The Role of Learning Journal - Essay Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxx Title : Learning journal Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Learning journal Introduction Learning journal refers to the collection of note, observations, thoughts in addition to other pertinent materials gathered and developed over a period of time and normally comes with a period of study. In other words, it is a post experience or fieldwork (McDougall, 2003). The purpose of the learning journal it is to improve and develop my learning using the very procedure of writing and thinking regarding my personal learning experiences. In social psychology, the learning journal will help me in reflection of my personality as well as my individual experiences. I hope to learn on how to structure a learning journal and will help me in reflecting whatever I have learnt. I also hope to learn on how to communicate my thinking process. Finally, I will be able to establish my strengths, weaknesses as well as references in learning. Working to reduce prejudice The aspect of this topic that interests me most is that by just reducing prejudice, it is possible to bring different social classes, communities and nationalities together. This is because prejudice is a significant cause of discrimination which has seen so many people discriminated all over the world. Having experienced prejudice and knowing how painful it is, it is very important to eradicate prejudice in our society (Stroebe 2004). Prejudice involves attitudes and pre-envisioned notions regarding a certain social group. One way of reducing prejudice is through contacting hypothesis, purports that that very nature of requiring individuals from dissimilar social groups to work collectively in order to reduce prejudicial attitudes among those groups. This can be done by developing educational talk about prejudice. The participants should be educated on the impacts of prejudice within a society. They should also be informed that prejudice and its attitudes result into a less effective society, develops roadblocks and in actual fact creates needless social classes. Another way is to establish a program where several social groups have to work jointly toward a common objective. The program should involve interdependence of each and every group member. For instance, tasks requiring solving of problems such as complicated puzzles as well as role playing incidents. This will foster contact atmosphere where negative attitudes among varying social groups can be decreased. It is also important to encourage discussion among divergent social groups. Each individual should detail his or her prejudice experience and how it felt. The groups should be helping to get a common ground with their experiences and with this they will realize that prejudice takes place to very many people and social groups. After this, it is important to start a dialog regarding how such attitudes and behaviors can be lessened. It is also necessary to list the methods of prejudice reduction and get answers from representatives from all groups (Sommers 2006). Starting activities aimed at reducing prejudicial attitudes to social groups is another way of reducing prejudice. Various members from a single social group can be taken to visit a locality of another social group. During the visit, it is important to encourage conversations amongst everyone present. Finally, a heritage and culture day can be planned. The key purpose of this day would be to celebrate diverse ethnicities, minorities as well as social groups. During the material day, each social group would present its history and its exceptional features. Furthermore, tangibles like cultural food should be brought for sharing with everyone and this will enable everybody to appreciate diversity. With this, prejudice can be reduced since each and every social group will appreciate and respect the other social groups (Farley 2006). “Given that there are several causes of prejudice: personality, social, and structural, the solutions are going to be varied also. If, for instance, prejudice is allied to a personality trait, in that case education may not do away with prejudice. Alternatively, if prejudice is due to social learning, education and personal contact can diminish prejudice” (Farley, 2000). This aspect is relevant in my social world in that it helps me appreciate different social groups and with this, I will be able to interact and respect everybody irrespective of their social class, culture or nationality (Moore 2000). What is love? What is love is one of the hardest questions in humanity. Centuries have gone by, relationships have blossomed and so has love. To some people, love is the friendship set on fire for other people. Could be love is more of luck. Everyone has to go all the way to get love. Regardless of how love is defined, love is the never-ending truth within the history of humanity (Robert 2002). Love takes various forms. It can be romantic, platonic, familial or religious love. Romantic love is deep, passionate and unending. Love is more of desire, preference as well as feelings (Eliot 2008). The main ideas and concept is that love is patient and kind. It is not envious and it does not boast. Love seeks truth and celebrates over the evil. It is protective, conserves and hopes for the positive feature of life. When in love, it is always wise to stand steadfast in love and not fall into it. Love is akin to the dream of someone’s matter of affection being true. Love can take place between two or more people. It joins them in an integrated bond of trust, intimacy and interdependence (Moore 2000). Love develops the relationship and gives the soul the comfort it needs badly. Love needs to be experience not only to be felt. Therefore, it is not possible to measure how deep love is. For instance, look at the love between a mother and a child. The mother’s love to the child is unconditional and hence cannot be measured. A different aspect can be achieved in any relationship with the magic of love. It is possible to create love; all that is needed is focusing on the other individual’s goodness (Flick 2001). The aspect of the topic that interested me most is that love is that love comes from appreciating goodness. This is because being in love means being together, sharing both joy and sorrow, understanding and giving space to each other, but always being there for one always another especially when in need. With this, love will flourish to strengthen the relationship with matter of affection. One of the most popular love quotes include: Love is a many splendid thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love! (Murray 2001). This aspect is very important in my social world since it will help me in making connections of the importance of love within the world and to myself. It will also help me in expressing and expressing the love I am given all the time. In psychology, love is a cognitive experience with a social cause and has three elements; passion, intimacy in addition to commitment. Love is also a high form of forbearance. Love is inclusive of compatibility. However, it is more of a journey to the unknown if the concept of compatibility is to be followed. This is because, could be, the individual in front of us, could be least compatible compared to an individual very far from us. People can talk to each other and show that they are in love, but practically they do not end up having a relationship. Again, in compatibility, the main thing is to have a long term triumphant relationship and not a short journey (Sun 2008). Therefore, I have learned that when in love, people should understand each other and always put in mind that no one is perfect. Self esteem The aspect of this topic that interests me most is that the level of self esteem can determine how I run my life. It affects how I interact with other people, my friends, family, teachers and also strangers. Self esteem can determine my goals that I work so hard for, my achievements in addition to my contentment and happiness in life. Self esteem can be termed as an individual psychological image of himself or herself their personal appearance, what they can do best and their failures .However this depends on the on the relations one has with other people and what one has undergone throughout his or her life since when they were little children all this factors contribute to ones self esteem (Seligman 2004). A person can have strong self esteem when they are aware that other people value , cherish and accept them for who they are .This feeling has made people accept their talents skills and goals that they have achieved and how one can make them better. Sometime in life ones self esteem can be unhealthy mostly during adolescent when one fails to comprehend who they are and they confused what group they are associated with in this planet (Sewell 2008). They are two crucial things that can have bad impact in our self image one is how other people takes us to be worth , how they handle us and also how we value ourselves. A person self esteem can be degraded by taking notice of our pessimistic internal voice and disapprovals which are brought about by other people. Self esteem has impact on ones life especially when interacting with other people .This individuals can offer help and give ideas incase of a problem this helps one to enjoy life and reach their goals in their relationship and academic life (Robert 2005). They are several ways to build ones self confidence one is by experimenting new things, accept our thought and opinion by speak them out in public and also having regular exercise to avoid stress from mounting up. Most individuals require good counselor in order to have their self esteem molded in the right way (David 2003). “No psychological health is possible unless this essential care of the person is fundamentally accepted, loved and respected by others and by himself... (Abraham 1998). This aspect is relevant in social world in that self esteem is central to everything people and society do. Self esteem affects my behavior, actions and thoughts. It transforms how I feel and value my self. With low self esteem, I can miss out so many things within the society, since factors like fear or intimidation can deter me from doing what I want. On the other hand, with appropriate self esteem, I can be able to meet, mix and socialize with many people irrespective of their social class or position. This can help me in getting connections and acquiring a lot of knowledge. Through self esteem, I can also achieve a lot since I am aware of my worth (Bordens 2001). Conclusion The learning journal has assisted me in learning and discovering various ways of interacting with people. Though this journal, I have learnt that prejudicing against people different from me is not worth. Reducing prejudice will go long way in creating a healthy society. I have also learned that in social psychology, love is required in order to facilitate easy interactions with people. Moreover, I have discovered that self esteem matters a lot on how people interact; whereby interaction among people is one of the main goals in social psychology. Strengths of my journal include; having a well laid out journal with information from diverse sources. I achieved what I hoped for since I have communicated my opinions, feeling and thoughts in the journal. Bibliography Abraham, M, 1998, Towards a Psychology of Being 2nd edition. Wiley, California. Bordens, 2001, Social Psychology, Rutledge, Sydney. David, G., 2003, Social Psychology, McGraw Hill, New York. Eliot, A., 2008, The Handbook of Social Psychology: Group psychology and phenomena of interaction, Wesley Pub. Co., Toronto. Farley, R., 2006, "Comment on Donald R. Haurin and Hazel A. Morrow-Jones's "The impact of real estate market knowledge on tenure choice: A comparison of black and white households." Housing Policy Debate, Vol. 174. Farley, R., 2000. "Couting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics." Population and Development Review, Vol.26/3. Sewell, W., 2008, Some reflections on the golden age of interdisciplinary social psychology. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15/1. Flick, U., 2001, The Psychology of the Social, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. McDougall, W., 2003, An Introduction to Social Psychology, Methuen & Co, London. Moore, S., 2000, Affect and social behavior; Studies in emotion and social interaction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Murray, R., 2001, "Baz Luhrmann Talks Awards and "Moulin Rouge"". Hollywood Movies. Retrieved on 2010-10-18. Robert, F., 2005, "The Scientific Status of Social Psychology", Controversial Issues in Social Research Methods, Springer, New York. Stroebe, W., 2004, Introduction to social psychology: a European perspective, Blackwell, Massachusetts. Sommers, C., 2006, One Nation under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-reliance. McMillian, London. Seligman, M., 2004, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification Oxford University Press, Illinois. Robert, J., 2002, The Psychology of Love, Yale University Press, London. Sun, R., 2008, The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, New York. Read More