University Seminar

Balanced Life Core Assignment

 “A Mini Research Project”

 

Goal of the Assignment: To explore the ways in which your unique strengths support or impinge upon the demands of the career you have chosen to pursue, and then to develop strategies on how to maintain a balanced life with your unique strengths and challenges.

 

Relationship to General Education Goals:

Goal 1: The ability to communicate in writing and orally.

Goal 2: The skills required to gather, analyze, document, and integrate information.

 

Structure of the Assignment: For this assignment you will need to do several things prior to drawing your conclusions which can be presented in written format.

 

  1. First go onto the website for Martin Seligman, http://www.authentichappiness.org  you will first need to register. Then go to the section on the left hand side of the screen for taking your Strengths Survey—the eighth survey down on the list (VIA Survey). Take this survey about your strengths. It will give you a score of your top five strengths and a percentage of how you compare with others who have taken this survey. PRINT IT OUT.

 

  1. Now, in relationship to the career that you are thinking about entering, you are going to interview a professional in this career and research through the library readings about this career. You are to find out:
    1. What are the top five demands in this profession?
    2. What are the top five personal characteristics needed to handle the stress of this job?
    3. What are the five top characteristics that would impinge on one performing successfully at this job?

 

  1. Now you are ready to start writing your paper.

 

You are to write a 3-4 page paper, double spaces with 1 inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman font. At the end of the paper you are to cite all of your references: books, journals, names of those people you interviewed and where they work (Use the APA formatting guide on the Blackboard to help you); and include a copy of your Strengths Survey.

 

In this paper you are to:

1.       Present your findings of all three areas: survey, interviews, research (Description)

2.       Compare and contrast what you found in each area (Analysis)

3.       Draw conclusions about those findings by referring the following (Discussion):

A.      What do these conclusions mean to me?

B.      What should I do to support functioning well in this career?

C.     What should I avoid doing to support functioning well in this career?

D.     Given what we have learned in class and from the text about a balanced life, what should I include daily in my life?

 

For this assignment only, the points will be calculated as follows:

 

A

28-30 Points

B

25-27 Points

C

22-24 Points

D

19-21 Points

F

18 Points or fewer

 

See the Scoring Sheet for a breakdown of points.

 

Scoring Sheet for the Mini Research Paper (A Balanced Life)

Name:  1.        ___________________________________________________

KEY:

Emerging: Minimal information provided, non-coherent discussion, numerous errors

Average: Considerable information provided, some coherent discussion, minimal errors

Exemplary: All required information is provided, coherent discussion, hardly any errors

 

 

Requirement

Performance

Emerging

Average

Exemplary

 

Survey (3 points)

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

Description (6 points)

 

   1      2

 

   3      4 

 

   5       6

 

Analysis (9 points)

 

1    2    3

 

4   5   6

 

7   8   9

 

Discussion (9 points)

 

1    2    3

 

4   5   6

 

7   8   9

 

References (3 points)

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

Total Points