BLOG 10

I think I can honestly say that I did not do very well this semester, I’m well aware of that. I could give a myriad of excuses for this, but it really all comes down to poor mental health and filling my plate to the brim and not being prepared to eat it all. Though I don’t feel I achieved the level of academic success, nor did I learn nearly as much as I was hoping I might, I do believe that this semesters failures have taught me some invaluable lessons about myself, my capabilities, and my priorities.

Though I feel I’ve achieved a basic level of understanding in regard to the learning objective, I can’t say that I met any of my own goals and expectations that I originally set out for myself after doing blog 1. I had a rough time of this semester and I’m certain it will be reflected in my grades… however, I’ve already extended my textbook rentals for another semester because I know that I didn’t give any of my courses my all, nor did I give them the attention I should have and I intend to work on my own to go through the information again and process it in the way that I should have the first time around.

I feel as though I have learned more about this subject than I knew previously and that that has shaped me as a person, but I can’t say that my attitudes about the subject have changed. I would, however, put more actual focus and energy into the subject matter if I had a chance to re-do this semester. Though I know that grades are just arbitrary benchmarks that can be obtained by doing the work, but not necessarily by knowing the information (and I’m sure my grades will be disappointing reflects of the work that I did), I’m not concerned about that because what matters to me is that I know the information. I’m not okay with skating by the way I have, and so if I had to re-do things, I would prioritize actually trying to truly learn and synthesize the information. I understand the reasons I failed to do so this semester, personal and academic, and have already begun to take steps to remedy those issues before next semester begins.

This semester taught me more about why I’m here and why I’m doing this and why this is important than it taught me about actual psychology, and that is my fault, but I feel like those were lessons I needed to learn; and the problems I encountered that led to me learning those lessons were things I needed to learn how to come back from. I’m glad to say that I have.

BLOG 8

I’ve found that those of other ethnicities and cultures, in my experience, have been quite reserved and stoic for the most part. My Vietnamese family tend to show positive emotion just like anyone else I’ve ever met, but they’re very quiet about why they may be feeling any of the negative emotions they feel. I’ve also often found that they tend to be very stoic about expressing their negative emotions. A friend of mine and her family, from Mexico, tended to be equally as secretive about their trials and tribulations (and even some of their successes), though more forthcoming in expressing all range of emotion. I have very little expectations about how people should act or express emotions, especially in relation to culture because every individual is different and thus may express however they see fit; however, I will say that my family’s reactions fit with the stereotypes of Asian culture- quiet, expressionless, reserved, stoic. I can’t say that I know much about Mexican stereotypes other than a propensity for outgoing, boisterousness- which they fit- but I was surprised by the secretiveness and reservation in explaining anything. I believe that the principle of universality mainly applies to how things are felt, but not necessarily how things are processed or expressed, I believe that that depends upon the person; however, I will say that those processes and expressions are subject to being shaped by the influences of the culture that the individual is raised in.

BLOG 7

I do believe that the older fairy tales did all seem to fit the same mold of helpless princess and the handsome prince that saves her because he finds her pleasing to look at, however, over the years that injustice has slowly come to be remedied by the depiction of strong, smart, emotionally complex princesses that are capable of solving their own problems and often don’t ever even find a prince. I think that is a major step in the right direction because the old movies will always be classics and will never go away, so there really is no need to create more just like that to fill that gap; there is a huge need to show women as dynamic, independent, intelligent human beings though! I feel that movies that showcase the main character (especially in the case of female leads) as equal to that of their brave, cunning male predecessors (and possibly even better due to their range of emotion and true sense of wit) is encouraging to young women in that they have an example of the type of women they could become and is essential to young men because it shows them that women are capable and equal human beings that should be treated as such. However, I also believe it’s essential to have male leads that show that same range of emotion that the female leads do, as opposed to their predecessors, because young men need to know that it is okay for them to feel and to need saving sometimes and that those things aren’t shameful; and young women need to know to treat them as such. However, I do also believe that girls need not necessarily learn from girls and boys need not necessarily learn from boys; it is okay for a boy to strive to be a loving leader like Queen Elsa and for a girl to strive to be a strong, loyal friend like Maui.

I, personally, was most influences by Alice from Alice in Wonderland in my childhood. She was curious, brave, driven, independent, and unapologetically emotional. She knew how to find her way home, to dream, to deal with bullying and adversity, how to take advantage of the moment, and to make friends with even the most mad.

BLOG 6

As far as autonomy is concerned, I satisfy my academic needs in this area by checking in with myself often to make sure that I’m still making progress because I have a drive to further my own knowledge and chances of success in life and not because I’m expected to by family or because I fear the repercussions of not graduating. This is hard to do when life gets busy, my mental health goes into a decline, or I’m taking a large course load, but it’s important because I’m not likely to continue simply because of the extrinsic motivators I named above. Another important thing I did on this point was to make sure that my choice of major came from my own interests and goals in life and not because someone else thought it would be a good fit or because there was more money to be found in that field; it’s more important to chase my own satisfaction and happiness than it is to chase money or someone else’s happiness and satisfaction for my life.

When it comes to competence, I relate it to autonomy in that I strive to make my drive to succeed academically based in my desire to expand my knowledge and mastery of subjects that interest me and will be applicable to my future career success. This point is the biggest source of intrinsic motivation for me because of that mastery of subjects; completing tasks and understanding topics gives a brief, motivational success high that propels me into the next task or topic (for the most part).

Relatedness is interesting to me because I’ve never been the type to want or need very many people, especially in relation to academic success. I suppose the most I can say here is that I lean on a handful of people very close to me to keep me accountable and to reassure me that I’m doing the right thing and I’m doing it well whenever I feel discouraged or overwhelmed. It also helps that my step-mother (pictured far right) is currently getting her Master’s degree online and we can share in the highs and lows of online higher education together.

BLOG 5

My self assessment was interesting because I wrote about who I am in relation to others, but only because it was easier than talking about my own internal attributes (even though I do think of myself as more independent than interdependent because of the way that I think and live). I wrote simply that I am a daughter, sister, girlfriend, and student; however, I also wrote that I am environmentally conscious, an animal lover, mentally and emotionally complex, and resilient… but I could’ve written more if I were more comfortable talking about myself to people I’ve never known or met before. So, according to the self assessment, I’m equal parts both, but I view myself as more of an independent person than interdependent because I don’t put too much stock into my relationship to others- those relationships are still fact nonetheless.

Independent proverb: ” The trick is that as long as you know who you are and what makes you happy, it doesn’t matter how others see you.”

Interdependent proverb: “Learn from everyone, follow no one.”

It was easier for me to think of an independent proverb, but even the interdependent proverb I thought of had an element of independence to it. I think this is because, as stated, I fall more into the independent category than the interdependent.

BLOG 4

This process really clarified for me the errors I had made in knowledge processing, study, and test-taking. By reviewing the questions that I got wrong and finding the answers, initially, in my notes to see if I even took down the information (in which case the error would be in studying because I didn’t not review the material well enough); if it was not in my notes (then the error would be in knowledge process because I did not think enough of it to write it down) then I went to the textbook to find the answers and added it to my notes. If I reviewed the question and recalled the information from the textbook and found it in my notes, the error was obviously in my test-taking; having taken several exams in the same day (which was not a good idea on my part), my brain was not at its full-potential. Other errors could also stem from having been studying for several exams within interconnected sub-fields of psychology causing confusion in separating the subject matter or terms and definition or ideologies, etc.

I think, from now on, I should designate a day for each exam so that I can end the culmination of my studying for all classes with a day exclusively for a final review of the materials contained within the exam I will be taking that day, only for that specific class.

BLOG 2

I believe that I am a pretty productive student, all things considered. I’ve always enjoyed learning, I’m aware of how I learn best, I’m working on better time management, and I try to actually digest the information that is given to me in each class. I would say that, overall, I’m a good student. As far as how I learn, I know that I work much better on my own when I have a handful of different explanations of the materials that I can weave together to make it more palatable to my sense of understanding on the subject.

I would say that my level of confidence as a student has wavered a lot! In elementary school I was overly confident about everything because I excelled; in middle school I began to hit disheartening road blocks in math; in high school I continued to fall behind in math and encountered my act nemesis, chemistry, for the first time. However, when I got into college, I was met with a different kind of learning, and an entirely different life really. I found that I struggled with lectures because the majority of them weren’t relevant to the information that I needed to learn and I felt that attending lectures that didn’t explain  much and then spending extra time teaching it to myself was highly inefficient. So, to remedy, I tried online classes to cut out the middle man and I found that this worked wonders for me! However, I still had very low confidence about any potential majors and career paths so it affected my classwork heavily; another factor was the fact that general education is tedious and I wasn’t interested in any of those classes. Since changing to online courses and completing all of my general education (and actually nailing down a major), my confidence has increased, but it could still use some work.

I think my self-efficacy results reflect all of that. I value my ability to learning and my confidence on the subject is steadily increasing. I wasn’t particularly surprised by the results. I think something that helped my confidence was coming back to college after taking a year off to take care of my mother through her illness. I wasn’t sure whether or not I would actually be able to finish college during that time and finally completing my Associates and getting myself set to attend ODU was a large accomplishment that propelled my confidence forward by a lot. I’m not certain my results would have looking nearly that good had I taken this a year ago. I feel I’ve come a long way.

BLOG 1

In relation to my life, objectives 2 and 3- understanding the impact of cultural diversity and interactions with individuals of other cultures- are the most relatable, especially considering the increasing populations of non-American cultures within America due to the ease of travel and immigration. However, objectives 1 and 4- conducting and analyzing research- are less applicable due to my lack of interest in going into a research heavy career; although, I nonetheless understand the importance of understanding how to conduct and analyze research.

With the amazing variety of people in the world, and within just this country, it is vitally important to my future career that I have a solid and empathetic understanding of cultural variety so that I can better navigate the differences in background and lifestyle between all of the people I may encounter. Due to my wanting to enter the field of mental health in relation to the elderly, it is extremely important that I understand how to interact with people who grew up in a completely different time period that came with its own culture- because culture can be different over time as well as over geographic location.

In order to learn and retain the information to the best of my ability, I decided to create a binder for each of my classes with tab divers for each section so that I had a separate place to store all of the notes and class materials for each class- a place that would be sturdy enough to travel with me through all of my future educational and professional pursuits. The hope is that these reference materials I can continually add to so that they will grow with me and serve as places that I can always return to in order to refresh my knowledge on every subject whenever relevant.