ATA #4

I enjoyed writing about our fourth assignment, which was a questionnaire about love and relationships. I chose to use my relationship with my wife for this assignment. I learned that I value emotional love and I don’t fall under the typical male responses. I would agree in the accuracy of this questionnaire and its results. I valued the results I received and put them into perspective with the close relationship I have with my wife.

Furthermore, I am in touch with my emotions more than the typical male. I believe this is a result of a lot of personal factors that have changed my life in the last decade. I also learned from this assignment why opposite people attract. In my opinion, a person needs to be different in order to obtain the type of love they are looking for.

ATA #3

I struggled with our third assignment because it related to whether a person can use racial slurs without being racist or using racial intent. I found this assignment difficult to write about since it is a sensitive subject. I viewed Michael Richards’ comedy set in which he began verbally attacking patrons, using racial slurs and speaking about slavery in a positive light. In my opinion, it was difficult to articulate this video because it is an uncomfortable subject.

As I reflect on this assignment, I am uncomfortable writing about racism of white people against African Americans. I have some very close lifelong friends who are African American. I found it difficult to watch the video of Michael Richards and Mel Gibson using racial slurs because they were hurtful. However, I learned that even difficult subjects to speak or write about, like racism, are important in Social Psychology. In my opinion, this assignment was completely opposite to my other Spring class, Public Relations. In Public Relations, we learn to be very more positive and to show only the good parts of our personality, lives, and society.

ATA #2

I enjoyed the second assignment because I typically don’t reflect on myself or my self concepts. I took away a great introspection on my past relationships and decisions. In my opinion, this was beneficial to my everyday life. Typically, I am so busy with work and school that I do not make time to reflect on how I got to be where I am. This assignment made me proud of who I have become even through difficult times.

As I reflected on my six pictures, I kept thinking of how I had been using heuristic processing to make life decisions even at a young age. In addition, this assignment made me consider what I am currently learning in Public Relations 303. In my opinion, like in Public Relations, we tend to show the best sides of ourselves to people we interact with. Just like a company using Public Relations to promote a product or idea, we are using similar choices to promote who we are to one another.

ATA #1

I didn’t know what to expect when signing up for Social Psychology and I am excited to be learning about a topic I can use every day. Before this assignment, I hadn’t really considered why people make quick decisions and what is driving those decisions. Also, what makes a person easy or difficult to communicate with. I tend to judge people quickly based on the first few seconds of an interaction instead of looking at the big picture of communication. For example, if a server is slow getting to a table, patrons tend to think she isn’t doing her job. However, the server could be extremely busy dealing with difficult situations.

Its beneficial to understand how individuals rely so heavily on their past experiences. For example, in my previous sales jobs I dealt with some very aggressive, rude, and unpleasant managers. In my new role, I started getting anxious when introducing myself to a new manager. Although I am confident in my knowledge and role my heart would start beating fast. I didn’t notice until reading our first two chapters that I am relying on bad past experiences to form my opinion. I chose the below meme to represent my poor interactions with my previous clients.