoshop. It would show an image of a person who never existed and sell a person the idea that they could look like this with their product. Before watching the video, I would say that I am not affected by advertising since I do not watch television. But after watching the video, I realized advertising is more than just television. It can be on the internet, magazines, and even while driving on the road. It also showed me that women are affected as much, if not more, by advertising as men are.

In the first and second images, these show how advertisements will use women as stand ins for the real model: photoshop. Advertising will look at women and decide that they do not look good enough. They will use photoshop and change the appearance of the models to promote the product. As well, women can be targeted for advertising. In the third image, it shows that the woman is using the product and will become irresistible to men. This sells the product to women who are looking for love, hoping the perfume will help. Women are sexualized in advertising as well, such as in the fourth and fifth image. These advertisements may be made to sell a product, but they can do more damage than intended. They show a false image of the perfect woman, hurting the self-esteems of women. These advertisements impact the view of a woman, painting a picture of submissive and weak traits.

Blog 5

Advertising

Advertising can be seen anywhere. On television, the internet, and even in schools. These can impact us even if we don’t realize it. The three pictures above symbolize three different types of advertising.

The first picture shows Terrie Hall, an advocate for anti-smoking. This advertisement was used to dissuade others from smoking, or turn out like Terrie. This advertisement shows credibility by not selling an item for personal gain, but to inform others about the dangers of smoking. This advertising has credibility in showing the person affected by smoking, rather than using statistics.

The second picture tries to sell toothpaste under the idea that most dentists recommend the product. While this may sound great, it comes off less credible. While 9 out of 10 dentists may recommend this toothpaste, the dentists are never named. This number is never backed up as a survey from dentists, rather a vague number used to push the product. Instead, the advertisement could show the effects of the toothpaste after using it regularly for a while.

The third picture shows more of an attractive side to advertising. Most beauty/self care products use attractive women to push products for men. Axe deodorant isn’t different. In the advertisement, it shows the user of axe deodorant catches the eye of an attractive woman. It shows that she is interested in him for smelling great. This gives viewers the idea that if they use the product, they will attract beautiful women. While I try to avoid this marketing act, I have used axe products because of this.

Blog 4

Learning to Improve Exam Taking Skills

After looking at my exam results, I was able to learn more about how I should structure my time on future exams. I noticed that most questions I answered wrong were over simple mistakes, such as reading the question incorrectly. I noticed that after I reread the questions, I understood why my answers were incorrect. While I looked back on my exam results, I compared the results with my study guide notes to figure out what I should do to improve my next score. In my notes, I noticed that I would write information to summarize the lesson. I see that this was a mistake that had me make a 78 on the exam. Looking at this helped me understand that, while summarizing information can help, I should instead write as much information about the topics as I should. I was able to expand on my notes and give more concise information about what I should study. This also shows that I should start writing information and see if I can write a scenario that could explain what I am writing about. Another strategy will be to give myself more time to go over notes and study guides to be well-prepared rather than looking at the notes last minute and hoping to pass. Giving myself more time to understand the information will decrease exam anxiety, allowing me to think clearly. With these strategies in place, my exam taking experience will improve and I will be able to absorb more information.

Blog 3

The Connection Between Music and Relationships

Music is a powerful tool in our lives. It can change our moods, sharpen our focus, and improve our bonds with one another. It can have deeper meanings and allow us to think back on past events or about certain people in our lives. Many relationships I have are with people who share a similar taste in music. These people share many of the same ideals and values. We would do anything we could to help one another.

The first song will remind me of the time my mother and I went to see The Smashing Pumpkins live in concert. The second song was when my dad went with me to town. He loved the song and now I can’t listen to it without thinking about that day. My grandmother always loved the song “Someday”. During my first years of high school, I was always nervous. When I first heard “‘Till I Collapse”, it gave me determination to move forward and be confident. When my friends and I would hang out, “NJ Legion Iced Tea” would be the first song we would listen to. “River Flows in You” is one of my favorite songs to listen to. While it has no lyrics, it speaks volumes with the upbeat moments with shorter soft sounds, all only being played on a piano. This song speaks to my outlook about life having ups and downs, but it is when we look at life as a whole, we find beauty and a sense of purpose in itself.

My Soundtrack:

My mother – 1979 (The Smashing Pumpkins)

My father – So Far… (Eminem)

My grandmother – Someday (Sugar Ray)

My early High School Years – ‘Till I Collapse (Eminem)

My friends – NJ Legion Iced Tea (A Day To Remember)

Outlook on Life – River Flows in You (Yiruma)

Blog 2

What Kind of Student am I?

While I think of myself as a hardworking student, I also notice the faults. When I work on my assignments, I can overthink about how well I am doing. I argue in my head whether or not I am putting in too much or too little in my work. While I am confident in my abilities, I can doubt myself. For instance, the more time I spend on an assignment, the more I think that it should be improved or if what I write contains too much filler. I get anxious about tests or exams. To help with these problems, I make a plan. I pick days of the week when I study, do assignments, and how much to work on for each day. When I use this planner, it helps soothe my mind and keep my confidence up to par.

After taking the General Self-Efficacy Scale, I scored a 33 or a 3.3. I do believe in my abilities to get my work done in a timely matter. When planning on when I will get my tasks done, my confidence increases and helps the assignments feel less daunting. As well, having two notebooks for a class has also helped. One notebook to keep all of the notes and study guides together, another for assignments and guidelines.

Blog 1

Social Psychology: Understanding One Another

This image resembles that each person has a different way of thinking and that we should come to an understanding of our differences to become stronger.

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I originally chose Social Psychology to fulfill the requirements for my major, but it also intrigued me. Learning more about each other will help build my skills as a counselor. Being able to understand how people perceive and understand others will help connect myself to others and decide the best course of action. Discussing what influences us to make connections to others will help explain why someone has a feeling about another that seems foreign.

I am expecting to learn how to develop deeper connections and relating the information to others experiences. I am always interested in learning the differences between one another. With learning these differences, it also helps us relate to one another about why each person thinks in a different way than we may think. When we understand each others way of thinking, we become stronger as a community.

To help succeed during this course, I have planned the best course of action. I have added reminders into my calendar of important dates for assignments so that they can be handled at a reasonable time. While adding these reminders, I also made separate reminders for what days I plan to start on each assignment. I made a booklet to write down information and to study for exams. With these strategies in place, I will be able to have time to read lessons at a timely manner while finishing assignments.