Blog 10

At the beginning of the course, I set goals for myself about how I would go with the course and what to expect as I take it. We are coming to the end of the course, and I would say it went differently as I planned. I did learn about why a person is the way they were, and I did get some reasons for my “why did I” question I stated in the beginning of the course. Although, my organization skill goal was not fully there for the course. Overlooking the course objectives again, I would say I almost fully achieved the list. For example, I was able to fully grasp why a person’s attitude would change when certain situations occurred, however, I didn’t fully understand a person’s way of trying to understand others. People think in different ways and they all go at one situation differently.

Throughout Social Psychology, my attitude towards the course was like a rollercoaster. At the beginning of the course, I was invested in the course, then towards the middle I was iffy on doing the work, but then I started to get back into what I was being taught in the end. I feel like this happened because, it was something new that I was being taught, which got me invested, but when it was something I already knew I just brushed it off. If I took the course again, however, I would be more organized with my schedule. Throughout the course assignments/ blogs, I told myself and wrote that I would create a schedule for all my courses, but I semi did it. I did write down when I would do my work, but it was all over the place. To add, I would start reading the textbooks over the course of the week and not in one/two days, to fully understand what is happening. I was taught that doing something all the night before, wouldn’t help with memorization, and spreading it throughout the week is better.

Over the last few months, I would say that I have grown academically by being able to turn in most of my assignments on time. Most of the time I would do my assignments last minute, which added stress on me, but doing them throughout the week allowed me to have time for myself with less stress, while still being able to do work. After taking this course, a skill that I have gained in which I can use in my professional life is the ability to set goals for myself. The reason I say this is because during this course I did set goals for myself, but they didn’t happen right away. In my opinion, it would take a while to reach a goal, because you can have many obstacles along the way. However, setting goals for yourself as soon as something comes to mind, will allow you to do things to make sure that it happens.

Blog 9

So far in the course, the top three things that I learned is that stereotypes are mostly based on what you hear from others, the way you act can sometimes be portrayed as to what you see your peers doing, and that media can portray a big controversy of how women and men should look like and act. Stereotypes are what people believe a race is, when sometimes they can be false. It’s what people first thing of when they hear a race or religion being called. Your peers can have influence the way you are, for instance in the way you talk or the way you dress. There is a phenomenon that the more time you spend with a person, the more you act like them. Looking in magazines, you see models who are skinny and wearing scandalous clothes. This puts an impression on people that, that is what they are supposed to look like, when in fact, a person should be comfortable in their own skin and not what they see from others. Behind the models, they have strict instructions on what they eat, like their diet and how much they should eat, that is how they are skinny, sometimes it is even photoshop.

One of the blogs that I have done this semester applied to one of the assignments we had to do, which dealt with relationships. From Blog 3, I talked about how my boyfriend and I had somewhat different music tastes, but somehow whenever I was with him, I enjoyed listening to what he listened to. This idea applied to Assignment 4, which talked about the 6 different styles of love. Although this assignment rated us based on the average of male and female, the relationship my boyfriend and I have is strong.

Even concepts that I learned from this course related to what I have learned in other courses. For instance, from Blog 6, the idea of social media influencing people corresponds to peer influence in Psychology of Adolescence. During adolescence, children are starting to look at peer models other than their parents, family, friends, etc. They go on to social media, where they see these influencers, and they start acting like them. For example, there are children in middle school, who see Charlie D’amelio as their role model.

Blog 8

While reading the article, I wasn’t surprised with the information that was stated. I have noticed the situations in the different parts of the relationship in real life, but never thought about the categorization of it, like how it was displayed in the article. In other words, I never thought that in different stages of a relationship, a person’s feelings can change due to the seriousness of the relationship.

Coming from a female’s point of view, I noticed that men can upset women, with what they consider, “small things”, like men not giving their partner enough attention. When this happens, the female can think that they [male] don’t care much for them, as their attention is more focused on something else, like their video games rather than them. Another way men can upset women is when they know that they are lying about something they said. This can result in the trust being broken, which can lead to the female overthinking situations.

The over thinking and over analyzing can be a way that women upset or annoy men. When this occurs, a man can think that the woman is just stressing themselves out for no reason, and making up situations that are completely wrong. From personal experience, an idea of how women can upset or annoy men is with constant reassurance about love or the relationship. Men would think this is annoying, because women would ask it many times, but I don’t see it as being a woman’s fault due to their emotional level. Many of reassurance problems can occur from a person’s past relationships, where they were mistreated.

Blog 6

From watching the Ted Talk from Jean Kilbourne, most of what she talked about were things I have already knew/seen from female ads; the ideas that females should be pretty, skinny, and pretty much photoshopped. The ads that she shown during her Talk, did not come as a surprise to me, as it is basically the “socially accepted” image of females. Although, during the video there were some things that surprised me. For instance, the little boy copying the pose of the man. In my opinion, children should not be posing like this, nor should the adults, since they can be a huge influence on the younger audience.

Women are portrayed much differently than men in ads. For instance, women are encouraged to look skinny/thin, while the men are seen as muscular/buff. Also, an example that Kilbourne added, men are seen as human-like, while women are more cartoon-like, due to being photoshopped. The photoshop can distort the body, giving it an abnormal body figure, like a skinny body with a big head. Most ads of females have models who are skinny, giving the audience the idea that, that is the perfect body and what they should have.

Overall, my perception of how females are portrayed in advertisement stays the same/ socially inaccurate. The female body shouldn’t be skinny all the time, hence this can also lead to certain disorders, like anorexia nervosa. There needs to be more representation of women of different color, different weight, different body image. The one that is mainly on ads, gives people the wrong impression of how women should be, and from this, they won’t feel/ be accepted by their peers.

Below are the 5 images I have selected to depict what I noticed from Jean Kilbourne’s Ted Talk. The reason I selected the first image, was to describe that women in advertisements are not being shown as their true self. They are photoshopped for the audience to see. The second image explains that media portrays socially accepted women to be skinny. In most advertisements they do not show women who are plus sized, mainly skinny/ thin females. The third image gives off the idea that women are sexualized for who they are, similar with the fifth image. The fourth image also includes the concept that women should be skinny and have the right body. This can also put pressure/ shame on women who are not skinny. The fifth image portrays women to be the sex objects of men, similar to what Jean talked about during her Ted Talk.

Blog 5

The credible source ad I selected was of flex-tape. The reason why I chose this was because we all see the ad on TV, and we don’t believe that this tape can actually seal through tough damages. However, on their website they have many reviews in which it says that it works. With people testing out their products, we can see that what they have and what they sell can work.

The non credible source ad that I selected was of Colin Kaepernick in a Nike ad. The reason why I selected this, was because during a football game in 2018, Kaepernick was kneeling during the National Anthem, which many Americans took offense to. Kaepernick had a large following before, and after many started to dislike him because of this action, which meant that he lost credibility in him and what he is a part of.

I selected an ad of Beyonce with Pepsi, for my attractive source ad, because Beyonce is well known around the world, as well as a very attractive person to those people. The more a person is known and people find attractive, the more they will be persuaded as to what is being sold. Although, I do not drink a lot of soda, so the ad was not very affective towards me, but it may have been towards fans who enjoy listening to Beyonce, plus to those who drink soda.

Blog 4

Being able to review what I got wrong on the exam allowed me to see what I got wrong, in the sense of interpreting the question. Some of my errors that occurred on the exam were due to not fully understanding the question or scenario clearly, which lead to me getting the question incorrect. The reviewing process allowed me to see what chapters or topics I need to restudy, in order to fully understand the topic. The preparation strategies that I used for Exam 1 was going over the chapters every other day the week before, and then the day/night before, I would review each of the chapters, while taking a break after each. The day before the exam, when I briefly read each chapter, allowed me to see what I knew and didn’t remember. After reviewing my exam 1 results, for my next exam I will create notes/ flashcards in my notebook to help me study more in depth throughout the unit. Doing the notes and flashcards would help me sum up a chapter, without rereading the whole thing, saving me time to do other things.

Blog 3

I would say music has some effect on the relationships/ connections that people have between each other. In my opinion, music can bring people together, but having different taste in music doesn’t always mean that they won’t have a strong connection. For instance, my boyfriend and I have somewhat different taste in music, but the connection we have is strong. His preference in music is more of rock, while mine is R&B and pop. We do share some values and ideals, such as risk-taking, commitment, and honesty to name a few. Even with the similarities people have between each other, the music that they listen to may or may not be a part of how strong their connection will be.

Some of the songs I listen to can change the way I think or feel, especially when I listen to it with a specific person. For example, when listening to “Karma” by Queen Naija, with my best friend, we always get into the music and sing to the top of our lungs when we drive around, Virginia Beach. Songs like “Dropout” by Brakence ft. Blackbear and “Paralyzed” by Sueco, reminds me of car rides with my boyfriend, as we listen to their songs, and jam out during the ride. Although, “Lemonade” by Jeremy Passion and “Without You” by AJ Rafael, is in a separate genre of music, these songs remind me of the beginning of my relationship with my boyfriend, and brings back memories of the times we would go on dates. Coming from a family who enjoys going to, Orlando, Florida, for family, Disney, or Universal Studios, hearing the song “Happily Ever After” by Jordan Fisher and Angie K, would remind me of when we would all go to Magic Kingdom to watch the Fireworks, and forgetting everything that stressed me out.

Blog 2

Personally, I would describe myself as a student who is time motivated. For instance with due dates, I would either work in a timely manner, or sometimes do it last minute, but still complete it on time. When I work by the time, I feel confident in what I am saying and get more work done, if that makes sense. The time motivates me to get the work done. For some reason, If I do some things last minute and it includes me typing or creating something, I know what to say, to make it my best, sometimes.

On a scale to 1-10, I think my level of confidence is around a 6. I would say this, because I would sometimes know the material I am learning, while sometimes I have no clue what is going on. I do feel confident in myself that I am going to exceed in this class, with a passing grade, even though I have some things to work on. With that situation, working on trying to fix my problems, I can get better, more situated, and confident as the class goes on. My confidence level could increase, by reviewing the material at the end of every week, so that I don’t forget what I am learning, and to know what I am talking about. Repetition is a great way for me to gain confidence, and to also have a mindset that what other people think, shouldn’t effect what I think.

After taking the Self-Efficacy Scale, I got the score of 2.81. Similar to what I said above, my confidence is somewhat in the middle. I am a problem solver who tries to get the answer right away, but that can’t happen every time. I would stick up to what I believe in, but would still want to hear what the other person says if they oppose what I think. I mainly have tough skin, so I can deal with certain problems or situations that occur, but there are times when I can’t hold back and have to let it out.

Blog 1

With what is to come this semester in PSYC304, I feel as though I can get a better understanding of how people become who they are. This can be useful in the future, as I make new connections with others, as getting to know the real them can determine if we are going to be close friends, or more as acquaintances. Also, looking at the course objectives, I can finally answer my, “why did I…” questions with dealing with things in my past that I never really had the answer to, plus my future decisions.

With this course, I expect to be able to understand what is expected for me, with my work, in hopes of gaining feedback on what I did wrong, to do better in the future. Sometimes when I read instructions, I perceive it differently than what my professors want, thinking I did it correct, when it was somewhat off. In addition, I expect to be able to retain my information with what I learned throughout the course, once my ePortfolio is complete. I hope to gain more understanding on how people make their decisions, because I may think differently than the others, while they might have a good reason to oppose.

In order to be successful this semester, I plan on being more organized with my work, as well as my courses. I intend to create a schedule for when I do this class, compared to my other classes, so I do not cram each subject all in one night. In addition, giving myself time throughout the week to get to know the topic in which we are going to learn, can help me prepare for exams/tests, and have some free time towards the end of the week.