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For my photovoice project, I've decided to focus on a theme of growing through different influences. The influences could be people, places, or situations, which is what the pictures will show. As for the social psychology concepts, I wanted to focus on affect, social situation, social influence, and the two motivations, self/ other concern.

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This was a close friend's graduation. It was taken at the Greek Theatre on June 6, 2024.

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This photo represents a special moment in one of my closest friend's lives as she begins her journey into adulthood. At that moment she was done with high school and the expression on her face of joy likewise to her parent's faces made the moment all the more valuable. Self-concern is the concept that most aligns with this photo as I am the one who actively made the decision to connect with not only my friend but her family as well. Although self-concern from an evolutionary stance is about maintaining oneself through other subpoints like kinship or ingroup, you find yourself approximating to relatives and also non-relatives. Overall, the part of self-concern that I truly mean is ingroup where you connect to the people who are closest to you like family. This photo is just one example of the motivations that the textbook expresses as individuals that are, "similar and important to us...even if those people do not share genes" (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012). In like manner, the concept of behavioral measures in chapter 1.3 relates to me making certain choices in order to be there. I wouldn't have been able to take the photo otherwise, since behavioral measures are an indicator of what people do, it can be assessed that I value my friend enough to stay with her family to see her graduate. Since the concept of self-motivation is pretty much the concern for oneself or those deemed closest to oneself, I'd say that my understanding of this concept changed mainly when I was on the fence about it being social situation. Despite my second guesses, I decided that it was more than just people who I interact with. These people have become familiar to me in a way that family is; that is my understanding of ingroup branched under self-concept.

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Sweet 16, August 13, 2022, Venue off of Koreatown

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The photo was taken by me. I had hoped to get to see her before I went into where everything was being held. It just so happened to work out, and I saw her in the lobby and snapped a quick one. As seen in the photo, her expression is unforgettable; a surprised look, but nevertheless elated. The concept that might work best with this photo is social situation. This is due to mainly seeing each other almost every day. Whether at school, it grew to the point of interaction and then gradually becoming closer to friends. Just as social situation literally means, "the people we interact with every day", the photo represents the result of interacting with her every day at school (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012). Hence, me being invited and capturing this beautiful moment before the event. The research hypothesis theory which discusses the relationship between "variables of interest" (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012) and the state that follows is something that intertwines with the photo by the direction of me being there and documenting the moment. It means that there is a relationship between the variables which in this case would be me and my friend and that our relationship is one that is, "falsifiable" (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012). As a whole, I wouldn't have thought this intentionally about a simple photo, but the combination of social situation and the research hypothesis theory shed light on how the people whom we see every day, even if it's just at school impact our lives in unforeseeable ways. I didn't consider that talking with, laughing, or just listening could be a potential invitation for others to come into my life, but also to allow me into theirs. This is one way that social situation has revealed itself to me, and also to not take these things for granted, it allows you to look back and see that there are some kind people who are positive influences.

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I decided to throw this in here as it does play a role in what has and hasn't influenced me. My brother gave this Bible to me which I have used ever since, and naturally, it's become something I value. As for the concept that it portrays, social influence would have to suit this photo the most. The textbook references children often taking on the things that their parents like such as music, or even their religious affiliation. In this case, my beliefs have been shaped by my parents, but I did choose for myself to stick with them. Similarly, the concept of social cognition which contains our attitudes (and schemas) as "the knowledge representation about things we like or dislike" (Principles of Social Psychology) is something that pairs well with this photo as it holds a reminder to myself of what morals to uphold in regards to both my attitude and schemas about things or people. What I understand social influence as is, nothing more than your environment, the way you grew up, or the people around you/ their beliefs is what contributed to the individual you are today. The way I chose to capture this image, in basic room lighting and on a wooden table doesn't exactly add to the concept, but the Bible itself does. The Bible itself in the photo is old and used visibly, but I guess my social influence is modeled after sentimentality from my dad reading it, and now the reason I've found in it for myself.

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Jelly's Last Jam Musical, May 3, 2022, Alexander Hamilton High School

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This photo was taken unawares. I am the one standing on the right. A friend had sent it to me, and I had it saved to my phone ever since. This was the first musical I got involved in which is why I decided to use it for this purpose. I think this can be a representation for the social psychology concept of affect. I say this because the show made a positive impact on my life for the most part with some negative bits of mood experienced. Affect is the feelings that we experience in our everyday lives whether good or bad, these emotions allow us to function properly (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012). At the time in the photo, I was probably feeling tired and in an ok mood. My face looked serious because I had to portray a certain tone for the show. Other than that, I know that a lot of the emotions I felt were anxiety and worry even about doing a good performance. The positive emotions which are signals that we are doing well only came after each show if I felt it measured up. If you continue to look at the photo, other than observing me, there are two other girls dressed similarly and a guy in the middle. For this specific scene that is shown, all of us had to work together to achieve this outcome. Because of this, another concept that aligns with the photo is social behavior. This literally involves people interacting as they go about everyday life. In this case, I had to step out of my comfort zone for this musical and interact with these people who I hadn't known before in order to achieve the end result of our show coming to life. Social behavior entails that there is a social exchange that includes social rewards and costs. A perfect statement for how this photo came about is exactly, "We cooperate with other people to gain outcomes that we could not obtain on our own" (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012). A new insight that I've received during the process of analyzing this photo is that these concepts of social behavior or affect, are things that are bound to be in our lives. We might not always picture it in that exact moment, but when it's captured like this, you can actually point out the struggles, difficulties or feelings of happiness that were felt in that moment. Looking back on the photo now, the concept of affect made me realize how much more negatively, I could view things at that moment and have the bad be all that I focus on. No matter, I don't see it as such now, but it was good to reimagine how moody I was on days like that.

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We went to go eat after my sister's graduation from El Camino College. Again we had graduations around similar times, as mine had been the day before. Although the other family members are not in frame, it was a combination of relatives from my mom and dad's side of the family to celebrate our graduation. The concept the photo represents the most is social affect. Social affect is related to our mood and emotions that occur during our everyday life or even just the state we are in during a given moment. At that moment it felt nice to be with family who I hadn't seen in a while over a meal. The air had been awkward at first because my mom and dad's relatives hadn't been gathered like this for many years. Despite this, the mood changed because my mom's uncle began telling stories. They were hilarious! From that point onward, the ones seated at our table started cooperating to cook the meat. It became a frenzy of social exchange. We all gathered our sauces to pour over the meat to try and make it flavorful. This acted as social rewards, "the positive outcomes that we give and receive when we interact with others" (Principles of Social Psychology, 2012). Sure the mood may have been quiet at first, but the addition of cooperation allowed a nice social exchange between family to benefit from the social rewards of us sharing our food tools. Capturing this image stands as a reminder of social affect and how easily it can change. There's no set determiner of mood and even other concepts like social exchange can be expressed first by others being authentic to themselves among others.

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Torrance, December 2020, Whole Foods Parking Lot

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Are there any social influences that you guys have experienced that are similar to these photos?

Do you guys define yourselves by the social influences expressed or are they just one part of you?