Required Assignment 2

After completing all eight of the assigned surveys for this assignment I feel enlightened. Enlightened in the sense that I can now put a lot more thought in things that before I just thought or did without actually thinking to myself: “why is it that I think, feel, or act this way?” The first survey that I completed was “Core Beliefs about Mind, Body, Spirit, and Reality Survey”. This survey basically talked about one’s beliefs about the mind and body and basically the world through our eyes. One of the questions in this survey that struck me was the question that asked are the mind and the body independent from each other, I answered strongly disagree. I think that the mind and the body are in many different ways interconnected and work either to help or hinder each other in certain situations. The mind can sometime trick the body into feeling certain things. For instance, let’s say that your friend tells you that the drink you’re drinking has a lot of alcohol in it. Your body might actually start feeling as if you’re drunk because your mind thinks that. So hence, this is why I say that the mind and the body do work strongly together with one another. This leads me to another question that is also asked in this survey: “The mind is superior to the body”. When it comes to this question I would have to say that I agree because of the previous question. The mind can overpower the body many times; the mind is a strong tool to our actions and/or behaviors. Another question in this survey that I put a lot of thought into is the question that says “Human nature is the same for all human beings, it does not change”. I also strongly disagree with this statement. I think human nature is different for each and every person and it can change. Human nature for me might not be the same that it is for my brother, mother, friend, or enemy. We might view things differently or think that one thing is good or another is bad. This is all left up to our self thought, and our perception of things. Just because we are all humans does not necessarily mean that we are all the same human, and think and act upon things in the same manner. When completing the next survey I saw that many of the questions, a lot more than the first survey intrigued me. The second survey I completed was the survey “Core Beliefs: What I Learned from My Parents”. The first question that made me flinch in my seat was “I learned from my parents or those who raised me that I shouldn't think; that they (or others) should do my thinking for me.” You can’t be serious!? My parents would flip if they heard this statement come out of my mouth. Maybe this is reality to some, who am I to judge? But for my family, this is insane. My parents always taught me to speak up for what I believe in, and to make my voice hurt. To clear up any misunderstanding, my parents along with this taught me to be respectful to other’s opinion’s thought, and beliefs especially my elders or any adults for that matter. I think it is important to be heard and to always have a voice of your own because if you don’t make your voice heard other’s can speak for you and make people believe that you said things that you didn’t, or that you believe and stand for things you don’t. This goes hand in hand with voting for president. It is important for you to vote for president because if you don’t your voice will not be heard and you can say oh I want such and such to be president but that person can only become president through your votes and the votes of others. I can truly relate to a lot of the questions asked throughout the core beliefs survey. Another question I want to discuss is the question in this survey that says “I learned from my parents or those who raised me to express my views openly, without fear of punishment.” Since my parents came from the communist country of Cuba where speaking your mind isn’t allowed my parents always instilled in me that it is essential for me to speak my mind because that is why they came to the United States because this is a free, democratic country which lets you speak what you want and allows you to express yourself out loud without the fear of punishment. I think it is important for all parents to instill this thought in their child’s mind because if you always repress a child into keeping shut and not speaking their mind they are unable to express and develop important thoughts which are important for all people. It is important for people to speak their mind and able to talk out loud because it might only help them express thoughts but this also inspires other people to be more outspoken and maybe even enlighten the mind of someone who can change the world for the better. The next survey I want to discuss in more detail is the survey titled “Core Beliefs: How I Was Raised”. This survey is interesting to me because many of the questions asked throughout this survey sparked something in me that made me think. For example, many of the customs that I might carry out because I am Hispanic another person from another race might find as disrespectful or incorrect. Let’s take looking at an adult in the eyes. My best friend is Haitian and I know that when she is talking to her grandmother it is disrespectful for her to look her grandmother in the eye. In my home or with my family if someone is speaking to me and I don’t look them in the eye, I am disrespecting them and whatever it is that they are trying to tell me. I am basically telling that person that I don’t care about what it is they have to say. Same thing goes for giving someone a hug or a kiss on the cheek. Hispanics have no problem giving a person a kiss on the cheek, to us we find that as a method of saying hello or just something you do to show love to friends and family members. It’s completely natural to us. To most blacks they don’t like that, even though obviously there are exceptions to the rule. In high school, many of my black friends got so used to the Hispanic custom of saying hi by giving a kiss on the cheek that they started doing it too! I remember thinking about this exact circumstance in high school and saying to myself wow exposure to something can really change your outlook on it. Most of those black girls never would greeted someone by giving them a kiss on the cheek but since they were exposed to this type of behavior and got a better understanding of why it is done they grew closer to that type of behavior and even used it. I thought that was really cool. Then I moved on to the quizzes about beliefs of men, women, and race. I really didn’t like these quizzes as much as I liked the other quizzes I took prior to them because I thought that these two quizzes were much too generalized. For example, in the quiz about men there was a question that said that men believe that women enjoy suffering. I think that this statement is very broad. Not all men think this. First of all, women don’t enjoy suffering, and plus not every man thinks that women enjoy suffering that’s why there are good men out there and there are women who love them. I think that these quizzes are answered through your own experiences and views on these topics. Let’s say that I had just got out of a nasty breakup with a man and then was assigned these quizzes. I think that I would have answered these questions a lot different than the way I am answering them because I am in a long term healthy relationship. I also think the same thing goes for the quiz about women and the one about race. If a man was going through a bad relationship or couldn’t find a girlfriend because every girl he likes always dates “assholes” then his answer to that question might be swayed in a completely different direction. Same thing applies again for the quiz that discusses race. If I had multiple bad encounters with a certain race I might tend to discriminate against that race and answer all the questions about that race just based on those encounters. I think this even applies somewhat to the quiz about sex and gender. A lot of the stereotypes we give to people are based on he say she say and not real concrete evidence. In the last survey I completed my political typology, I am said to be a liberal. I think that the survey is right because when defined a liberal is a person that has political or social views favoring for reform and progress. I think that exactly defines my point of view when it comes to my political standpoint. I respect the way things have been done in the past, but I am all for change for change means getting things done in a more efficient way. One of the most appealing questions in this survey that caught my eye was the question that said that rely too much on the military to fight off terrorism creates hatred which in turn only creates more terrorism. I think that our situation today much reflects what is being talked about in this question. Our government for too long has relied on the military as the only means for terrorism. That’s why I support our President Obama when he wants to be with the United Nations and others around the world to talk about problems and solution instead of just depending on the military.