Exercise: Prosocial Behavior

Exercise: Prosocial Behavior

Exercise: Prosocial Behavior

Much of what we tend to focus on when we study social psychology are topics that often have a negative connotation such as conformity, prejudice, aggression or obedience. A huge component of the study of social psychology; however, focuses on prosocial behavior – behaviors that focus on compassion and helping others. For this activity, you will focus on this more uplifting aspect of social psychology. Topics that fall under the area of prosocial behavior include altruism, helping, bystander intervention, empathy, and compassion, among others.

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For this exercise, pick one day and seek to structure your thoughts and behaviors entirely around helping others. With each interaction or action you take, pause to think and ask yourself “is there a way I might help another here?” Hold a door for someone, offer your seat, share a smile, give a sincere compliment, show empathy to another, attempt to be more patient or understanding, etc. Your efforts should be in social settings that involve interactions with others (rather than something such as donating to a charity for instance). The goal is to be as thoughtfully prosocial in your interactions throughout the day as possible.

• At the beginning of the day, jot down your general mood, feelings, attitude, etc.
• Then throughout the day, whenever possible, carry a small notebook with you or make notes in an app on your phone to jot down meaningful encounters or experiences as you attempt to engage in prosocial behaviors.
• At the end of the day, again reflect and take notes on how you feel, your general mood, feelings and attitudes, etc.

In a 5-7 slide PowerPoint presentation, not counting title or reference slides:

• Summarize your experience. Describe the prosocial behaviors you engaged in, others’ reactions to these behaviors, and your assessment of any changes in mood, attitude, good fortune, or anything else of note you experienced.
• Review what you have learned about human behavior in social settings this week in your readings and CogBooks activities. Connect what you learned or experienced through your day of conscious, prosocial behavior with the terms, concepts, and theories from your research. Integrate at least two academic sources (your assigned readings/resources can comprise one of these sources), citing any references used in APA format.
• Describe any new insights you gained through this experience about your interactions with others on a daily basis, including any behaviors you wish to change or to continue.
• Use the features of PowerPoint to your advantage to communicate your ideas – include pictures, audio recorded narration, speaker’s notes, video, links, etc. as appropriate to enhance your ideas.
• Include an APA formatted title slide and reference slide. APA components such as an abstract, headings, etc. are not required since this is a PowerPoint presentation.

Submit your presentation as an attachment in the Week 7 Assignment Prosocial Behavior link in the Assignments area of the classroom no later than 11:55 pm EST Sunday of Week 7.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

Exercise: Prosocial Behavior

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Exercise: Prosocial Behavior

Exercise: Prosocial Behavior