"Thinking About Me and Others" A reflective and self-disclosure writing exercise The post should be 500-800 words in length. You should answer 4 questions. The answers should be fairly short - one or two paragraphs each. Keep it under 800 words at the most. The post must be well written or I will request a revision.
1. Begin by looking at this list of instrumental values. Those values are:
1. Ambitious
2. broad-minded
3. capable.
4. cheerful.
5. clean.
6. courageous.
7. forgiving.
8. helpful.
9. honest.
10. imaginative.
11. independent.
12. logical.
13 intellectual.
14. loving.
15. obedient.
16. polite.
17. responsible.
18. self-controlled.
19. hard working.
You may also add any other value concerning "how people should be" that is important to you. Choose at least two of these values that are most important to you personally.
Write about these values -why you think they are important and also, where you think you, personally, got them from (e.g. church, family, school experiences or whatever--you may use information from "Where I''m Coming From...".) 2.
Then think about the opposite of the values that you have chosen. Do this for each value. If, for instance, you value being "clean," the opposite would be "dirty." Likewise, the opposite of "polite" would be "rude" and so forth.
Then imagine doing volunteer work with or for someone (think in terms of other volunteers you might work with AND the persons you might volunteer to help) who demonstrates behaviors or characteristics that are the opposite of your values (e.g. rude and dirty).
For instance, if you value "intelligence", you might write about a mentally challenged person. First briefly describe such a person (use your imagination). Write this up as part of the assignment. Then write about what it would be like for YOU to work with that person. What would you be thinking, feeling? How would your values affect the way you related to him/her?
3. Then imagine working with a person of a very different culture, sex, economic status, sexual orientation, and/or race than your own. (Again, use your imagination - choose a sort of person who would be difficult for you personally.) Write up your description of the person (brief). Then write about how you think you would feel working with such a person.
In what way would the differences between you and the person be a problem for YOU? This requires thinking in detail about difference; be honest with yourself about the difficulties you might encounter.
4. Finally, tell me about when YOU become judgmental and tend to stereotype groups of people. Everyone does this to some extent. Be honest. Write a little about how you think this may affect your working with people of those groups.