Blog 10: Course Reflection

After looking back at Blog 1 and comparing the course expectations with my actual outcomes of the course, I can say that I have learned a lot. I learned a lot about how a person thinks and behaves as an individual is influenced by their social surroundings and environment. Other people and their attitudes, values, and perspectives influence us as individuals. The main takeaway from this course is that humans are social creatures; we rely on a social network in order to function as individuals. Our every day lives are dependent on our social interactions with others. I feel as if I have achieved a majority of the course objectives mentioned in the syllabus. I mentioned in the first Blog how I had a rough start because this is my first online course, and I didn’t know what to expect, but after a couple weeks, I was able to go with the flow and I was able to do the blogs, assignments, and readings in time. The only thing I wasn’t able to keep up on was the items to archive. My attitudes about Social Psychology have definitely changed throughout the course. Since I have a greater understanding and a different perspectives of the social aspects of people as individuals and as a community, I am able to appreciate the meaning and the importance behind social psychology more. This course made me realize that social psychology affects every single aspect of our lives without us even realizing it. There are many different situations mentioned in this course that really enhanced my awarness and allowed me to improve my perspective. One thing I would do differently in this course is complete the items to archive/ artifacts on time. One way I’ve grown academically over this course is being familiar with online classes because I’ve never taken an online class before. When I graduate in May 2020, my masters program that I am pursuing afterwards is all online. This course has definitely prepared me for my online masters program coming up. One skill that I’ve gained in this course is perspective; because this course and the readings in the text book came with many relevant situations and scenarios relating to social psychology, I am able to break down a certain scenario or situation that I will eventually come across in my life. This course allowed me to analyze situations a lot better.

Blog 9: Top Three Things I’ve Learned So Far in This Course

I have learned many things in this course. One thing I’ve learned in this course includes Blog 7: Self-Regulation and Emotional intelligence. The main point of this blog was that it is important to be aware of your emotions because your feelings or emotions can impact your way of thinking, and your way of thinking can impact your decisions and actions. Being aware allows you to self regulate your emotions through various techniques. I mentioned how this is like differing “responding” and “reacting” to a situation. Reacting comes from immediate emotion without even thinking; for example, if my parents yelled at me for doing something wrong, I would talk back and give attitude as an immediate reaction. The better way is to respond to the situation; instead of yelling back I would go to my room cool off and really think about what I did. Blog 7 can easily connect to Assignment 3 and ATA3. In assignment 3, we listened to a comedian’s racial slurs towards hecklers. This was controversial whether or not this revealed him as being racist or if he was just angry in the moment. I said that I felt like he was angry in the moment. This can connect to Blog 7 because the comedian was emotional and was feeling frustrated because of the hecklers. Like I mentioned in Blog 7, this could be him reacting poorly to the situation instead of responding. If he was aware of his emotions, he probably could have responded better to that particular situation through self-regulation.

The second thing I learned includes Blog 8: Sexual Conflict. In Blog 8, we had to read an article about sexual conflict between two romantic or potentially romantic partners. The article talked about the difference between men and women and how men are more sexually interested while women are more emotionally interested. This can connect to the topic of evolutionary biology. I remember reading somewhere about the reason why males are more sexually interested is because it is hardwired in their brains to seek out an attractive female to pass on their genes too. Males look for attractive females because attractiveness can correlate to being physically fit for survival. When looking at an evolutionary biological standpoint this makes sense; it is all about survival of the fittest, and ensuring the best genes for survival are passed on to the next generation. Females are hardwired to actively look for males that are more emotionally involved because this can correlate to being a protector and a provider; females want to feel secured and protected, and they subconsciously want someone who can care for their children. Being able to care and provide for the children can ensure the continuity of the next generation.

The last and I feel like the most significant thing I’ve learned in this course is that humans are social creatures. I was able to learn this from Assignment 2. In assignment two we were tasked with showing pictures of us and describing why it each pictured represented us. Most of the pictures I choose included people in my life who always supported me and those who made me feel the sense of belonging. Humans need each other and need social interaction in order to thrive in life. This can relate to my ATA5 where I mentioned how we are all currently in social isolation or distancing because of the corona virus. This whole quarantine and lockdown is affecting many people around the world because as humans we weren’t made to be in isolation from each other. We always need to remember the importance of being social with others.

Blog 8: Sexual Conflict/ Mating Battleground

After reading the article, I agree with the main points it establishes about sexual conflict. There were a lot of interesting points that I’ve heard before or know from experience and observations. I agree with the fact that sometimes men can fake emotional connections with women thinking they will have more sex, and women send mix signals of sexual interests thinking they’ll secure some emotional connection. These are the problems with men and women that can lead to sexual conflict. Men I feel like are more sexually interested and involved and women are more emotionally involved. There should be a balance between the two interests. Sexual interests and emotional interests and the degree of them are hardwired different in a male’s brain compared to a female’s brain. I remember reading a biology article a long time ago about how these difference play in the role of evolution. Men are hard wired to pass their genes off to the most attractive female because the most attractive means the most physically fit to survive. Women are hard wired to seek out the emotionally involved male because this is linked to being able to care and provide for their children; it’s a matter of feeling secure. Being aware of how males compare to females can help an individual better balance their sexual and emotional interests and how they display them. There are many ways in which men upset women. For example, some men are only interested in sex and women find that upsetting and disgusting since the majority of them are looking more for an emotional relationship; women don’t want to feel used. Women also upset men. For example, I can speak from experience when I say that I hate when a guy talks to a woman and they automatically think all the guy want is sex. Not all men are like that. I have heard many of my friends that are girls at parties talking to guys and they assume and tell me that “ohh he’s just looking for sex.” And I get upset at the fact that sometimes women make that assumption. Of course my perspective can be biased so it’s hard to truly get an unbiased perspective of the matter over sexual conflict.

Blog 7: Self- Regulation and Emotional Intelligence

After watching the YouTube video, I was able to distinguish the relationship between self-regulation and emotional intelligence. The video talks about self- awareness and how our emotions come from inside; knowing this and being aware we are able to control our emotions. Being able to control our emotions will help us control our response or self regulate to intense feelings coming from certain situations. She mentions in the video about “I think, therefore I am” -Descartes. But “I feel, therefore I am,” is just as important. One’s feelings and one’s thoughts work together interchangeably to regulate one’s decisions or actions. It is important to value both aspects because what you feel, your emotions can affect how you think, and how you think can affect your response or actions towards certain situations. The goal for this video is to teach people to be aware of their feelings and learn to self- regulate their emotions, so it can improve their way of thinking and allow them to make better decisions and respond better to situations. This is a way to improve one’s emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence to me is being able to control your emotions in order to make the best decision. From my experience in order to really improve one’s EQ, an individual must learn to respond to a situation rather than reacting. Responding and reacting are two totally different things. Reacting comes from immediate emotion; for example, if my parents yelled at me for doing something wrong, I would talk back and give attitude as an immediate reaction. Responding to a similar situation would mean I would calm my emotions down and really listen to what they were saying; in other words, I would really reflect on what I did in particular to get them upset rather than fussing back at them.

Blog 6: The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women

After watching the Ted Talk, I can say that I have noticed this on social media such as Instagram. I don’t really notice this on advertisements until now because I personally don’t really pay attention to advertisements. After watching this Ted Talk, I agree with her when she says how advertisements are dangerous especially towards women as it portrays unrealistic and supposedly “ideal” images of women. The truth is that advertisements and social media are getting worse and are objectifying how women “should be.” I believe this is not okay but its the reality of our society and the most important thing we can do is be consciously aware of the situation and not let it subconsciously affect us. I feel as if advertisements were the past, and that it is more dangerous on social media as we compare ourselves subconsciously to all these perfect people portrayed on instagram and facebook and any social media platform. We tend to nowadays without even realizing it compare our lives to others. We look at all these models and successful people with their supposedly “perfect lives” and see how their lives compare to ours. What we need to realize is that what we see on social media are the “ups” and the “highs” of one’s life; the reality is that not everyone is perfectly happy all the time as they portray on their profiles. Even though this is digressing, I feel as if social media can relate to advertisements as they both can be potentially dangerous.

Blog 4: Reviewing Exam 1

After reviewing the exam, and looking at the questions I answered incorrectly, I learned that looking up the correct answers to the incorrect questions really helped me clarify why I got the answers wrong in the first place. This strategy definitely helps. As I read the study guide before the exam, I reviewed my textbook and highlighted every main point that was stated in my study guide; this allowed me to augment and add to my current notes in order to study. I did not space the review sheet over the week prior to the test. I did not get to study as much as I would have liked to for this exam mainly because the same week I had four other exams. But knowing that the week of my next exam won’t be as hectic, I’ll be able to use all of the strategies to help me for my next exam. This feedback will definitely help me study for my exam.

Blog 3: “Soul Meets Body”: Connection between music and relationships

This article is about the connection between one’s taste in music and their core values and ideals; at first people thought there was a connection between music and a person’s personality which is a potential social attraction between people with similar music tastes, but they found that music was linked to a person’s values and ideals. I agree with this fact that similar tastes in music is a huge factor that increases attraction between two people. Based on the study mentioned about what people talk about when they first meet over the first 5-6 weeks, I can relate to from experience. Whenever I go on dates, music almost always comes up, especially on the first date. From experience, there is always a mutual attraction between me and a girl that I am with when we sit in a car and just play music. Knowing that we both have similar tastes in music is definitely an instant attraction. For example, I love acoustic songs; those songs that include a guitar or piano playing. If I can listen to people like Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, and Taylor Swift with someone and they are able to sing along with me, it is an instantaneous attraction. Music is not the only factor of mine that determines attraction, but it’s definitely a huge factor, and similarity in music tastes makes someone much more attractive in my eyes.

My Playlist: (Acoustic Versions)

“Imagination” by Shawn Mendes

“Mercy” by Shawn Mendes

“Life of the Party” by Shawn Mendes

“Everything Has Changed” by Taylor Swift

“Mine” by Taylor Swift

“Mean” by Taylor Swift

“I Don’t Care” by Ed Sheeran

“Perfect” by Ed Sheeran

“The A Team” by Ed Sheeran

Blog 2: What kind of student am I?

I believe myself to be a hardworking student. I can tend to solve any problem whether it includes conceptual ideas or critical thinking. I always put in the necessary effort in any problem. I am not the smartest student, but I will figure out any problem as long as I am given the guidance and resources to accomplish a specific task. I have complete full confidence as a student. The only problem I have is time management. I tend to sometimes procrastinate which decreases my self-efficacy as a student. Procrastination was a huge problem in high school, and my first two years of college, but through time and especially now, my time management skills improved drastically, which is a reason why my self-efficacy as a student is higher now than it was a couple of years ago. Improvements in my time management skills increased my confidence levels as a student. After taking the General Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, my score summed up to a 29; most of my answers for each question appeared to be a 3 which is moderately true.

Blog 1: Social Psychology Course Objectives

After reading the syllabus, the course objectives mentioned could potentially be used in my future profession as a physical therapist or an air force military officer. Being able to understand other’s perspectives, being able to build rapport with others to ensure they can trust your capabilities as a professional, and being able to understand how certain behaviors can influences an individual’s actions are aspects and skills that are needed in order to work with people as a physical therapist or lead as an air force officer. In this course, I expect and hope to gain a better understanding on people and how they operate as individuals and as a group, how to build rapport with people to create close relationships with patients as a physical therapist, and how I can use what I will learn in this course in a practical setting. To be honest, this is my first online class, and I did not know what to expect. And I personally think there is a lot of workload in this course. I have got off to a slow start. But from now on, I will be ahead of my assignments and turn them in days before they’re due to create less stress. I will also check my announcements and emails more often since this is an online course to ensure I will stay on top of my assignments and studies and ensure my success.