Blog 10:
While reading back my first blog, I realized that my expectations were definitely met. I learned about why cultures are so important and that not every culture is the same so it is definitely important to maintain that. I learn that it is important to be openminded and willing to accept everyone, regardless of their culture. This course has allowed me to grow academically over the last few months, because it has taught me to be more independent, and allowed me to learn time management, especially since I was working a full time job and taking these two online summer classes. My attitudes about Cross-Cultural psychology has changed during this course because I think I have learned to be more open-minded when it comes to other cultures. Cross-Cultural Psychology has definitely opened my mind in more ways than one, it definitely taught me how my own personal values might be different than other people’s and that is okay. I definitely think that I have achieved the course objectives. One of the objectives was “develop greater understanding of people from other cultures and skills for successfully interacting with them.” and I 100% feel like I got that from this course. I don’t think I would have done anything differently if I took the class again. Lastly, the skill that i gained from this course that will help me in my professional life is how to read people just from how their eyes and mouths are, and that emotions are more important and will let us know about a person more than their words ever will. I will also know now how to speak effectively and communicate with someone in a respectable manner even if they are from another culture and there might be a barrier. 
Blog 9:
During this course, I have learned a lot of new materials. However, the top three things that I have learned are what the American values are are how I relate to these values, how different cultures show emotions with different parts of the face, and the NEO personality test. The article that I read about the American values really interest me because it shows how the American values people possess are different than the Vietnamese/Asian values my parents have taught me growing up. Due to this article, I got a new understanding of why people of different cultures might have a hard time connecting and learning how to coexist peacefully. I had a hard time picking which values represented me the most, but I decided on Equality because with the world nowadays, equality is very important in order to coexist with each other. For blog 8, we looked at how different cultures show emotions with their faces, which I found to be very interesting and unique. I have never really thought about it this way, so the article really opened my eyes. It showed that Americans tend to show emotions more by using their mouths, while Asians, especially Japanese, shows emotions by using their eyes. This is a cultural indifference, not only in person but in emoticons as well. Lastly, I liked doing the NEO test to see how I am compared to other people’s personality. The test results were not very shocking to me, however. Most of the concepts that I learned in the blogs spilled over to other assignments. For example, Assignment 4 focused on women and men are perceived in the media, and blog 7 talks about how Disney fairytales portrays the princesses and hero. I feel like that spilled over because in both the assignment and blog, the women are seemed to be weak without their men. One of the concepts that I have learned in the past while taking Women’s Studies was the idea of how gender advertising might differ for men and women, which is exactly what I had to do for Assignment 4.
Blog 8:
Growing up, I have always knew that when talking to someone, the most important thing to look at is their eyes, and to maintain eye contact. The eyes play an important aspect and helps me read and understand people fully. So to me, the eyes shows more emotions than any other part of a person’s face, including their mouth. Growing up in an Asian household and being taught cultural differences by my parents and grandparents, I learned that Asians definitely tend to focus on another person’s eyes when talking to them. Caucasians, however, focuses more on eyebrows and the mouth to understand how a person is feeling. Nowadays, a smile can be very deceiving which is why it is hard to know how a person is truly feeling by just looking at someone’s mouth. That is why, I would rather just look at someone’s eyes to see how they are feeling. When I read the article, I noticed that that is in fact true. People in Asian cultures, especially Japan, focuses on the eyes, even when they are using emoticons.
Blog 7:
Fairy tales and older Disney movies used to take place in a time where females and the women were not able to express themselves without repercussions. In most Disney’s fairy tales, the princesses were expected to be saved by a male figure, and end up marrying them, and fall deeply in love. Not only that, the women were always treated poorly, whether by a step mother, siblings, or a with. Yet, with those old traditions, Disney has been making an extremely brave effort in order to be more inclusive and allow young children watching that the women are more than capable of saving themselves and putting an end to gender stereotypes. When thinking about putting an end to gender stereotypes, the first Disney movie that comes to mind is Mulan. For example, I personally feel as though Mulan made it okay for girls to want to take the leadership role. Even though Mulan had a happy ending that included a male figure. The movie was not all about her and Li Shang. She stepped out of the norm and decided to take her father’s place and save China.
Blog 6:
The self-determination theory talks about how people have basic physiological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Academically, I satisfy my needs for autonomy by separating myself from my peers and putting all of my energy into school and working towards my goals. I have many goals that I want to achieve and one of them is graduating on time. I satisfy my need for competence academically by not only making sure that I get a good grade in each class, but also making sure that I understand the material fully and making sure that I am capable of grasping the information. Lastly, I satisfy my need for relatedness by making sure I can relate to my fellow classmates, friends, and family.
Blog 5:
- I am…a student
- I am…creative
- I am…independent
- I am…artistic
- I am…compassionate
- I am…eager to learn
- I am…motivated
- I am…organized
- I am…a great friend
- I am…accountable
I would definitely say that all ten of the statements above reflect the dimension of independent construal of self. All of those ten reflect who I am and my personality,, and who I am as an individual. Those statements do not focus on who I am compared to others, or collectivism and what my social responsibilities are. Some English proverbs that reflect independent construal of self are “early bird gets the worm” and “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” These sentences focuses on individual wealth and success. the idea that another person is not needed in order to have something done correctly. Some English proverbs that reflect interdependent construal of self are “it takes two flints to make a fire” and “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” These quotes reflect on a collective culture where it is necessary to ask for help and teamwork in order to succeed. It was not very hard for me to come up with these proverbs considering that I grew up in a household where my mother was very independent, and my dad was more on the interdependent side. Based on my responses, I am definitely more independent.
Blog 4: Surprisingly, the first test wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. However, there were a few questions that had me stumped, and of course, I got them wrong. However, overall, I thought the test was fairly easy and all the materials were in my notes and the book. Some things that I learned was that I often have to think outside the box and read the sections that I don’t understand more than once. I have a really bad habit of just reading and going over things once even if I don’t understand it. I really have to work on that and go back and re read the things that I don’t understand. I went back and added things to my notes as I went and read each chapter. I started looking at the review sheets the first day that it was posted and I feel like that really prepared me for the exam. I think these strategies will really help me with tests in the future.
Blog 3: After taking the NEO test, I spent a while to think about what it meant and how it relates to my life. I didn’t know this was a thing but I’m glad I took it. For Neuroticism, I got average is I can definitely agree with. I am generally calm and able to handle and deal with stress, but I do have those days when I go through sadness, guilt, and anger. For example, I totally disagree with question #1 “I am not a worrier.” I worry all the time, about things that are even out of my control. For Extraversion, my result was very high, which I definitely agree with. I love being around people. I love talking and getting to know new people. I definitely think that I am an extravert, outgoing, active, and high spirited. For Openness, my answers were average compared to others. I am practical, but willing to consider new ways to handle things and do things. I like to view that every things in my life is balanced and I like to be balanced between the old and new things. for Agreeableness, I also got average which I agree with as well. I am a very warm and trusting person. However, it is not always like that. There are times that I an be stubborn and competitive as well. I am not saying that I always avoid conflict, but I believe conflicts are a way to end up seeing both sides and fixing problems. I was not surprised when I got very high for Conscientiousness. I see myself as a very conscientious and organized person. I always have everything planned out, I put everything in my planner, and I am a very organized person. I also have very high standards for everything that I do and always strive to be the best and achieve my goals.
Blog 2: Being a college student, I feel like my whole life is ahead of me and I can do anything I want. Some life values that I think is important throughout my college career are Determination, Integrity, Friendship, and Appreciation. I think Determination is important during this stage of my life because there are always going to classes that are hard, teachers that are a little too tough, and things won’t always go my way. However, I have to remind myself to be determined and keep pushing through. Integrity is important because I feel that if you don’t have this, you have nothing. Integrity is the simple word that defines a person’s character and it measures how we react to things that happens in our life. Friendship is important because college is a wonderful time to make friends and a wonderful way to build connections that will last a lifetime. Appreciation is important because I realize that although I am busy every single day with homework, work, events, and everything in between, I still have to make time and sit back and realize that it’s okay to take time to appreciate all the good things and all the good people in my life. Being a college student, I struggle all the time with how to keep pushing and be determine to finish school. Every time that happens, I have to just sit back and think that I am doing this for my mom, who is the strongest person I know. I decided that I wanted to continue onto higher education because I want to succeed, I want to have a college degree, and I want to be someone that my parents will be proud of. I remember sitting at my high school graduation and looking around, realizing that half these people are not going anywhere in life, not doing much with their life, and I realized that was not going to be me. My biggest role models that made me realize college was my choice were my mom and my senior year math teacher. They sat down, researched schools with me, and toured every single school I was interested in, thus making my decision to choose ODU so easy. ODU has given me a place of comfort, security, and a school I am proud to call my home. 
Blog 1: After reading the course objectives, it was very apparent that I will leave this course with a new mindset and ideas on how different cultures work. For example, one of the course objectives was “understand cultural diversity and the impact on human life.” I am confident that I will walk away from this course knowing why cultures are important and why it is important to maintain different cultures so not everyone is the same. Another objective that really spoke to me was “develop greater understanding of people from other cultures and skills for successfully interacting with them.” I think perhaps this might be the most important one. It is important because one of the biggest difficulties in this generation is that people are often not open minded and do not know how to be accepting of other people’s differences. I think it is often easy for people to put up walls and barriers when they meet someone who does not look like them, have different traditions, is from another culture, or speaks another language. My biggest expectation from this course is to learn why people think this way, and how to possibly improve that. I’m hoping to gain insight on how to correctly embrace one’s cultures and how to efficiently interact with a person from another culture. Instead of tearing each other down and laughing at each others’ differences, we should learn how to embrace our different cultures, ethnicities, and traditions. I’m hoping to have a successful semester in this class. Some strategies that I am implementing already are writing down all due dates, writing down my notes from the power points, and reading the syllabus when I have questions.