Halonen and Santrock (1997) describe nine critical thinking strategies that help us adjust and grow. These can be summarized as:

I. Learn to observe yourself and others carefully;
II.Think critically about claims about influences, seeking multiple explanations for these phenomena;
III. Recognize and appreciate the contributions of context and culture; and
IV. Apply these in your interactions with yourself and others.

These critical thinking strategies should be the backbone of your paper, although you do not need to use this structure as a strict outline for your paper. Papers (50 pts., optional, but required for an A in this course) should be at least five pages long. Descriptions of how you might approach papers on work and stress are on your syllabus. Here are several other approaches, although the sky's the limit...

• Dating relationships. i. What patterns do you see in your relationships? Where do they work well? Where don't they work as well? ii. What might influence your/their behavior in relationships? Are there other explanations? iii. How does being female/male, a member of your race/culture/family influence what you see or how you act in these relationships? iv. What are you doing to make your relationships work better for you? How is this working?

• Assertiveness. i. Describe your ability to be assertive. ii. How does your self-talk influence your assertiveness? When are you assertive? When or with whom aren't you? iii. How does being female/male, a member of your race/culture/family influence how or when you are assertive? Is your behavior viewed differently as a result? iv. What are you doing to increase your ability to be assertive in places where you had difficulty being assertive in the past? What changes are you seeing?

• Self-esteem. i. Describe your self-esteem. Where do you feel most comfortable with yourself? Where do you feel least comfortable? ii. What factors do you see affecting your self-esteem? Approach this question from multiple viewpoints. iii. How does being a member of your family/gender/race etc. influence your self-esteem? iv. What are you doing to improve your self-esteem? What are you seeing? What are others seeing?

• Family relationships. i. What is your place in your family? What role do you tend to take? How is it working for you? ii. What factors seem to govern your family relationships? Make sure that you consider both your contribution to your role as well as that of your family members. iii. How do things like birth order, gender, culture, anniversary dates, etc. influence your place in your family? iv. In the places that aren't working as well for you, what are you doing to improve your relationship with your family? How are they responding?

• Mood. i. Describe your pattern of moods and how you express these. Are you finding that sometimes you get and stay sadder than you'd like? Are you getting angry in places where it doesn't work for you? (You don't have to consider both emotions.) ii. What factors influence your anger or depression? Pay special attention to your self-talk. iii. How do things like gender, culture, family patterns influence your place in your family? iv. In the places that aren't working as well for you, what are you doing to improve your mood? How is this working?

• Work relationships. i. How are your relationships with your students/colleagues/children etc.? What are your values about this? Is your behavior moving them in the direction you want? ii. What personal and external factors influence these relationships? iii. How do things like gender, culture, family patterns influence your work behavior? iv. In the places that aren't working as well for you, what are you doing to improve work? How is this working?

Content. When I read your paper I will be thinking about the following questions.

• How well you do these will determine the "content" part of your grade.
• Are you able to look at yourself carefully and objectively?
• Can you see both your strengths and weaknesses? both the advantages and disadvantages of a difficult situation?
• Do you take the time to think about yourself from multiple viewpoints? Often when people are "stuck" they only allow themselves to see themselves or "the problem" from one point of view.
• Do you see how your context influences your options? How does being female or male, White, Black or Brown, a member of your family, etc., influence how you see yourself or this issue? Does what has happened in other parts of your life influence how you see yourself in this part?
• Can you pull this all together to move yourself to a better understanding of yourself? What conclusions do you draw? What are you doing to adjust better? I'll be thinking about whether you seem to be going through the rote of this process or using it to help you understand yourself better.

Note: While I want you to profit from this paper, this does not mean that I expect you to use it as therapy and expose your more painful parts of yourself. Recognizing and using your strengths are important to this process. You can, for example, do an excellent paper, recognizing that your interpersonal skills are generally good, and identify several ways that you can strengthen them.

Process. You can have wonderful ideas in a poorly written paper. These will be lost in your presentation. You can have a beautifully written paper that is empty and without original thought. Your final grade will be limited by your paper's technical presentation. That is, if your technical writing of your paper is C level, the best grade you can earn on the paper is a C. Use the following to get an idea of what I mean by A, B, C, and D papers:

A: Paper is logical, clear, nicely written and presented. Proofing and spellchecking are done. Ideas are well-developed and thought out. Often I want to sit back and say, Ah!

B: Some minor problems with writing and proofing (e.g., spelling, grammar, outline) occur. Ideas are sometimes well-developed, although sometimes superficial or vague.

C: Some major problems with writing and proofing (e.g., spelling, grammar, outline) occur. Ideas are often superficial, vague and poorly developed.

D: Outline is very weak or nonexistent. Significant problems with writing or proofing are present. Work may be plagiarized.

Last updated March 4, 2004