PSYC6748 All week Assignments – 2017

Week 4 Assignment

Application Assignment: Depression and Chronic and Autoimmune Diseases

Focusing on the brighter side of life, while not bad advice, does not account for the numerous biochemical malfunctions that prevent those with depression from doing just that. The impact of depression extends beyond disrupting work and personal relationships. It also can influence the development of a whole bounty of serious illnesses. Stress, depression, and the persistent immune response of inflammation can influence the development of chronic and autoimmune illnesses that permanently alter the direction of a person’s life. With stakes as high as these, the manner in which stress and depression manifests in the body to impact the immune system cannot be underestimated.

For this Application Assignment, review this week’s Learning Resources including the Chronic Disease and Autoimmune Disease sections of the “Stress, The Immune System, Chronic Illness, and Your Body” handout. Then select an illness that has a high co-occurrence with depression. Finally, consider teaching strategies that may reduce the effects of the stress related-illness.

The Assignment (3–5 page APA-formatted essay)

Describe the connection between depression and the illness you selected and explain the factors of the disease you selected that account for its high co-occurrence with depression.

Explain the role of stress hormones and inflammation in this depression related illness

Explain at least three teaching strategies that might reduce the effects of the stress related-illness you select.

Explain the methods you might use to encourage the adoption these strategies to reduce the effects of the stress related-illness.

Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.

Submit your assignment by Day 7.

Also, you should begin planning the design and content for the three original stress management handouts due in Week 5.

 

 

 

Week 6 Assignment

Application Assignment: Problem-Focused and Emotion-Focused Coping

Understanding the difference between stressors that are within your control and those that are not contributes to the foundation of how to resolve or manage the stressor. Lazarus and Folkman, in the early 1980s, introduced problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. In the act of primary appraisal, Lazarus and Folkman’s model considers personal beliefs, commitments, goals, and past experiences as the criteria through which threatening events are filtered as perception of the stressor is developed. Imagine how these model characteristics might affect whether emotion-focused or problem-focused coping is used when dealing with a specific stressor.

For this Application Assignment review this week’s Learning Resources. Also in reviewing Chapter 17 of the Handbook of Stress Science course text, the “Focus on Coping” handout, and the introduction to Discussion Question 2 from Week 2, consider both effective and ineffective forms of coping styles. Then think about which coping styles are more common for the population you selected in Week 3. Finally, reflect on how you might address the ineffective forms of these coping styles.

The Assignment (3–5 page APA-formatted essay)

Describe one example each for effective problem-focused, emotion-focused, and biology-focused coping mechanisms and explain why each is effective.

Describe one example each for ineffective problem-focused, emotion-focused, and biology-focused coping mechanisms and explain why each is ineffective.

Explain two approaches you might use to address the most common ineffective coping mechanisms for the population you selected in Week 3.

Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.

Submit your assignment by Day 7.

Also, you should begin planning your stress management Microsoft PowerPoint presentation due in Week 7.

 

 

 

 

Week 8 Assignment

Application Assignment: Being in the Moment With Mindfulness

When was the last time you took a bath or a shower without feeling pressured to get your day started? The next time you take a shower (or bath) practice being mindful. Stop for a moment and smell the shampoo. Feel the water on your skin and the changes in temperature. Taste the humidity rising from the water. Listen to the sound of the water. When thoughts about the day wander into your mind, gently set them aside and go back to focusing on each of the senses. With practice you can experience the mundane in more vivid and exciting ways.

Unfortunately, as people get busy living, the mundane passes away without acknowledgement and they fail to remember each day in its entirety. Instead, they remember moments of a day. Memories are built from moments when you were paying attention to what your senses were bringing into consciousness. To tune in and be mindful, stop and pay attention to what the five senses are bringing in and processing. What do you hear at this moment? The hum of your monitor, perhaps some soft music creating a peaceful environment? What do you see, smell, taste, and feel?

Maybe you know people who are aware of every aspect in their environment. They notice the broken pattern in an improperly installed tile floor. Maybe they notice every crack in the sidewalk or pick up on the melody that birds sing. While this tendency toward mindfulness may seem like a characteristic of their personality, mindfulness is not a personality trait. It is, rather, a set of skills and processes individuals may use to enhance coping. Mindfulness begins as daily meditation, but the practice is intended to become a way of life with awareness encouraged in every moment. Mindfulness allows moments of self-awareness and personal growth. Herbert Benson (1976) described mindfulness meditation as mental control to induce the relaxation response and reduce cognitive vulnerability to stress and emotional distress. Stress management techniques frequently employ mindfulness approaches.

For this Application Assignment, review this week’s Learning Resources. Then select a daily activity and apply the concept of mindfulness to the performance of the activity. Note any differences in stress level while performing the activity with mindfulness and how you felt while performing it in comparison to past instances of completing the activity.

The Assignment (3–5 page APA-formatted essay)

Describe the daily activity you selected and explain your experience with applying the concept of mindfulness to the performance of this activity

Explain whether applying mindfulness to your daily activity did or did not have an effect on your response to stress.

Explain how you felt in terms of stress response while performing this activity with mindfulness compared to past instances of completing the activity without the influence of mindfulness.

Describe any barriers to mindfulness you may have experienced and explain one way you might overcome one of the barriers.

Explain how performing the activity with mindfulness might influence how you will perform the activity in the future.

Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.

Submit your assignment by Day 7.

Also, you should begin planning and research the content for your workshop evaluation assignment due in Week 9.

Reference:

Benson, H., & Klipper, M. Z. (1976). The relaxation response. New York, NY: HarperTorch.