Week 5: Personality and Social Behavior

You may have heard the expression, “yawning is contagious,” meaning someone in a group yawns and you find yourself doing the same. This is an example of social influence and the power of social psychology. As you may have guessed, the effects of social influence are not as simple as a group of people yawning one by one. In fact, some of the biggest atrocities and victories in history could not have occurred without social influences on behavior and thinking.

Now think about what you know about your individual differences and what makes you uniquely you. Are you born with certain personality traits or are they learned by interacting with your environment? As you are probably learning by now, the answer is that it is likely some of both! Your personality is a result of your biological predisposition, social and cultural background, and life experiences.

Acknowledging personality, individual differences, and social influence builds a foundation for understanding what makes people think and act the way they do.

Take a moment this week to reflect on the different people and experiences, both good and bad, that shape who you are today. This week you focus on personality and social psychology.

Required Readings

Feldman, R.  (2020). Psychology and your life: With P.O.W.E.R learning (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 9, “Personality and Individual Differences”
Chapter 12, “Social Psychology”

Assignment: Case Study Project—Final

The Case Study assignments from previous weeks have prepared you for this week’s final component of your project. In Week 2 you submitted an introductory paragraph about your chosen individual and found an article in the Walden library to support your analysis of that person. In Week 3 you built upon that work by applying the course topics of Brain and Behavior; Sensation and Perception, and Learning and Memory to begin developing your complete analysis of your chosen individual. You are now ready for the final phase of your case study project.

By Day 7

This week you will submit your Final Project for grading. Your final project should be 5 to 8 pages of text (not including the title page and reference page) that includes:

1. The introduction and summary of your chosen individual that you submitted in Week 2.
2. The application of relevant concepts from all major course topics to your chosen individual.

Be sure to include information from the readings about

Brain and Behavior
Sensation and Perception
Learning and Memory
Development
Motivation and Emotion
Personality
Social Behavior

1. Use the information from the journal article that you found and summarized in Week 2 to support your analysis where it is relevant. This journal should be listed on a reference page, along with any other resources (e.g., the text, Learning Resources, videos, etc.) that you used to complete your project. Be sure to incorporate any feedback your Instructor provided previously.

Be sure to incorporate any feedback your Instructor provided previously.

Refer to the Interactive Case Study media, Final Project Example document, and Final Project Template to guide your work. You will find these in this Week’s Learning Resources. Please remember that the Final Project Example document is just an example. You may not copy any text from this document for use in your own project. All writing in your project must be your own original work.

Your Assignment will be graded on the components below.Remember to refer to the required readings from the four previous weeks to guide you. Also, each section needs source integration to support your comments. For more specific details, refer to the Assignment Rubric located in the Course Information area.

• Paragraph summarizing individual (10 points)
• Application of information about Brain and Behavior to your chosen individual (10 points)
• Application of information about Sensation and Perception to your chosen individual (10 points)
• Application of information about Learning and Memory to your chosen individual (10 points)
• Application of information about Development to your chosen individual (25 points)
• Application of information about Motivation and Emotion to your chosen individual (25 points)
• Application of information about Personality to your chosen individual (25 points)
• Application of information about Social Behavior to your chosen individual (25 points)
• Incorporation of information from the journal article (from the Week 2 Assignment 10 points)
• Concluding paragraph (10 points)
• Quality of writing (40 points)

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK5Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 5 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 5 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK5Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.