PSYCH Written Assignment

Write a four‑page paper (not including the title page) on your Interpersonal Style, organizing your paper from the topics in the Interpersonal Style activity (link located above). You are to include in your paper the topics (pick at least 4) you would like to explore in more detail in arriving at your own interpersonal style. Try to give examples from your own personal relationships to support the topics you choose to explore in the paper. (Worth 50 points). Support your paper with three professional sources (professional journal articles) and cite them using APA format (using the same format as you have been using in your discussions. Include the authors’ last names and year of publication, like this, “(Khasky & Smith, 1999, p._ )”.Include the page number only if you quote the source). Also, include a reference list at the end of your paper. You can use the textbook as one of your three sources. Use APA format for your paper. Your paper must be double-spaced with one inch margins, times new roman font, 12 font size. Please refer to the paragraph at the end of the syllabus on academic dishonesty.

Please use the situation of a 21-year-old female college student to write this essay.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Your Interpersonal Style

Name ________________________________________

Date _________________________________________

Purpose: To enable you to “get in touch” with your own interpersonal style.

Instructions:  Interpersonal style may be defined as your characteristic ways of thinking and feeling about how you interact with other people, together with your interpersonal skills (and lack of skills), and your characteristic success and failures in relationships.

1. After giving some thought to the above definition, consider the categories below and ask yourself the questions within these categories.

1. Categories

• Extensiveness. How extensive is my interpersonal life? How much of my day is spent with people? Do I seek out opportunities for being with people? Do I have many friends and acquaintances or few? Are my contacts with others planned or left up to chance? Is my life too crowded with people? Are there too few people in my life? Do I prefer smaller gatherings or larger groups? Do I have a need for quiet time away from people? Am I outgoing or introverted or somewhere in between?

• Needs and wants. What are my interpersonal wants and needs? How do I express them? Directly? Indirectly? Do I like to be challenged? Complimented? Reassured? Left alone? Treated like a child? Like a parent? Do I like to be responsible and assertive? Do I want others to control me? With what kind of people do I associate? Are they like me? By what criteria do I choose my friends and acquaintances: chance, intelligence, physical attractiveness, good-naturedness, values, social position?

• Caring. How caring am I in my interactions with others? Do others know that I care? Is it obvious in my behavior? Do I sometimes wonder whether I care at all? Do I take others for granted? Who really cares for me? How do I show care? How is care shown to me? In what ways am I self‑centered? Am I a generous person? How do I express my generosity?

• Competence. What are my interpersonal skills? Am I good at communicating understanding to others? Am I appropriately warm? Do I communicate to others that I respect them? Am I my real self when I am with others—that is, do I communicate genuineness? Am I open, willing to talk about myself appropriately? Can I challenge others and invite them to explore my relationships directly with others? What skills do I want to acquire? How well do I meet strangers? Am I awkward, embarrassed, or resentful? Or enthusiastic, poised, and confident?

• Emotions. What do I do with my emotions in interpersonal situations? Do I swallow them? Or some of them? Do I wear my emotions on my sleeve? Is it easy for others to judge what I am feeling? Am I moody? To what extent am I ruled by my emotions? How do I make my emotions public? How do I feel about being emotional in interpersonal situations? How perceptive am I of the emotional states of others? How do I react to others when they are emotional? What emotions do I enjoy in others? What ones do I fear? What do I do when others keep their emotions to themselves?

• Intimacy. How intensive is my interpersonal life? Do I actively pursue intimacy with others? Do I encourage others to get close to me? If so, how? Are there people with whom I would like to be more intimate? Are there people who will not allow me to be intimate with them? What does intimacy mean for me? Do I see that there are a variety of ways of being intimate with others? What kinds of people are attracted to me? What forms of intimacy do I find most rewarding? Most threatening?

• Rejection and alienation. Is loneliness ever a problem for me? If so, how do I handle it? Do others see me as lonely at times? If so, how do they react to me? What do I do when I see that others are lonely? Am I easily threatened by others? How do I react when I am threatened? What threatens me in interpersonal situations? Have I experienced rejection? How do I handle being ignored or left out or rejected? Do I ignore or reject others? How do I handle the problem of not wanting to relate to people who want to relate to me?

• Interpersonal influences. What demands do I place on my friends and/or acquaintances? Am I manipulative in my dealings with others? If so, with whom, and how? Do others try to manipulate me? Who and how? What demands do my friends place on me? Do I tell others explicitly what I expect from them, or do I assume that they know what I want? Do I see that giving and receiving influence can under certain conditions be proper and growth provoking in my interpersonal life? If so, under what conditions? Am I either dominant or submissive in my relationships to others? When and under what conditions?

• Mutuality. Do I allow for give and take in my relationships with others? Am I authoritarian or parental? Am I democratic? Am I laissez‑faire? Am I willing to compromise? Do I take responsibility for what happens in my relationships, or do I “let things take their course”? Do I encourage mutuality in decision making? Do I encourage dialogue? Do I expect to be treated as an equal? Do my relationships involve mutual responsibilities?

• Work relationships. How do I get along in my work relationships? Do I treat people at work as people or as roles? Do I assert myself with my superiors (including teachers)? Am I understanding with my subordinates? Do I have prejudices toward people in certain “inferior” roles? Am I over personal at work? Am I a loner at work?

• Values. What are my principle interpersonal values? How open to interpersonal growth am I? What am I willing to risk with others? In what areas am I not willing to take risks? Do I allow ambiguity and uncertainty in my interpersonal life? Am I tolerant of others whose opinions differ from mine? What are my prejudices? Am I willing to change my own values, beliefs, and behaviors when in my dealings with others it seems appropriate to do so? How rigid or flexible am I in my relationships with others? Do I seek out ways to grow with others? Do I share my values with others? Can I put my interpersonal relationships into perspective by putting them into the wider contexts of work, world conditions, and so on?