The two things from the Dr. John Gottman video that I learned was how they test our bodies reactions and the way the program works. They test urine samples to measure the levels of stress hormones, blood samples to test the immune system, heart rate, and facial expressions. i found this to be very interesting because i wonder if they take into consideration that being in this situation and being connected to monitors is stressful in itself for some. i would imagine they would because this seems like a high anxiety type situation. They program takes place in a bed and breakfast like setting with cameras to video tape daily activities. Dr. Gottman mentioned that they daily activities reveal a lot about a relationship.

I really liked the Magic Relationship Ratio. I learned how Dr. Gottman explained how the ratio is measured by the amount of positivity (interest, kindness, and affection) to the amount of negativity (criticism, hostility, and anger) in the relationship. The Ratio is 5:1. For every negative thing, there should be five positive things. I also learned that the couples that end in divorce have a ratio of .8:1.

In regards to the article, i learned that Dr. Gottman’s oral history coding system measures HOW people answer questions rather then what they say. i found this to be very interesting because you can tell a lot by the way people react to certain questions even when they don’t say anything. I also learned that they found a pattern between the happy couples and the unhappy couples. They happy couples speak with one voice and it shows that they value one another. The unhappy couples get nasty and show little to no respect for one another.

Discrimination is when people judge and treat people differently based on their race, religious beliefs, ect. An example would be if I were to refuse to sit or be around someone of a race not of my own. If someone is unaware of this kind of behavior, then it will never stop. If they don’t know they are doing it or they stay quiet around someone who does, then it will only continue. Privilege is when people are allowed certain rights because of something out of their control. For example, being the only daughter born among three sons, would cause that girl to most likely be treated differently. She will probably receive more attention because she is the only girl. Being unaware of either of these is very harmful. People who think and act like this will end up teaching their children that it is appropriate and then it will just be a continuous cycle.

The three groups that I enjoyed reading about the most were the Machiguenga, the Hunter- Gatherers, and the Samoa and Tonga.

The Machinguenga live in Peru in a rain forest east of Cuzco. The males in this group are typically very reserved but generous when it comes to their families needs. I though it was very odd that the males who display aggressive behavior are driven off or even killed. However, most men have very good relationships with their families and are responsible for raising their sons. The women in this group are responsible for the cultivation of their crops and they also form groups.

The Hunter- Gatherers, although there was not too much information about them, were very interesting to me. I thought it was weird to think of people still living this way but then again I liked it. These people do not engage in aggressive behavior, or exercise of power. There are many of these groups of people in Australia, India, and parts of Asia and Africa. it is unfortunate that their culture is being threatened due to development in their country.

The Samoa and Tonga culture hold women and their opinions very highly. The women’s opinion has a great influence over their husbands and their familys decisions. The men are typically more engaged in the politics and the women more in religion.

This past week, we listened to Wally Funk speak about her life as a pilot insturctor and her passion for flying and traveling into space. She explained how through out her childhood she always wanted to fly planes. After she made that dream come true, she set her heart out on traveling into space and at the age of 21, she volunteered for the “Women in Space” program. The three things that stood out to me the most were the tests she had to endure, her time in Russia at the space training center, and hearing her speak about her future plans and how passionate and driven she is. The tests that she had to endure were unbelievable. All of them were things that i could probably never handle. The test where she had to stay in a pool of water that was matched to her exact body temperature. It took away all her senses. On the website i read that that can cause a person to hallucinate having sensory deprivation. she lasted 10 hours and 35 minutes. Getting the opprotunity to go to Russia to do those type things again shows how much she really cares about her profession as well as her dream. Hearing her speak was very inspiring not only for women but for anyone with a dream they would like to achieve.

Something needs to be done about the budget cut situation. I hate having to see good teachers, teachers who insipre students, getting laid off because of the budget cuts. I attend Grossmont Community College in San Diego and this issue has affected me. Classes are filling up and it is causing many students to not be able to take the classes that they need. classes needed to transfer to Universities. Some classes were taken away completely. I find it very disappointing that education is something that is seen as something to “cut back” on.

I sent this email to Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein,and  Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Something needs to be done about the budget cut situation. I hate having to see good teachers, teachers who inspire students, getting laid off because of the budget cuts. I attend Grossmont Community College in San Diego and this issue has affected me. Classes are filling up and it is causing many students to not be able to take the classes that they need. classes needed to transfer to Universities. Some classes were taken away completely. I find it very disappointing that education is something that is seen as something to “cut back” on. I noticed that on this website, there is a list of “important” issues to choose from regarding the topic of this message. Education was not among those “important issues”. The budget cuts are very serious issue that is effecting students.

This email was sent to Duncan Hunter, Jr. They only difference between the emails is what is in italics.  I used the links on the page to contact them and those sites didnt allow you to save the date and time it was sent like in regualr email.

In Unit 4 Chapter 5, I read about the processing of facial expressions across cultures. One thing that I learned about that i felt was very interesting was that not all cultures recognize emotions the same way. I always thought that emotions were generally universal. However, I learned that individualistic cultures and collectivist cultures identify emotions differently. I read that after they studied for several decades that they found that Caucasians identified emotions more accurately then other races. they hypothesized that because they are from an individualistic culture, they are more receptive to negative feelings then other cultures. I thought this was interesting because I thought that negative feelings such as “hate” would be something that every culture would be able to identify.

In Unit 6 Chapter 1, I read about age and gender differences in personality. this chapter explained the Five-Factor Model of personality. The traits that make up this model are openness to experience, extroversion, agreeableness, consciousness, and neuroticism. I also learned that studies have shown that there is an increase in all of the areas of the five factors around age thirty and that they have more in common within the five factor model with elders then of someone in their twenties. When speaking of gender differences, women show a higher rank in neuroticism and agreeableness where as men tend to score higher in openness.

Some examples of magical thinking that I thought of were when people say that it is not okay to wish something bad upon another person. for example, if in a hearted argument and someone tells another person ” i hope you get hit by a car” or something of that effect. most people think that if that were to actually happen to that person then it would be their fault. i would never say something like that for that exact reason. i know that it really ” be my fault but i don’t think its right. some people will not uses public restrooms even if it is in a nice restaurant. they do not feel comfortable. my boyfriend never has a good night sleep anywhere other then our bed. he says it just doesn’t feel right. some people hang little things in their cars because they think that it makes them safe. also, there are others that i thought of but they were more along the lines of superstition rather then magical thinking.

After reading the Unit 2 chapter 10, I found the part about how to recruit participants for research studies to be very interesting. I have always wondered where researchers got their statistics. How many people they asked or where they came from have always crossed my mind. However, learning that they could have come from a newspaper ad really made me think about how accurate that information was. I liked how the book pointed this out. If you asked a group of college students about their relationships, wouldn’t it matter what their culture was? The U.S is filled with so many cultures and those cultures have different relationship values.

The paragraph on ethics also stuck out to me. Yes, we have codes that regulations that we have to follow and I feel that any good researcher will use those same ethics in countries that do not.

Chapter 6 talked about the different measures that are used to measure personality in different cultures. one thing that i really liked about this was that the test translator had to be fluent in both their language as well as the language of the person that they will be testing. I think that it would be very beneficial to have the test translator also be either very familiar with or be from that culture. I understand that may be hard to find but there is more to a culture then the language. I don’t think you can really understand another unless you have lived with them or at least spent a substantial amount of time with them. i could learn Chinese but I would not  really know what it is like to be a Chinese woman living in China.