THE IMPACT OF CHRONIC STRESS ON THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION:

Most of the questions in this first assignment require you to (re)format material in APA style, to test your knowledge and practice your APA skills. For example, when reading through an article, you may notice that the authors use a number system to cite the research (i.e., the source of the work/idea) rather than the author-date method recommended by the APA (see Chapters 6 and 7 of Burton, 2010). In such cases, you would need to go to the references listed at the back of the article to find the studies referred to by the different numbers and rewrite the citations using the author-date method. In APA format, the numbers are replaced with details of the author/s and date of publication. See Chapter 6 of Burton (2010) for specific format requirements.

One of your main tasks in this first assignment is to reformat material according to the rules and regulations of the latest APA publication manual. Therefore, some of the questions require you to copy information directly from another source and rewrite it in APA style. Please note, however, that copying will not be permitted in your second assignment – your essay must be written in your own words and referenced appropriately. See the section on Assignment 2 – Essay for more information.

 

Questions

Type your answers to the following questions on A4 paper.

1. On a separate sheet of paper, format a title page in APA style using the following information.

Author name: John T. Forrest

Title of paper (essay or report): The impact of chronic stress on therapeutic intervention: A study of psychologists.

Affiliation:

Running head: Chronic stress

 

2. Reformat the following two paragraphs in APA style by using the references below to reformat the in-text citations (the numbers for each reference represent the works cited in text) and check presentation (e.g., paragraph indents) using the APA author-date method

The sensation of pain demands one’s immediate attention, interrupts current activity, and interferes with a range of cognitive processes (1). Paying attention to pain is usually an adaptive process whereby thoughts focus on evaluating the significance and meaning of the pain, then determine appropriate strategies to reduce or eliminate it (1). In acute pain episodes, such as those caused by minor injury, attention and behavioural adaptation is often sufficient to facilitate the healing process (1, 2). However, if pain persists or worsens over time, significant cognitive dysfunction and emotional distress may also be experienced (3).

Several maladaptive cognitive constructs have been identified as having a mediating influence between pain and level of psychological distress. For example, catastrophizing is a pain-specific cognitive construct defined as an individual’s exaggerated negative orientation towards actual or anticipated pain experiences (4). Previous researchers have established that pain catastrophizing heightens the level of pain experienced, and also contributes to higher reported levels of anxiety and depression (4, 5).

(1) Van Damme, S, Crombez, G, Eccleston, C: (2004); Disengagement from pain: the role of catastrophic thinking about pain. Pain; 107:70-6.

(2) Chalmers, M: (2009); A biopsychosocial investigation into the experience of chronic pain: the mediating role of dispositional cognitive factors. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern Queensland.

(3) Wells, A, Matthews, G: (1996); Modelling cognition in emotional disorder: the SREF model. Behaviour Research and Therapy; 34:881-88.

(4) Sullivan, MJL, Bishop, SR, Pivik, J: (1995); The Pain Catastrophizing Scale: development and validation; Psychological Assessment; 7:524-32.

(5) Sullivan, MJL, D’Eon, JL: (1990); Relation between catastrophizing and depression in chronic pain patients; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; 99:260-63.

3. The sentence below is taken from page 429 of your Psychology textbook by Burton, Westen, and Kowalski (2015). Your task is to format the sentence in APA style in two ways: (a) First, write this sentence as a direct quote from the authors, placing the citation details at the end of the sentence in parentheses; (b) second, use the active voice to introduce the same quotation as part of the narrative.

The sentence follows below.

From a behaviourist perspective, personality consists of learned behaviours and emotional reactions that are relatively specific and tied to particular environmental stimuli or events.

4. The material below is found on page 439 of your Psychology textbook by Burton, Westen, and Kowalski (2015). Your task is to format this material as a direct quote from the authors in APA style.

The material follows below.

The concept of personality traits described thus far implies that personality has some degree of consistency. If John is an honest person, we can assume he is likely to behave honestly in various situations and to be honest two years from now. No-one is honest all the time, however, and people do change. Furthermore, a particular personality trait can manifest itself in different types of behaviour. Thus two questions arise. Is personality consistent from one situation to another, and is personality consistent over time?

5. The sentence below is taken from your Psychology textbook by Burton, Westen, and Kowalski (2015). If you wanted to write about what these authors found but had not actually read the published (1999) article by Kramer, Perozynski, and Chung, you would use a secondary citation to cite this research in your own work. Remember, you would usually rephrase the information in this sentence in your own words (i.e., paraphrase the meaning of the sentence, using your own words) and include an appropriate secondary citation formatted in APA style. However, the task here is to format the sentence below as a secondary citation. In contrast, school-age children tend to develop better sibling relationships if their parents let them resolve their own disputes (Kramer, Perozynski, & Chung, 1999).

In APA style, you may place the secondary citation at the end of the sentence in parentheses, or you may introduce the concept as part of the narrative by placing the secondary citation at the beginning of the sentence as part of the narrative.

6. Reformat the following paragraphs in correct APA style. You do not need to paraphrase. In particular, note how to format the in-text citations; check for the proper use of ‘and’ and ‘&’; check paragraph indentations; reformat abbreviations and acronyms; demonstrate the rules for numbers; use double line spacing; show correct use of Latin abbreviations; and demonstrate point form for a series of elements.

The two paragraphs follow below.

As noted by Burton, Westen & Kowalski (2015), stress challenges an individual’s ability to adapt to both environmental and internal demands, often producing physical and emotional arousal. As such, chronic stress can have a substantial negative impact on an individual’s psychological and physical wellbeing. This presents a need for research to examine the impact of stress on the health of individual’s.

Coleborn, Bidgood & Doherty (1995) examined the impact of stress on the health of eighty men and fifty women, aged between 40 – 55 years old. Using a DHQ (daily hassles questionnaire) which comprised questions about the 10 most common daily hassles, the authors found that: A. People under stress often suffer from headaches, depression, and other health problems. B. Stress can have a direct effect on health by decreasing the body’s capacity to fight illness. C. Other variables can exacerbate or minimize the impact of stress on health. Coleborn, Bidgood, & Doherty also found that stress is more likely to affect people’s health if people do not have adequate social support. Similarly, exercise can moderate the impact of stress on health, (for example, men and women who were physically unfit became ill when stressed). Unfortunately, people fail to carry out health-promoting behaviours for a variety of reasons, i.e., lack of knowledge or resources and unrealistic expectations about their chances of avoiding major health problems.

7. Construct a reference list in APA style using the following four sources: edited book, online journal article (with DOI), electronic journal article (no DOI), and print journal article. All the information that you require to type the reference list is provided below.

Running head: Learning APA style

Page number: 7

Details of the four information sources are outlined below:

1. Edited book:

Chapter authors: Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Graham, J. R.

Chapter title: Scientific bases of forensic applications of the MMPI-2

Page numbers: 1-17

Editors: Y. S. Ben-Porath, Y. S, Graham, J. R., Hall, G. C, Hirschman, R. D. & Zaragoza

Year of Publication: 1995

Book title: Forensic applications of the MMPI-2: Vol. 2

Publication information: Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

2. Electronic journal article (with DOI):

Authors: Kanner, Allen D.; Coyne, James C.; Schaefer, Catherine; Lazarus, Richard S.

Year of publication: 1981

Article title: Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events

Journal title and publication information: Journal of Behavioral Medicine, volume 4, issue 1, pages 1-39.

DOI: 10.1007/BF00844845

3. Electronic journal article (no DOI):

Authors: Archer, E. M., Hagan, L. D., Mason, J., Handel, R., & Archer, R. P.

Year of publication: 2002

Article title: MMPI-2-RF characteristics of custody evaluation litigants

Journal title and publication information: Assessment, volume 19, issue 1, pages 14-20.

World Wide Web address: http://asm.sagepub.com/

4. Journal article viewed in its print form:

Authors: Bolinskey, P. K, & Nichols, D. S

Year of publication: 2011

Article title: Construct drift in the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical scales: Further evidence and a possible historic example

Journal title and publication information: Journal of Clinical Psychology, volume 67, issue 3, 907-917.