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The objective here is to pick apart the reasoning for smiling more in the car when there are passengers. Ultimately, my model will set out to explain one aspect of why we smile more when surrounded by others in any situation. My broad reasoning for this is to build relationships with those people. I must explain that this model takes place only when the driver (whether smiling or not) actually wants there to be a relationship. Note too that there are other ways to build a relationship and other reasons why people smile in a car more with passengers, this just helps us explain one scenario. The thinking behind the relationship between smiling and building relationships is that smiling makes the other person feel comfortable, hence opening up both parties to talk and build that relationship. I define a relationship here as a sense of connectedness between two people. Acceptance is mutual respect and feelings of friendship between two people. Happiness here is a state of feeling positive emotions towards oneself and with the relationship that exists between two people. Self-actualization is defined as a greater realization for one’s social abilities and conversational flexibility. The goal of my model is to provide just three areas of achievement (acceptance, happiness, and self-actualization) through one motive (to build relationships) of this phenomenon (smiling in the car more with passengers). Hence achievements result from a motive behind a phenomenon. The key is to determine, given the desire for a relationship, whether smiling has a greater impact on the three aspects. Theoretically, if it doesn’t, then there is no reason why we should smile more in attempts to increase these aspects. My goal is for those reading into my model to be able to look into themselves to evaluate the reason they act this way when other people are involved but not when they are alone. The application of my model extends to both those who are in this situation, or in a similar situation of appealing to others whether by smiling or through some other sort of display that makes a person ‘feel comfortable’ in order to ‘build a relationship’ with that person. To do this, I have generalized my model enough to fit any “snapshot” scenario of smiling to achieve a relationship. Additionally, there are many other theories that can be developed from this phenomenon, but I chose this model. The paradigm of my theoretical model takes a social constructivist viewpoint. My model is based on the theory that the reason for performing this phenomenon revolves around that fact that we create symbols in our lives (ex: smiling) as a means of portraying our motive (to build relationships) and hence achieve goals derived from a relationship (acceptance, happiness, and self-actualization). I will attempt to solve why we do things in both a qualitative and quantitative way. My conclusion, however, will be based off this social constructivist paradigm, in which I look at the data interpretively.
1. Quantitative Measure: The way I will measure my model quantitatively is to poll drivers leaving their car at random. This experimental poll is one that is cheap, quick, and easy, but is a reductionist manner of obtaining information, thereby generalizing the results. That is, we can only make a conclusion based off the general poll results. I operationalized the concepts of my model to fit this measurement by making it easy for the poll subjects to complete. Having the definitions be specific to this type of situation, they can answer the questions as quickly and accurately as possible, drawing little confusion. My poll will include drivers both who smile and don’t smile, and passengers who were exposed to both drivers who smiled and didn’t smile. The independent variable will be the driver who influences the passenger through smiling or not smiling. Polling only drivers who