ATA #5
Assignment five was about performing random good deeds for people we do not know. Over the course of the week, I did different nice things for random people that I saw during the day. For the most part, I had a good experience doing it but there was one day where I tried to do a good deed and it backfired. The person I tried to be nice to was not having it. They did not want me to do anything at all, which is okay, but it definitely took me by surprise. I think the underlying intent behind this assignment was to spread positivity in the world and just to try to be a better person at least for a few days. I learned that a little goes a long way. We can’t know what someone’s day or life has been like, but we can do something small for them that could make their day. There is never an ill intent to performing good deeds, so it is a great thing for everyone to incorporate into their lives. The best part is you do not have to break the bank to be nice to someone, you can easily just give a helping hand to someone who needs it.
Assignment five made me remember a different course I took at ODU a few years ago. The class was, Public Speaking, and for one of the assignments in the class we had to write a speech about an experience, we have had where we did something good for someone or something someone did for us that we remember. This assignment and the past assignment were very closely related to their topics. They both remind me to be a good person and to do what I can for others even when I do not know them. As Grandma Johnson always says, “being a kind person can get you far in life.”
Representative Visual Image:
Pictured above is a drawing of the deeds I attempted to do. I chose to include this drawing to provide a visual representation of my experience through my week of performing good deeds.
ATA #4
Assignment four, based on the many styles of love, was an assignment where we had to answer a 42-question quiz on a scale of 1-5, 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree. The quiz itself was about the six styles of love, where each style represents something different. The first category was called “eros,” the second, “ludus,” next was “storge,” then “pragma,” then “mania,” and lastly, “agape.” There was a chart to view after completing the quiz to compare my results to the mean results for men and women. I found out that almost all of my scores were a few decimals off from the mean, so for each category I was either higher or lower for that type of love.
With this assignment, I was able to see what type of love I prioritize with numbers as a scale. It was interesting to see what most of the other women are high in especially when my scores were far from the mean. There was a previous assignment in this class that I thought about while completing assignment four. This was the assignment where we discussed opposites and similarities attracting. I had created a “this or that” quiz for me and my boyfriend and for my mom and her husband to take, and assignment four reminded me of this and the scores we had received.
Representative Visual Images:
ATA #2
Assignment two, “Self Portrait,” was about selecting images that we feel represent us and describe why we feel that way. For my “Self Portrait” I chose 7 images: one of me with my mom, stepbrother, and stepdad, one of me and my sisters, one with my dad, one with my boyfriend, one with my cat, one of myself on vacation, and one of myself during a meltdown. I chose these pictures because I thought they said a lot about me. In the assignment attached “here” I go further into detail about the meaning behind the pictures and why I chose them.
What I learned from the assignment is that the self I present to the world and my true self are not exactly the same person. Obviously, I am the same person but what I choose to share with people and strangers is not a great representation of who I am. I really enjoyed this assignment, maybe even more than the first assignment. I was able to reminisce on the memories I have with the photos, and it made me sad, but it also made me happy. Those pictures are just from one brief moment in my life, but those are the same moments that have made me who I am today.
Representative Visual Images:
Pictured above is the first picture I selected for assignment two. This is a selfie of my mom, her husband, his son, and me. We took this picture in June of 2021 while on a trip to the northeast. I chose to include this image because of the meaning behind it and because of its relevance to the topic. To me, this picture represents my love for my family. My moms’ husband is not my dad, and his son is not my brother, but we treat each other like we have known one another our entire lives. After only 4 years of meeting, we have grown so much closer than I would have ever imagined and my relationship with them means the world to me.
Above is the fifth picture I discussed in assignment two. This picture is of myself and my cat, Shadow. Shadow and I have an incredible backstory, which I go into detail in the assignment link above. I chose to include this image because just by looking at it, you cannot tell what it means or why it’s important to me but explaining it changes so much about the picture. My cat and I saved each other and without him, I would not even want to know where I would be.
ATA #1
Assignment one was about psychological heuristics. Heuristics are essentially about stereotypes and assumptions people make about others. What I have learned from assignment #1 is that people make uneducated assumptions about people based on their appearance, these can be right or wrong. More often than not these assumptions are at least partially correct. What I have learned can also be applied to a lesson I learned in Intro to Psychology. At the beginning of the course for Intro, we had learned about mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and several others. The textbook had covered a lot of symptoms people suffer from when they are diagnosed with these mental disorders. Being a person who is diagnosed with all three, I was able to get past the stereotypes from the textbook and gather the facts from my experience to understand more of what the textbook was trying to teach.
Representative Visual Images:
The image below is from https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d8/0d/94/d80d94fc633665553ed0c549e6805862.jpg.
I chose this image in particular because it describes me. It also describes the stereotypes I kept seeing in the textbook I referred to in my Takeaway. What this image represents are the demons that come along with mental illnesses. A textbook can teach you about it but an image can help you to see and feel what exactly is being taught.
