Assignment: Critical Literature Review And Reflection -Positive Psychology And The Self
Aim: The aim of this assignment is to promote self-reflection and mindfulness by identifying areas of personal strength and building positive self-perception. While it concentrates on ‘best-self', it should be recognised that ‘less ideal or not so positive' moments are integral to developing a picture of one's self and in building resilience. Hence, this assignment should not be viewed as the entire self-portrait, even though it is a critical component of self-esteem...
Details: Some of the world's leading positive psychologist and organisational development experts developed the Reflected Best Self (RBS) exercise, making it a powerful, well-designed tool for learning. RBS is one of the most powerful exercises for developing a deeper level understanding of one's own strengths and virtues required for developing ‘leadership capabilities'. The exercise is both challenging and insightful and its completion requires a series of steps.
Notes: The exercise will require you to receive feedback from people who know you well. You should be aware that these people will be sharing a story about you. These stories will serve as the backbone of your paper. At first, you may feel awkward or uncomfortable doing this, but you will find people are usually willing to share their ideas about you.
Directions:
A) Identify at the very least 8 people who know you well (work colleagues - current and/or former; family, friends, and peers). Aim for people who will provide the most honest answer, and who know you in different contexts to give a broad range of perceptions and experiences. You must have at least 8 people respond in order to ensure this exercise is of greatest value.
B) Compose and send an email request inviting these individuals to contribute THREE stories that describe how YOU add value and make important contributions. An example of this email is provided at the conclusion of this assignment brief.
C) Analyse:
1. Print out and read all of the 24+ stories received via email from your colleagues. As you read the responses, highlight keywords and phrases that represent your strengths. Then, start developing some notes of common themes emerging across all responses (these themes represent your STRENGTHS)
2. You should also make notes on those things that surprised you about how people see you, and those things that did not surprise you as much. This information will be useful later when you write your reflection.
3. As you do your analyses, develop a table (this will be your FULL RESULTS TABLE) of all the themes/strengths that emerge from your data. Use a tally count system to count up the number of occurrences for each theme in your data, and record this on your table.
4. Once this is finished, you should decide HOW MANY STRENGTHS/THEMES you think are important enough to include in your SUMMARY TABLE in your report. If you only have a few counts on your tally, you might want to consider if this is really a STRENGTH or not.
5. Referring to the VIA framework, record your KEY STRENGTHS in your final report in the Findings section via your SUMMARY RESULTS TABLE. This table is included in your word count and will have three columns:- "Emergent themes" - the KEY themes (strengths) that emerged from your data analysis; "Specific statements" - Examples/quotes from your respondents that represent each theme (you shouldaim for 3-4 quotes at least) "My interpretation"- You should include here your interpretation of each of your themes (so, one interpretation entry per theme, not one interpretation entry per example/quote!)
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.