Social Science 11 at first didn’t seem like it’d be such a major subject at first. But over time, I realized that it is really a good stepping stone for Psychology. At first I thought that the subject would be the kind that has no real life applications. Despite those expectations, I still managed to learn a lot. I used to think Psych would be a pushover. But there is a lot of breakdown that comes through when trying to analyze the person which makes it so interesting. Aside from that, the breakdown of a person helps you understand yourself more.

From the first big lesson concerning system 1 and system 2, I was able to realize my strengths and weaknesses as a person. As lessons went on, it got a bit more technical but in a sense that it still made sense. There is a lot of analysis when it comes to studying this topic but it is really helpful in finding myself. Through SocSci, I was able to realize how impulsive I am. There also came a realization of how judgy I am toward people because I had a stereotype for a lot of people when it came to the topic about cliques and crowds.  The theories such as the one of Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Model also made me realize how a lot of external factors help in the formation of a person. It showed me that we all come from different backgrounds and we can’t say anything about one another because we don’t fully understand them as well.

Being in Ateneo, I also had to learn how to correlate the school values toward the social science activities, one of this came through the Binhi outreach where I got to do more and be more for others in the practice of Cura Personalis. Aside from that, we are taught to think about others in Soc Sci as well. We are taught that it is normal to do some of the bad things that we do because it is part of life. Such as creating a stereotype of people. But the message for me is to break out of that norm and start making your own way to do good for others.

Overall, Soc Sci 11 has been a wonderful subject as it’s teaching can help me more in not only understanding others but also myself. I hope that in the future my love for psych will grow and that I will learn to be more understanding and that I can use this to help people in life.

Binhi Immersion has been quite a life experience for me. We went to Rizal to visit the people of Unbound. The Unbound people were farmers who lived right beside a lake. They lived very different lives than us because they weren’t so well off. I could see this because they even told us that rice was expensive.

We were assigned to ate Rose whose family was very nice and took care of us. They lived very simple lives compared to many of us who visited. They only had an electric fan. There house was made out of bamboo. Their house was also really small. Apparently the place, flooded during the rain that they had to move up the mountain beside in order to be safe from flood.

Aside from the physical environment that the family had to offer, they were also different in a way that small things made them happy. They looked happy despite the hardships. They were happy with just playing with the toy ball and with the lollipops that they got from us. They were very appreciative of what they had. Compared to us, getting small things would make us complain. But it made these guys happy that’s why I look up to them.

But what inspired me the most were the children of the family. There was a kid named Frijolito and his sister, they showed me a lot. Even though they were less fortunate, he was very motivated. He wanted to finish school and become a teacher. Him and his sister said that this was both their goal. It made me realize that I was blessed and that I too shouldn’t take school for granted as it can give me the opportunity to help people like them.

We had an activity where we had to make a dating script for our dream date. Honestly, I tried to make it as realistic as possible as I know there is no such thing as a perfect date. I tried to keep it as honest as I can as well. It was interesting how the activity related to the subject. In Early to middle adolescent stages, there is recreation, intimacy and status. While as people get older status gets replaced with companionship. Another issue that was talked about was that when people are younger they tend to look at physical appearance while older people just look for personality. I realized this to be true. I remember the times when I was single, I’d just want someone pretty as my girlfriend. But then eventually as time flew by, pretty girls with bad attitude make me think twice. I realized that I just want to be with someone who cares for me and understands.

 

This week we had a group activity in which we had to name the different crowds we found in School. Our group named several such as the athletes, gym guys, Sec walk musicians, nerds and a few others. With athletes being people always late for their first class or the Sec Walk musicians singing their hearts out in Sec. Although initially, I didn’t want to do this activity because it seemed as if we were being to judgemental to people. Even if we didn’t know them, the activity made it seem as if we already had an idea on who they are and how they acted. But sadly this is the reality today. We tend to stereotype people different from us and tend to assume that they are different than us.

Reflecting on this, I realized though it is normal to stereotype people. I guess I’d be a hypocrite if I said that I don’t stereotype. But I think what is wrong is basing your opinion of an individual toward that stereotype. For example, you see someone with braces and glasses. One would assume that is a nerd but what is important is that, this shouldn’t change how we get to know or treat someone. For me, I try my best to get to know someone before I make a final opinion. I think this is something many of us lack today. We should get to know people before we say anything about them.

With the topic about Cliques and Crowds, it made me realize how grateful I am for my friends right now. My barkada or “clique” makes life so much more fun and easy. These people although there are similarities in our interests, I think our differences make being together really fun as well. We’ve spent a ton of time together through all the ups and downs of life. Everyday we try to build each other up and I honestly don’t know what I’d do without them.

We had an activity concerning how our parents see us and how we see them. It was interesting as I had to remember different times and I’ve always had different opinions on my parents since then. I’ve viewed them differently for each part of my life. They even became villains to me at some point. But I guess this is normal because there comes a time where our parents do good things for us but we’re too shallow to understand.

This activity made me realize the importance of parents in our lives. They are our guides and stepping stones and they mould us into better people. This topic helped me understand why parents are important to children. Without them, they have no role model to follow in life and children will get lost and have no idea what to do.

This week we learned about the different Sociological Perspectives such as the Symbolic Interactionism, Dramaturgy and the Looking Glass Self. These concepts are all interesting because Ms. Topacio showed how it can be seen in everyday life. For Symbolic Interactionism, it explains social behaviour in terms of how people act with each other in terms of symbols. One of this may come as simple as a license plate, it creates a sense of identity from the person through the object. Dramaturgy however is the sociology concept that life is a performance and that we are just trying to please the audience. It is that people have different personalities depending on the audience. For example would be, Varys from Game of thrones, he acts differently depending who he is with even though his goal is just to make peace. Finally the Looking Glass Self is a theory that shows how the opinion of others is important with how we see ourselves.

What’s interesting about these perspectives is how we can find it in our everyday lives and how it is relatable for us teens since we care too much about how people think of us. For Symbolic Interactionism, it is seen through likes of social media posts. People tend to associate likes with satisfaction. For Dramaturgy, we give an act to people to show them who they want to see. For the Looking Glass Self, we always think about what people think about us. That’s why we feel embarrassed when we are clumsy around other people even though they will just likely forget what happened. This lesson showed me about how we care too much about things that don’t matter. We tend to try to always please others that we become people who we are not. The Social Standards that teens “need” to uphold make them a prisoner of themselves. I think though by understanding this, there is also a need to tell others. Not just that though, we need to apply it for ourselves. We need to stop channeling our energy into what other people think rather we should start improving ourselves and trying to be the best people that we can be.

Among all topics so far, this has been one of the heaviest. Erikson’s Psychosocial perspective builds on the foundation of Freud’s perspective. But what interested me was the Psychosocial stage on Identity Vs. Role Confusion. This is because this is very relatable right now in the life of teens. As young adolescents, we ask ourselves everyday of our purpose. This stage is that, it is the transition of childhood to adolescence where we are trying to find out who we are sexually and occupationally. This is very relatable to our time now. We see people everyday who are trying to find out who they are and what their role in society is. It is where we find out what we like to do and etc. I find this topic interesting because sometimes in my life now, I wonder what I’ll actually be doing. It scares me that I’ll end up not doing anything with my life. But this topic comforts me as it shows me that I am not alone in facing this issue.

Ever since I considered the choice of Psychology, the name that has been repeated over and over again is Sigmund Freud. My aunt tells me if I’m going to pursue Psych I should know Freud. My lolo tells me about how Sigmund Freud paved the way for psychoanalysis and the like. But even if I was advised to do so, I never really got to know him until this lesson. Sigmund Freud is known to be one of the most influential and authoritative thinkers of the 20th Centuries.

The thing that interested me were the different erogenous zones that Sigmund Freud introduces. It was the first time I thought about the thinking of people that way. Especially how the anus develops the ego of a child, it showed me really how amazing Sigmund Freud was. The phallic stage also with the way it shows that a penis symbolizes power in the family. It is interesting because almost all babies acted accordingly to his theory. Knowing this, it opens up my eyes and helps me understand how children work. It also showed me how sexual urges shape your action.

 

Self Regulation was something I was really inclined to listen to. I know that I have a short temper but I believe that this lesson was able to help me a lot. I tend to get mad so easily and I also tend to feel too much sometimes. I let my emotions handle everything about me sometimes and that’s why I believe that I should improve my Self Regulation some more. Self Regulation is the ability to respond to certain situations that involve emotion in a way that is socially tolerable. We need the ability to self regulate our emotions or else we go out of control.

In life, this comes around in many situations. One is basketball. The game tends to get heated sometimes as players become competitive and elbows tend to fly by. Sometimes I get hit with an elbow to the face really hard. This irks me very much. But what I do is just take a breath so that conflict will be avoided. Although there are times when I can’t regulate my emotion, that’s why I also bounce back with an elbow or end up trash talking the dude. This is just one aspect in life that needs self regulation but there are actually many more.

Self Regulation is important because if emotions take control of what we do, we might regret the things that we have done. This lesson has taught me ways on how to control it though such as finding ways to increase the positive ratio in our lives. This can be done by finding positive meaning, being open and etc. With these techniques I can improve on how to regulate emotion.