JB TOUCHSTONE

PART 1

Throughout this course, you will learn how to better use problem-solving, self and social awareness skills in order to practice key concepts within the field of psychology. Discovering how self and social awareness and problem-solving skills coincide may help you better understand the perspectives of others, examine situations objectively, and use evidence to make more accurate decisions. By employing this case study assignment, you will have the opportunity to put your skills to work.

Read the case study below and use your problem-solving and self and social awareness skills to help a colleague work through a difficult situation.
SCENARIO: Monica is a single mom who has a 16-year-old son named Jordan. Monica and Jordan were close at one point. As of late, Monica has been noticing that Jordan spends a lot of time focusing on what his friends think about him. Without his mothers permission, Jordan recently crawled out of his bedroom window and went to a party when he was supposed to be studying for an exam. Upon his return home, Jordan reeked of alcohol and marijuana and was caught by his mother. Shocked and appalled by her son’s recent behavior, she grounded him for two weeks.

What advice would you give Monica about her sons recent behavior?

ASSIGNMENT: Using what you learned about the adolescent brain and social development, you will answer questions related to this case study assignment below. Your goals are to help Monica understand why her son makes the choices he does and recommend some strategies that may help solve the problem.

Download and use the touchstone response template to answer the questions.

A. Assignment

DIRECTIONS: To complete the assignment, you will answer the following four questions in 5-7 sentences each:

1. What happens inside the brain of a teenager that makes it difficult for Jordan to weigh the risks and rewards of his behavior? Describe how the adolescent brain weighs risk and reward.
2. Why does it appear that Jordan values the opinion of his peers more than the opinion of his mother? Explain the psychological concepts that may account for why Jordan places value on his peers opinions.
3. What advice would you give Jordans mother, Monica, that would teach him how to make better choices and decisions? Discuss a specific strategy that Monica may implement to help her son make better decisions.
4. If you were in Monicas shoes, how would you feel? Explain why a better understanding of Monica’s perspective could result in more constructive advice

PART 2

As you continue to practice the concepts of psychology throughout the duration of the course, you will further develop the problem-solving and self and social awareness skills that are necessary in order to help you better navigate through social situations as they may arise in your personal life as well as your career. You may improve upon the means to apply these skills towards understanding individual behaviors, relationships, and making informed decisions based on reliable information. You may recognize that no matter what kind of situation you encounter at school, home, or work, you have better learned how to recognize and manage your emotions, so that they do not get in the way of your better judgement.
SCENARIO: Monica and Jennifer are coworkers that have been assigned to work on a project together. Jennifer is very organized and wants her and Monica to do really well on this project. To get started, Jennifer took some initiative and prepared a list of to-do items along with the due dates. She even color-coded the list to indicate who will do which item. Shortly after, Jennifer sends an email to Monica with the to-do list attached. Jennifer wants her partner to know that she is serious about their success.

Monica is happy her teammate has shown initiative but is surprised by Jennifer’s to-do list and feels a bit uncomfortable as she is feeling like Jennifer is micromanaging her. Monica wants to do her part on the project but is feeling anxious because she doesnt know where she fits in. Monica is worried about working on the project. She wonders if she can succeed in this project since Jennifer is already the leader. Prior to this situation, Monica worked for a separate employer who asked her to work on a similar project. She felt anxious about her ability to successfully complete the project and attempted to communicate her feelings with a co-worker. However, her co-worker didnt seem to understand Monica’s concerns and said that she should just ignore her feelings and get the work done.

As Monica ponders having a conversation with Jennifer, she starts to feel overwhelmed and thinks it might just be easier to be removed from the project.

ASSIGNMENT: Now, it is time to practice the skills and concepts that you have learned to help your friend Monica navigate through a difficult workplace situation. Using your problem solving and self and social awareness skill, as well as what you have learned about personality traits and emotions, answer the questions in this case study assignment. Remember, you are to help Monica calm her anxiety and find a solution to her problem.

DIRECTIONS: To complete the assignment, you will answer the following four questions in 5-7 sentences each:

1. What are the “Big 5” personality traits? Name and describe each of them, using specific details and information from the case study and course lessons.
2. Consider the different approaches to the project taken by both Monica and Jennifer. On which of the Big 5 personality traits do they most differ? Discuss these differences in their personality traits.
3. Using what you learned about emotions, what advice would you give to Monica? Describe a specific strategy that Monica can use to manage her emotions and successfully complete the project.
4. If you were in this situation, how confident are you that you could successfully resolve a workplace conflict like the one that Monica faced? What past experiences or knowledge influence your answer? Explain how your experience or knowledge can resolve a similar workplace conflict

part 3

SCENARIO: Imagine that you work for a nonprofit organization that is focused on increasing diversity in community groups in your area. Your supervisor asks you to develop a sociological study concerning topics of diversity and collaboration in a specific community group of your choice. Eventually, you will prepare to share your research with colleagues.

ASSIGNMENT: This Touchstone provides an opportunity for you to practice developing a research plan for a real-world topic that interests you. You will begin by formulating a question about diversity in a community group that you have access to. Then you will use the steps of the scientific method to prepare a research plan, including a bibliography for a literature review. As you learned, sociologists follow the scientific method so that their results are both scientifically valid and useful to the greater sociological community. A literature review allows researchers to learn from completed studies and to build upon their conclusions.

Use the Touchstone 1 template below to fill in your research plan as you develop it. When you have finished, submit this template to move on to the next unit. You may also download an example of a completed touchstone.

A. Directions

Step 1: Pick a Topic

Select a community group to study. Some examples of community groups you might explore include:

• An activity-based group like a book club, a soccer team, or a community choir
• A religious or ideological community such as a church congregation or a local political party
• A community organization like a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), a neighborhood association, or the volunteer committee at a local soup kitchen
• An identity-based organization such as a social club for veterans or a fraternal type organization

It should be a group in which membership is voluntary and recreational.

Avoid the following:

• Families
• Workplaces
• Ethnic or racial categories
• Friend groups

You might wish to choose a group that you are a part of, or you might not. You can use your personal experience with the group to form the basis of your research question. Or you can ask members of the group about their experiences, which will help you develop your research question.

In the template, write a paragraph (approximately 6-8 sentences) describing the community group you have chosen. In particular, be sure to answer the following questions:

• What is the community group?
• What are the attributes or characteristics of this community group? (e.g. What activities does this group do together? What element of the members’ interests or identities brings them together? How is membership in the group defined, if at all?)
• What kind of experience with or access to this community group do you have?

Step 2: Ask a Question

Next, you will formulate a question related to this group, and to topics related to diversity and/or collaboration. You might think about diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic status, or along multiple intersecting identities. Be sure to use what you learned in Unit 1 about the ways sociologists ask questions.

Examples:

• What are the challenges of a moms community organization in appealing to moms with children of different ages?
• How does a group of car enthusiasts reach out to the surrounding community to get support for their events?
• How has the Boy Scouts accepting girls impacted their mission and programs?
• Do gender segregated sports teams for kids help maintain traditional gender roles?

In the template, write the question you have formulated for your study. Be sure to identify the Independent and Dependent variables and identify them correctly.

hint

Refer back to and for help.

Step 3: Prepare a Bibliography

Finally, you will begin developing a bibliography for a review of the existing literature that relates to your question. Before conducting a full literature review, a sociologist will build a bibliography, or a list of potential sources that they will read and study in greater depth in the review.

Collect 4-6 articles, books, or other resources that relate to your question and list them in your template. You dont have to look into these materials in depth right now! Youll review this literature more closely in Touchstone 3, and you will also be exposed to additional relevant research and frameworks in Unit 3. Youll also be able to add to or amend your bibliography before you submit your Touchstone in Unit 3.

Attributes of good readings for your literature review:

• They are academic, scholarly works about research findings or they are reliable journalistic reporting based on scientifically credible and reliable data.
• They should have been published in the last 10 yearsunless they are a landmark work on the topic and provide important background or as a comparison.
• They look at different sides of the argument and a variety of perspectives.
• They do not have to be written by sociologists or published in sociology journals, but they should be academic and not popular works.

Where to find readings:
More than likely you will use a major search engine like Google Scholar. Start your search by identifying key search terms related to your research question, to generate relevant results. specifically searches scholarly literature. However, keep in mind that much of this literature may have limited or paid access. Another good place to search is in a public library or university library catalog or database. You might also want to try regular Google, but you will have to be careful to screen your results and make sure you only select academic sources. Whichever way you choose to search, make sure that you are selecting credible sources.

What makes a source credible?
Credible sources are written by authors who are well known in their field. They are based on scientific datanot opinions or with biased observations. Sources should be from reliable outlets, like major publishers, universities, think tanks, and credentialed current practitioners.

hint

Refer back to for more guidance.

How to format sources in your bibliography:
Sociologists use American Psychological Association (APA) format for their research. Visit the resource for assistance with citing sources in APA style.

Refer to the checklist below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines.

1. Identify Community Group
Have you identified and described a voluntary, recreational community group?
Have you provided group attributes/characteristics of this group?
Have you discussed your experience with or access to this group?

2. Research Question
Have you selected a research question that is sufficiently specific to be researchable while tying in to broader themes in sociology?
Have you clearly identified independent and dependent variables?
Are your independent and dependent variables in the correct relationship?

3. Bibliography
Have you provided 4-6 credible, relevant, recent, and properly cited sources?
Did you properly format these sources in APA style?

4. Conventions
Have you proofread your essay for grammatical and mechanical errors?
Have you used spell check or another method to check spelling?

5. Before You Submit
Have you included your name and date at the top left of the page?

Part 4

Touchstone 3: Presenting a Research Plan

SCENARIO: Your supervisor has approved your research question and plan for studying some aspect of diversity and/or collaboration in a community group. Now it is time to conduct your literature review and develop your hypothesis and research plan.

ASSIGNMENT: In Touchstone 1, you developed a research question and prepared a preliminary bibliography for your literature review. You will now conduct your literature review, formulate your hypothesis and research plan, and develop a set of notecards that summarize your work.. You must incorporate the same community group and research question from Touchstone 1 as you complete the requirements for this Touchstone.

REQUIREMENTS: Create 8-11 notecards using the Touchstone 3 template below. Your notecards will include:

• introduction card
• research question card
• literature review (46 cards)
• hypothesis card
• operational definitions card (if needed)
• research method card

Use the Touchstone 3 template below to fill in your research plan as you develop it. When you have finished, submit this template to move on to the next unit. You may also download an example of a completed Touchstone.

download

Helpful Links:

A. Directions

Step 1: Revise Touchstone 1

First, return to the community group description, research question, and proposed bibliography that you submitted in Touchstone 1, and make any necessary changes based on feedback. You will likely want to refine your reading list based on the feedback you received and what you learned about diversity and collaboration in Unit 3.

Step 2: Conduct a Literature Review

Next, complete your reading for your literature review.

Reminder of attributes of good readings for your literature review:

• They are academic, scholarly works about research findings or they are reliable journalistic reporting based on scientifically credible and reliable data.
• They should have been published in the last 10 yearsunless they are a landmark work on the topic and provide important background or as a comparison.
• They look at different sides of the argument and a variety of perspectives.

As you complete each reading, take notes. Some of the questions you could ask about each reading include:

1. Who wrote this article? Is it the researchers themselves, or is it a journalist writing about their findings?
2. Where was it published? Is it a scholarly publication like an academic journal, or is it for a popular audience? If the publication is for a popular audience, how would you characterize the audience?
3. Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
4. When was the research conducted?
5. What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
6. How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
7. What methods did they use to study their question?
8. What conclusions did they draw from their results?
9. How do their conclusions impact my research question, hypothesis, or research plan?

As you did for your first Touchstone, you will use American Psychological Association (APA) format for each source. Visit the resource for assistance with citing sources in APA style.

Step 3: Formulate a Hypothesis, State Your Operational Definitions, and Choose a Research Method

Hypothesis

Now, formulate a hypothesis for your research question and choose a sociological research method appropriate for testing your hypothesis. While you wont be conducting the research, you will write up a description of how you plan to conduct your research.

hint

Refer back to , , and for help.

A formal hypothesis states the relationship between two variablesone is independent (IV) and one is dependent (DV). It must also be formatted as an If/Then statement.

EXAMPLE

If people eat chocolate (IV), then they will get pimples (DV).

EXAMPLE

If people go to the gym (IV), then they will be fit (DV).

Operational Definitions

Next, state your operational definition. Operational definitions identify important concepts related to the research. For example, If your community organization includes students, are they K-12? College? Medical? Or are students defined as: young adults between the ages of 18-21 who are attending a particular college or university?

Research Method

Then, choose a research method. Deciding on a research method will also take some thought and planning:

1. Will you use qualitative or quantitative research or a combination?
2. How will you engage subjects or find your data?
3. What kinds of tools and assessments will be used to gather the data?

Step 4: Prepare Your Notecards

Finally, incorporate Steps 1-4 to prepare a set of notecards for your proposed research study. Use the template provided to create 8-11 notecards that present the work you completed in Steps 1-4.

Notecard	Component
Introduction	Your introduction notecard should introduce your audience to the community group being studied.
Research question	Your second notecard will state your research question.
Literature Review (4-6 cards)	Now that youve introduced your community group and research question, its time to add information to your literature review notecards. Each source should have one notecard. The notecard should describe the information and analysis you performed in Step 2.
Hypothesis	Your hypothesis notecard should describe your hypothesis.
Operational definitions	Your operational definitions notecard should include and explain any operational definitions you developed for your study. You may skip this card if you have none.
Research method	Your research method notecard should introduce your proposed research method and explain how you propose to conduct your research.

Refer to the checklist below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines.

1. Literature Review: Sources and Feedback
Have you provided 4-6 sources appropriate for a sociological literature review?
Have you addressed all feedback on the Unit 1 Touchstone bibliography?

2. Literature Review: Description and Analysis
Have you thoroughly and accurately described your sources and identified relevance to the research topic?
Have you formatted your sources in APA style?

3. Hypothesis and Operational Definitions
Is your hypothesis well-aligned to the research question?
Is your hypothesis testable and predicts outcomes between two or more identified variables?
Are all concepts needing operational definitions identified and definitions are provided?

4. Research Method
Did you select and explain a qualitative or quantitative research method that is suitable to the research question?
Did you identify specific instruments?

5. Conventions
Have you proofread your essay for grammatical and mechanical errors?
Have you used spell check or another method to check spelling?

6. Before You Submit
Have you included your name and date at the top left of the page?

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