Discussion 1

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Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Motivation, Emotions, and Health: Stressed Out?
To prepare for this discussion, please read Chapter 7 of your textbook. Watch Stress: Portrait of a Killer, read “Dr. Seuss, the Coping Machine, and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.’” and complete the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (The American Institute of Stress, n.d.). Finally, review Instructor Guidance and Announcements. In this discussion, you will consider psychological explanations and solutions for stress by examining your own stress level and relating strategies to combat stressors in your own life. Be sure to use your own academic voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and apply in-text citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. appropriately throughout your post.

Watch Stress: Portrait of a Killer, which discusses the effects of stress and reveals insight for coping. 
Summarize the information you learned about stress and health, including emotional and motivational factors as presented in the video.
Describe how stress impacts physical and mental health.
Read “Dr. Seuss, the Coping Machine, and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.’”
Identify variables that influence the appraisal of a stressor as a challenge or threat.
Generate various factors that may influence one’s ability to cope with stress, such as perceived control, optimism, and social support.
Complete the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (The American Institute of Stress, n.d.).
Interpret your score. What are the implications of this?
Apply your knowledge about assessing (appraising) and coping to your own experience with stress. What are your biggest stressors? What is the impact of stress on your health? Are there any factors in your own life that buffer the effects of stress?
Examine specific ways in which you might better manage your stress, such as aerobic exercise, relaxation and meditation, spirituality.
Explain how cultural and social diversity might influence perception and experience of stress. (Why could one situation increase stress for one person but not for another?).
Remember to use your own academic voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and apply in-text citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. appropriately throughout your post.
Post your initial response of 250 words or more by Day 3 (Thursday). Respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7 (Monday). You are encouraged to post one or more of your required replies early each week (e.g., by Saturday) to stimulate more meaningful and interactive discourse in the discussion forum. In addition, strive to provide a response to classmates who replied to your initial post and/or the Instructor (if applicable). Peer responses may vary in length but should be carefully crafted and insightful. Below are some suggestions to assist your thinking.

Guided Response: Reply to at least one peer who chose a hypothesis other than the one you selected and two or more peers overall. The goal of the discussion forum is to foster continual dialogue, similar to what might occur in a verbal face-to-face exchange. Consider the following questions in your responses:

What other ways could your peer manage their stress?
How is your stress different than your peer’s?
How could buffering effects of social identity (e.g., social or religious) apply to your peer’s stress?
Continue to monitor this discussion board through 5 PM (Mountain Time) on Day 7 of the week. Peer responses may vary in length but should be detailed and thought provoking. You are expected to respond to any question posed to you by the instructor, and you are encouraged to reply to your classmates’ questions as well. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses to your classmates and your instructor.

DQ 2

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Psychological Disorders and Therapies: Doctor for a Day
To prepare for this discussion, please read Chapter 10 of your textbook. Read “Conceptualizing Psychiatric Disorders Using ‘Four D’s’ of Diagnoses (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” and browse Research-Supported Psychological Treatments (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. You must also utilize the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 5e (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to inform your thinking. Finally, review Instructor Guidance and Announcements. In this discussion, you will consider psychological disorders and therapies. Be sure to use your own academic voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and apply in-text citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. appropriately throughout your post.

Choose a character from a book, television show, or movie who is portrayed as suffering from a psychological disorder. [Examples: “My Mad Fat Diary”, “The Hunger Games Series”, “Forest Gump”, “Rain Man” (Please do not use these.)]
Briefly describe the character and his(her) behaviors that lead you to believe they have a disorder.
Read “Conceptualizing Psychiatric Disorders Using ‘Four D’s’ of Diagnoses (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.”. Note that many professionals utilize the four “Ds” to determine abnormality:
Deviance: Are the behaviors/feelings deviant?
Dysfunction: Do the behaviors/feelings interfere with the individual’s ability to function in daily life?
Distress: Does the individual experience distress due to the behaviors/feelings?
Danger: Are the behaviors/feelings harmful to the individual or those around him/her?
(Some consider a fifth “D”, Duration.).

Discussion: Motivation Emotions and Health

Discussion: Motivation Emotions and Health
Appraise your character and his/her behaviors/feelings for each of the above “Ds”. Are variations in his/her behaviors/feelings significant enough to constitute a psychological disorder, in your opinion?
Review the textbook. After determining a diagnosis that—in your opinion—fits the character’s behaviors/feelings (which may or may not be indicated in the book, television show, or movie), locate additional information about this disorder in the DSM-5 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Briefly describe the disorder that you think fits your character and explain why.
Review Research-Supported Psychological Treatments (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Discuss possible treatment options for this particular disorder.
Explain how cultural and social diversity might influence perception and experience of this disorder.
Remember to use your own academic voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and apply in-text citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. appropriately throughout your post.
Post your initial response of 250 words or more by Day 3 (Thursday). Respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7 (Monday). You are encouraged to post one or more of your required replies early each week (e.g., by Saturday) to stimulate more meaningful and interactive discourse in the discussion forum. In addition, strive to provide a response to classmates who reply to your initial post and/or the Instructor (if applicable). Peer responses may vary in length but should be carefully crafted and insightful. Below are some suggestions to assist your thinking.

Discussion: Motivation Emotions and Health

Discussion: Motivation Emotions and Health

Guided Response: Reply to at least one peer who chose a character other than the one you selected and two or more peers overall. The goal of the discussion forum is to foster continual dialogue, similar to what might occur in a verbal face-to-face exchange. Consider the following in your responses:

Review your peer’s application. Consider the 4 “D”s and share your thoughts on whether the behavior illustrates a disorder or not.
Point out qualities he or she may have overlooked that support the possible diagnosis of the identified disorder or suggest otherwise.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.