Assignment Task:
Remember to respond to two peers below while being respectful of and sensitive to their viewpoints. Consider advancing the discussion in the following ways:
Post an article, video, or visual related to the social ecosystem to reinforce a peer's idea or challenge them to see their point from a different perspective.
Paraphrase something from the original post. Then consider asking a question or sharing your personal experience.
Shayna post
When I think about my social ecosystem, I see it in layers such as family, close friends, connections between work and home, community and workplace culture, and larger social values. Over the past 5 to 10 years, these layers have definitely changed. I moved, started new jobs, and met new people, so my daily influences look very different now. Some of those changes were intentional, like wanting to grow my career, but others just happened as life moved forward.
These shifts also changed me. Taking on new roles such as becoming more independent, joining new work teams, and forming new relationships pushed me to grow and adapt. My mentors and close friends especially shaped how I see myself. They have helped me build confidence and learn what kind of person and professional I want to be.
I think people often act more based on their group's behavior than on who they really are. For example, at one job I used to stay late every night because everyone else did. It wasn't really me, but I didn't want to stand out. The Crash Course Sociology video on deviance really connects here because it shows how group norms define what's normal or acceptable, even when it's not what we personally believe.
This all connects to emotional intelligence and self-care. Understanding how group pressures affect us helps us make more mindful choices, like setting boundaries or staying true to our values even when the group goes another way.
Bryson post:
My name is Bryson George, and I'm majoring in Psychology with plans to become a therapist. I'm passionate about understanding how social environments shape personal identity and emotional well-being.
My social ecosystem has changed notably over the past decade. My closest level-family and friends-has stayed consistent, but my community and institutional levels expanded through college and volunteer experiences. In high school, my world felt small and local; now, education and professional networks connect me to broader perspectives. Some of these changes were intentional, like pursuing psychology to better understand people, but others-such as forming supportive academic relationships-naturally transformed how I see myself.
Relationships within my ecosystem have deeply influenced my identity. Professors, classmates, and mentors have helped strengthen my empathy and self-awareness, confirming my goal to work in mental health. Being part of diverse academic groups also pushed me to value inclusivity and social justice.
I believe people act both from personal identity and group influence, though group norms can strongly shape behavior. For instance, study groups in college improved my motivation and confidence because I adapted to the group's positive habits and goals.
The connection between identity and group directly relates to emotional intelligence. Recognizing how relationships affect our thoughts and emotions helps us communicate, empathize, and respond to others with understanding-skills essential in psychology and daily life.
Reponse Discussion:
When responding to at least two of your peers' posts, consider the following:
Compare and contrast your learning from the course with that of your peers.
How do your views on the attributes of an effective leader align with those of your peers? Need Assignment Help?
Crystal post:
The three key course takeaways that resonate with me are the power of brand identity. Brand identity is hard to achieve. However, if an organization can achieve this, it will reduce its marketing expenses and allow consumers not only to come back repeatedly but also to encourage others to do the same. Our first key takeaway is crisis management. This resonates with me because my organization has recently encountered this more than once, unfortunately. In our circumstances, not only was social media intensely monitored and shut down on specific topics (which I was impressed they could even do), our facilities team was on the roof of our building, watching out for news crews and reporting to law enforcement so they could remove them from private property. These scenarios could have been ongoing and detrimental to the organization; however, they were addressed within a week and then went radio silent, with no further mention. The second key takeaway is communication. Effective communication is key; the organization must trust that the information you provide is accurate, clear, and concise. Otherwise, you lose trust within the organization. The third key takeaway is the importance of cross-functional collaboration. What resonates with me is that during our crisis management, all departments, organization-wide, were notified of the situation and given clear, concise instructions on how to respond when questions were asked. The entire organization worked together as a team, as I mentioned before, even having facilities on the rooftop. I found this impressive, as the goal is to continue to care for people without distractions. It's hard enough to complete one's mission, let alone compounding it with other issues that don't even involve individuals who must continue to work. I believe when thinking about attributes of an effective leader the personal brand traits they need to possess our effective communication, trust, and innovation. Being a lifelong learner can help me with reaching my desired personal brand image by keeping up with internal and external factors and by setting continuous ongoing SMART goals.
Alex Post:
Throughout this course I have learned quite a bit but there are three key takeaways that resonate with me. After working in retail for almost a decade being a manager for most of those years developing SMART goals was nothing new to me. What was new was the PDCA (Plan Do Check Act). This method helps create a continuous plan that is constantly checked on and is providing constant feedback to better a plan. In addition to the PDCA method, communication with cross functional departments is crucial to the success of any goal. Communication with cross functional departments allows for each department to work together to achieve the common goal of success. Another key takeaway I had was marketing considerations and marketing towards the customer. Developing a marketing strategy can be expensive but to ensure it is successful it is important to know who you are marking towards and what resonates with them.
When I think of an effective leader I think of someone who is passionate, has integrity, and has strong communication skills. Effective leaders know how to communicate with their teams by creating clear expectations and inspires their team to be creative. Some personal brand traits that they should appear to possess is the brands mission and values. Conducting themselves with the highest level of integrity and making decisions based on the good of the business is important.
For my personal brand I desire to have integrity, be creative, be effective, and be consistent. Being someone who is dependable and loyal is also important to my personal brand. Being a lifelong learner is important in reaching my desired personal brand image. Being complacent with where or who you are only hurts you in the long run. Constantly learning gives me the ability to learn skills that will make myself better and become more effective in my personal brand.