Assignment Takeaway #5

Assignment number five challenged us to do kind things for people. Over the week we were asked to do kind things for people, note their reactions and our own feelings. I think this was one of my favorite assignments we’ve done all semester.

This assignment really challenged me. I am an introvert by nature. The work I do does not require me to have much social contact with anyone. If I don’t actively go out of my way to speak to people, there will be days when I’ve said absolutely nothing. I’ve always known that I enjoy giving gifts to people. That is, after all, my favorite thing about Christmas. I, however, never felt like I was accepted enough in any workplace (until now) to give gifts or go out of my way to do things for people.

This assignment made me reflect on the fact that I enjoy feeling useful and it makes me happy when I’ve done something to make someone else happy. I also noticed that it changed the relationships I had with some of my co-workers. Let’s take my co-worker Ryan for instance. I shared my lunch with him one day. Initially, he’d been very resistant to the idea but eventually decided to share after I told him that I wouldn’t have offered if there wasn’t enough. Since then, Ryan has started talking to me more. We’ve even started swapping different vegetarian recipes.

I think this assignment also taught me a lot about perception. I have found that doing these small kindnesses for people may change their perceptions of me. In my previous work experience, many people thought I was very aloof and didn’t want to talk to me because of it. I would say that I’m shy, but that was not their perception of me. I think doing these small kindnesses has let people see that I’m not aloof at all.

I chose the above image because it depicts the definition of kindness. It’s also highlighting it as if someone were studying it.

Assignment Takeaway #4

Using the Styles of Love Questionnaire, we examined the love styles prevalent in our romantic relationships then compared the scores to those of our gender. Then, we considered whether we thought our scores would change based on the length of the relationship or if our priorities had shifted the longer we had been together.

Knowing which styles of love you gravitate toward also may inform your attachment style. For instance, I speculate that those with high levels of the love type mania may have a preoccupied attachment style, making them obsess over their partner and how their partner sees them.

I had my husband do the Styles of Love Questionnaire. It was interesting to see how our love styles synced up after being together for four years. I wonder how our love types would have differed if we had just started our relationship.

I think examining your relationships is important because people are constantly changing. Sometimes we do not grow with our relationships, and when that happens, we either need to plan a course of action to get them back on track or determine whether to continue being in that relationship. Therefore, it’s essential to evaluate whether things are working in your relationships so that you can fix them and not become resentful of your partner.

For healthy, stable relationships, we need to understand our love styles and the love styles of our partners. No one shows love the same way, so it’s essential to know how you love and your partner loves.

I chose the above picture because the assignment was about love styles. I personally feel loved when my husband reaches for my hand.

Assignment Takeaway #3

Our third assignment examines prejudice by critically analyzing comedian Michael Richards’s racial tirade toward an African American heckler. We were instructed to watch the tirade, then decide whether Richards harbored deep-seated prejudice or a rage problem that caused him to lash out.

This assignment is important because it challenges us to examine the prejudice that is still prevalent in this country. While we have come a long way, we still have a long way to go to demolish inequality.

It made me think critically about the power of words, which is a lesson I think everyone should learn. At one time or another, we’ve all said something we regret in the heat of the moment. At that moment, we forget our words have consequences until those consequences come back and bite us. For Michael Richards, those consequences brought a swift end to his career.

In the end, I decided that Michael Richards’ tirade was both a product of his rage and his hatred because he knew the history behind the N-word. There’s a variety of insults he could have tossed at the heckler without ever having to use racist language.

I chose the political cartoon above because it exemplifies my earlier point: while we’ve come a long way, we still have a long way to go.

Assignment Takeaway #1

In our first assignment, we examined how social heuristics guide our decisions in the social world. We then gave examples of the different social heuristics. The lesson on heuristics helped me understand the concepts in my introduction to human communication class. In communications class, we touched on the concept of cognitive schemata. While the chapter on cognitive schemata was brief in my introduction to human communication class, the social heuristics chapter in our class explained the concept much more in-depth. I’ve found many of the concepts are very similar, but the two classes use very different verbiage. I’m hoping as these two classes progress, I won’t confuse similar concepts. It was interesting to think about social heuristics. In my assignment, I used the example of organ donation for the availability heuristic. Before this class, I didn’t have a name for the concept but was very familiar with the idea because when I would talk to families about the gift of tissue donation, they would automatically think I was talking about organ donation. After all, organ donation shows up in the media much more than tissue donation does.

I’m hoping to learn more with each assignment. I think the social heuristics assignment was fascinating.

I chose the comic “Blondie” above because it illustrates the anchoring and adjusting heuristic, which was a heuristic we had to describe in our assignment.