Top Artifacts | ritter-psyc420

You will be prompted, weekly, for various items to archive. Please refer to the Google Docs document in the e-Portfolio folder in Bb, which will provide tips on how to store and organize these artifacts. By the time this component of your eP is due, you will have a rich repository from which to draw. You will choose the top five artifacts that you believe best represent your learning experience in this course. Each item should contain a representative picture and a summary for why it was selected, including why it is representative of your learning experience.

I believe traveling is a big representative of my culture. It represents independence, family, friends, and diversity. I have the freedom to go wherever I would like as long as I have the money and means. I travel to see my family and friends which is very important to me especially as I get older and people start spreading out. For Christmas, my immediate family goes to see our extended family in Missouri every year so traveling is a big part of my family’s traditions and culture. This also contributes to being culturally sensitive and aware because the normalities of Virginia are different from Missouri which helps me understand how values and beliefs can differ even from state to state. While traveling I see many people from different countries and cultures. I believe that is what the U.S. is about and what I love is the diversity of so many different cultures in one place.

I learned from this activity that even though I may be frustrated with some of the things the U.S. does and therefore makes me a part of, there are some very cool qualities that make it a great place. I know I am very privileged to live here mostly because of the freedom that brings but unfortunately, I tend to look on the negative side of things. I think it is very important to take the time to look at my culture and appreciate it for how far it has come even though it may not be where I want it to be today.

Reference: 10 things to know about U.S. culture. InterExchange. (2020, July 27). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.interexchange.org/articles/career-training-abroad/10-things-to-know-about-u-s-culture/

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/

The United States is the highest individualistic country compared to every other country was a score of 91. The second highest is Australia following very close at 90. I have a friend from New Zealand and he always talks about how different it is from the U.S. and how much better the school systems, government, and life is better there. I, therefore, thought that New Zealand and the U.S. were very different on this scale but after looking at the figures the biggest difference is power distance. This makes sense as the U.S. has more control from a government side which results in businesses having to regulate their companies more. However; these scores are from research done in 2010 and especially with COVID-19 affecting the world I would assume many of them would change over the past 12 years. I do not know much about Italy other than the beautiful art history but it looks to be much different than the U.S. and New Zealand. I do know that Italy shut down for COVID-19 and was able to force people to stay inside so I can see that worked with a score of 50 in power distance and a score of 70 in masculinity.

Although this data may be a little outdated, this activity helped me understand some of the things I’ve heard about other countries. It also helped me realize that some people may have biases towards their country even tho it may not always be as great as they say. I have learned that many countries have to have a balance for instance if the power distance is high the individualism will be low. I learned in my Industrial and Organization Psychology class that China and the U.S. are pretty much opposites of each other in everything except for masculinity which I found very interesting.