Chelsea's Cultural Psychology Blog

A blog dedicated to my Cultural Psychology class to be submitted for grading.

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The Final Blogs

For my final set of posts, I wanted to be able to apply different concepts that I noticed or learned about in the book to more real life instances and experiences I’ve had or known about, instead of just using my own life as examples as I reiterated what was in my textbook or readings.

As a result, I set out to find the sections from the last few chapters of the textbook that caught my interest the most, the focused on how they impacted my life directly or pop culture. While my posts are slightly shorter than before as a result, I actually enjoyed these more as I was able to use a lot more self-reflection and have more of an opportunity to look at different cultures, countries and media in order to gain a better understanding of how these cultures outside of my own realm of experience (may it be by age, geographic location or political climate) have affected my life or appeared within my own culture.

I did not rely as heavily on the textbook for these posts because, while I found the readings interesting, I wanted to be able to show other research I had done in trying to understand these topics better. For example, while learning about Amok, I was incredibly surprised to find out there was an episode of Star Trek that actually used the idea of Amok for the purpose of the episode itself.

I also felt that the section on Kohlberg was very enlightening for me as it allowed me to understand that just because there are people who have different morality than I do, it doesn’t mean they have less morality, theirs was just a different kind. The list of factors involving that were interesting to me as well, suddenly my grandma agreeing with Trump for no other reason than he’s the president and you’re supposed to makes a lot more sense.

I was really nervous about these blog assignments because I personally find it challenging to put my thoughts down well in written format. I felt that I was able to do it fairly well over the course of the assignment, and hope that trying a different approach for my last posts were able to convey how I have been trying to apply the theories discussed in the book to my everyday life and the real world overall.

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Moral Development

While reading chapter 12, I was particularly interested in Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. This model is referred to as the “most influential model of moral reasoning in psychology.” This view projects how underlying cognitive abilities affect moral reasoning on three different levels. Level one, The Preconvential Level suggests that people will interpret morality on a calculation of how much better or worse off they would be for acting in one way versus another. This level focuses more on how one’s behaviour would provide the best overall return to them, what satisfies their own needs as opposed to other’s needs.

The second level, The Conventional Level focuses on how one’s moral actions help maintain and facilitate the social order. This level is almost like conformity, where moral behaviour is seen more on whether or not you follow the rules set or violate them. Not about questioning where the rules came from or why they are there. It’s about maintaining the social order.

The final level, The Postconventional Level is a deeper and more individualistic level. In this form of reasoning, one bases their behaviours on the consideration of abstract ethical principles of what is right or wrong. The idea is that whether or not others agree with you on what is right and wrong are a separate matter and that good behaviour is seen as something consistent with a set of universal principles of justice and individual rights.

I found this interesting because I had never stopped to think that there were three different stages of morality, or the processing of moral behaviour. As I personally identify with the third level, I would often be confused or angry at friends or family who fell into the other two categories. For example, I am very vocal about being anti-Trump, but I have family members who will disregard the behaviour because he is the president, and therefore to contradict him is seen as wrong. The importance of maintaining a social order where the president is listened to and respected is more important than deciding whether or not they believe or agree with him.

I also found it very eye-opening in regards to friends I have who fall more under the level one behaviour. I had always felt that they maybe needed a little bit of prodding to do the right thing and that their moral compass wasn’t as strong. In reality, theirs is just different than mine and is more focused on taking care of themselves over others, which isn’t always a bad thing.

I really enjoyed reading about this because it was very enlightening to learn about these different processes of morality and how just because I behave a certain way doesn’t mean that’s the only right way to do it. It depends entirely on what your needs are, where you grew up and the set of values you develop as a person.

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Running Amok

Growing up, whenever someone was “running amok”, it meant they were running around causing trouble and your mom was going to be pissed. However, in other cultures it has a very different, extreme meaning.

In Southeast Asia, Amok is an incredibly dangerous mental illness, defined as “an acute outburst of unrestrained violence, associated with homicidal attacks, preceded by a period of brooding and ending with exhaustion and amnesia” not only is this illness very dangerous, it’s very real. Primarily afflicting men and is thought to be triggered by stress and alcohol consumption.

The cultural differences of Amok are not completely unknown to Western culture however. In the 1960’s the hit television series Star Trek brought much of non-western culture into Western homes through the Vulcan character Spock. In the series, there is an episode titles “Amok Time”, which is an illness Spock suffers from as a result of alien biology. It makes him incredibly violent, unaware of his surroundings and prone to homicidal idealization. After his spell he has no idea of what happened and is physically exhausted.

While in reality, the illness of Amok is often cause by other mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, endogenous depression and epilepsy, the belief in Amok runs so deep in Southeast Asian culture, and is such an apparent problem, that police stations in Malaysia still carry the special two pronged staffs designed to pin someone suffering from Amok against the wall upon their capture.

Amok is an excellent example of how everyone can suffer from the same mental illnesses, but the diagnoses, treatment and assessment of them vary so strongly from culture to culture. According to my family, three-year old me ran Amok all the time, knocking things over, spilling things, tracking mud through the house. But according to Southeast Asian culture, I most certainly was not.

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Jesus Camp

After reading chapter 12, there was a certain section that caught my eye and maybe not neccisarliy for the best reasons. Culture Wars. The United States is always the first country I hear of when the term culture war is brought up, and I often notice that it is between the Evangelicals and “Liberals”.

Culture war tends to occur when two groups living in close proximity have very different values, for example pro-life versus anti-abortionists. This can lead to tensions and divisions in neighbourhoods and communities as cultures clash.

The reason I found this so interesting was because when I attended my other school, I watched a documentary for one of my Law classes called “Jesus Camp” (2006). The film follows three Evangelical Christian children through a summer camp run by Becky Fischer. Through the documentary there are multiple occasions when they refer to the ongoing conflict between the evangelicals and Americans who believe in a more secular society. The whole point of the camp is to teach the children how to be martyrs for their faith. At one point Fischer even yells out “this means war” repeatedly while the children speak in tongues and participate in a tribal like dance.

As a result of this documentary, the term culture war always makes me a little nervous and I often think of the United States. The textbook also addresses how these moral issues are in constant conflict in the USA and how neither side is actually willing to listen to the other. While that documentary makes me very angry so I have to check myself when I watch it, after reading this section I feel like it is an excellent example of this phenomena and would definitely recommend it as a way to look into the ideology and culture behind that group and movement.

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Say it with your Eyes

We all have that friend where you look across the room at each other in a meeting or in class and you both know exactly what the other person is thinking. Usually it’s get me out of here. But there are a lot of other ways people communicate as well, and it all revolves around context.

Context can exist in a variety of ways, and the way context is presented varies depending on which culture you find yourself in. For example, in Western society if you ask someone if you can sit next to them and they hesitate and very reluctantly go “I guess so” you would probably still sit next to them, as they said it was okay. However, in East Asian culture, if you were to have the same interaction with someone, you would be very unlikely to sit down. This is because Western culture is considered to be a low-context cultures, where what you say tends to be what you mean and no further interpretation is really needed. However, in countries like Japan, reading between the lines is a necessity, body language and nonverbal communication tend to be relied on much more than the actual words being spoken. These nonverbal cues are essential in all cultures, not just East Asian.

That’s why we all hate answering machines, unless we’re really mad we all usually end it the same way with an overly bubbly “talk to you later” it’s because we aren’t receiving the nonverbal feedback of the person we’re speaking to. We don’t know how they’re interpreting what we’re saying and that terrifies us. Nonverbal is a key component in any culture. Whether it be two friends in class when the professor says to pair up, or two police officers entering a building on a call. Humans rely on this nonverbal communication to function properly in society. Even more so in Eastern culture.

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Tiger Moms

One thing that really interested me while I was reading was the section in our textbook about the different parenting styles. While I had heard the term “Tiger Mom” before on TV and friends joking about it, I did not fully understand the extent of the parenting style until I read the different types of parenting styles. After reading them, I was able to understand why my own mother is uncomfortable of the idea of being called a “Tiger mom” even in a joking manner.

Tiger Moms follow the far more authoritarian parenting style, this is defined as a style that involves “high demands on children, with strict rules and little open dialogue between parent and child.” (Heine pg. 181). Children who grow up in this environment are often on strict schedules and receive little to know warmth or responsiveness from their parents, this causes them to constantly strive for acknowledgement from their parents, leading to successful futures as they study and practice extra-curriculars excessively, of course, all of these activities have been pre-approved by parents.

There is a downside to this parenting style though, children who grow up in this type of environment can grow into rebellious teenagers, feeling suffocated and trapped under their parents. This is found particularly in Western culture, where authoritative is preferred.

Authoritative parenting is defined as a “child-centered approach in which parents hold high expectations of the maturity of their children, try to understand their child’s feelings and teach them how to regulate those feelings” (Heine 181). This style allows children to develop independently, while still having the warmth and boundaries set by their parents. In Western cultures, children who grow up in these environments often excel in school and become very self-sufficient adults.

After reading the example given in the text about Amy Chua and how she defines herself as a tiger mom, I can now understand why my mom doesn’t like to be called a Tiger Mom, as she is has an authoritative parenting style and probably disagrees on some of the practices of authoritarian parenting on a fundamental level.

I did find it interesting however that authoritarian parenting is much more successful in Eastern cultures. The push to excel working more as a motivator than an isolation. I feel like it would be interesting to look at and compare as to why there is such a divide between Eastern and Western cultures on this matter, more so how it came to be.

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This is a Problem

One particular subject I found particularly interesting during my reading was the section on Acculturation, specifically the pitfalls of acculturation. This is because I believe that people who are or aren’t acculturating  are treated differently depending on who they are. This Identity denial is a raging problem right now in society, typically directed towards non-white individuals who do not fit into the stereotype of what a person from that area looks or acts like. This rampant stereotyping often leads to different forms of discrimination such as systematic disenfranchisement, humiliation and unjust treatment – and that’s just to name a tiny few. This is even more apparent in cultures like the United States, where people from different cultures interact fairly regularly.

The example which I felt best illustrated this was the textbook’s piece on actress Mindy Kaling. I love Mindy, I think she is an amazing actress and author and all around fantastic in her field. But in my own white privilege bubble didn’t realize that she was asked different questions in her interviews.  There is also the study which proves that people will alter their presentation of their identity when being given identity-denying prompts.

Personally, I find this incredibly troubling. I love different cultures and try to embrace all of them the best I can. I acknowledge that not everyone I see on the street is going to match me perfectly and it is something I enjoy. I have such a hard time with the idea that people’s identities can be questioned or even denied because they do not fit the mould of what they should look like and sound like.

This post was really more of a rant than anything else, but it really upsets me that this is still something that happens. My best friend here is an international student and I see them being treated differently than me regularly. Being able to understand acculturation better through this chapter really helps me to recognize other things as well. It makes me wish everyone was given at least rudimentary knowledge of these things. Maybe it would make life a little easier for everyone and do something about the Donald Trumps of the world. One could only hope right?

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I’m Self-Aware I Swear!

I always like to consider myself as being very self-aware. There a several aspects of who I am as a person that I am not necessarily a fan of, and other aspects I love about myself. For example, I am aware that I often will spread myself too thin helping other people and end up suffering myself, either academically, financially, emotionally, etc. I have a hard time saying no and this is something I am aware of and have to constantly check myself for. Other things, I don’t have a clue about until someone lets me know, because I’m not aware that I do it even though I should be – like how I obnoxiously interrupt people when I get excited in a conversation, because that is very annoying to other people.

Up until this class however, I was unaware that self-awareness was split into two components, subjective self-awareness and objective self-awareness. Subjective self-awareness occurs when we are very much focused on the outside world, this means we are not very aware of ourselves because our energy is focused outward (Heine, pg. 237). In contrast, objective self-awareness occurs when we are very aware of ourselves and how we may present to others and how they evaluate us (Heine, pg. 237). These go hand in hand with the different views of self. Independent being more subjective and interdependent being more objective. This is also influenced heavily by culture

A fantastic example of this is in the textbook, when students from America and students from Hong Kong were given to evaluations. On one evaluation they graded exceptionally well and on the other not as well. They were then asked to evaluate themselves. The American students graded themselves well regardless of the score they got back. Contrastingly, the students from Hong Kong scored themselves higher when they were evaluated higher by others (Heine, pg. 237-238). This is because Eastern cultures, specifically Asia, have more interdependent cultures and rely more on the perspectives and opinions of others to build up their self-awareness. It brought to my mind the amount of times my friends and I have walked out of exams feeling very good about how we did, only to get the grade back and see that was not the case.

The idea of objective and subjective self-awareness really caused me to take a good look at myself and realize where I fall in different areas. It also makes more sense now why I could be so rattled after tests. I feel like I may need to go back and look at myself and see what parts of me are more independent as opposed to interdependent, maybe that’s why I don’t always realize when I’m being obnoxious.

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Chimps, Orangutans and.... Babies?

For this post, I decided to go back to one of the first readings we did in class because it talked about one of my favourite themes of studies in Psychology. Apes and babies.

Now, that sounds weird, but to me it’s equal parts hilarious, fascinating and adorable. In the study conducted by Herrmann, Call, Herna´ndez-Lloreda, Hare, and Tomasello in 2007, they gave a series of tasks to chimpanzees, orangutans and two-year old children (Tomasello & Herrmann 2010). In this study, the babies and the apes were very similar to babies and they all scored similarly in certain cognitive tasks and processes. However, when it came to more complex social tasks, the human babies excelled over the apes. This is because humans developed a greater brain capacity for these issues as their lives became more social through evolution, weaker physically, stronger intellectually (Tomasello & Herrmann 2010). This is a reoccurring theme between humans and great apes in our similarities and abilities to communicate. Dr. Jane Goodall’s work with apes over the years is an excellent example of this amazing connection our species share.

However, these studies haven’t been without their setbacks. In the thirties, a comparative study was done by Dr. Winthrop Niles Kellogg when he raised a newborn chimp (Gua) and his newborn son (Donald) at the same time. The study was a success for the first little while, then Gua with her smaller processing abilities hit the inevitable wall and was unable to continue developing. No big deal. However, a short time later, Dr. Kellogg ended his study very abruptly and Gua was returned to her facility. While a reason was never overtly specified to my knowledge, a large contributing factor was the fact that Donald had begun making chimp noises and imitating his sister’s ape like behaviour (Nuwer, 2014).

This absolutely fascinates me while simultaneously making me crack up laughing, I can’t imagine the thoughts and/or conversations had when the Kelloggs realized what was happening to their son. However, I don’t find the idea of Donald reverting back to be hard to believe. Because great apes like Gua are so similar to humans, and their cognitive processes are so alike ours in being able to communicate and exchange information and adapt accordingly to meet those needs. The idea of Donald adapting and learning how to communicate with Gua is something that – had it been done more ethically – would be a study that I think could be very interesting. We see so many examples of apes learning how to communicate through our language and understanding, like sign language, pointing at objects, etc. It would be interesting to see how humans adapt to revert back to the communication methods of great apes and see how well we are able to change to accommodate that.

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Cultural Ghettos?

This was a term I that had never crossed my path before reading Chapter 7. Cultural ghettos are explained in the text as an area within a town or city where the residents can keep old cultural traditions without much interaction with the host culture, like San Francisco’s Chinatown (Heine, 259). This tends to happen during the process of acculturation, which is defined as, “the process by which people migrate to and learn a culture that is different from their original (or heritage) culture” (Heine, 258). There are countless reasons why people would move to a different culture, along with different personalities and goals of those moving, as a result some will move more towards either cultural ghettos or more homogenous neighbourhoods, where they would be more noticeable as different.

The extensive variables found around an individual’s or family’s choice to move to another culture make the study of acculturation very complicated. Migrants often experience a rollercoaster when moving to a host culture, either as sojourners (temporary move) or immigrants (permanent move) (Heine 260). When first arriving, all of the excitement and adventure that comes with the new location create a almost honeymoon like state, then culture shock hits. This can be extremely negative for some and it takes a while to move into the more stable adjustment at the ends of the rollercoaster when people are finally able to settle into their new homes (Heine, 260-261).

I found this chapter incredibly fascinating because there were variables to migration that I had never thought of, such as cultural distance which is the difference between their home culture and their host culture (Heine, 264). The ability to settle in to new cultures during the migration process is far more complex than I had thought previously. While I knew that clearly moving from one country to another would be no easy feat, there were things I had never considered as a potential barrier or issue as I have never experienced such a thing. Things as simple as connecting with neighbours or ordering a coffee at the local Tim Horton’s are far more difficult to some than others and I was very ignorant to these factors.

This chapter really helped me understand more about the struggles and challenges non-Canadians face when coming here and how skillful and resilient they must be to adapt to what can be an incredibly large culture shock. I have gained a tremendous amount of even more respect for my friends who are international students, as there is so much more than just leaving your family when you move.

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Cultural Study Measures and my Family

One of the things that I notice about myself is how much I change my personality and how I carry myself depending on who I am around. When I am with my Canadian friends, I tend to be more reserved and quite, but my humour is a lot more dry and sharp. When I’m with my European friends, we often joke that my “Eurotrash” comes out. This means that I am usually a lot louder, more physically affectionate and I am much more liberal and there is usually food and wine involved. These two distinct cultures make up my sense of self, and where I am and who I’m with dictates which self I ma more comfortable presenting.

My maternal grandparents were first generation immigrants from Belgium and Holland, they moved to rural Ontario where they mainly farmed and opened a family restaurant. The culture my grandparents were raised in was very affectionate, open and family-oriented, much like many aspects of European culture today (especially in smaller towns and rural areas). They also came from very large families, so from a young age I learned the importance of being able to speak very loudly or even yell to be heard over the racket of a typical family gathering. I grew up exposed to alcohol in social settings, so when I turned nineteen, I didn’t feel the need to go off the deep end drinking because it wasn’t a milestone for me, alcohol had been in my life for years.

Contrastingly, my estranged father’s side of the family was several generations Canadian. They were far more reserved, the families were much smaller and alcohol very rarely had a positive element to it. Affection was reserved for special circumstances, such as “hello hugs” and “Goodbye hugs” and if anyone was yelling, someone was definitely in trouble. This made family gatherings incredibly stressful as a child because you weren’t entirely sure which cultural identity to take.

This is why I feel the different methods of cultural study are so important. Methods such as situation samplings I find crucial as I have experienced these in some form of way. Situation sampling is used by taking groups of people from different cultures and having them discuss specific parts of their day, then a group from each culture is brought in (in the textbook it is Americans and Japanese) and they are given these generated situations and asked how they would feel or react, this allows the researcher to compare and contrast the two to see where potential similarities and differences may be between cultures (Heine, 141-143). For example, when my parents’ divorced, the European side of my family was positively devastated, and became very supportive and involved to help my mother and our family. Meanwhile, my father’s side, which is very Canadian/North American, were very indifferent to the proceedings, as divorce is very common in Canadian culture.

Another term in the chapter which I found interesting which applied to my life was the term Unpacking, which is defined as, “identifying the underlying variables that give rise to the cultural difference” (Heine, 147). This means looking at moth my Canadian and European family and understanding what the difference is between the two which makes their cultures so different. Unpacking is a critical point in helping me better understand my own family.

The Canadian side of my family stayed in very urbanized areas, such as Vancouver, Toronto, etc. My paternal grandmother worked in munitions during WWII and was married three times. They were always on the move and everything was always newer, better, faster and sticking to the status quo. Not making noise.

The European side of my family came from heavily religious, farming backgrounds in Europe. Very little formal education and large families with far away neighbours. As a result, the family unit became the stronghold, with everyone helping out and working and contributing together. It wasn’t fast, new and easy and many times they had to roll with unexpected setbacks, which molded them into a far more relaxed and jovial group than my Canadian family. Living in Europe in WWII was also a huge factor for my family as the continent struggled to survive.

There are so many other ways that build and define the culture the two sides of my family have, and neither one is truly negative. It just illustrates the differences in values between Canadian culture (North American) and European Culture. These differences have allowed me to be able to move between groups of both Canadians and non-Canadians with relative ease, as European culture is very similar in regards to family as others I know. I value both sides of my family and upbringing I was given as a result and really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to understand it on a more psychological level while reading this chapter.

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Let’s talk about Boys!

One issue that has always been important to me is Men’s Health and Toxic Masculinity. The first time I experienced the whole effect of Toxic Masculinity occurred two years ago while I was employed as an RA at my university. I was a female living on an exclusively male floor. One girl, thirty-five boys.

Now, this may seem completely unprecedented, weird, and even dangerous. But let me start this by saying that I loved my floor and the young men on it unconditionally, and there was never a time I felt unsafe on that floor. I felt like Wendy and the lost boys, or one big sister with an army of little brothers.

This also meant that when they hurt, I hurt. And they hurt a lot.

Western society and culture had framed the male human as being the breadwinner, the strong ones. This makes it incredibly hard to show emotions or feelings for young men, specifically bad ones. This hyper-masculine culture creates an unsafe and harmful environment for men and boys to be able to express themselves in healthy manners for fear of being seen as feminine.

While reading, I was introduced to The Sambia, a people who live in Papua New Guinea (Heine, 15). Their view on masculinity marks an almost haunting resemblance to that of Canada’s, with a much more extreme method of addressing the matter. The Sambia believe that women’s wombs contaminate their sons in utero, making femaleness innate and maleness something that must be cultivated (Heine, 15). For the Sambia, in order for young men to develop their masculinity properly, they must go through extensive initiation procedures in order to allow them to become men (Heine, 15).

However, there is a very key component of the Sambian rituals that differ so vastly from that of Western Culture, to many of us reading it would be seen as alarming. Unlike in Western Culture, where homosexuality is viewed as “unmanly” or “feminine”. Homosexuality in Sambian culture is not only revered and accepted, it is ritualized in the performance of fellatio on one another to increase manliness (Heine, 16-17). While I won’t go into the actual detailed process of this, it is a ritual almost all members of Western culture would positively balk at.

Moving back to my experience with my floor (my boys). There were many who self-medicated and participated in risky and destructive behaviour because it “wasn’t manly” to show their emotions, such as crying over bad tests, being homesick, etc. While the consequences and ritualizing of masculinity in the Western world is nowhere near the level seen in the Sambian people. The fear of being unmanly or feminine is very real in both cultures and is seen as something that must be avoided at all costs.

This case study was a perfect illustration of the basis of cultural psychology as I understand it. While as human beings, almost all of us are subjected to the same cognitive processes and psychological matters. It is fascinating to see how they change in different parts of the world. For example, the encouragement of homosexual acts to improve masculinity would never been seen as an option in the Western world. Yet it is common sense to the Sambian.

I found myself repeatedly going back to chapter one after reading this, because I did not fully realize myself how ignorant I was to the study of cultural psychology until I was introduced to the concept of WEIRD. WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic societies (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010b). Because so many of those selected to participate in cultural studies where of the same or very similar cultures, the views we must look at mainly consist of a very narrow and unique group (Heine, 23). Furthermore, I refer to the idea of the Sambian culture as Toxic Masculinity because based on my culture and world views I feel it is. That doesn’t mean the Sambian people feel this way at all, and there could be many that disagree with me. Because our cultures and views are different.

So, to me, my boys having someone they could come talk to, cry to, vent to at two or three in the morning was important to me to allow them to feel safe as men to address these concerns. But to someone of the Sambian people, I would only be further contaminating them and making it impossible for them to ever be viewed or respected as men.

I will probably go back to this chapter again because each time I read it I notice something different that gets my attention. But the comparison between Western ideas of masculinity and those of the Sambian were something I had to comment on. So similar, yet so different.

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About Me.

At first, I had absolutely no idea how to start this blog. Blogging isn’t my thing, never has been. So, when I saw this as a component to my class I was positively terrified. I had no idea what to say and how to make it sound informal like a journal entry while keeping in mind the goals of the assignment itself which is to illustrate my knowledge of the material in this course. So, I very intelligently decide to try to find a blog site to post these things as written responses.

I am not technologically inclined, and Tumblr is the only account that has worked for me thus far so here we go. I felt weird opening a blog with responses, so I decided that I was going to talk a little bit about myself before diving right into the course material to try to make it seem a bit more blog like (mostly for my own processing).

My name is Chelsea, I am a fourth-year student at a University in Nova Scotia Canada. I am a Religious Studies major and Psychology minor with an interest in moving towards International Law and Human Rights Law. I am the oldest of three and come from Ontario Canada where I was raised in a single parent home.

I elected to take this class because I love different cultures, different people and new experiences. I want to be able to understand better why humans are the way we are in the hopes that someday I may be able to help make this world a little bit better.

I am far better at verbalizing my thoughts and words than writing and often feel as though my written work is too vague or doesn’t convey the message I am hoping to. Hopefully this assignment will help me improve upon that, while simultaneously illustrating my understanding of the class as I will be endeavouring to “write as I speak” which, while in many academic forums I have been harshly criticized for, should ideally help me more in this assignment.

With that, I would like to thank you for stopping by, and I hope this blog proves to be as interesting and successful as I hope it will be.

Chels