Blog 10

It is hard to believe we are now approaching the end of the semester. I went back and looked at my first blog post and evaluated the progress that I have made. I believe I have accomplished all of my goals for this class. For example, I wrote in my first blog that my ultimate goal is having a good understanding of social psychology will help with my dream of medical school. I think the information I learned here will help me throughout my future career allowing me to understand the mental process involved in social behavior. In particular, the information we learned about nonverbal communication will be helpful to me in my professional career. When I become a medical professional, I will use nonverbal communication to put my patients at ease (smiling and eye contact).

I found this course interesting, and I am glad I took it. As I went through this course, the way I thought about social psychology changed. I understand more about the people around me and the factors that contribute to social thinking. If I were to change anything in this course, I would have spent more time focusing on the chapters when they were assigned. Before the exam, I went over all the material again and watched the jeopardy review videos. If I would have done that week by week it would not have been such a big task before the exam.

Over this semester I learned that I need to relax a little. This is my second semester at ODU and I have been out of school for a long time. I think I am getting back into the swing of things when it comes to school. I am proud of how I have transitioned to being a student again after all these years and this coursed aided me in the journey. For my representative image, I chose a photo of a woman that gained confidence. The muscle arms behind her show have she has grown with confidence. I feel that this image reflects how I have grown academically this semester and throughout this course.

Blog 9

After reviewing my e-Portfolio, I have created a list of the top three things I have learned from this course so far:

1) The top thing that sticks with me is learning about heuristics (Blog 1). I enjoyed learning about this topic. Heuristics related to my top artifact 1 where we watched a video titled, “Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?“. In the end, we saw how common it is to overestimate the probability of events based on what comes to mind first. For example, dying in a plane crash.

2) The next top thing learned was about emotional intelligence (Blog 7). This was a really interesting concept to me. It was a topic we discussed last semester in my organizational psychology class. During that class, we had the assignment to assess our emotional intelligence and talked about how it related to the type of worker/boss we are. This class helped me further expand my knowledge on the topic by looking at it from a different angle.

3)The last top thing I learned during this class was about my self-confidence and self-efficacy (Blog 2). I enjoyed taking the GSE. It made me think about and evaluate things in my life that I normally would not.

For my visual image, I chose a photo of a cartoon person having an “a-ha” moment. This is the exact moment when I knew about something broadly, but I finally understand why it happens. While going through this course and completing the activities for the ePortfolio/assignments, I had several of those moments when I finally connected the dots. That is how I chose the items to include in this assignment, the ones that gave me the biggest “a-ha” moment while doing it.

Blog 8

I found the mating article thought-provoking. It made me start thinking about the difference between men and women. As a result, I decided I would discuss the topic with my husband. We spoke about the difference between the things that upset me, and the things that upset him. We agreed on several points. Women are upset when things get missed. For example, forgetting to take out the garbage. They also get upset when things do not get done their way, like not folding the towels properly. Men, on the other hand, are typically much more laid back when it comes to task completion. It is not important to them how something gets done, as long as it gets done. Men get more upset over communication problems. Women give subtle hints and think men understand. Men get upset because they prefer a direct way of communicating and women do not always provide that.

For my visual image, a chose a carton of a man folding a towel. It is silly but, when I was growing up, I remember my mom was very particular about how to fold the towels. My dad tried to help but he did not do it correctly which led to frustration. This image illustrates the idea that women are detailed focused and like things done their way.

Blog 7

Emotional Intelligence and Self-Regulation go hand in hand. My personal meaning of emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware and in control of your emotions. I believe that having a high EQ would make it easy to honor your emotions, but also able to put those emotions aside to make the best rational decision. Self-regulation is a tool you can use to enhance your emotional intelligence. EQ can be displayed by practicing self-control and self-awareness. If you are able to stay calm under pressure, you are displaying EQ.

Certain events in your life may cause you to get worked up and quickly flood your body with emotions. If you practice self-regulation, you give your brain enough time to process the emotions. As a result, you have the ability to make a better decision. One self-regulation method mentioned in the video for this assignment was deep breathing. I believe this would be a great tool for me to use when I am feeling overwhelmed with emotion. In the past, I felt like I needed to react quickly, but giving myself time to breathe and think, will help improve my emotional intelligence.

For my representative visual image, I chose a woman in the process of deep breathing. I selected this image because it is the self-regulation technique I think I would benefit the most from. Another technique to improve EQ is to pay attention to your feelings and your judgements. If you detach yourself from those judgements, you can now process the thoughts you are having. For example, you may be thinking you are not good enough. Once you understand what you are thinking you can evaluate and make decisions about your thoughts.

Blog 6

I found the Ted Talk from Jean Kilbourn to be very interesting and thought provoking. Her speech made me think differently about advertisement for men and women. I was surprised and horrified by some of the examples she provided. I could not believe there was an advertisement for hair care products that had an entire page of insults to women’s breasts.

They way women and men are treated in advertising was made apparent from this video. The ideal woman’s body is always going to be impossible to achieve. The expectation for women is distortedly small waist sizes, missing thigh gaps, and faces with no lines. Men experience some of the same problems as women, but they do not typically attack their bodies like the ads with women. Men do not have to worry about threats of sexual violence and are always portrayed in the ads as strong. On the other hand, women are portrayed as vulnerable.

Before watching this video, I knew that women’s bodies were being photoshopped to unattainable standards. After watching this video, my perception has changed. I now understand how dangerous these advertisements really are. The standard for women has always been unattainable, but it is getting worse. These advertisements are putting young girls at risk of sexual abuse, low self-esteem, and dangerous beauty-seeking activities.

During this video, Jean called attention to several problems with the advertisement industry. I have selected 5 photos to visually represent the ideas I learned during this speech.

Photo 1:

Photo 1 is a picture of Katy Perry advertising Popchips. The advertisement reads, “nothing fake about ’em”, held up in front of her chest. The video pointed out how ads will criticize women’s bodies, and this is an example. Snacks have nothing to do with women’s breasts, yet they make a point to criticize women with breast implants.

Photo 2:

Photo 2 is a photo of Emma Stone advertising makeup. At first, I did not know this was Emma Stone because she looks very different from her typical appearance. Her skin is smooth and flawless, there are no lines or even pores. This photo reminded me of the Ted Talk when she said that Cindy Crawford wished she looked like Cindy Crawford.

Photo 3:

Photo 3 is an advertisement for a Nivea lotion that makes skin lighter. In the video, Jean mentioned that advertisers view fairer skin as more beautiful. She gave proof of this with an ad showing Beyonce’s skin photoshopped to be lighter.

Photo 4:

Photo 4 shows a Loreal antiaging product. The antiaging cream is said to fight against all signs of ageing. In the video, Jean mentioned that women are not allowed to age. Women are expected to stay youthful forever.

Photo 5:

Photo 5 is an advertisement for swimwear. The woman in the ad is wearing a swimsuit with jeans overtop. The model is extremely skinny. This photo is in line with the idea that women are expected to be unrealistically skinny.

Blog 5

Picture A is a photo of an advertisement put out by the CDC for handwashing. I selected this source because the CDC is a government agency that has expertise on public health. This source is credible because the CDC is trustworthy, knowledgeable, and does not have a personal stake in persuading people to take their advice.

Picture B is a photo of a weight loss advertisement. I selected this source because they are making claims that are not supported by science like, lose weight fast without diet and exercise. This is not a credible source because there is a personal stake in persuading the audience to buy the product. The more people who buy the product, the more money the source gets.

Picture C is a photo of an herbal essences’ advertisement. I selected this source because when I was younger, I was always amazed by how pretty the women were. I wanted to look like them. This is an example of an attractive source because even without knowing anything about the product, I wanted to buy it because of the women in the photos. This source worked on me because we are often persuaded more by attractive and likeable sources than unattractive ones. They are telling you that if you buy the product, you will be like the women in the advertisement.

Blog 4

I scored a 90% on exam 1. I am mostly happy with the results. Before the exam, I went over all of my notes, filled out the exam 1 review sheet, and watched the jeopardy videos. I felt the jeopardy videos were extremely helpful and I will be using them again for the next test. By watching the videos right before the exam, I was able to get a few more questions correct than just reviewing the study guide alone. I looked up the questions that I got wrong, and I understand why I missed them. Most of them were little mistakes like misreading the questions or having trouble remembering similar vocabulary words. Seeing that I missed easy questions made me feel a little frustrated. By reviewing the missed questions, I know that in the future I need to carefully read the problems to make sure I do not make silly mistakes again. I felt it was helpful to see the questions I got wrong because I can use that feedback to ensure I study the vocabulary better for future exams.

The representative image I chose was a photo of the review sheet. I printed it out with space to write. I reread the chapters briefly in the week leading up to the exam and filled the sheet in as I went. This picture is important because it helped me feel extremely prepared for the exam.

Blog 3

In the article, Soul Meets Body, the author stated that music taste has to do with attraction. Studies show that similar taste in music and similar values are linked. When I compare my music taste with the people I am closest with, I find that my music taste resembles theirs. After reading this article, it makes a lot of sense. I am the closest with my sisters, even though we do not have similar personalities, we all share the same values and music taste. My favorite songs are the ones that are meaningful in one way or another. Based on that, I can see how my values are incorporated in my music preference. Often songs that remind me of my family/friends make me cry. That strengthens the argument that music is more than just surface deep. Songs like, Unconditionally and Little Wonders, makes me think of my kids because the message is of unconditional love and appreciating every moment you have together.

The photo I chose as my relevant visual image was a screenshot of the Taylor Swift song, The Best Day. I associate this song with my parents. I picked this as my photo because the music video makes me think of the home movies we made when I was a kid. In addition, the words in the song make me think of all the good times we had and how thankful I am to have those experiences with them.

A list of songs that I associate with other people:

Little wonders – Rob Thomas (Kids)

Unconditionally- Katy Perry (Kids)

Ghost- Justin Beiber (Grandfather)

The Best Day- Taylor Swift (Parents)

Because you loved me- Celine Dion (Grandma)

Perfect- Ed Sheran (Husband)

Blog 2

I am a fairly confident student. I work really hard and try to get good grades in my classes. I am confident in my ability to learn the material and complete my assignment satisfactorily. I scored a 35 on my general efficacy scale. This suggests that I have a higher perceived self-efficacy. I think this result is correct, I currently have a 4.0 GPA. I also try to take advantage of the College Board’s CLEP program. To do that, I work hard and teach myself the information. After I learn the information, I take the exam. I believe it takes a lot of self-confidence to attempt testing out of so many classes.

The biggest challenge I have in confidence is that I have not been in school for over 10 years. I find that I get extremely nervous on tests because of the pressure to do well. I believe the more experience I have with testing, the easier it will become. Doing better with testing will raise my confidence because that is a big factor in my success at school.

As my visual image I chose a photo of my score results for the GSE. I picked this image because this blog was centered around this scale. It also shows how I answered each question and how I got my final score.

Blog 1

Learning about social psychology will benefit me and prepare me for my future in many ways. Being knowledgeable about the way people perceive and understand others will be important in my career goal of being a physician assistant; good communication and understanding with my future patients will be crucial. I expect to leave this class with a better understanding of social behavior. This will make relating to others easier, and result in building better relationships. I suffer from social anxiety at times, I hope the knowledge I gain from this course will help me overcome some of that anxiety.

To keep on track in this class, I do several things. First, I have written in my planner all assignments with their due dates. I use a highlighter to mark the assignments after they have been submitted. This method helps me get a quick visual on how many things I still have to do during the week.  Second, I print out all the power points and take notes for every chapter. Third, I downloaded the book on my phone and play it as an audiobook. After I listen to it, I come back and read the chapter. I find this helps me understand the information better because I have gone over it more than once. The photo I picked for my representative visual is titled “weekly planning”, it shows my planner with my notes from chapter one. I chose this photo because it shows my dedication to success in this course.