ATA5:
Assignment 5 tasked us with doing five nice things for people we did not know. Then we had to discuss what we did, what prompted us to do it, how it made us feel, and how the stranger responded. So for example, one of the nice things that I did was I bought the coffee for the person behind me in the Starbucks drive-thru one morning before work. Doing this made me feel good because I knew it was a kind thing, I knew that it would most likely shock the stranger behind me, and I knew that it would most likely make that person’s morning a lot better. I was not sure how the stranger responded because I drove off, but I would like to believe they responded in a kind way and said thank you to me.
Assignment 5 also had us think about how our life would change if we had to enact doing one good deed a day. I believe that if every single person on the planet had to do one good thing a day, it would really change the world. It would make people so much more aware of their personal impact on others, it would make us so much more thankful for all of the other people around us, and I think we would all just be a little bit more kind to one another.
This assignment was really important to me because sometimes we get so caught up in our day to day routine we don’t always take a second to think about others, especially if we think that someone has no relevance to our life. And I think that it is especially important to stop and think about someone else, because everyday everyone is struggling with something that no one else might know about and just taking a minute to ask how their day is going or to spend an extra three dollars on their coffee can really make a big difference in their life and your own and it is really important to take that into consideration.
I chose this image because it was exactly what I talked about in my assignment takeaway. I especially liked the “just because” part. You don’t always need to do something for a reason. “Just Because” is reason enough. It is important to be kind and to do something for someone not to reward yourself or them but “Just Because.”
ATA4:
Assignment 4 had us take a questionnaire on styles of love. The questionnaire then results in six different scores, for the six different styles of love. Those six styles are eros, ludus, storge, pragma, mania, and agape. Each style specifically related to different parts of a relationship, whether it was affectionate, picturing a future family, and putting them before yourself. From this questionnaire, I learned where I land on the spectrum for each of the six styles. When I was answering the questionnaire, I based my answers off my last relationship. Having to answer this questionnaire right after my relationship ended was kind of tough as it made me even more so reflective on my relationship than I already was. However, I think that it was kind of helpful maybe for my next relationship cause now I know how I am when it comes to certain aspects. This assignment ties into one of my lessons from my philosophy class, where we discussed how important love was and how it can alter people’s ethical mindsets. This assignment was hard for me to do, but I think it is important for people to know how they love.
I chose this image because I thought it can show how different people have different ways of showing their love. Not everyone is going to show it in the same way, even in the relationship, and it is important to get to know how someone shows love and how someone likes to be shown.
ATA3:
Assignment 3 had us discuss a racial tirade that Michael Richards went on over a decade ago. We had to discuss whether we thought that he was deeply rooted and he is racist or if he was just that angry and said everything just to hurt someone. From this assignment, I learned how different things can appear depending on what someone does, how they approach things, and also how they respond after they have done something. I think with Michael Richards being in such a spotlight of fame, it put a lot more pressure on him, and therefore, his actions and words had a lot more meaning. This assignment can be a very controversial topic, especially in today’s atmosphere. This assignment was personally relevant to me because everyone today has to be extremely mindful of what names they are saying towards others. There are so many names today that have a racist connotation associated with them, that some people just think it is okay to say when it is not. This directly relates to everything you learn in history, moving past the time era of slavery and trying to become better and treat others better. There is still a world load of changes that need to be made. This assignment shows that some people in the spotlight, really need to change and be better.
I choose this image because this how this assignment made me feel. It made me feel like even though the tirade was over a decade ago, things seem to only have gotten worse, where they should really be getting better.
ATA1:
Assignment 1 had us discuss four different types of heuristics, including availability, representativeness, status quo, and anchoring & adjustment. I might have learned about heuristics before in a different psychology class, but if I had, it didn’t really stick with me. But because of this assignment, it really has stuck with me, to the point I was explaining to my mom what a heuristic was and teaching her about them. So, for me, I took away the knowledge of what these four different heuristics are and how often our brains do this type of thinking without us even realizing it. But, I found that this does tie into my ethics class, because sometimes people might find it unethical to think something about someone a certain way without actually getting to know them, but in reality, our brains are doing it on their own, we can only realize what our brain is doing and try to test it instead.
I choose this image because I think it demonstrates how all throughout psychology, and especially in this course and up to this point, we are taking the new information we are learning, analyzing it and then applying it to ourselves.
(image from: https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/cover-story/news/psychology-major-1682140)