PSY 110HA Psychological Well-Being: How to be Sane in an Insane World

PSY 110HA Psychological Well-Being: How to be Sane in an Insane World

Saint Leo University

PSY 110HA Psychological Well-Being: How to be Sane in an Insane World

Course Description: This course uses psychological approaches to physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. The scientific method will be used as a lens to view adjustment issues. Topics include personality and self-development, positive psychology, sex and gender, and relationships. Emphasis is on application via personal assessment and stress management techniques. Students must be aware that they will be asked to share personal information concerning their psychological well-being throughout the course as it applies to content that we cover. Some of the content of this course addresses issues related to sex. If you are uncomfortable with this course content, please consider taking a different course to fulfill the Human Adventure requirement for University Explorations. Prerequisite: None Textbooks: This is an Open Educational Resources (OER) course. All course content is free and is found online and through the Saint Leo University Library. Faculty and Students must have the ability to download pdf files and will need Adobe Digital Editions 1.7.1 or higher for offline viewing. Links to assigned readings are provided in the respective modules. Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyze major historical, political, social, economic, and/or life events in context focusing on the important findings to the science of psychology demonstrated by quiz grades and the Compare and Contrast Critique. 2. Develop and use critical thinking concepts and processes demonstrated by quiz grades and the Compare and Contrast Critique. 3. Apply principles from the social sciences to individual experience and demonstrate insight into one’s own thinking process and personality while developing self-awareness in line with Saint Leo’s core value of Personal Development through these assessments: Traits To Strength, Virtual Communication Project, Stress and Coping and Self-Assessment. HA2 4 Apply principles from the social sciences to individual experience of different stress reduction techniques to live more effectively as demonstrated by the Stress and Coping Project and graphical representation of data. 5. Identify personal strengths that are associated with quality of life demonstrated by the Traits to Strength Project and the Self-Assessment Project. 6. Communicate effectively for a determined purpose while demonstrating an understanding of effective communication techniques that enhance personal relationships through quiz grades and the Virtual Communication Project assessments. CC2 7. Analyze major historical, political, social, economic and/or life events in context while explaining issues important to and gender research demonstrated by quiz grade and Virtual Communication Project assessments. HA1 8. Develop an appreciation of and sensitivity to issues of diversity demonstrated by quiz grade.

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Core Value: Personal Development: Saint Leo University stresses the development of every person’s mind, spirit, and body for a balanced life. All members of the Saint Leo University community must demonstrate their commitment to personal development to help strengthen the character of our community. In order to improve ourselves and the world around us, we need to learn to adjust and cope with life’s difficulties and make effective decisions within these difficulties. PSY110 HA directly confronts these challenges with opportunities for students to learn about scientifically-sound methods of assessing their own personality and behavioral patterns. By fostering self-reflection, this course encourages students to more deeply examine their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Likewise, students are asked to participate in stress management. Engaging in the application of relaxation and stress reduction, PSY110 HA provides a direct method for improving well-being. By engaging students in self-exploration and the management of stress, PSY110 HA’s core course content is an essential starting point for cultivating personal insight and character. Evaluation: Quizzes 20% Written Assignments 70% Discussion Questions 10% Quizzes (5% each of final grade) Students’ performance will be assessed with 4 objective, non-cumulative quizzes over the course of the term. These quizzes will assess knowledge of content learned during the course in class, in your readings, and from learning activities in and outside of class. Some instructors may choose to include short answer and/or essay questions. Writing Assignments In this course, there are 5 unique course requirements that you will need to complete as writing assignments / essays by the designated deadline. For each, you will be assigned to explore a topic, assess a situation, or complete a task then write about your experience and/or answer questions while addressing concepts and theories covered in this course. For each assignment, the specific information concerning what you are to address and how you are to do it can be found below in this syllabus. Additional tips: Be certain to carefully review the information for specific directions and refer to the Scoring Rubrics provided for each activity for information on how your writing assignments will be graded. For each written assignment, write 500 words / 2 pages. A 50 word leeway will be accepted; otherwise points may be deducted. Use basic APA style guidelines such as 1” margins, 12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and when citing your sources and listing your References. Compare and Contrast Critique (15% of final grade) You are to locate one source of pop psychology and one source of empirical research and compare and contrast the merit of the information in each as follows:

• Begin by searching in the appropriate place for 2 sources that are fittingly related to each other on any topic in Psychology. Empirical research can only be found in professional journals. The easiest way to find a professional journal article is by accessing PsycINFO through the portal at my.saintleo.edu then locating the online Library. Pop psychology

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sources are newspapers, news magazines, tabloids, and other self-help articles found either online or on store shelves that offer advice. Examples include articles by Dr. Phil, Dear Abby, Dr. Laura, Tony Robbins, etc. Articles in Psychology Today and WorldHealth.net are pop psychology and, although they may report on or refer to empirical research, they are not professional journal articles.

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• To prepare your essay, you should think critically about the merit of the information in each article by asking the following questions about each: a.) What is the main issue, problem, or intention of the article? b.) In what way(s) does the article investigate various points of view and assumptions? c.) What evidence is provided to support the issue? d.) In what way(s) does the article discuss consequences and implications of the reasoning provided? e.) In what way(s) does the information provided help you make an informed decision about the purpose?

• Now, focus on the answers to the above questions and compare and contrast the 2 sets of information.

• Determine what your thesis is and state it clearly and concisely. It should briefly introduce your topic but more importantly should indicate that your purpose is to compare and contrast the merit of the pop psychology article with the merit of the empirical article. This will be the first sentence of your essay.

• In the body of your essay, you may do a whole-to-whole comparison of the 2 sets of information or you may do a (less common) point-to-point comparison. For a whole-to- whole comparison, address the information about one of the articles by discussing its merit using the critical thinking concepts above, then, do the same for the second article. For point-by-point, you should address the first important point about one article then that same point about the other, discuss a second point about one then the other, and so on. You will want to be very thorough in the body as this is a very large percentage of your grade on the essay.

• Your conclusion should summarize how the merit of the pop psychology article compares and contrasts with the merit of the empirical article, thus reaffirming your thesis without restating it. This is where you conclude with inferences, clearly address implications or consequences of accepting the given information, and culminate any assertions.

Additional Resources: For more help on how to search our library and a video lecture from one of our Saint Leo University librarians on how to do this assignment, copy and paste this link into your browser: http://saintleo.libguides.com/PSY110Critique. Here’s a very short video on APA Format: In-Text Citations, Quotations, and Plagiarism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FrJeRrLYe0 Here’s another video on How to do your Reference Page in APA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmcaYdZDa-U Refer to the assignment guidelines and scoring rubric for further information. Traits to Strength Project (15% of final grade) You are to complete this assignment as follows:

• Access the Psych Central Personality Test: http://psychcentral.com/personality-test/start.php

• Navigate to Quizzes then scroll down to Personality. Take the test by answering the questions as honestly as possible. Upon completion, find your comprehensive personality report on the five personality traits and reflect upon the positive aspects of your relationship

http://saintleo.libguides.com/PSY110Critique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FrJeRrLYe0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmcaYdZDa-U
http://psychcentral.com/personality-test/start.php
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with each trait. Choose the most positive information in the report and reflect upon how that trait is a personal strength that you possess.

• To begin your essay, state and highlight or indicate in italics or bold your positive Trait. It is not necessary to define the trait or reiterate the description of it from your results.

• Now, describe your reaction in the following ways: How does this trait represent who you are as a person? Were you surprised by the results? How does this trait act as a personal strength, and in what ways do you find having it important and helpful to your quality of life? Aside from the test results, what other character strength(s) do you feel you have, and how are they important or helpful in reference to your psychological well-being? Some examples include leadership, gratitude, spirituality, bravery, honesty, justice, perseverance, appreciation of beauty, wisdom, etc. You will want to address the answers to these questions clearly and completely as this is 25% of your grade on the essay.

• Next, explain how you can apply this personality trait / strength or your other strengths to the important areas of your life such as work, school, relationships, play, and/or parenting. You may even wish to use your strengths in a way that you have not done before and report on that. Again, please provide a thorough discussion, as this part is also worth another 25% of your grade on the essay.

Refer to the assignment guidelines and scoring rubric for further information. (UE Key Assignment) Virtual Communication Project (15% of final grade) Submit the Virtual Communication Project to Chalk and Wire no later than Sunday 11:59 EST/EDT of Module 5. The Virtual Communication Project Chalk & Wire link is located in the Module 5 folder. Students who do not submit the assignment to Chalk & Wire will receive a zero. This is a key assignment assessment; the results are used to ensure students are meeting University Exploration program goals. Video and PDF instructions can be found on the course home page. PDF instructions are also located in the Start Here folder. You are to gather and analyze conversations comparing virtual to face-to-face interactions.

• Begin by creating a brief 5 question opinion survey/interview on a topic of interest. This should include open-ended questions so that the people surveyed can elaborate on their answers.

• Complete the survey/interview with 3 people face-to-face then complete the same survey/interview with 3 people using virtual communication such as email, text messaging, chat room, discussion board, or any other virtual means that you wish to use.

• To prepare your essay, think critically about your results.

• Determine what your thesis is and state it clearly and concisely. It should briefly introduce your topic but more importantly should indicate how virtual interaction compares and contrasts with face-to-face interaction. This will be the first sentence of your essay.

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• In the body of your essay, you should include your survey-interview questions but it is not necessary to include your participants’ answers. Focus on the answers to these questions and compare and contrast the 2 sets of information. Were your results what you expected? How were they similar; how were they different? Was it easier to interact virtually or face-to- face? What were the challenges? What were the advantages of meeting face-to-face verses meeting virtually? What were the disadvantages of each way? How did the differences in the following seem to influence the nature of the responses: physical distance, anonymity, richness of communication, visual cues, time? You will want to be very thorough in the body as this is a very large percentage of your grade on the essay.

• Your conclusion should summarize how virtual interaction with people compares and contrasts with face-to-face interaction reaffirming your thesis without restating it. This is where you conclude with an overall summary describing your insight into what the findings mean to you and what you learned about yourself in reference to your psychological well- being and the method of communication that proves more effective.

• Please be mindful of using open questions in your survey. These are questions that require an explanation / more than a few words. Here are some examples: What are some of the things you like about this class? What are the challenges of going to school while working full time? How is an online class different from a face-to-face class? What types of activities do you enjoy in your class? Describe the consequences of getting behind. Avoid closed questions. These are questions that can be answered with a couple words and offer no explanation. Here are examples: How many classes are you taking this semester? What classes are you taking this semester? When do you have class? Do you think you are going to pass? Did you turn in all your assignments? Are the tests hard? When is the semester over?

Refer to the assignment guidelines and scoring rubric for further information. Stress and Coping Project (15% of final grade) For 2 weeks straight, you are to engage in some stress management / relaxation technique for 10-15 minutes per day then report on your experience as explained below.