First Impression: Emotion

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Communication is very non-verbal, more than people realize. You may have heard the saying “you wear your emotions on your sleeve”, but people should say that you wear your emotions on your face. Your facial expressions can tell a lot about what you are feeling, even when you do not realize that you are showing so much. Some people are better at detecting what people are feeling by looking at their facial expressions than others. I feel as though I am very good at reading people’s emotions without them saying it directly.

I took a quiz with people making different faces, with different emotions that you have to pick which one they are feeling. I scored 12 out of 20 correct, which means I got 8 wrong. The results summary said that I am not bad at reading emotions and my score reflects an average ability to read emotions. I thought that I would score closer to perfect, sp the results are slightly surprising to me, though I did not realize how many emotions their were. When I was evaluating myself on how well I can read emotions, I only thought about being able to identify happiness, sadness, and anger. I did not take in to consideration emotions such as politeness and shame that were asked to be identified on the quiz. The easiest emotions on the quiz were happiness, anger, and pain. The hardest ones to identify were embarrassment and compassion in my opinion. I think that this test is credible for the most part, but I also believe that emotions are shown differently from person to person so it is hard to generalize facial expressions with their meanings.

Ch 10 – Emotion – Option 3

--Original published at AlyssaM

The song I chose is “At The Ceili” by Celtic Woman and can be found with lyrics here. To begin with the upbeat song is considered more of a festival tune rather than a love song, but the words say otherwise. If you listen to the last verse first it seems like a sweet love song where the three ladies find the man of their dreams, but the rest of the song tells a slightly more disturbing story, if thought about.

The first of the three, comes front and declares, “My true love has sailed away to be an endless rover . . . he writes me letters every week to say how much he’s slavin’ and he promises me he’ll be back before the hay needs savin'” You would think it is sweet her true love cares so much and makes sure to send her a letter every week, but then she goes on to say, “But it’s hard to love someone you’re not in touch with daily, so I’m looking for somebody new tonight down at the Ceili.” If she cannot get word to her true love fast enough, she technically would be cheating on him. Plus how much does she really care about her “true” love if she is willing to throw him away that easily? That does not sound that true to me, especially because once a week is a lot to receive a letter, so clearly the man cares for her, but she does not return the feelings.

The second lady goes on to say she, “only needs somebody tonight to make [her] heart beat fast.” She goes into daydreaming about his kind eyes and smile. Then she claims, “he’ll promise me that I will be his girl forevermore.” She doesn’t know what she wants a minute or an eternity. It can be problematic because she may put a “spell” on him that forces him to want to be with her forever and that she is controlling and will pull him in as if he is attached to a string that she alone controls.

The third, has two boys that are after her. She weighs the good and bad of each, one is poor, the other rich. She debates which life she would rather be stuck in, but also considering their personalities. She feels trapped and cannot make up her mind, but concludes at the Ceili she will be able to decide.

By the end of the evening at the festival, the three have decided upon who they want to stay with. If you think about it, not a lot of time passed and they were so indecisive the entire rest of the song. They claim they are happy and content with whom they chosen, but how can they be so sure? The first ditched her “true love” when he did not show her enough devotion, so whose to say this new one wouldn’t fail her too? The second wanted one to last a day, that would turn into an eternity, so how can she be sure she chose the right one? The third chose the man for love and not wealth, so she probably will be fine in the long wrong, but the other two . . .

Chapter 9 Intelligence – First Impression Post: Option 1

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

The educators I’ve had throughout school were the ones who foster my love for learning. Each year, especially during high school I grew more appreciative and inspired by the teachers I had. They made a huge impact on my attitude towards school and definitely were influential and helpful in fostering my education and passions.

Though I had a wonderful experience in high school there are a few things I would change. I liked that in my courses we always were studying relevant literature and topics. At times I feel that school emphasizes important authors and figures but fail to highlight the bigger picture and allow students to form their own ideas and worldview. I felt like I never knew what I though about the material we were learning rather, the only viewpoint I had was the teacher’s or an objective textbook standpoint. Something that really helped me improve my performance in school was talking to my teachers asking them questions about both life and academics. This helped me to think critically and also gain new perspectives on life.

During high school I felt my time was very split and while I enjoyed all the activities I was a part of, it sometimes took away from academics and caused me a lot of stress to maintain good grades, grow my knowledge, but still do the things I liked. I would have changed the homework structure at times I felt I was doing unnecessary work and while I learned some great study skills a lot of my time went towards busy work. Meaningful homework that practiced skills and readings which made me think were the most helpful. I would also mimic the college structure of classes where each day is planned and the class time is used to its maximum potential.

The last thing I would change is students ability to freely speak. Often times classrooms were awkwardly silent with only a few outspoken students speaking. I know I always had to muster up the courage to speak up and put in my opinion. I think facilitating more conversations and debates would have been helpful for students to feel heard and also give them a chance to develop their own thoughts.

Chapter 10 Emotions – First Impression Post: Option 2

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

I scored a 14/20 on the emotional intelligence quiz which reported, “your score means you’re slightly better than the average at reading expressions.” I am unsurprised at these results as I have always felt, and at times been told, I have an established sense of emotional intelligence. At times I feel I am very adept at reading other peoples emotions and how they are feeling, but in other situations I feel completely clueless.

At first the quiz was very difficult since I wasn’t paying enough attention to the facial features and position of the head but at the end of the quiz I felt I could get the answers with gut instinct. I found contempt, anger, disgust, and embarrassment to be the harder ones to distinguish. The emotions love, pride, happiness, flirtatious, sadness, and pain were easy to distinguish though.

I think the test is a surface level way to get a general idea of one’s level of emotional intelligence but I do not think it is the best method. Since everybody is different and expresses emotions uniquely, giving it their own personal twist, it may be easier to recognize emotions of the people you know rather than on strangers like in this quiz. Someone might not have scored very well on this test but maybe they are really good at telling apart the emotions of their loved ones and friends. The test though it a good baseline though since it incorporates the basic features of each emotion.

I could use this in my daily life to better understand my family, friends, even strangers. By being able to tell how someone is feeling, I could offer them help or allow them to self-disclose to alleviate their stress. Having emotional intelligence could also make me better at talking and understanding how a person is feeling especially during conflict or rough times.

First Impression Post-Chapter 10

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

“Can’t feel my face” by The Weeknd may at first glance seem like a love song but it is actually about his bad habit or addiction to drugs. He personifies the drug as a she, making it seem as though he is in a relationship with a woman when in reality he is talking about the effects the drugs have on him. These effects include him dying of overdose, the pain he goes through when he is not using the drug, and his knowledge of the damage that has yet to come to him due to his drug use.

He says, “we both know we can’t go without it,” which is inferring his addiction to the drug that he is currently using and him not being able to function when he is not using. He also says, “And I know she’ll be the death of me,” expressing his knowledge that his usage could end up with him dead, from an overdose. Yet even, though he knows the side effects he repeatedly says, “but I love it.” He also knows the side effects after the high that he gets as he says, “all the misery was necessary when we’re deep in love.” The Weeknd realizes the side effects to his drug addiction and all of the negatives to the usage yet still talks about how much he loves the high.

The song may at first come off as a love song, that he is unable to express how much he loves this girl. When in reality the true meaning behind the song is his drug usage.

Chapter 10 Impression Post Option 2

--Original published at Zachs College Blog

Often times people communicate their emotions through facial expressions and actions without actually physically speaking. Effective communication is being capable of reading people’s emotions and being able to take them into consideration before interacting. Before taking the emotional intelligence test, I believed that I would’ve done much better than I did. I personally believed that I was pretty skilled at telling a persons certain emotions during certain situations. I scored a 10/20 on the test and skilled much worse than I thought I would. I fill that this test is somewhat credible as some of the faces being made were easy to tell apart but some of them I personally thought could fall under multiple categories of emotions. Most of questions asked on the faces provided answers that I felt could all go with the face being made. The hardest faces to tell apart were embarrassment, love, and disgust while the easiest faces to decipher between were happiness, anger, and pain. I believe this test could be very beneficial to put towards your everyday life as you could learn more faces that compliment certain feelings and emotions. Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to be aware of someone else’s emotions and to be able to handle conversation and relationships with compassion regarding someones emotions. It is also very important with helping start and maintain personal and professional relationships throughout your life. Overall, I feel that the test helped me gain more knowledge on facial expressions and showed me that I do not know as much as I thought.

First Impression Prompt- Emotion

--Original published at Sydney’s Side

“The A Team” is a popular song by Ed Sheeran. When I first listened to it I thought it was a love song. Sheeran uses phrases such as “white lips, pale face” and describes the woman he’s singing about as an angel. The tune of the song is also slow and sweet. But, in reality the song is about a drug addicted prostitute. This is obviously not a good love song, because any relationship with a drug addicted prostitute would be problematic. It may seem obvious what the song was about, but I was only eleven when it came out so I didn’t think of these things.

My sister told me what the song was really about a while after it came out and I had to listen to it again because I did not believe her. But sure enough once you know what he really means, the song makes a lot more sense. In the chorus the lyrics say she “sells love to another man” which clearly means she’s a prostitute. I didn’t realize this at first because I really wasn’t paying that much attention to the lyrics. He also sings that she will “go mad for a couple grams” which shows her addiction. Also, when I though Sheeran was referring to the woman as an angel, it was only because she eventually would die. Hence when he says, “it’s too cold outside for angels to fly” and ends the song with “for angels to die.” Listening to it after understanding what the song is about makes it very somber.

First Impression- The Mozart Effect

--Original published at Sydney’s Side

The Mozart effect seems a little too good to be true when first reading about it. It makes sense that the child may grow up to be a classical music fan because of classical conditioning. But, playing classical music when a child is young does not seem like it would make them smarter. I do not know much about the effects of music on the brain but I have heard that it can make you happy and soothe you. This makes sense but I see no biological reason as to why it can make you smarter. The New York Times article included information from other psychologist who claim there is not sufficient evidence to make the claim that classical music will make a child smarter. I think this theory has a lot to do with the fact that individuals who listen to classical music regularly are stereo typically smarter.

The fact that the Governor of Georgia wanted to spend so much money on a theory that is not scientifically proven seems a bit preposterous. He also seems biases toward the subject because of his family history involved in music, as well as his so-called natural fascination. Although $105,000 is a small portion of the $12.5 billion budget, the money could go to other more important things. If there were more research behind the Mozart effect I would think this is a great idea, but there isn’t.

Intelligence is not determined by what type of music you listened to as a child. There are many different biological and environmental factors that can affect this. Children must make connections and start learning about the world around them.

Chapter 9 First Impression Prompts – Intelligence

Hand writing on a notebook

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag “Intelligence.”

Option 1:

Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is substantial evidence that the environment and social processes play a large role as well. Since schools are a place where children try to determine how smart they really are, it is important for educators to understand the impacts of their subtle or not-so-subtle interactions with students. In your blog post, reflect on your interactions with educators throughout your school career, and discuss what changes to the school system could improve students’ performance in the classroom.

Option 2:

In 1998, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed spending $105,000 of the state’s budget to distribute a cassette or CD of classical music to the parents of each new child born in Georgia (see the NY Times article). Governor Miller was a staunch believer in the Mozart effect, a theory that listening to Mozart can increase intelligence. Discuss whether or not you think Governor Miller’s decision was a good one.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Spotlight Blog 2 Prompts – Fall 2018

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag “Spotlight” on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below.

Option 1 – Use the tag “Memory”

Now that we’ve discussed how memory works and you’ve had a chance to think about your own study skills, I want you to critically evaluate websites that give students advice about how to study. If you select this option, I want you to find three different websites that provide advice for studying: one targeted toward college students, one targeted toward middle or high school students, and one targeted toward parents. Evaluate the advice provided on each and compare it to what you know about how memory works (include sources), making sure to correct anything you think is bad advice. Be sure to include links to the websites you are evaluating.

Option 2 – Use the tag “Stress”

We’ve discussed a number of different stress management approaches in class, and now I want you to evaluate online resources for stress management. Specifically, I want you to identify three websites that provide stress management tips and discuss how likely you think the strategies they provide are to be successful. Make sure to explain your rationale using what we’ve learned in class and your textbook. Each of the three websites need to be targeted at a different audience but you may select the audiences you want to use (e.g., college students, athletes, parents, artists). Make sure to include links to the websites as part of your post.

Option 3 – Use the tag “Drugs”

One of the largest campaigns to prevent drug use among children was the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. This federal program sought to provide kids with information about the dangers of using drugs, using things like the slogan “Just say no!” While people had high hopes for the program, it ended up being very controversial largely because of how it ended up impacting the rates of drug abuse among children exposed to the program. Research what the data say about the DARE program and argue whether or not it was a successful program. Then take what we learned from DARE and argue whether or not you think similar abstinence-based programs (e.g., sexual education programs) should be used in schools. Make sure to cite your sources.