Success and Failure (FYS)
CSPL 205F
Spring 2025
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01
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Students who get into colleges like Wesleyan are typically high achievers who are planning for successful futures. But success and failure are highly subjective concepts and often reflect unconscious beliefs about personal identities, what is expected of us by families, peers, and cultures, and our perceptions, right or wrong, of different occupations. Some of our most firmly rooted concepts of success and failure are based on where we come from, what our parents do, their level of education, and what our peers choose to pursue. Society also sends us strong messages about our identities, including gender, race, religion, and socioeconomic status. What is particularly tricky is understanding what identities and cultural influences may motivate us at any given time. While rooted in developmental psychology, this course will take an interdisciplinary approach to help students define success and failure for themselves, drawing from organizational behavior, sociology, American studies, education studies, film and more. We will ask: What does American culture tell us about the definitions of success and failure? Are those definitions changing in today's dynamic economic environment? Is it inevitable to feel anxious and overwhelmed? What is the role of luck and merit in success and failure? How important is it to find meaning and purpose in work? Can you flourish in life if you don't? What is the role of work in a life worth living? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS ALLB |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYS |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
: Selections from: Born Losers (Sandage), Robot-Proof (Aoun), The Fuzzie and the Techie (Hartley), The Wisdom of the Ego (Vaillant), Flow (Csikszentmihalyi), In Over Our Heads (Kegan), Future Tense (Dennis-Tiwary), The Art of Choosing (Iyengar), Excellent Sheep (Deresiewicz), Professional Identity Crisis (Costello), Pedigree (Rivera), The Power of Meaning (Esfahani Smith); journal articles from psychology and organizational behavior; news articles; creative works that illustrate points from the lessons.
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Course assignments are designed to help students think about their writing for different audiences, including themselves (weekly reflection papers on the readings), the public (Op Eds), and academe (an APA style literature review, including an outline, drafts, and final paper). |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Castonguay,Sharon Belden Times: ..T.R.. 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: BOGH110; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 15 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 2 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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