There are many different types of stress and various impacts that stressful situations can have on all areas of our health. Review these possible stress-provoking situations.

• Sally is a hardworking young professional who was applauded for her work performance and given more responsibility. After a few months there is a rapid decline in her productivity and she is seen withdrawing from work. Sally’s new manager constantly criticizes her for her lack of productivity, which makes her performance worse, and causes her more worry.
• Nancy is ready to leave the house for work and spills coffee on her clean work clothes. Then, she finds that her car will not start. When she tries to call for help, she realizes her cell phone is disconnected because she did not pay the bill. She starts to cry.
• Bob found out that one of his best friends just died. The funeral will be held next week.
• Tom is called at work and told that he needs to pick up his teenage son from school. This is the second time this year that his son has been sent home for fighting. Tom’s boss is not happy that he requests to leave work early.
• Tracy, a single mother, finds she doesn’t have enough money left to buy food for her children before her next paycheck in two weeks. This is the third time this year she has struggled to put food on the table.

Choose one situation to evaluate and answer the following questions:

• Does this represent chronic or acute stress?
• What type of response might the body and brain be experiencing to manage the stressor?
• What would be the goal for coping with this stress? (eliminate, reduce, tolerate)
• What type of coping strategy should be implemented—emotion-focused coping or problem-directed coping? How would the individual employ this approach? In other words, using this type of coping strategy, what could he or she do to cope with the stressor? Give 2 examples.
• Write 2 “coping self-statements” the individual might make in response to this stressor. You will find some examples of coping self-statements in your textbook.
• What are some of the potential long-term impacts on this individual’s health if he or she does not find a way to cope with this stressor?

Please be sure you address each question, using terms and concepts from your text. A good initial discussion response should be at least 150–250 words in length.

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.

Assignment 1: Stress And Coping