Psychology

As you continue to practice the psychological concepts you’re learning in this course, you’re honing the problem solving and self and social awareness skills that will help you navigate social situations in your life and career. You’re discovering how to apply these skills to understand the behaviors of others, improve your relationships, and make informed decisions based on reliable information.
And no matter what kind of situation you encounter at school, home, or work, you’re learning how to recognize and manage your emotions so they don’t get the best of you!
Now, it’s time to practice the skills and concepts to help your friend Gloria navigate a difficult workplace situation.

Case Study and Questions

Gloria and Lakeisha are co-workers who are assigned to work on a project together. Lakeisha is very organized and wants them to do really well on this project. To help them get started, Lakeisha took some initiative and prepared a list of to-do items along with due dates. She even color-coded the list to indicate which partner will do each item and sends an email to Gloria with the to-do list. Lakeisha wants her partner to know that she’s serious about their success.

Gloria is happy her teammate has shown initiative but is surprised by Lakeisha’s to-do list and feels a bit uncomfortable because she feels like Lakeisha is micromanaging her. Gloria wants to do her part on the project but is feeling anxious because she doesn’t know where she fits in, and it is making her worried about working on this project. She wonders how she can succeed on this project if Lakeisha is already the leader. When working for a previous employer, Gloria felt anxious about her ability to successfully complete a project and attempted to communicate her feelings with a co-worker; however, her co-worker didn’t seem to understand Gloria’s concerns and said that she should just ignore her feelings and get the work done.

As Gloria ponders having a conversation with Lakeisha, she starts to feel overwhelmed and thinks it might just be easier to be removed from the project. Using your problem solving and self and social awareness skills and what you have learned about personality traits and emotions, answer the questions below to help Gloria calm her anxiety and find a solution to her problem:

1. From Chapter 3 in the web text, what are the Big 5 personality traits? How are the Big 5 personality traits related to your self and social awareness? Write a paragraph that lists all five personality traits and discusses the value of the Big 5.
2. Of the Big 5 personality traits, one of them most accurately characterizes Lakiesha. Which of the Big 5 personality traits most accurately describes Lakeisha? Why? Write a paragraph to identify which one of the Big 5 best describes Lakeisha and why.
3. Chapter 6 in the web text focused on emotions and emotional regulation. Gloria is feeling anxious about working with Lakeisha. Using what you learned, give advice to Gloria on how she can identify and regulate her own emotions so that she can stick with this project, and be successful. Write a paragraph where you describe how Gloria can regulate her emotions in this situation so that she may eventually have an effective conversation and working relationship with Lakeisha
4. If you were in this situation, how confident are you that you could successfully resolve a workplace conflict like the one that Gloria faced? What past experiences or knowledge influence your answer. Write a paragraph to describe your confidence in handling a workplace conflict and what experiences influence your confidence level in this type of situation.