Instructions for Critical Thinking & Application Prompts: Each week, you will be

Instructions for Critical Thinking & Application Prompts:
Each week, you will be presented with a series of critical thinking and application prompts.
You will be directed to the applicable set of prompts by clicking the “Take the Quiz” button below. Prior to starting this assignment, be sure you have carefully reviewed all of the content referenced on the Learning Materials page (and any other pages associated with the module).
Each prompt is generally worthy of at least 250 words (2 – 3 well-written paragraphs) in response. Be sure to connect with (and informally cite in-text) the applicable readings / videos from the module’s learning materials.
A note on in-text citing and connecting with the learning materials: As a graduate student in a Master of Science degree program, it’s very important that you offer perspectives and arguments that are grounded in theory and the scientific literature – NOT personal opinion or anecdotal evidence. I don’t want a works-cited page, but I do want you to clearly cite your sources in-text for the various connections you’ll be making between the learning materials and your application thereof. For example, one might write, “While I marveled at the uncanny ability of the psychic to tap into my true personality, the Barnum Effect (Aronson, Chapter 2) could have well explained my feelings…” Be sure to use these informal in-text citations to make your arguments and support your perspectives.
Module 1
1) Think about some of your most successful (and unsuccessful) project team experiences. Now consider the central social motives described by Aronson (belonging, understanding others and predicting accurately, control, a need to matter, and trust). Comment on the extent to which each of these social motives were present in your most successful (and unsuccessful) project team experiences. Finally, as a project manager, describe some leadership strategies that you believe are helpful in addressing these central social motives within the context: 1) of a project team, and 2) Other project stakeholders (customers, C-suite leaders, etc.).
2) Consider an important decision you recently made (in your personal or professional life). Ideally, when we make important decisions in our lives, we try to collect all of the relevant information in order to assess all the possible alternatives so that we can carefully evaluate those alternatives and make the right decision.
Briefly describe the decision and discuss the extent to which you were evenhanded about the ways in which you collected the relevant information. How might some of the cognitive biases discussed in this module have influenced your decision-making process? How might some of the cognitive biases discussed this week color your perceptions of the efficacy of your decision now that it’s been made?
3) Depressed individuals are typically caught in a vicious cycle of negative thinking, which leads to self-defeating behavior, which leads to negative experiences, which increases negative thinking. What characteristics of “social cognition” help us explain this phenomenon? How might these characteristics of social cognition relate to problems being experienced in the execution phase (and/or monitoring and control phase) of a project?
4) In your experience, how ubiquitous is tribal thinking in organizations that may have a number of important and separate projects underway? (If you have little experience – yet – in this area, comment on reasons why one might expect tribal thinking to take place in these types of organizations.) What are the possible negative ramifications of tribal thinking in this environment, and how might these negative effects of tribal thinking be reduced?