Weekly Blog
Blog 10
Looking back in how the semester has gone and everything I have learned form the class I can say with confidence I have learned so much on how culture effects the way people think and behave. Going into the course originally I thought that I was going to be learning about others cultures and it plays a part in how we interact with others. Though I have definitely learned about other cultures through the assignments given and some of the reading, I understand now that I was not just learning about other’s cultures but also my own and how it plays a role with how I interact with others and in turn how they interact with me. Going into this course I thought everything was going to be presented to me in a black and white manner and I would just have to memorize the information. I now know that there was much more critical thinking involved especially with the assignments we had to do. I am also appreciative because I can take that critical thinking and use it in the professional field.
When I first started this class I was in no way a good studier. I could not study to save my life and I am still not the best at it but throughout this semester I have improved and see the actual importance of studying. All things considered if I had to go back and take this class again, I would focus more on time management and making sure my assignments were done in a timely manner instead of minutes before the assignment was supposed to be done.
This image was chosen because this class really drove home critical thinking and how important it is. I have had to not only think critically and use it to get the work done but also effectively communicate what I had learned.
Blog 9
Though I was learned a lot in this class there were three topics that really stood out to me and I enjoyed learning about.
The first thing was the five factor model, chose this one because I have been seeing this model since I took on psychology as my major. I have taken so many personality test since choosing to pursue this major. I did not realize how important this model was until taking this class and my I/O psych class this semester. Seeing how people’s personalities are broken down and how culture plays a part in it as well as how it further effects other parts of their lives like the workforce. Different personality types are often similar depending on culture and that then goes on to effect whatever their career path is, which is what we discuss in my I/O psych class.
The next topic I chose was the chapter about enculturation. I personally found that assignment 3 really helped me learn more about this topic and how it can effect the way people think and perceive things. I found through writing about a abroad students experience with enculturation I saw how important it was when it come down to a person’s sense of self and identity. Enculturation is when one takes things from their specific culture and that is exactly what the student in my assignment did seeing as how her family was from the country she went to study in.
The final topic I am going to talk about is the self construct and emotion. I think my favorite archive item to do was seven that had up find out if the type of engagement we had with our emotions. It made us work to have a deeper understanding with how engaged emotions were generally more about the relationship with whatever made the emotion arise or how it effects others. While disengaged emotions tend to revolve more around one’s self.
Blog 8
Across different cultures, everyone has emotions and express them. However, the way these emotions are expressed and valued are vastly different. I notice it a lot with my best friend and her family, she is Filipino and was born here in the U.S she is a very expressive person. Unlike her though her grandmother and grandfather, who immigrated to the states from the Philippines, who are incredibly reserved and try not to show much outward emotions especially in public. Taking this class I have learned that is a common thing from other cultures outside of America, particularly in the east. They tend to be less expressive and try not to let their emotions show to much in public. My friends grandmother is constantly telling her she is being to loud and that sometimes when she gets upset that she is doing too much or putting on a show. So seeing that when I am used to others being loud and expressive where emotions are concerned shows how much culture plays a role in the expression of emotions.
This image makes me think about how emotion is expressed and how some emotions stand out and others are more muted and subdued. I think that happens a lot across different cultures. In some cultures emotions are loud and expressive, while in others they are more reserved with their emotions and showing them to others.
Blog 7
Growing up watching or reading fairytales, I remember that there was always a damsel in distress and some guy how came along to save her. It made me think as a kid that women were meant to wait until a strong man to come and save them from all their problems. Lately though, many of the stories are having strong female leads and showing the hero working along side the princess or whoever was on an adventure. Now I know for me, I grew up not only watching the classic Disney movies but also a lot of action and scary movies as a kid. So when I am asked what character has influenced me in a positive way, I would say the character Richard B. Riddick from the Riddick trilogy. Its a three part live action series about an escaped convict in space on the run from bounty hunters. He is a pretty pragmatic anti-hero, because he doesn’t go out of his way to help others and does what it takes to survive. When I was little I thought his character was so cool and even now as an adult I watch the series and still love the character. His character showed me that having a practical outlook on life is in a way the key to survival and that doing what it takes to survive isn’t always easy.
I chose this image because to me this best represents inclusivity. Even though everyone’s piece of the conversation bubble is different they are still working together to make all of them fit together.
Blog 6
For this blog I think that I do well at satisfying my needs for autonomy. I do this by finding motivation in myself and not allowing others to drive me towards my goals and what I want to do. For competence, I try to take in everything I learn and apply it to wherever it fits. I also learn new skills whenever possible because it makes me feel better to not rely on others to get things done. As far as relatedness, I get that from my friends, family and coworkers. I have formed relationships with those people and that helps me stay connected and have a sense of belonging.
I chose this photo because it shows that I am taking the steps to obtain my autonomy.
Blog 5
With the way I filled out the statements, 1,6,8,7,9 and 10 all fit into the independent construal of self. This is because all those attributes and such that I listed had nothing to do with other people and how it effects them but about me and what I like.
As for which statements fit under the interdependent construal of self, I think 2,3,4 and 5 fit. Those were all aspects that had to do with other people whether it had to do directly with others or just something that caters to other people rather than myself.
Based on my previous statements I would say I am more independent than I am interdependent.
The proverb I found seemed to resonate well with the independent construal of self because it has to do with something you do and what we get is based upon your own work. The one I chose was ‘You reap what you sow’. It can also mean that you end up facing the consequences of your own actions eventually.
It was easier to think up ones that have to do with the independent construal of self.
I chose this photo because it matches the proverb I picked meaning you only get what YOU work for.
Blog 4
While I was reviewing my test results I noticed a lot of my errors were due to either not reading the question or answers properly. I also think that if I had spread out reviewing for the exam over the week instead of just cramming a bunch of the information without really absorbing any of it. I also noticed that my notes focused heavily on the terms used in the chapters but not really focusing on theories that were discussed and what come about because of those theories. So I know now that in the futures for my next exams I need to make be notes more detailed and focus a little less on the terms and include the theories that will be gone over. I will also work on my pacing and making sure I am reading the questions and the answers correctly before moving on to the next one in an effective but timely manner.
This image sums up perfectly how I felt preparing for the exam because even though I had done the readings, I waited until the last minute to do review.
Blog 3
I have taken several of these types of personality test and they stay roughly similar and this one wasn’t much different. I scored pretty high on the openness to experience and neuroticism, this means I am imaginative, emotional, have board interest and sensitive. I agree with all of that honestly, I wear my heart on my sleeves and I always tend to have my head in the clouds. I got an average score on extroversion, this means I enjoy other people but I value my own space. This holds true because I can very social when I am in a room and do not shy away from conversation but my actual friend circle is rather small and I do need alone time to recharge my social battery. Finally, I scored rather low on agreeableness and conscientiousness. My score in agreeableness was accurate but not to an extreme extent, it said I am hard headed, proud, skeptical, competitive and direct when showing anger. Scoring low on conscientiousness did not surprise me because I am very disorganized (there is a method in the mess), easy going, careless (to and extent) and spontaneous. All in all this was pretty accurate but I think a lot of it also depend on the situation I am and who I am around for how accurate this is. For example, my family would agree with most of this completely but the people at my job would find some of these things surprising.
These words are closely related to my personality and also align with my OCEAN scores.
Blog 2
Thinking back on what values have helped carry me through life so far a strong work ethic, love for helping others and being dependable would be what comes to mind. These values are also what I apply to my career pursuits. I have always had a string sense of work ethic that was instilled in me at a young age by my family. I would often help out with jobs around the house and the yard. My grandmother never liked sitting idle and because I was always with he I was often doing whatever she was doing. I also watched my mom constantly work to achieve the things she did in life. My love for helping other can be attributed to how I interact with my friends, I am always making sure they are okay and doing whatever I can to help them out with problems they may have. I do not do it because I have to but because it makes me genuinely happy to help them. Lastly, being the oldest of three I had people from a young age depend on me. As I got older that dependability only grew and helped me out tremendously with work as it got me promotions because my boss felt as though they could rely on me when times got hard.
These values also are what drive me when I think about why I am pursing a higher level of education. All of these values were put together into my drive to go into a higher level of education by a boy I mentored for my job. This by was on the autism spectrum and had been giving his other mentors a hard time. So my boss at the time had placed my in charge of him, with no training or experience with children on the spectrum. I had to go through some pretty rough patches to build a repour with this boy for him to even give me verbal responses, but I was determined to get succeed. In the end it really paid off because he was the sweetest child I had ever met and it pushed into pursing psychology so can help people like him but also people like me who want to help but did not know how.
The image above was chosen to represent the boy that helped shape my career path and put some real meaning behind the values I believe motivate me in my career pursuits.
Blog 1
The course objectives will definitely help me be more aware of how much one’s culture effects the way they think and process certain things. This is beneficial for me because I want to open up my own practice and have people from different backgrounds and cultures all be able to feel comfortable enough to open up about their mental health. I understand how important culture is to people and looking at the course objectives I know that in this class I will get a deeper look into exactly how important culture is and how to properly account for them and respect them.
Moving forward in this class I am hoping to learn ways to understand another’s culture and stay respectful while doing so. I also would like to see how psychologist developed theories that take into account cultural differences. Being able to learn the development of culture from a psychological aspect would help me understand more about why culture is so important from in psychology. In order to accomplish this and also maintain a good standing in the class, I intend to dedicate the proper amount of time to reading not only the chapters assigned but also the PowerPoints that correlate to the readings.
Society and culture
This image was chosen because it helped me put an image to the difference between society and culture. Learning that society is about the interconnecting relationships between people and that culture is what comes form that relationship. One photo shows a group of people who seem to have some from of relationship and the second image is the culture that come from these relationships.