Of the six people named in the case study `The Late Paper,` Kim is the person most responsible for her failing grade in Psychology 101.
Kim was chosen to be the most responsible for her own failing grade because she is the only one who has control over her own actions. Therefore, she is the only one who can turn a bad situation to a better one or to a worse one and not anybody else. Although there are other people who can influence this outcome, she is still to be blamed because these people can only do so much to sabotage her. She failed because she let other people contribute to her failure.
Cindy is the next person who should be blamed for Kim’s failure because if not for her, Kim would have went directly to her college so that she can pass her paper a day earlier. She insisted Kim to go to the party with her even if she knew that Kim had an important thing to do that day.
The third person to be blamed would be Arnold, Kim’s husband. If he only cooperated enough, Kim would not have been late in turning in her paper. He should have trusted his wife more and should not have listened to what other people were saying with regards to their finances and status.
Next on the list would be Philip, Arnold’s coworker. Although he did not directly interacted with Kim, he was the reason as to why Arnold was being uncooperative with Kim’s endeavors. Instead of supporting the couple, Philip was doing damage by letting negative thoughts come into Arnold’s mind.
Mary, the professor’s secretary, told Kim that it was okay to hand in the paper even if it was only minutes late as long as it was passed on the same day. She was only doing her job as the secretary and because she knew the professor much more than Kim knew the professor, it was easy for Kim to trust her. This reason made Mary to to be the fifth person to be blamed.
Lastly, the professor can be blamed because she did not consider Kim’s paper even if it was only 15 minutes late. However, she clearly stated in her syllabus that she would not accept late papers, and it was not her fault that Kim was not able to pass it on time.
Although Kim did not procrastinate in terms of her finishing her paper, she could be considered procrastinating when she accepted Cindy’s invitation to attend the party. If she were stronger and more focused, she could have said no and would have been able to hand in the paper a day earlier than the deadline and she would have passed the subject. It is important to remember that people have to take into consideration unseen events that could happen, which is why they should do the things they can at the moment and not wait until a later time.
