...“Agreeable” “Agreeable” by Jonathan Franzen is a short story about the main character, Patty, who is an all-star athlete with unsupportive parents. She is the oldest of her three siblings and the only one involved in sports. Her parents Ray and Joyce ignore Patty’s athletic talents, make jokes and play cruel pranks on Patty. Patty goes to a party with a friend, gets drunk, and ends up getting raped by Ethan Post, a son of a family friend. The next day after a basketball game, Patty tells her questioning coach about why she had bruises on her arms. Patty’s mother finds out about the incident and is more concerned how the rape will affect her relationship with Ethan’s family, rather than how Patty is feeling about the rape. Joyce discourages Patty from taking any action against Ethan and asking if an apology would be enough. When Ray finds out he is not supportive either of Patty. Ray also discourages Patty from taking any legal action. Patty ends up dropping the whole situations and her senior year goes on with her athletic life, breaking school records. “Agreeable” shows how an all-star athletic girl is neglected by her parents and is discouraged from excelling in more athletics. Patty could be described as agreeable, low self-esteem, and determined. For example she is agreeable because, “…instead of being publicly humiliated Patty became a real player…” (17) Patty decides to agree with her parents and drop the incident, so she won’t be humiliated by the public. Patty has...
Words: 772 - Pages: 4
...Becoming “Agreeable” without any support The word “negligence” means a failure to exercise proper or normal care expected of a reasonably person in like circumstances of something or someone, it is marked by a carelessly easy manner. Some people having important responsibilities are reckless of their action’s consequences. In “Agreeable”, Jonathan Franzen illustrates through characterization how suffering children with negligent parents put their energy in something positive to push their own limits and encourage themselves. Through Patty’s character the author described how adult’s involving and responsibilities are important in children life. He also illustrates how parents can be either subjugated by their work, either treat everyone coldly as nobody. In our society, every single person’s first influence is their parents. Having children involves responsibilities and involvement. As people who have the power to create life, they have the duty to build their child’s character and teach values. In “Agreeable” however, Patty finds another inspiration source. “They [school athletic programs] basically saved her life and gave her a chance to realize herself as a person. […] It was from these wonderful coaches that Patty learned discipline, patience, focus, teamwork, and the ideals of good sportsmanship that helped make up for her morbid competitiveness and low self-esteem” (Franzen 43). Parents are supposed to be the major support for a child to help them psychologically grow...
Words: 1177 - Pages: 5
...noted that one downside of agreeableness is that agreeable people tend to have lower levels of career success. Though agreeableness doesn’t appear to be related to job performance, agreeable people do earn less money. Though we’re not sure why this is so, it may be that agreeable individuals are less aggressive in negotiating starting salaries and pay raises for themselves. Yet there is clear evidence that agreeableness is something employers value. Several recent books argue in favor of the “power of nice” (Thaler & Koval, 2006) and “the kindness revolution” (Horrell, 2006). Other articles in the business press have argued that the sensitive, agreeable CEO—as manifested in CEOs such as GE’s Jeffrey Immelt and Boeing’s James McNerney—signals a shift in business culture (Brady, 2007). In many circles, individuals desiring success in their careers are exhorted to be “complimentary,” “kind,” and “good” (for example, Schillinger, 2007). Take the example of 500-employee Lindblad Expeditions. It emphasizes agreeableness in its hiring decisions. The VP of HR commented, “You can teach people any technical skill, but you can’t teach them how to be a kindhearted, generous-minded person with an open spirit.” So, while employers want agreeable employees, agreeable employees are not better job performers, and they are less successful in their careers. One might explain this apparent contradiction by noting that employers value agreeable employees for other reasons: They are more pleasant to...
Words: 677 - Pages: 3
...personality inventory, it found a negative relationship between the adjacent superior temporal gyrus and the superior temporal sulcus as well as a significant positive relationship in terms of the retrospienial area of the posterior cingulate cortex. The predictions of this study were found as stated; however, something else was found that was not predicted and that was a positive association in the fusiform gyrus. Having an agreeable personality, has different relationships and associations with different parts of the brain, in comparison to another personality, which would have different links. Agreeable individuals have reduced capacity in their left superior temporal sulcus, which is important in social abilities, such as determining what other individuals’ intentions are. Those with an agreeable personality would be able to determine the actions better if the left superior temporal sulcus was not reduced. It was found that those who have an agreeable personality are more likely to be kind, due to the social information that gets processed in their brains. Agreeable people are more likely to be kind; and helpful, and this article shows that different parts of the personality come from different...
Words: 1024 - Pages: 5
...On the Costs of Being Nice 5-16. Yes, I believe that employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers. In an ideal world, employees would have both these qualities: agreeability and great performance. However, for the most part – as the case states – agreeable employees tend to be good-natured, cooperative, trusting and accommodating, whereas top performers tend to focus on being leaders, or doing what is needed to do the job right, without caring for others. If an employer find amongst its possible future employees who have both these qualities, he or she should definitely be hired. If both qualities are not present in a single candidate for employment, then the employer must decide which is more important for the company: agreeability or top performance. 5-17. Agreeability is always important if you want your firm to have a good working environment and not a hostile one. However, there are instances in which being agreeable is more important. Such cases may be when dealing with others. For instance, people who work in the customer service sector must be agreeable, as customer satisfaction is very important. Another job situation could be working with patients or students – especially young ones. Being too agreeable could be harmful, for instance, in the real estate sector, where every employee wants to get more commissions by selling more properties. Being too agreeable in this instance could be harmful, as the person could tend to help others, and forget...
Words: 696 - Pages: 3
...between agreeable employees and top performers? Why or why not? 5-16 Yes, I believe that employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers. In an ideal world, employees would have both these qualities: agreeability and great performance. However, for the most part – as the case states – agreeable employees tend to be good-natured, cooperative, trusting and accommodating, whereas top performers tend to focus on being leaders, or doing what is needed to do the job right, without caring for others. If an employer find amongst its possible future employees who have both these qualities, he or she should definitely be hired. If both qualities are not present in a single candidate for employment, then the employer must decide which is more important for the company: agreeability or top performance. 5-17 often, the effects of personality depends on the situation. Can you think of some job situation in which agreeableness is an important virtue, and some in which it is harmful to job performance? 5-17 Agreeability is always important if you want your firm to have a good working environment and not a hostile one. However, there are instances in which being agreeable is more important. Such cases may be when dealing with others. For instance, people who work in the customer service sector must be agreeable, as customer satisfaction is very important. Another job situation could be working with patients or students – especially young ones. Being too agreeable could...
Words: 396 - Pages: 2
...QUESTION 1: Based on the above case study and relevant theories, contradict between what employers want in employees (agreeable employees) and what employees actually do best (disagreeable employees)? According to the question, let we discuss the contradiction of agreeable employees and disagreeable employees. Fisrt, let us go through the definition of contradiction so we will deeply understand the whole picture of what will be discuss in this question. Contradiction is define as; to assert or express the opposite of (a statement), to deny the statement of, or to be contrary to; be inconsistent with.[1] Based on the above case study, I noted a confusion of an employer in choosing the right behaviour in hiring the new employee. Firstly, I would like to go through to agreeable employees. The agreeable employees is likely describe as employees who can easily discuss with, telorant, and can accept ideas without further argue. It is a norm for employer wanting agreeable employee. This is because, it is easier for them to make the final decision. It is also easier to negotiate with the agreeable employee for they will not questionning every single decision made by the employer. The communication process also can run smoother than working with disagreeble employees. For employer that have disagreeable employees, they actually taking the risk of building the conflict in decision making if they can’t find the understanding point between each team member. Disagreeable...
Words: 1406 - Pages: 6
...This hypothesis proposed by Brontë provides an explanation for Austen’s exploration of the subject during a short exchange of dialogue between Anne and Elisabeth in Persuasion. Anne claims that "there is hardly any personal defect … which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to,” before Elisabeth’s opposing view is revealed when she states "an agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones.” Personal appearance affects people’s perceptions of personality; the “agreeable manner” must “reconcile” and overthrow the automatically prescribed “unfavourable opinions of … mind and disposition,” as stated in Agnes Grey. Anne’s wisdom is conveyed through her untroubled acknowledgement of this fact, in...
Words: 317 - Pages: 2
...and spend more time in social situations than introverts. Finally, extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence in groups. Extroverts are more socially dominant, they are generally more assertive than introverts. One downside is that extraverts are more impulsive than introverts and are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as drinking or sensation seeking acts. One study also found that extraverts were more likely to lie during job interviews. The agreeableness factor refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting. People who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable and antagonistic. Agreeable people are slightly happier than disagreeable people. When people choose romantic partners, friends or organizational team members, agreeable individuals are usually their first choice. Agreeable individuals are better in interpersonally oriented jobs such as customer service. They...
Words: 681 - Pages: 3
...Case study Is There a Price for Being Too Nice Q1. Do you think there is a contradiction between what employers want in employees (agreeable employees) and what employees actually do best (disagreeable employees)? Why or why not? ANS. Yes there is contradiction agreeable employees are more flexible, pleasant, warm and tolerant employee disagreeable employees are cold, aggressive and reserve. Disagreeable employees may have far better ideas and have the nerves to push and insist them. Disagreeable employees tend to be more focus and engage with their work but they are cold, aggressive and reserve. Agreeable employees provide cooperative working environment to better commutation. Q2 . Often, the effects of personality depend on the situation. Can you think of some job situations in which agreeableness is an important virtue? And in which it is harmful? ANS. Jobs like special educators, customer service representative, nurses, social worker agreeableness is an important virtue. for example a very annoyed customer came in and insulted the customer service representative , in that job situation it doesn’t matter how much angry the employee is because of that customer insulting behavior , what matters is agreeableness which is the basic personality trait required by the organization for this job. You have to agree on what ever customer says to ensure customer satisfaction. Whereas jobs...
Words: 349 - Pages: 2
...The Big Five Team Paper The Big Five personality test showed us that how different our personalities can really be. The test results showed of how we are judged on our personality for example; whether we are an open-minded individual or a closed mind person, introverted or extraverted, agreeable or disagreeable, calm/relaxed or nervous/high-strung. These types of personalities are true meanings of how we treat people and go about our everyday lives. Looking at the results of these ladies all three are pretty much closed-minded, agreeable, organized, and a toss between being sociable and being a calm/relaxed or nervous/high strung type of personalities. Having all three of these personalities can make running an office with them around very interesting. Moving forward and looking at results it you can determine she’s also a somewhat closed-minded, very conscientious, introverted, somewhat agreeable and a little on the nervous/high strung side. Examining her results a little closely you can tell she’s very down to earth type of personality which is awesome because you would want this type of individual at work because you would know exactly what to expect from them. Giving her organizing skills she probably is great at keeping everything in it’s own little personal space and doesn’t allow anything to become messy. Something that might be hard for her to accomplish while being at work would be giving oral presentations considering she’s a little on the shy side...
Words: 458 - Pages: 2
...quickly than introverts. Extraverts are generally confident and self-assured making it a breeze when it comes to completing assignments. They have an idea and they act on it immediately. While an introvert may be slower at completing tasks at work, the quality of their work may be better than those of an extravert. Introverts are more timid and like to think before they speak or take action. They like to be given time before completing assignments, writing papers, etc. This allows for their thoughts to come together making them feel confident. Another distinctive trait we observe in ourselves and others is a level of agreeableness. Those who are highly agreeable tend to forgive easily and stay far away from confrontation. Someone who isn’t agreeable tends to be irritable and more confrontational. Someone who is highly agreeable may risk other employees walking all over them. Their true opinions may never be heard in...
Words: 770 - Pages: 4
...happen to a giver. The author has suggestions in this portion of the book how givers can use the otherish approach to escape the trap of being too trusting. They do this by becoming highly flexible and adaptable in their reciprocity style. This also helps givers sidestep the issues that come with being too empathetic and too timid by repurposing some skills that come naturally to givers. Trust is one of the main reasons givers are susceptible to the doormat effect. They tend to mistakenly assume that everyone is trustworthy. People also rely on personality cues that can be misleading, especially those that are agreeable. Agreeable people tend to appear cooperative and polite, they come across as warm and welcoming. People that are disagreeable tend to be more critical and competitive, they seem to be more comfortable with conflict. We tend to stereotype agreeable people as givers and the disagreeable people as takers. Empathy is also something spread throughout givers behavior and another major source of vulnerability. When a giver empathizes they focus on the counterparts emotions and feelings, this puts them at risk of giving away too much. If we engage in perspective taking, where we consider a counterparts thought and interests, they are more likely to find a way to make a deal which will satisfy our counterpart without sacrificing our own interests. Givers...
Words: 406 - Pages: 2
...relationships. Extraverts are gregarious, assertive and sociable while introverts are reserved, timid and quiet. As extraverts have better interpersonal skills, they tend to have better job performance in jobs that requires significant interpersonal skills. They are also socially dominant, which enhanced their leadership qualities. Extraverts are emotionally expressive and experience more positive feelings than introverts, thus, they are more satisfied with their job and life. However, the downside of an extravert is that they are more impulsive and are more likely to be absent from their job or engage in risky behaviours. Secondly, the agreeable dimension refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Highly agreeable individuals are warm, trusting and cooperative while individuals who are not are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic. Highly agreeable individuals are well-liked, compliant and conforming. This results in higher performance and lower level of deviant behaviours. Thirdly, the conscientious dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is dependable, organized, persistent and responsible while a person who scores low is easily distracted, disorganized and unreliable. People who are highly conscientious have better efforts and persistence, are more driven and discipline, and are better in organizing and planning, thus, resulting in higher performance, enhanced leadership qualities and greater longevity. Conscientious is one of the...
Words: 471 - Pages: 2
...The Big Five Personality Assessment tests five personality dimensions which include; conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion. Using these five dimensions one can determine what his or her personality profile looks like. The test uses phrases that describe people’s behaviors to different situations, and on a scale from very inaccurate to very accurate you rate yourself based on how you relate to the specific phrase. Once you go through the list of phrases you follow the instructions and sum up certain answers to questions for each of the five traits. With these sums you compare your results to the norm results for each of the dimensions. Taking the personality test was fairly simple and I had no problems going through the questions and answering them accurately. Once I finished answering the questions I followed the scoring and interpretation section very carefully in order to come up with accurate results. Below I will list my results for each of the five dimensions: Conscientiousness: 16 Agreeableness: 18 Neuroticism: 12 Openness to Experience: 16 Extraversion: 14 After I summed up my results I compared them to the chart that displayed the norm for each dimension. I was actually quite surprised by my results, for I found out that I was above norm in each of the categories. My results were not drastically different than those of the norm, but in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism my...
Words: 1105 - Pages: 5
