ATA 5

I think this assignment was a nice way to wrap up the final paper assignment. It was a good way to combine what we learned from the previous chapters and look up a country of our interest. Anytime I get a chance to dive deeper into Japanese culture, I always get excited. I really do take great interest in the culture and hope to explore the country in the future. I think exploring the topic of mental disorders and Japan is very applicable to my field of studies because illnesses, like depression, is not just restricted to the U.S. It is something that can take hold of anyone from any place around the world. It can effect everyones’ mind differently and it is worth exploring how it effects different people.

Being the last take away assignment, I wanted to make it a little more joyful. Even though the topic I explored in my last paper is very important, I wanted to have a visual image that can bring some joy. What better way than showing off delicious Japanese food? I love sushi and all the different ways it can be made. Its just something that I think is really creative and I’m grateful that this food is shared between cultures. I think this image can act as a nice counterbalance to the bleak description I made above.

ATA 4

I personally felt this assignment was extremely relevant to me because my generation lives in a time where we are being bombarded with advertisements. It has gotten so bad that I finally downloaded an ad blocker because I could not look at sites due to the majority of the page being advertisements. The site was so littered with advertisements that I had problems even scrolling through the site. Regardless, the actual context behind the advertisement itself is always worth pointing out. The way these companies are trying to get their message across can be very damaging to peoples’ psyche and really reduce their self-esteem while stripping their bank account. You see that over use of sexualization among men and women has created an unrealistic beauty standard in our society that people uphold to this day. I like to think that we are starting to realize how bogus some of these advertisements can be and because of public out cry, some companies are actually listening to the peoples’ criticisms.

This image is from a classic John Carpenter movie called “They Live”. It is a cheesy science fiction action movie where creatures from another existence take the shape of humans and control us with advertisement. I was reminded of this movie while writing this assignment because I think the movie touches on a lot of the problems that comes with modern advertisement, or at least tries to. The advertisement sets boundaries to which other humans follow by, the same way advertisements today set social standards that we uphold. This movie by no means is one of those titles that has a lot of sophisticated hidden messages, but rather a fun popcorn flick that you can sit down and make fun of with friends.

ATA3

This assignment really made me jealous of all the students who got to study abroad. The major thing I took away after typing this paper was that I need to start saving now so I can travel the world in the future. This assignment reminded me of the time I studied abroad in Grenada, and made me remember all the good times I had exploring and meeting new people. I really enjoyed reading and watching the blogs students made detailing their trip and the precautions they took before making their incredible journey. It makes me excited for when I plan my own special trip someday.

I picked this image to represent my assignment takeaway because all the places I want to visit require a plane. If I’m traveling the United States, I think I would prefer to drive but my traveling ambitions are definitely bigger than that. The only pace that has always sticked out in my mind is Japan. I remembered all the way back when I was in the third grade, I made a whole report of why I would like to visit Japan. There is something about the city and culture that I would just love to experience.

ATA2

I think this assignment really expanded my exploration about myself. I really enjoyed taking a deep dive and elaborating about something that is not exactly positive. Accepting this value of materialism I hold kind of brought me some peace of mind. It was nice to acknowledge that there is something about me that is not so great. Which implies that I speak only highly of myself, and that for sure is not the case. Being able to acknowledge that side of me in an essay format allowed me to face myself in a different light. I personally like these assignment because I find myself being able to write about these topics without any writers block. This assignment relates to what I want to do as a career because it made me focus on the value of materialism, which I believe a lot of Americans hold. As a mental health care provider, I think it is important to keep that in mind because it is a big part of peoples’ lives.

I think this image kind of represents the idea of materialism. It is insane to think about the number of people who visit malls across the U.S and the amount of money that is spent in those stores each day. Shopping is a part of modern day culture that will never go away and will only keep evolving. With sites like amazon, shopping has never been easier. Environmentally, I feel like this picture is the heart of where materialism started.

ATA1

The biggest thing I learned from assignment one was that people in the psychology field have labeled and define sensitivities. Before typing my paper, I was unaware that there were different sensitivities. Having to choose which sensitivity I fell under was a real eye opening experience as to how I really behave to my day-to-day life. Reading through each sensitivity, it made a lot of things that I have personally experienced through conversing with other make a lot more sense. With my new knowledge about the different sensitivities, I can apply it to my studies when I eventually go to graduate school. This will come in good use when I am talking to clients and understand where they come from if they are opinionated about a certain topic. The relevance of this material is very useful today because we live in a very heated political climate. Being able to further understand where people come from is crucial to communicating effectively towards one another.

I picked this image because I think it represents how we commonly converse with one another today. Everything is done online, especially when it comes to making connections with other people. Often times the way we communicate with one another online is very negative. Some of the sensitivities that we learned kind of explain why some people think the way they do. This can lead to other explanations as to why people communicate so hatefully online.