ATA 5: Paying It Forward

This assignment allowed me to utilize what I’ve learned so far in class in terms of human behavior and attitude into my daily life; I would consider myself as a relatively good person who would prefer to help people when I see someone whose struggling over a problem rather than turn a blind eye to them.  Engaging in these activities for this assignment felt practically natural to me, and I honestly deeply enjoyed it since I was rewarded by the people’s gratitude.  It felt good being able to do the right thing, and I think that’s something a lot of people tend to forget about when they try to do something good for another person.  I believe in the idea that generosity means doing something without strings being attached; in other words, doing so without the expectation of getting something in return.  

Rather than learning something new for this assignment, I was engaging in something that already felt so familiar to me.  This assignment simply expressed to me that my behavior does line up with my attitude in the regards of helping those in need.  Honestly, it relieved me to know that I am genuine of that resolve as I felt satisfied with every good deed I did even without a physical reward.  What I hope to do more in the future that I’ll take from this assignment is keeping this type of behavior consistent.  I will change in the future once I achieve a job, have more responsibilities, and reach newer places, but one thing I hope doesn’t change is continuing to help out those around me.

I think this above picture captures the emotional and visual appeal behind kindness both simply and artistically.  Kindness in popular culture and media has become a presently loose term that some often manipulate more as a means of benefitting themselves rather than benefitting others around them.  There are even some people out there who are crude enough to manipulate or feign ‘kindness’  in hopes of gaining something from another person, and if left unsatisfied, they can use their so-called ‘good deed’ as a means of crude bargaining.  In addition, kindness has become a personality trait that some people have considered to be a ‘lacking’ character that doesn’t add to a person’s personality.  I hope this changes someday as more people engage in the act of “paying it forward.”

ATA 3: Prejudice

Working on this assignment allowed me to dive deeper into how human behavior and reflexive thoughts correlate with deep-rooted prejudice or racial tendencies that may be centered inside of a person.  It’s sadly not an uncommon thing to experience prejudice or racial stigma in the present day despite racial segregation or similar matters no longer deeply rooting itself into today’s society.  Those of color or anyone who isn’t considered ‘white’ still experience mistreatment and often discrimination in their lives over something they can’t control such as their skin color, their culture, and their ethnicity.  “Jokes” stemming from racial stigma or racial slurs still occur to this day, being tossed around loosely by people who claim that they’re simply jokes and nothing more while also calling people who find them offensive “soft” or “unable to take a joke.”  It’s aggravating to experience, and I can personally understand what those experiences are like.

I related all too well with the racial dilemma that people of color and other ethnicities outside of being white experience.  Seeing how Richard’s went on during his racial tirade while repeatedly shouting the hard n-word so freely, it brought back some old memories of my own experiences dealing with racial prejudice and racial slurs.  It’s sad to say that it’s typical to experience, but I imagine many children at a young age who aren’t white experience the common racism that’s sadly implemented in the education system from primary to high school.  They get picked on, bullied, called racial slurs, and often get made fun of due to the differences in their culture.  I experienced every single one of those factors as a Vietnamese person from a very young age.

While working on this assignment, I didn’t really learn anything outright new about racial prejudice as I myself have undergone that sort of treatment, personally.  The picture I selected above expresses a pretty clear indication of segregation between a person and a group of others; an image that portrays the visual emotion of how someone who may have undergone racial prejudice or mistreatment from others may feel because they can’t control something that makes them ‘stand out’ from the majority.  Getting to study this particular racial tirade helped open up new doors for me towards topics that involve reflexive thoughts and the explosive nature of inner feelings when bottled up for so long.  People can hide their feelings well, including their most inner-most thoughts from the public eyes and ears when they try hard enough.  

ATA 2: The Self

Doing this assignment required a lot of thinking on my end when it came towards how my pictures established my identity, how outside perspective may be formulated towards my identity based on the pictures, and how my pictures may tie with who I am as a person.  It was actually a lot of fun doing this assignment since I had to involve a lot of self-analysis for me to gather the needed information and understanding for my “sense of self.”  I never really looked into how the photos I’ve taken would reflect who I may be as a person in different contexts.  What I learned and understand so far from this topic is that it’s difficult to conclude which side of you is your “true” self altogether.  I took that into consideration with my photos where I struggled finding exactly which photo captured my “true” self before I came to the conclusion that the photos I’ve taken of myself or my activities were technically “true” to who I am as a person in a specific setting or context. 

It’s difficult to say who I am as a person or to properly formulate what my sense of self is.  I’m aware that I really enjoy getting to talk to people and spending time with people outside of my comfort zone as I get to experience new things; yet, at the same time, I also enjoy spending time by myself in my room where everything is calm and quiet.  I really like getting to express myself through new clothing I bought, and at the same time, I struggle with a lack of confidence over my physical appearance.  I have sides to my sense of self that contradict with one another, but at the same time, I think these sides are considered nonetheless a part of my “true” self since it just depends on what environment and context I’m in.  I’m comfortable with these contradictions of myself, and I’ve grown more aware of how they fit with my “self.”

This above picture resonated with me in terms of what I can do to better improve something I struggle with as a  person.  I lack confidence, and I’ve grown very aware of how much it’s affected my mental health, my academic performance, and how I behave as a person.  I have a bad habit of not wanting to take risks or grab new opportunities out of fear and lack of self-confidence since I’m worried that my current skillsets would ultimately lead me to fail rather than help me develop my skillsets more.  I’m hoping I get rid of those habits, and maybe I’ll be able to grow more as a person, and see new sides of myself in the future. 

ATA 1: Heuristics

While working on my first assignment for this class, PSYC 304, I began to understand just how complex and unique the frameworks of human thoughts processes were.  Naturally, there’s always a complex system of human thoughts that correlate with different decision-making skills, but this was honestly a first where I really began to dig deep into the world of heuristics.  I never dove into the topics of heuristics before, so this was my very first assignment revolving around it altogether.  It was intriguing getting to know more about the different frameworks and types of heuristics, and how they effect decision-making skills.  They’re such common thought-processes that sometimes I use on a daily basis, yet this is the first time I’ve explored this topic.

From what I’ve learned so far about heuristics, they’re commonly used when it comes to making decisions or trying to find quick solutions to a problem, but often these decisions and answers aren’t always accurate.  Despite that, people still use them on a daily to the point it’s almost upon instinct.  Four of the heuristic types, Representativeness heuristics, Availability heuristics, Anchoring & Adjustment heuristics, and Status Quo heuristics, are commonly used to help reach a conclusion or final inference at a fast pace, but as stated before, these conclusions may not always be accurate.  Sometimes the thought process required to be utilized when trying to find a conclusion or decision can often be overwhelming due to the amount of large, complex information required to know before reaching the answer, so heuristics help to try and find the best ‘educated guess’ or inference to reach a conclusion for it.  I believe heuristics correlate and tie with concepts of human communication where factors that make an impact on one’s personality or thinking skills also have an effect on how they find solutions or think of a conclusion; I’m interested in taking this new knowledge about heuristics and see how other people, maybe from different countries and cultures, utilize heuristics and what types they lean more towards.

This above picture is a more illustrated, visual aspect of how heuristics work. System one is primarily more leaning on the concept of heuristics as its faster, often unconscious, and more likely to be less accurate. I chose this picture because it simply presents how heuristics differ from the general process of decision-making, and provides viewers a balance between heuristics and the general thought process. When a person wants a more accurate inference while still trying to take in a large amount of complex information, they’ll be more likely to take their time in trying to break down the information slowly. While it is much more slow then the typical process of heuristics, it can be far more reliable.