I promise, I'm not arrogant.

Self-presentation is defined as the process that we take to shape what people think of us and what we think of ourselves. The methods in which self-presentation is utilize include: what we do, what we say, how we dress, and how we act. I just wanted to share some ways that I consciously try to present myself in a positive manner by using self-promotion (i.e., an attempt to gain respect through competence).

First, I make lists and keep a planner. By doing these things, I am trying to come off as extremely organized, and it works. I get comments about how organized and on top of things I am quite often, but in all honesty, I really don’t think I’m that organized. I do get my things done when they need to be done, but just because I can cross things off of a list and plan out my time doesn’t make me awesome. It just means I know how to focus my attention, but if you’re going to be impressed with my ability to do this, then by all means, I welcome it. Although, I would also like to add that these lists and color coded planner pages do keep me sane.

Second, I don’t really want to admit this, but I will. I think that I am really qualified at my job. As the appointed off-campus marketing coordinator, I have done a great job at securing some radio ads as well as online ads. My failure, though, was in interviews. It’s extremely difficult when the artist’s publicist doesn’t do much, and when people won’t return your phone calls, but I am not attributing this to anyone. It’s like a mutual fault if that is possible. Back to me being qualified, it has paid off enough to where I am trusted to do things that professional staff is responsible for. Also, the day of Large Act, I have been given the title of being the “manager”. I will really be working under Jaime, but either way, I’m the big boss’s right hand woman. If that doesn’t elicit some feeling of respect or intimidation, then I don’t know what will.

I really do not enjoy that this sounds like I am patting myself on my back, but that’s what self-promotion is. I am completely guilty of utilizing this form of self-presentation to gain the respect and confidence of the professional staff.

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2008). Self-Presentation.. In Social Psychology (7th ed., pp. 82-83). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Because I Love It.

This is all I could think about while I was reading the section of Chapter 3 about the overjustification effect. The overjustification effect can be defined as a decrease in intrinsic motivation when an activity has become associated with a reward. In other words, when the activity that you do out of pure joy and satisfaction now precedes a reward of some kind, then you begin to lose interest in performing the task because you used to work for the reward and now it just comes easily (Kassin, Fein, and Markus, 2008).

I have been working for the past eleven months on the Large Act concert and FINALLY, we will be able to announce it tomorrow. You have no idea how much effort and emotion we have all given to this event. Our emotions have ranged from extremely sad to terrified to stressed and to ECSTATIC. The happiness that we are all feeling right now because we are preparing to share our hard work with other people is so thrilling. We are concerned with how the campus will respond to the artist we have chosen, but we decided that this is the best choice and time. Because of the work I have done with UPC and Large Act, I have decided to pursue this as a career path. What terrifies me the most is if I will begin to no longer be intrinsically motivated to work as hard on concerts and entertainment public relations. I really love what I do with these things and if the overjustification effect takes over I don't know what I will go into. I think a paycheck would be nice, but I don't want it to turn into an extrinsic motivation.

It's part of the reason I want to go to New York. I want to be in that environment. Fast paced, stressed, and working on music promotion all the time. I am so happy when I am working on it and do not mind doing anything for the success of the event. This is such a big deal that we have a newspaper coming to cover the ping pong drop tomorrow. How awesome is that? If I lose my intrinsic motivation to do this, then I will have lost all the passion I have for work. These emotions that I feel correspond with Shachter's two-factor theory of emotion. The two-factor theory of emotion states that the experience of emotion depends on two factors: physiological arousal and the person's cognitive interpretation of that arousal (Kass, Fein, and Markus, 2008). My heart races and there's a definite increase in galvanic skin response. I smile a lot. When we went downstairs for lunch today I was telling everyone I know and jumping around the entire commons. I don't think anyone has ever seen me that hyper. I perceived this reaction to not only be overcome with excitement and a sense of accomplishment, but that I truly know what I'm doing and that I love doing it. There really isn't a doubt to how much it makes me happy. When I'm doing something right with this, like when I get feedback about the work I am doing, it boosts my confidence and helps me believe in my ability to successfully execute a plan.

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2008). Self Perceptions of Motivation. In Social Psychology (7th ed., pp. 59-60). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Bad day?

Seems like I wasn't the only one with a bad day.

These are the things that I would like to blame my bad day on. These will be both personal and situational attributions.

-lack of sleep

-neglecting my studies

-focusing on my social life

-not caring enough

-opportunity

-need

I believe the beginning of my bad day began last night when I was studying for my test that I had this morning. I was only up until three, so it was a normal hour really. I kind of studied last night, but I was mostly hanging out with a friend while he played the piano in the Bishop's Lounge. That would be a combination of me neglecting my studies and needing to focus on my social life, which I did all weekend prior to this as well. It's my last free weekend! I go back to work at Applebee's on Friday. :( Anyways, I went home and set my alarm for like 6:30 because then I could get in a short work out and shower before my exam. Did not wake up until two hours later, so I had to rush to get "ready". I wouldn't call what I looked like ready. But, this already put me in a foul mood because I do not like being rushed. I enjoy taking my time and being semi early for things. Especially on mornings such as this one so that I could look over my notes one last time and relax a little before my test. That didn't happen and quite honestly I do not feel good about my exam, which I expected. That didn't help my morning out at all. I then had to ask for rent and wait on it, which is super annoying. Our rent is due the first of every month, but somehow that little fact gets forgotten. I do not like being late on rent or bills. I'm seriously worried what will happen when I'm not responsible for it anymore (for our house). I predict late fees.

Then I went to work where I learned some news that could potentially make my extracurricular work a little more difficult, but it will be fine. I will be able to handle it. Fortunately, they are tasks that I do not necessarily see as work because I enjoy doing them so much. I just don't know what the consequences will be. It's not a hard job to do, it's just that the people responsible for it don't care enough to execute things the best that they can.

Also, I am only taking nine hours of classes (work wise it's more like....six), but with everything else I do, I've realized that I'm falling behind. But I can't blame it all on my extracurricular activities, I have to blame it on myself as well. I'm going back to work at Applebee's for one thing. My supervisor thinks I'm crazy, but I need the money. Well, I don't need it, but it's nice to have. Also, I'm doing so much with internship that it's crazy. I'm also working on my application for the New York program. I have to put together a portfolio? Seriously, what is that? I just learned what my passion was a year ago. That's another thing, I don't want to bust my ass in a class I'm not motivated in when I won't even be using the information in the future. I should have been a Business/Comm major. Honestly.

OA made me sad today as well because we got our mentee's progress report and it seriously made me sad. I wish I could spend more time with my mentee, but I don't think she wants it. Her grades are average and below. I want to help her, but I can only do so much with the little time I have with her. I talked to her about her grades and she seems cooperative, but I know that she doesn't have that same encouragement at home. Hopefully next week she'll come with more homework to work on.

Then I had an unnecessary spat with a friend. I will just attribute this to him feeling ill. It just completely capped off my unsatisfying day.