Personal Blog Post #5

My Life Vision - Role Models (#1) page 209

Who is this role model? I've only had one role model throughout my life, and it has always been the same person- my dad.

1.) How does this person fit your definition of a role model?
My dad is a son, brother, husband, father of three children, and grandfather to twin boys. From my eyes, he goes above and beyond each of those roles. His relationship with his parents emulates the relationship that I currently have with him and my mom, and that I hope to have as long as they are in my life. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was well into my schooling, and he not only provided for us all but worked to make sure that we were the right kind of spoiled. He remains an ardent son to my grandparents, though for my grandfather it is to his memory, an incredible father, and is now also an endearing grandfather.

2.) Why do you look up to him/her and want to emulate him/her?
My dad is not only a family man but also a dedicated worker. In addition, he is respectable, caring, amiable, and organized (that last one may sound strange). Though I never have on planning any children, I hope to prove to be like him when it comes to the relationships I have with him and my mom, siblings, grandmother, nephews and my boyfriend. If they feel the love and warmth from me that they have felt from my dad, I will know that I have gotten the best traits from him.

3.) How will you go about fostering in yourself the characteristics that you admire in him/her? Or if you already have acquired the characteristics that you admire, how have you done so and how are they manifesting themselves into your life?
I already have so many of the characteristics from my dad that I admire, but I believe that over time and through experience I'll be even more like him. As of now we have the same sense of humor, organization habits, work traits, and even general routines. I also inherited the best combination possible of his and my moms' personalities. Once I graduate college, have a career, get married, and buy a house, I'll learn from him the others.


4.) In what ways might you become a role model to the people in your life?
I hope to be a role model to my family and friends to work hard, love even harder, and be true to oneself. I especially hope to be a wonderful role model to my 2-year-old twin nephews, who already show incredible traits from both their Boyer and McGibbon sides. If I don't turn out to be role model material like my dad, I at least hope to remain a loving family member and girlfriend, a hard and dedicated worker, and the same person I am as of today.

Extra Credit Personal Blog #1 - Mentoring Planning

Mentoring Planning, page 401

Mentoring Planning

Need for Mentoring (Areas for Growth):
My main problem at college is how and how much I let my stress effect me. I'm constantly overthinking about what's due, what grades I have and need, exams, midterms, finals, etc. I need to learn to put my stress in it's place and give myself times to be stress free, even if there are due dates and important events close by.

Who have you selected as a mentor?
I've selected Dalton Thomas a mentor.

Why?
Dalton is very good at controlling his emotions and what negatively effects him. He has a time and place for everything, includes stressors from school, work, relationships, etc.

What is your relationship to this person?
Dalton is my boyfriend of almost three years and my absolute best friend.

How will you approach this person about the possibility of a mentoring relationship?
We've discussed this issue before, and he always has advice for me so I would probably talk to him about giving me more advice and tips to try and follow.

What are your goals?
To be able to put things out of my mind for periods of time and enjoy whatever I'm doing without my thoughts wandering and feelings overwhelmed.

How will you know when you're making progress?
Overall I'll know when I'm happier and don't constantly feel like I have huge weights on my shoulders.

How often will you meet with your mentor?
I'm already with him every day, but we would probably talk it once every day or so.

How will you celebrate growth and improvement?
I will use my improvement as an excuse to go out and do more fun things.

How will you celebrate final success?
By blocking out time every day for myself to do whatever I wish.

How will you end the mentoring process?
By telling him thank you and changing the subject.

Personal Blog Post #4

Self-Assessment, Experience 4

I'm using the simple experience of taking my first online college exam.

My two greatest strengths:
1. I am good at managing time, even in the setting of a timed exam. It is easy for me to decide exactly how much time I can give myself on each individual question, whether I know them or have to look for the answer.
2. My other greatest strength was the ability to quickly search through my textbook and notes to find the answer to problems I didn't know. Considering I got an 84%, it obviously wasn't perfect. However, truth be told I had not thoroughly read all chapters of the textbook, and there were many questions I was unsure about. All in all, I think I did fairly well for my first online exam in college. Especially considering how much the class average went down...

My two areas for improvement:
1.
a. Short term plan: To improve for the next exam, I will do a better job of thoroughly reading the textbook.
b. Long-term plan: In general for online tests, I would change the setting in which I took the exam. I wasn't too worried because it was only 50 questions, but I was definitely distracted by surroundings.
2.
a. Short term plan: Again, for the next exam, I will make sure to have my PowerPoint's from  right by me, because I wasn't expecting any of the questions to be coming from there.
b. Long-term plan: For future online exams, particularly ones that are timed, I will do a better job of studying and being more well prepared for what to expect on the exam.

Insights about my performance:
Overall for my first time, I think I did well. Though I'm not particularly happy with the grade, it's still not bad and leaves plenty of room for improvement in the future.

Personal Blog Post #3

Page 71 - Learning and Moving On

An issue that I'm currently facing is what to do with my future in terms of my psychology degree.

1) Five characteristics of the problem:

• Whether to just continue on for a masters degree, or whether to strive for a doctorate 
• If I want my masters degree to be in psychology, counseling, or social work
• What is available in terms of education in South Carolina (I'm moving after I receive my Bachelor's)
• What jobs are currently available and hiring
• What will pay a decent salary but keep me happy

2) What are 3 strengths that you have that will help you to address the problem?

• I take time in thinking things through, I never leave a stone unturned
• I'm decisive when it concerns my future
• I'm open minded

3) What barriers have you created that keep you from addressing the problem effectively?

• I worry too much about what others say to influence my decision
• I have a tendency like the idea of something but not actually want to do it

4) Who can you use as a sounding board or to help you think through the problem?

My psychology and human development professor, Mr. Boyd. He has been a genuine inspiration and encouragement and I know he'll help me figure out what best suits me.

5) What are the real barriers to addressing the issue?

• Employment rates - can I even get a job?
• The economy - will I make enough money to support myself well?
• Not wanting to end up with a job I don't look forward to going to every day - I don't want to choose something I'll regret

6) What are you going to do to address these barriers?

Pay more attention to the news to learn about job rates, research on average how much someone makes in each profession I'm interested in, and then use though in consideration to picking whatever will be the most fulfilling for me. 

7) Has the way you feel about the future changed since you identified a way to begin addressing the problem? 

A slight bit. It's a lot of work just to address the barriers, and even more work follows that.

8) What this problem has to do with my identity:

College is currently a huge part of my identity, and the future job I end up with will be a huge part of who I am. It's what I will dedicate most of my time to. 

9) What this problem has to do with my sense of self-efficacy: 

This issue involves a lot of completing tasks and reaching of goals. All of college, and my future job will revolve around those two things.

10) What this problem has to do with my affective skill set:

 Being able to make a huge decision regarding my future takes skills. It may not seem it, but this decision will affect just about every other aspect of my life. If I can get through this, I can handle other problems as well.

Personal Blog Post #2

Page 49 - My Life Vision

The textbook says that this is a type of "bucket list" for our mind- describing all of the things we want to learn and why. It's easy to think about all of the physical activities you want to do before you die, such as skydiving and swimming with dolphins, but I've never really considered the things I want to learn before I die. There are the simple and materialistic things such as learning to drive stick so I could actually drive my dream car, learning to play the acoustic guitar, and learning to snowboard because I think it's awesome even if I hate the snow and being cold. In a perfect world I would love to actually learn those things, but chances are I probably won't. But that's fine with me. I'd rather focus on learning things that will ultimately help me to become a better person. Driving a beautiful Mini Cooper and being able to play guitar along to songs I love even though I couldn't carry a tune with a bucket would be awesome, but in the end things like that just truly aren't what will help me feel good about my life when I look back on it when I'm old. Considering my family and future career will be (and already are) the most important things in my life, I would like to dedicate my learning to them. I want to learn to be the best psychologist I can possibly be to help as many people as remotely possible. I want to learn to be the best daughter, sister, and aunt I can be. It's those things that I truly want to learn in my life.

Team Blog - Clenched Fists

Team GER

A clenched fist is a symbol of solidarity and defiance. It has been used as a symbol of military power, a militant rebellion symbol, a statement against war, and various other political activities.

The clenched fist is a sign of strength and power. People used this symbol when they wanted to make a strong point or show defiance against something.

-Deviantart

-Colleen

 Clenched fists are often used today as a way to showcase money; we live in a society that is currently very money oriented.
-Dribbble
-Calli

Clenched fists often showcase power and strength. They can be seen as intimidation- clenched fists holding things and clenched fists at your side tell someone that you are serious and mean business. 

-Dribbble

-Calli

An interpretation of this particular photo would be that the man shown is weak, covering his face while he "plants" the powerful and watches them gradually grow over time.
-Tumblr
-Ashley

Personal Blog Post #1

Page 20 Questions 4-7

#4) From my high school experiences, I would say that my strongest aspects of the Theory of Performance would be identity and learning skills. Regarding identity, I am very well prepared to both be a part of the community and also form my own unique identity while in the Applied Psychology program. It's incredibly important that I both work well with others in my program while also taking time and thought for myself to become the best in whatever specific field of psychology I end up in. Regarding learning skills, I am very good at taking knowledge from one setting and applying to another in order to see the big picture. This is also important in the field of psychology.

#5) I would say that I am least prepared in the area of context. Regarding context, high school was purely in-class, handed out notes, multiple choice exams, and essays with plenty of time to prepare and receive help from teachers. I was not well prepared for online and hybrid classes, taking my own notes using my own system for up to 75 minutes at a time, exams that are purely essay based or true or false with no study guides, and short deadlines where there was zero room for procrastination. Even in my senior year of high school teachers were there to hold your hand throughout the year to ensure you got good grades, and at college you truly are on your own. Some professors are great help but they certainly will not tolerate having to hold your hand. For some it's more of a kick in the butt. Out of all of these, I'd say my biggest challenge is having to take online and hybrid courses. Just having professors use ANGEL to submit homework, assign work, and put up exams to take is hard enough to get used to.

#6) Knowing your identity in college is crucial. You need to learn to be part of a community by joining clubs, doing volunteer work, working part-time, etc. while you also need to be yourself and focus on your grades to show that you excel in order to build up a great reputation and resume for masters programs, future careers, etc. Unfortunately today it can't just be one or the other; you must show that you can work hard while also maintaining good grades to prove that you will be able to survive in the workplace. With today's economy, you can't risk not being able to do that. All in all, identity is key not only to college, but also to your future as a whole.

#7) The strategy I used was to read through the whole thing to see the big picture, and then go back and focus on the details to find the elements that make up that big picture. Once you start to see those you can also begin to understand how all of the aspects of the Theory of Performance relate to one another and how you can't leave any of them out; they fit together to create a puzzle of your future performance.