Blog #10
After reviewing my first blog along with the course expectations, I believe that I have excelled in each of the 5 objectives. My attitude of cross-cultural psychology has changed tremendously after learning of the many research methods and all the cultural factors that have gone into each and every experiment. At first I thought the class would just be learning about different cultures and how those practices came into place but instead I was surprised to be learning about the beliefs of cultures from their point of view. If I took this class again I would probably spend more time digging deeper into the roots of cultures. I loved learning about their thought processes but I’d love to go back to see exactly how some cultures came to be. Academically, I’ve grown in the sense of relating what I’ve learned to another aspect of my life. This has- and will- help me tremendously along the road when I communicate with others to be relatable to their experiences and feelings!
Blog #9
The first thing I learned from this course was actually an interesting fact about myself. I realized that the way I view myself isn’t the way that I am viewed categorically. This was proved through the NEO personality test when I was surprised at how different my results were from my expectations of myself. The second would be the fact that my close friends and I come from completely different cultures! While I know from my life as a military child that it’s possible to become friends with people who are different than you, I tend to find that I’m most comfortable and closest with people who grew up the same as me. Even then, as I get older, I’m finding more and more differences between myself and the people I see myself having close relationships with. Lastly, I’ve learned that even with my extensive cross cultural experiences, I still struggle with understanding how people from other cultures express themselves. The concept I discussed concerning a national identity for coping mechanisms for ATA 5 can relate to my Blog 8 about emotion regulation. Finally, a concept that I’ve discussed that relates to another class would be how the big 5 personality traits are looked at culturally through a country’s national personality while Child Psychology looks ay the big 5 through how the children interact with their mothers/parents.
Blog #8
The most intriguing culture shock I had was when I lived in Germany and was interacting with my German friends. True to their historical nature, Germans tend not to show many enthusiastic emotions and are very stoic for much of their expressions. Despite this observation, Germans can be some of the most loving people in the world, you just have to read it correctly. A lot of times when we would go out to our villages bakery, I would always say “Danke Schoen” and smile a big wide smile for the baker. But to my surprise, I would always just get a nod of the bakers head and he’d go on about their business. Then, when I lived in Japan, my family and I became close friends with a German woman whose children I’d babysit. Again, I would be kind of hurt because although we were close, I never got much excited expression from her which was totally different from the Japanese culture we were living in at the time. This shocked me because I thought that maybe our German friend would assimilate into the Japanese culture and pick up their animated expressions. The concept of universality and cultural display rules can definitely explain why my experiences happened the way they did. Germans are usually described to be ‘stoic’ and ‘hard’ but they don’t show many distinct emotions in just any setting.
Blog #7
I believe the statement that fairy tales have a ‘shared set of cultural norms and values’ is very true when comparing all fairy tales known to man. They pretty much follow the same exact structure and storyline with different characters. Many fairytales follow along the story of a young girl who faces an issue having to do with who they are as a person and set out on an adventure to resolve that issue. In most stories the girl falls in love with a man who helps them along their journey and they live happily every after. The fact that more main characters are being based around egalitarian roles is very inspiring because people are so diverse it’s refreshing to see more inclusion. I think that this is the best move especially in our society today which is more and more encouraging in pushing people to genuinely be themselves without fear of discrimination. For example, seeing Tiana in Princess in the Frog when I was 8 years old made me very happy to be a black girl and actually encouraged me to work hard! Also, Lilo and Stitch, was inspiring to watch because it was one of the first movies I watched that wasn’t centered around a love story and included my personal values of loving family.
Blog #6
https://www.studyfinds.org/bach-for-business-listening-to-classical-music-at-work-boosts-productivity-study-finds/
Honestly, I am a naturally introverted person so my academic practices for autonomy are very extensive. The first main action that I take is having a special workspace for myself that is my focus area. My room is a place of comfort to me so I never do any work outside of my desk. Another thing I do is make sure to keep a schedule to practice self-management. Especially being online for school, it has been a little hard staying motivated but having a schedule has kept me stable. For my academic competence, I personally value education and learning because of the values my parents instilled in me as a child. Since a child, I’ve loved reading, problem solving and math because they are like puzzles to me, which are another thing that I like. Honestly, being in school is for my personal development and paving the way for my future. For my academic relatedness, I satisfy this by engaging and learning from others who are different than me. As a person who has grown up all over the country and been around the world, I think that the best way to learn is through and with others.
Blog #5
I chose those quote because being selfless is one of the things that I value about myself. I’ll always choose to be selfless even though its scary because I know that at the end of the day my purpose is to be a light in others’ lives and I will not shy away from always loving others.
I am unique
I am confident
I am worthy
I am beautiful
I am genuine
I am strong
I am creative
I am kind
I am loving
I am selfless
The statements I made for number 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, are closely associated with the dimension of the independent construal of self. I perceive these this way because they are things that I believe are directly related to my personality and have to do with how I view myself internally. My statements, 5, 8, 9, and 10 have to do with my interdependent construal of self and how I treat others, which does relate to my personality, but I thought about how I am in the presence of others and how they would describe me from the outside looking in. Based on the amount of statements which belong to each category, I just barely fit in with the data of Americans that tend to be more independent than interdependent. When trying to think of a proverb that related to either independence or interdependence, it was honestly easy for me to think of a proverb for both. The one phrase that came to mind which I think could be used for both is Treat others the way you want to be treated. I would use this proverb for both because in order for me to be treated with kindness (independent) I first have to treat others with kindness (interdependence). This is something that my mother has always told me and it has helped me in life because I can value my independence from others but not without first recognizing that anything I do or say is not only about me.
Blog #4
A key factor in my learning process is for me to have some type of physical copy with me. One thing that I do is I print out the powerpoints and take my own notes on them after reading the chapter. In order to properly review for the exam, I decided to use a really neat tool that I just discovered on our online book. The online book program has a setting which allows us to highlight the text and even make annotations at certain areas. I think this helped tremendously as a study method before the exam because when I was taking the test, I could remember where I found certain information in the chapters. One thing I will probably implement in the future for my tests is to look over the review sheet at least a week before the exam. For the first exam I honestly reviewed 3 days before and I know that’s not ample time for the information to be retained in my long term memory. So, for next time, I’ll be sure to study just a little earlier and hopefully do better on the next exam!
Blog #3
Describing Da’Zha
I chose this image because I think this word cloud really encompasses all aspects of my current personality. A lot of the words I came up with are spot on with some results the NEO personality test.
After completing the NEO personality test I was utterly surprised at some of my results that I got. For my results on the Neuroticism dimension I came up as being average. This surprised me because I personally feel as if I would have scored high because I don’t think I’m very great at regulating my emotions. For the Extraversion dimension I was partially surprised as well. I believe that I would be average but I think due to the fact that I’m very active it put me just barely above being average. I honestly enjoy my alone time more than anything so I would strongly disagree with the description of “preferring to be around people most of the time”. While I do enjoy being around others, I wouldn’t go as far as saying its my preference over being alone. For Openness, coincidentally I agree with the results that came from my responses. I’m very open and I love to learn new things, have new experiences so being high in this category is pretty accurate. Just like the last dimension, I agree with my results of being high ranked in the Agreeableness category. One word I always describe myself as is compassionate and just by the way I was raised I always try to avoid conflict and be a peacekeeper between people. Lastly, for Conscientiousness, I agree that I scored low in this section. I’m not very organized in the sense of getting things done but I also have to disagree because I am OCD when it comes to my personal spaces. I believe I scored low because I am a terrible procrastinator but it is true that I don’t necessarily plan things out, I like to be spontaneous in life. Overall, I think that some aspects of my results were true but I don’t think my personality could be defined by a simple test at all.
Blog #2
Some major life values that I’ve grown up with that has and will continue to help me tremendously in life is by treating others the way I want to treat others the way you’d like to be treated and be respectful to everyone. In my career field, especially being a science oriented one, I think that compassion is lost due to the fact that the left brain is used more as opposed to the right brain. This leads to doctors being perceived as blunt and lacking compassion by patients. That’s why in my everyday life I make it a habit to be mindful of others’ feelings, always. A habit of mine that closely relates to being compassionate is being respectful. I think that in my field I have to be respectful of different thought processes, cultures, and perspectives. The main reason why I decided to go to college was because it’s what everyone in my family has done before me, even my brother who dropped out. I figured that if I tried and didn’t like it then I would always have other options. My parents never pressured me in any way about continuing my education but instead supported every idea that I came up with. That was really helpful because I’ve always had autonomy over my life decisions which has always led me to do what makes me happy.
Blog #1
I chose this picture because in the first chapter of our textbook there was a phrase that said “cultures allow for ethnicity to take place” and it make me think about Asia. Almost all asian countries have their own noodle bowls but to a lot of Americans they see it as the same thing even though they are vastly different and come from completely different cultures. I thought this was interesting and really made me excited for what else I have to learn in this course.
Blog #1
From reading the course objectives in the syllabus, I am positive that everything will help me tremendously especially by being able to connect and communicate with people of different cultures because I hope to be a doctor in the future. This will help me because the medical field is a difficult one to be in and there are a lot of stereotypes that go into the treatment of patients which can really harm people and takes away from the job of being a doctor. I hope in the future that I can bridge the gap between doctors and patients and be able to help people from all around the world.