Blog #10: Course Reflection

My attitude toward social psychology has not changed at all. I am still interested in the topics and enjoyed learning the different ways people interact with each other. This topic closely related to my preferred profession so I will continue to study what I have learned and seek more in-depth information. I have learned a great deal in the course. I’ve found that the course objectives closely follow the book and the writing assignments that accompany each chapter have allowed me to further my understanding of the material. So, in completing the course I’m confident I have achieved the course objectives. A skill that I wasn’t expecting to learn from this curse was how to utilize WordPress and by extension other accessible web design programs. I had never taken the time to explore building my own website. In the age of technology, the ability to make a presentable and informative website is imperative.

This was a course that I added to my schedule at the last minute. I was interested in the material and didn’t mind learning about the social aspect of psychology I was not, however, expecting to be challenged in an area unrelated to psychology. When I read the syllabus I was not prepared for the extra work involved when it comes to creating a website with so many different types of assignments. If I were to take this class again I would take it with fewer credit hours so that I could devote more energy to the assignments. in hindsight this was an interesting class but since it was not high on my priority and I wasn’t prepared for the diversity of assignments I didn’t embrace the challenge like I usually strive to do. Even though I didn’t get everything I could have out of this course I did grow academically. Over this semester I have actively practiced time management. I had the opportunity to balance being responsible for my online learning as well as my daughters. It was a challenge and missed a few deadlines but I did improve prioritizing my time so that more assignments were completed and turned in on time than not.

Blog post #9:

The top three things iv learned so far were how we form impressions and manage them, how our attitudes guide our behavior, and how we resist persuasive attempts. A thing that I’ve learned in this course how we resist persuasive attempts

Blog post #7: Emotional Intelligence

When the topic of emotional intelligence comes up it is often discussed in general terms. Someone with high emotional intelligence is able to understand their own emotions and the emotions of others is often repeated. It is less common to talk about how to increase emotional intelligence. Often there is an assumption that emotional intelligence is something you are born with and is unlikely to change but that is untrue. Learning to recognize and name emotions is something that needs to be practiced and being able to that in one’s self-facilitates in recognizing it in others. A big part of learning emotional intelligence is self-regulation, the ability to choose how you respond to a situation regardless of your emotional state. There are times when emotions get heightened and we act both positively and negatively without thinking. Self-regulation is the continuous thoughts between receiving stimuli and responding to it and can include accessing emotional states, analyzing a situation, and regaining control of emotions.

 To me, emotional intelligence is the ability to distinguish my or someone else’s mood or feelings relatively quickly and be able to make an informed decision based on that assessment. There are many times when I feel very passionately about something and I am not one to hide my feelings, but it may be the appropriate setting. Usually, in that situation, I read the room and then decide to what extent I what extent do I want to express my feelings. On one occasion on my friend’s birthdays, On the other hand, there are times that I have no strong opinion on the matter of I was to be considerate to whoever I am with so I will do my best to read their emotional state and that will dictate my actions moving forward.

Blog #6: Woman in Advertisements and Insecurity

This TEDtalk further enforced things that I have looked upon my own and discussed with my friends. I often comment on the silly ways advertisements try to get consumers to buy products and one of my favorite things to do is to point out flaws in their logic or wording when describing their product. The most entertaining being TV Ads. The least fun ads are the ones that sexualize women to sell a product.  When I see them, I tend to ask my boyfriend if they work in him and” Is this how men’s brains work?” to my delight he shakes his head and comments on how dumb it is. I like to do this to help remind me of the goal of the ad is to sell a product and to not take it so personally because like jean Kilbourne mentioned my self-esteem plummeted when I hit middle school and I started comparing myself to my peers and “teens” in my favorite tv shows and movies. I read the magazines; I was convinced it was real. It was only when the campaigns to stop photoshopping models started to get popular when I was in high school that I realized I was being fed lies. even in recent years I have been fooled by the models on Instagram and have to actively remind myself they hit certain angles and touch up certain photos to appear perfect.

Blog #2: Self-Efficacy

I have taken many college courses over the years. One thing that I have noticed about myself is that I’ am a diligent student. When it comes to classes I’m excited about I get work done early and actively use what I have learned in my daily life. My current level of confidence as a student in this class and in general is moderately high but since I am a mother and public schools are done online. I am a little less confident that I can balance my time and make sure both mine and my first grader’s classwork gets done. In regards to my task accomplishment, my self-efficacy score of 32 reflects my current confidence in my abilities.

There have been times when my self-efficacy was reflected in my work. I would procrastinate on assignments and rationalize not turning them in. One factor that would increase my confidence would be to sit down and concentrate on an assignment for just five minutes. If I was still uncomfortable and found it difficult to continue then I would stop and try again in a couple of hours. After some time had passed, I usually found that the work was not as daunting as I had envisioned and I was able to continue working. Over the years I have learned that I just need to put in the effort to achieve my goals and the results will follow.

Blog 1: Course Objectives

 In a career working with a diverse group of people and specifically, working to create a less stressful and more efficient workplace environment, social psychology plays an important role. I will learn more about the way people interact in social settings will help me tremendously in preparation for my career. Knowing the process through which people perceive and attempt to understand others will assist me when considering the social dynamics in the workplace. Knowing how attitudes are formed and change will give me a better insight as to what motivates people to do good work. Finally, being informed about the factors that influence our liking for another individual will help me facilitate better relationships between colleagues and supervisors than their workers.

Initially, I was really excited about this class because I was interested in the topic and it directly related to my future career. I’m excited to fully understand and integrate the concepts into and I/O career. I was, however, a little concerned when I saw that we had to create a website. I am not practiced in creating an aesthetically pleasing webpage and although I understand the value of these skills in the age of the internet, I was not anticipating practicing these skills for this class specifically. My creativity does not extend to designing unique web designs yet, but I hope to gain confidence with continued practice.

In order to do well in this class, I will attempt to get ahead on the ePortfolio assignments and reading the chapters. I plan to take careful notes so that I put all the vocabulary into context. Finally, I plan to put most of my energy into the remaining four assignments because I believe effective written communication is the most important skill to master for my career.