Assignment 4 Takeaway

For assignment 4 I was asked to complete a questionnaire that evaluates my love styles. There were 6 different love styles, each style got a score. After I calculated each score, I compared my score to the average score of others. I learned a lot about my relationship from this assignment. There is no better way to learn about something than to make it personally relevant and apply it to your own life. I evaluated each love style and decided which ones were important to me. Overall, I am extremely happy with my results.

Assignment 4 reminded me of an earlier concept, prototypes. We all have a prototype for a good romantic partner. Evaluating the scores made me compare my current lover with the prototype in my head and access whether our relationship matches my ideal relationship.

For my representative image, I chose a photo of the results of my questionnaire. I chose this photo because it gives a better picture of my results and what each score means.

Assignment 3 Takeaway

Assignment 3 required me to watch a video of the tirade of Michael Richard. During this tirade, Michael used a racial slur repeatedly to a member of his audience. I was asked to evaluate a few things about the video; was it racist, was he intending to be racist, and can you use racial slurs with no intent of racism. By taking the time to think about the possible meaning behind his behavior, I learned more about prejudice and discrimination. The prototype of a bigot is often someone that shows extreme racism, but there are other ways to be racist that are more subtle. Michael could have participated in more subtle racism previously, but this event forced him to be obvious in his views.

This assignment was personally relative to me because I grew up in an area that had a lot of racism. It was something that I saw every day. I understood racism but it was not until I moved out of my hometown that I realized how strong racism was rooted in everything. I noticed that a lot of people have racist views and do not realize it. For example, I once overheard a conversation by two white people that African Americans did not take care of their hair and that is why it was different from the hair of a white person. In reality, this statement is full of prejudice but the person that said it had no idea they said something wrong. It is beneficial to learn about racism so that it can be recognized and changed.

After the tirade, Michael went on TV and issued an apology. Michael claimed that he was not racist, and he did not know where the tirade came from. In chapter 5, we learned about implicit attitudes. Implicit attitudes are attitudes that we have little control over and may not even be aware of. He may have had an implicit attitude towards African Americans that he did not realize. For my representative visual image, I chose a screenshot of Michael making his apology on live television. I chose this image to show how he reacted after the event and give a possible explanation of what happened during the tirade.

Assignment 2 Takeaway

Assignment two asked me to find a group of photos that I felt represented me. At first, I had a hard time with this assignment because it felt weird trying to show who I am with only a few photos. As I went through my photos, I started to notice that my self-perception changed in each photo. I am different in photos based on who I am with and what I am doing. I learned that I have many “selves” that depend on the situation. For example, I have a fun and silly side, but I do not display that part of me at work or at school.

Another thing I noticed while looking at my photos was body language, a concept we learned about in chapter 3. The body language displayed in the photos reminded me of what I was thinking and feeling during the time the photo was taken.

This assignment was personally relevant to me because it made me think about myself in a way that I do not normally do. It was interesting to go back and review my collection of photos from a different point of view. One thing that was made apparent to me during this assignment was my struggle with self-esteem. It took a lot to find recent photos of me and that’s because I don’t typically feel good enough about myself to have photos taken of me.

For my relevant visual image, I chose a photo from my representative group. This photo was taken in Pittsburgh, PA, where both my husband and I grow up. This photo includes me, my husband, and two sons. Being a wife and mother are big parts of my self-concept.

Assignment 1 Takeaway

Assignment one focused on the four heuristics found in the book. During this assignment I was asked to apply my knowledge by creating examples of each one. By creating real world examples of my own, I feel very confident on all four types of heuristics. I enjoyed the assignment because it forced me think about the topic and not just memorize information. I chose the visual representative because it depicts the availability heuristic. The cartoon was a little humorous to me because I often think the same way as the cartoon and now, I understand why. I frequently used the availability heuristic as a parent. When I read things in the news about children getting hurt or killed, I became instantly scared. As we are learning in the course, heuristics can help us understand the reasons behind some social behaviors. Going back to the cartoon, we could read the body language and see the attitude change and because of this course, understand the mental process that caused it.