Category Archives: Blog Prompts

Johari Window Bonus Blog Prompt

Hand writing on a notebook As part of our exploration of personality, each of you completed an online Johari Window. This process helps you learn how similar your self-perceptions are to how others see you. For this bonus blog post, I want you to discuss what that process was like for you, how similar your self-description was to what others selected, how valid of a measure of personality do you think this is, and what, if anything, you learned about yourself in this process. Include a link to your Johari window in your post. This bonus post is due Tuesday, 11/13, at 8pm and is worth 1.5 points of extra credit. The post must be at least 250 words long to receive credit. Be sure to use the tags "Bonus Posts" and "Personality." I ...

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Chapter 13 First Impression Prompts – Personality

Hand writing on a notebook We all want to know more about our ourselves, and psychological tests are one way to explore our personalities. While the full psychological tests are often long and require a fee to take, there are an abundance of free versions online. Take the four personality tests linked below, discuss how accurately they describe your perception of your personality, and discuss the credibility of each test. Make sure to use the tag “Personality” on your post.

I look forward to seeing what you write!
Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

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Chapter 9 First Impression Prompts – Intelligence

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Intelligence." Option 1: Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is substantial evidence that the environment and social processes play a large role as well. Since schools are a place where children try to determine how smart they really are, it is important for educators to understand the impacts of their subtle or not-so-subtle interactions with students. In your blog post, reflect on your interactions with educators throughout your school career, and discuss what changes to the school system could improve students’ performance in the classroom. Option 2: In 1998, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed spending $105,000 of the state’s budget to distribute a cassette or CD of classical ...

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Spotlight Blog 2 Prompts – Fall 2018

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag "Spotlight" on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. Option 1 - Use the tag "Memory" Now that we've discussed how memory works and you've had a chance to think about your own study skills, I want you to critically evaluate websites that give students advice about how to study. If you select this option, I want you to find three different websites that provide advice for studying: one targeted toward college students, one targeted toward middle or high school students, and one targeted toward parents. Evaluate the advice provided on each and compare it to what you know about how memory works (include sources), making sure to correct anything you think is bad advice. Be sure to include links to the websites you are evaluating. Option ...

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Chapter 10 First Impression Prompts – Emotion

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the prompts for this chapter. Please use the tag "Emotion." Option 1: We all want to enjoy life and seek ways to make ourselves happy. Indeed, we spend much of our lives chasing the goal of happiness. But how good are we at actually finding it? Dan Gilbert discusses the ways in which we sabotage our own happiness in his TED talk. Watch the video, share your reactions, comment on the speaker’s credibility, discuss how reasonable you find its message to be, and discuss ways in which you can incorporate more synthetic happiness into your life. Option 2: A large portion of communication is non-verbal, including a lot of clues about people's emotional states. Effective communication involves being able to read others' emotions and take them into consideration. People express a ...

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Chapter 11 First Impression Prompts – Stress

Hand writing on a notebook Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Stress." Option 1: Stress permeates American society, and college is a very stressful environment for everyone involved. Stress management is a critical component of academic success in college. Describe your current stress management strategies, assess how well they work, and discuss what other stress management activities you could realistically incorporate into your routine to help you deal with stress more effectively. Option 2: Stress is something all too common in college students’ lives, but what if you could change your relationship with stress? Kelly McGonigal discusses doing just that in her TED talk “Making Stress Your Friend.” Watch the video, share your reactions, comment on the speaker’s credibility, discuss how reasonable you find ...

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Chapter 3 First Impression Prompts – Sleep

Hand writing on a notebook   Here are the  prompts for this week. Regardless of which option you select, use the tag "Sleep": Option 1: In this TED talk, Russell Foster outlines 3 prominent theories about why we sleep. Watch the talk and argue for the theory you find the most convincing. Make sure to explain your thoughts about the credibility of each of the three theories. Option 2: College students are often heavily sleep deprived as they sacrifice sleep in order to study, work, and/or have a social life in addition to their academic commitments. Assess your current sleep habits and how healthy you think they are. What is a realistic goal for amount of sleep per night for a college student and how can you improve your sleep habits? I look forward to seeing what you write!

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Chapter 3 (Drugs Section) First Impression Prompts

Hand writing on a notebook   Here are the  prompts for this week. For the following posts, use the tag "Drugs": Option 1: Recently, several states have legalized recreational use of marijuana and even more are considering it. This has lead to both celebration and condemnation depending on who you ask. Medicinal use of marijuana is still controversial as well. In your blog post, take a position on both medical and recreational use of marijuana. Should they be legal or not? Make sure to point out pros and cons to both arguments. Option 2: When it comes to treating addiction, two prominent approaches are the abstinence model and the harm reduction model. Most people are more familiar with the abstinence model, which seeks to completely eliminate all use of the problematic substance and prioritizes sobriety (an example would be 12-step ...

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Spotlight Blog 1 Prompts – Fall 2018

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag "Spotlight" on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. Option 1 - Use the tag "Development" As divorce has become more and more common in the US, the number of children affected by divorce has increased greatly. The effects of divorce on children are controversial and there are a number of opinions out there on just what is "best" for kids. If you select this option, I want you to find two credible sources that argue divorce is inherently harmful to children and two credible sources that argue children can come through a divorce without serious consequences. Make sure to assess the arguments and supporting data presented in each source, explain what makes the source credible, and state which side of the issue you think is ...

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Chapter 8 First Impression Prompt – Memory

Hand writing on a notebook Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Memory” on your post: Option 1: One of the topics we will discuss related to memory is study habits. For this post, critique your current study habits. Discuss what do you do well and what do you need to improve. In particular, I want you to discuss how you studied for the first exam in this class and share any changes you might make for the second exam to improve your preparation. We will see how closely your ideas reflect what the research says about improving your memory for learned information. Option 2: Not all memories are created equal. Some seem to be so powerfully etched in our minds that we can recall them almost perfectly later in life. For example, many people from ...

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