Spotlight #3

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

College students

The article gave different ways to combat peer pressure in college and the inevitably of facing it. A way to fight peer pressure is staying busy and avoiding parties. The point this tip is trying to discuss is to avoid situations pressures due to the environment. To do so, leaving and eliminating the party and potential negative environment will avoid these pressures. I find this tip useless and will just have college students get into more trouble than they are. If you say the way to not feel peer pressured is to avoid college parties where inevitability there is alcohol, it is like using absence as the only way of safe sex. The point is, neither method works. The next tip they discussed was the difference between college and home and having more freedom. It later discussed if you are feeling pressure to just politely decline, leave a situation, anonymously call the police, and talk to adults you trust. I find this tip helpful. The idea of this tip can come from obedience pressures. If someone is stressed out because they are in a fraternity and are told to do a task given by their older fraternity brothers, they may feel pressured to go against their beliefs and take on the other person’s norm. The article later listed different way and resources on what peer pressure a student may be facing with different article attached to it. The solution from this is to avoid conformity from the pressures you face in school social settings. Instead of doing the steps which have worked for other people doesn’t always help you. If a student feels the need to take on the beliefs and ideas of another person, they are conforming. The only addition I would add to the article is using the college help centers and therapists the school provides as well. The article trustworthy and mildly resourceful.

Athletes

Athletes deal with pressure in every aspect of their career. When dealing with sports a stressor can deal with an upcoming competition. The expectation can cause a lot of pressure to do well in the sport. The article described different ways in which to deal with pressure. First, reframing the situation and deciding whether or not it is positive or negative pressure. Negative pressure relates to negative thoughts and doubts surrounding the performance while positive pressure are nerves and excitement before a competition. The tactic the article gave is to reframe the pressure which is negative and make it positive. To do this it requires using key words and reinstating the positive pressures you feel. An example of this is connecting being nervous with preforming well so when you feel nervous it is a positive pressure. The next tip is reducing external source of pressure which can come from parents, coaches, friends, and other outside people who add to any uneasy feelings. This idea of pressure coming from your friends and family can correlate with situational pressure. The environment you surround yourself can change your belief or in this case, confidence, and negatively impact one’s performance. The purpose of this tip is to get rid of any external distractions and possible negative pressures. The next tip is reducing internal sources of pressure which come from self-set expectations. This differs from the athlete as some people perform well with internal pressure and some do not, so finding the balance and level of difficulty for the athlete is able to balance the internal pressure. Since some high preforming athletes work well under self-set expectations and internal pressure, as an athlete you may conform to their strategies. Although this may work for one athlete, it doesn’t ensure internal pressure will work for you and conformity will not benefit your preformace. Recognizing the symptoms of being under pressure can be butterflies or heart and breathing pick up. This tip suggested creating high pressure situation in a controlled setting and I understand the purpose and overall benefit of this step but I disagree with it. As an athlete, I do not find stimulating high pressure situations beneficial. I recognize the larger risk but this technique does not help manage peer pressure it just creates ways to detect them. The next tip regards training pressure which can come from other people and trying to match how much and how far they have gone in practice or in their athletic career. This is training with and against different athletes which can have different levels of peer pressure. I disagree with this point as no matter what sport you play you should be working as a team rather feeling peer pressured to keep up with a teammate. The purpose of a team is to support each other not drag each other down which this article alluded to. On the other end, following the training of your mentors and peers can be seen as obedience pressure. Freshman or younger players in sports may look up towards the older players on the team and feel the need to follow their behaviors and beliefs because of an authority figure. The article suggest having a checklist to ensure the athlete has everything they need in place. I didn’t find this article helpful at all. It gave some helpful tips but it lost track of the main question regarding peer pressure which it originally was discussing. I don’t find these tips helpful for athletes at all.

Parents

The parental peer pressure discussed in this article regarded the leniency of what rules to enforce and what responsibilities to allow your child and when. This stems from what other parents allow or don’t allow their kids to do. Other issues regarded social and cultural traditions one family has over the other and the children or other parents doing a certain thing different than how they do it. Parent’s struggle with feeling the need to conform and take on the beliefs and behaviors done by other parents. An example of this can be raising your voice at children. The social group norm in America is to try and not raise your voice at a child while in a Hispanic home it shows you care. If the parent with a cultural background see’s the way other parents raise their children without raising their voice, they may feel pressured to conform and take on the beliefs and lifestyles of other parents. Situational pressures differ and if as a parent you believe that your child shouldn’t have ice cream every day but the other parents let their kids get ice cream, you may feed into the environment. The environment you are surround yourself can impact your judgement based off of the situation.

The article listed several different ways a parent can deal with these peer pressures which were finding your inner strengths, strengthening your support system, go with your gut, be assertive, don’t debate, practice self-care, gain respect, and increase family time. So what does this mean? Finding your inner strength allows the parent to reflect back on how they were raised and the beliefs and lessons they want to teach their children. Strengthening your support system is finding other parents and children’s who have similar parenting techniques. Going with your gun is allowing the advice of other parents but doing what is right for your child and not what was right for some else’s. To be assertive you need to have confidence in what you are instructing or teaching as a parent rather than fall into peer pressure. Don’t debate with other parents as to what is right or wrong, do what works for you. For being assertive and debating, the topic of obedience comes into play. If one parent who seemingly has more experience with children and comes from authority, the parents may feel pressured to adopt their behaviors in parenting. Practicing self-care is important no matter what stage of life you are in, especially parenthood. Self-care helps take on challenges and focus on bettering the parent which betters the children. Gaining respect from children is important throughout development. During a child’s development, the parent isn’t supposed to try and be a friend to their child and please them but to protect them, instill culture, lessons, teach behaviors, and education. Lastly, spending family time for one parent might be a movie night when for another parent it is puzzles, either way it is quality time spent together as a whole. These are all methods on how to resist parental peer pressure and I believe the article did an excellent job in addressing helpful tools and strategies. I find all eight methods in the article to be useful tools parents who feel parental peer pressure should use.

https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/dealing-peer-pressure-college/

https://www.freelapusa.com/6-tips-on-dealing-with-pressure-in-sports/

https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/life/2017/01/20/8-ways-cope-parental-peer-pressure/96835714/

Chapter 15 impression

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

Psychotherapy has different treatments including psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic. My ranking in order if I were to need therapy is psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, and humanistic.

Psychodynamic therapy is the most traditional therapy which has the client look at different childhood experiences which can provide self-evaluation. An example of this is face to face therapy and the purpose is to look at unconsciousness to understand the present issues which may not be know of by the client. The only negative aspect from this technique is not focusing on the present moment problem and solving it but rather looking for the underlying issue. The benefit of this in the long term is superior of the rest since it will dig deeper but it doesn’t help the patient in the current state of distress.

Cognitive behavior therapy treats people with the same issues as patients described in behavior therapy. This differs from behavioral because it focuses of thought patters and emotional responses regarding personality problems rather than behavior. By changing the internal emotional negative reaction it can eliminate negative emotions. The purpose is to explain a clients emotions in a new way rather than internal self-hatred. The negative component with this is that the therapy is normally a shorter treatment time. Also, the emotional aspect of the way a person thinks dresses more of the now but ignores the entire picture. I also find this and behavioral therapy tie in together would work better than either of these alone.

Behavioral therapy identifies any harmful behaviors in a persons life. It works to changed learned behaviors which are unhealthy to a person and make them better. This is a treatment which can help several people who suffer with depression, anxiety, and other behavior issues and mental disorders. Behavioral therapist focus on behavior problems as the main issue and learning strategies can minimize these behavioral problems through classical learning. I agree that classical and operant learning can be used to minimize or maximize behavior but I don’t find this strategy as useful as the others.

Humanistic works to help someone’s self-awareness and self-worth to accept themselves. I feel this can be beneficial since it isn’t treated as a normal client therapist but rather person to person. They believe once the client finds the issue they are solved from he burden which I disagree with. Although this approach can be helpful to people, I don’t find the purpose and reasoning of the therapy to be a major necessity and disagree with the tactics. I value therapy but I personally find humanistic therapist more of glorified life coaches.

Chapter 14 impression post

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

For this impression I picked the first one. In films and movies which regard the topic of mental illnesses they are either glorified and romanticized or seen as an abolishment and or a sin. After watching the video it demonstrated different sensory and understanding which other people with schizophrenia face. Before watching the video it had a sensory and I thought there was a possibility of something startling me as someone with schizophrenia might face. The beginning of the video was fairly normal but as it progresses it demonstrated different voices in their head and possible fear. After the fear, more panic sets in and it continues. Most of the fear which people struggle with are self doubt which control their thoughts. It is as though everything is against them which they hear in their head. After watching the video it showed the individual with schizophrenia before they took their medications and it was as though everything was attacking them. This video didn’t change the idea of what I thought people with schizophrenia were. In the media, it is mostly similar to this since most of the media views people who have schizophrenia without medication, similarly to this video. Based off of what happened in the video, without the medication it could possibly escalate to what is shown in the media. The difference was how livable it is. The video didn’t show the impacts of it with medication but most media outlets show it as debilitating. Lastly, I didn’t realize how much self doubt and presence of depression/ thoughts linked to depression were in schizophrenia. The majority of the internal voices which were in the film were self-doubt and internal hatred. The main feeling, I felt the person expressed was worthlessness or the fear of being worthless. I originally thought something would pop out and startle me but what the person was doing was normal daily activities and having internal fear and thoughts of self doubt.

Media Production

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

My Article Summary of the Journal:

The researchers of the study, conducted an experiment as to whether or not forensic evidence had bias from criminal stereotypes. The researchers target audience were individuals in the criminal justice system and society as a whole, with main focus on forensic examiners and fingerprinting. The stem from this research originated from a forensic examiner questioning their teams methods when they mistakenly suggested an Muslim man was guilty for a bombing. The reasoning of this wrongful arrest was because Brandon Mayfield, the Muslim man mistakenly charged, fit the FBI’s profile and stereotype of what a terrorist bomber would look like.

So, what is a criminal stereotype? A criminal stereotype relates an individual’s appearances, looks, beliefs, and characteristics with a certain crime. In this example, a criminal stereotype was assuming a Muslim man was the perpetrator of a bombing. This occurs similarly with other crimes matched with certain characteristics. In this experiment, the researchers conducted a trial study which matched different crimes with different characteristics. The participants of the study were college students which generated different assumptions of criminal stereotypes. The purpose of this trial study was to demonstrate how social stereotypes played into role, demonstrating a cause and effect.

This led to the main experiment of the research. The researchers selected 225 undergraduate college students from a large variety of ethnic backgrounds without any known knowledge of criminal justice. The journal overlooked any reasoning for why or how the participants were selected, leaving out critical operationalizing variables. The participants read a mock police report with mock fingerprints of two crimes which were said to be found at the scene of the crime. The research journal left out how they were separated but, half of the participants were matched with an middle-aged Asian woman named Mei Lee, while the other half matched with White middle-aged male named Steve Johnson as the perpetrator. The two crimes in question were child molestation and identity theft, one which was stereotypically matched with distinct characteristics of a perpetrator and another crime which did not match with any specific trait. The participants were told to state whether they thought the individual the database matched at the scene of the crime, was or was not the perpetrator. The findings demonstrated most participants associated child molestation with Steve Johnson, a White middle-aged man as the perpetrator whereas the characteristics of identity theft had little impact when deciding who the perpetrator was. The research demonstrated how social and criminal stereotypes negatively impact and create a disadvantage for individuals who fit these characteristics.

The research journal suggested different ways for forensic examiners evaluation of fingerprinting through a variety of systems. An example provided was a filler method which had a mock criminal stereotype given to a forensic examiner. If the examiner suggested the perpetrator matched the crime, it would determine the examiner as unreliable and in need of improved forensic techniques. The information in the journal can improve the criminal justice system along with society as a whole to help prevent negative biases from criminal stereotypes. This study is able to create awareness to criminal stereotypes in forensic evidence which lead to wrongful arrests.

Review of Summarizing the Journal

Through the process, I understand the perspective and difficulties reporters have when reviewing an experiment. The news article disregarded several factors of the five research questions. In my summary, I prioritized by answering the questions which the news article left out. I was able to address every question other than how the participants were selected since it was missing from the research journal. In completing the article summary I found it easily done after finishing both the pop critique and scholarly review assignments.

In summarizing the research article, there were several different details in the news article which was part of the study but not the overall purpose. For example, the article disregarded details about the participants but capitalized on the journalists personal experiences of social stereotypes. Although this information is useful for the findings in the article, it takes away important details which are vital in the experiment. When deciding the information to take out, personal aspects became eliminated and replaced with the details regarding the five critical questions. The questions I addressed in the summary were operationalized variables, how the groups were assigned, method of causal claims, and targeting the right audience. This differs from the news article as it only addressed the method of casual claims and how the groups were assigned. The additional information I left out were details regarding the accumulation of different fingerprints the criminal database provides. I minimized the statistical factors when creating the article summary as most readers, including myself, would struggle understanding the point and purpose of it. I found the main goal of the study was to demonstrate the reason as to why the researchers were conducting the experiment, the details in the experiment, the findings of the experiment, and what to improve upon which was implemented in my summary.

In comparison to my summary with the news article we both left out how the participants were selected. The article disregarded the operationalized variables which my summary provided regarding the participants in the study. Both my summary and the article discuss the presence of causal claims from the journal along with how participants were assigned. In the article, casual claim were frequently used and demonstrated through the findings of the research. The presence of criminal stereotypes caused a higher likelihood of biases in the criminal justice system, a cause and effect. The summary I provided answered part of the five critical research questions which the article summary did not. In my summary, the details regarding the generalization to the correct population and who the participants in the research were specified while the article summary focused on strictly forensic examiners.

My perspective on journalist has changed after studying and reviewing the pop culture research critique, scholarly article, and the media production assignments. From the pop culture research critique, the majority of the article left out information regarding the five research questions. After reading the article, the assumed participants were forensic examiners rather than college students. The lack of information provided in the article left room for incorrect assumption and mistakes, damaging the validity of the news article. The pop culture research brought attention of the missing information as the article was unable to answer all five of the research questions. The lack of information the news article provided which the pop critiques capitalized on, provided awareness to flaws in other research articles which may have been overlooked. Although I found the article summary untrustworthy, it continues as a reminder of attentiveness in research. The mistakes the journalist made are understandable as some of the information of the five research questions were missing. When writing a journal article, it is difficult for journalists to add any personal opinion in the summary with limited space.

In the scholarly article, it provided the analysis of the research journal and the information the news article lacked. Most of the information found in the research journal added to the missing information from regarding the five research questions which the news article left out. Originally the news article was only able to answer two questions while my summary was able to answer four of them. The scholarly article provided a larger understanding of the difficulties journalist may face when looking at a study. The article picked out the important details of the study while also acknowledging the back story and purpose of the experiment. This assignment differed from the pop culture critique by providing a larger insight to the difficulties journalist face in understanding the content of research journals and deciphering the important and interesting facts readers would understand.

In this media production assignment, it allowed the students to become the news article journalists rather than strictly the critiques. By understanding and picking apart the flaws in the new article and understanding the details from the journal, it allowed me to concentrate on the important facts while creating my summary. After the completion of the summary, the assignment allowed reflection and understanding of the flaws in each component and how to distinguish a valid article summary from an invalid one. In this specific article, I believe the author had a large oversight in most of the information and did not prioritize it as well as they could have. Although the journalist could have been more attentive in incorporating the important details of the study, I understand the difficulties of completing a word limit of a news article with an extremely detailed research journal.

Work Cited

Madon, Stephanie, et al. The Perfect Match: Do Criminal Stereotypes Bias Forensic Evidence Analysis?, vol. 40, no. 4, 2016, pp. 420–429., doi:10.18411/d-2016-154.

“The Perfect Match.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 19 Oct. 2016, http://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-82.aspx.

News Article: http://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-82.aspx

Journal Article: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/lhb-lhb0000190.pdf

Chapter 12 impresson

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

In the video the experiment which was used was students came in to look engage in different tasks which are supposed to be a lot of fun when it was really very boring. The students in the experiment were then asked if they would be the spokes person for the next student(s) who was going to take the test. Half of the students were given $20 as a retainer and half were given $1. No matter what the price which was being paid they sold the experiment as a lot of fun even though it was boring. The man who was paid 20 dollars knows the experiment was dull but had enough of an incentive to lie about it. The person who has 1 dollar doesn’t have enough money which creates dissonance. From this it changed his cognitive dissonance. Whenever there is insignificant dissonance, they convince themselves they like it.

Although it wasn’t defined in the video, one can conclude that cognitive dissonance is having inconsistent beliefs when regarding emotional influences and attitude changes.

Personally I would enjoy a task where I got $20 especially if it was boring and or an overall bad experience. I would be fine with getting $1 if it was a really rewarding task which cannot be measured with money.

A time in my life where I experienced a change in beliefs due to cognitive dissonance has happened middle often but a small example at work. A normal work day for most staff is from 8:45-4:15 but I insisted working from 7:30-6 every day because it gave a little more money. In comparison to my work week hourly pay, I was gaining money since I was staying later but not by much. I wasn’t getting insufficient pay and my family knew this and we would argue about working so much. I convinced myself that I needed it and I liked it. I looked at the positives and in this case I got to know more kids, I made a little extra money, I liked waking up early to get my day started, it was easy on some day, and more. I created reasons as to why I needed it and wanted it even though it was consistently understaffed, the pay wasn’t enough, and ADHD medication a child was on for the day had worn off. It was always chaotic and from it being understaffed and screaming names ever few seconds/ minutes it caused a lot of stress. I still did it for around 10 weeks because I convinced myself the reward was worth it. Would I still do it? Yes. They pay wasn’t good, it was poorly run, and I hated it more than I liked it but I had cognitive dissonance and convinced myself that I did need the extra money and I could manage to where it wasn’t horrible. I made it so anytime I didn’t do it, I felt like I wasted my time and was a horrible person for missing an opportunity to make extra money.

I think in this case it is a good way to use cognitive dissonance because although I wasn’t paid well, I did make more money which was a consistent source of payment where babysitting or other ways wasn’t consistent. This provided a set outcome and unless I had another job I would and will still do it. In other cases I can see it as bad when a worker is being paid under minimum wage and cannot support themselves. With cognitive dissonance in both of these exampled no one actually likes what they are doing but have a reason to say they are. If that reason is a way or strategy of coping though a bad situation, I think that it is a good tool to use. From this, I think we should promote it as a good coping tool but also be aware of the faults it can bring. Overall a good tool in both of these situations presented.

Johari Window reflection

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

Other than asking other people to help contribute to my assignment I enjoyed it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want their opinion, I found that part helpful, but I was reliant on them to complete the 5 second task in order for me to turn in the assignment. I didn’t mind the actual selecting of character traits/ self-descriptions because I find myself aware of my flaws and strengths along with what I have and who I want to become. Sometimes that can be mashed together as who I am and who I want to become are not aligned yet. Due to this, I find myself very critical and strive for my version of perfection in order to get where I want to be. (I hope that makes sense)

My description was very similar to what other people selected. For myself I selected that I was: independent, knowledgeable, spontaneous, sympathetic, and witty. The only other character trait no one picked was that I was confident. I can understand that their definition and my definition with confident may be different. My confidence is knowing my worth and not settling for less. I can see them and others viewing my personality as saying I am not confident as I am veery harsh on myself and criticize everything I do. Based off of my responses which people selected to describe me was interesting to see who picked what. The other traits people picked which I did not were: wise, warm, tense, self-conscious, self-assertive, searching, reflective, powerful, organized, observant, modest, mature, loving, kind, introverted, intelligent, idealistic, friendly, energetic, dignified, dependable, caring, brave, bold, adaptable, accepting, and able. The ones which were picked the most were powerful, intelligent, caring, brave, independent, and bold. I don’t think this measures personality as most of these character traits are not negative. They are also not anonymous and because I can see who said what, whoever is writing this about the person may not be truthful since their name is attached to it. I think from the response not enough people think I am witty so there is a disappointment there. I also believe this is a tool to make you feel better about yourself rather than helping you overcome the areas which you have flaws in. It can measure the good parts of mine and others personality accurately but it doesn’t account for the negative components. It just takes part of a person’s personality not the whole picture. I learned from this process that it is beneficial to ask people who think you are the coolest person every, I have limited friends in who I want to answer this too, I am critical of myself but I am aware of that, but most of these factors I was aware of. It was nice to have validation of the good components of my personality but it is not real and I feel as though this was just meant to make you feel good rather to make you become better.

https://kevan.org/johari?view=Loretta%20G

*If you click the link my mom thought she was supposed to write name but it is her doing it twice*

Chapter 13 First Impression

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

The first test wasn’t something I disagreed with but didn’t full agree on. On paper I am considered a Introvert as I would rather be alone to “recharge” than hanging out with friends. What I mean be alone, is I like to be left alone but with people around me. My roommate and I were similar in this way where we liked to watch separate Netflix shows but be together. When I was in Italy, we would video chat and not always talk to each other but be in each other’s presence. I got scored as a INFJ and it suggested the career or Social Work but when I took this test in my business class the outcome was different. Most of my teacher’s in business know me as aggressive when defending a topic in business similarly to a business critic. I have had a professor have me act like I was one so I could rip apart their point. The test viewed me as calm, cool, and collected in a way where, when it comes to my career in primarily business, I am more aggressive and focused. Social work and business are similar in many ways but are different. In social work we are come openly communicative and understanding so my responses normally reflect that where in business discussions and comments from some classmates can lack empathy. The test in general is kind of humors as I am seen as an introvert but will stop strangers to go halfway across the world to a different country with me.
My second personality test was ENFJ. Demonstrates leadership but taking on problems which are not your own which I tend to do. I prioritize the wrong problem at hand which can cause issues for the other obstacles which are more important.

The third test says I am an extrovert who is mostly emotionally stable, agreeable, organizes, conscious of others, and open/ non traditional. From this, my blog post would probably state I am not emotionally stable at all. Emotionally unstable people are hilarious! I thought I had a future career but I guess not anymore. I find it funny that it says I am agreeable because I often bring up politics at parties (to weed out the racists) and this is just a set up for arguing when you go to Elizabethtown where most people are from Pennsylvania. I am mildly organized, my clothes are normally always clean but they are never fully put away neatly in drawers.

The color quiz is accurate which is weird as it is based off of colors. It says I need excitement and ready for adventure which is always the case (anyone want to go to Thailand?). Maybe in the moment I feel isolated as my main stress source but in all honesty most of my stress comes from this class and hoping to achieve my expectations. Which leads to my problem of fearing I won’t achieve the things I want. From this I search for meaning and become involved in everything which end up being pointless and I am pretty sure this test just exposed me. I do fear I won’t achieve what I want from my career and so I do as much as I can in order to ensure success in the future which seems excessive but I also have a set goal.

In all honesty, although it was the least credible I liked the color test the most. I would probably say this is similar to horoscopes. There is no evidence it works but it helps describe a moment you are feeling in time. It is able to take what you want to say from a recent experience and use that which validates your thoughts. The tests 1-3 all were pretty similar and I would rank the credibility in the order of the tests. First being the most credible and the fourth being the least credible.

Spotlight Post 2

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

For the second spotlight blog, I picked the second option revolving around stress. Stress management is something I struggle with, as discussed in the blog posts. After learning about stress I evaluated three online resources for stress management. As suggested I am looking at three different target audiences of college students, athletes, and parents.

College Student

Stress itself is when the body reacts to a new change and pressure. In the first article, discussed tips and reasoning for stress in college and how to survive it. Acute stress is the reaction of possible challenges. An example can be, receiving a grade back from a class, a test, or traveling somewhere new. Most of these episodes do not last long and can be both negative and positive. Most college students face episodic acute stress which is acute stress more often. Normally college students face these challenges often in school as there are several different tasks to overcome with classes, living away from home, additional responsibility, and the financial deficit loans bring. Something many students struggle with is test anxiety and stress. The tips which the article provided were studying efficiently and effectively, use practice tests, study to learn not to pass, tricks such as a stress ball or ways to calm and center you, eating well which can include reducing coffee as it may contribute to anxiety and stress, rest, realizing tension through exercising, and being punctual the day of the test. Other additional tips the article provided on reducing stress for college students was thinking positive which can be used as positive affirmations. In other words, rather than saying ‘I can’t do this’ you change it to ‘I can do this’ which can bring a positive outcome. Similarly to this meditation and relaxation strategies benefit in reducing stress. Using the resources many colleges provide such as tutoring and talking to someone which can be a friend or school counselor. Lastly, being able to have an outlet from your stress whether that is a club, sport, or staying inside and relaxing, whatever creates less stress will benefit a college student as a whole.

Parent

The second article I found related to stress parents face and the buildup tension. The article described this as their body using fight or flight mode which we learned in class. The article discussed constant tension which is also referred to as chronic tension. A way to minimize this is through practicing relaxation rather being in constant tension form fight or flight. The article discussed progressive relaxation through one’s whole body and working on releasing the tension through physical activity. A way which the article described was yoga and relaxing one’s muscles through untensing each body part. Another suggestion was using deep breathing as it the article suggests it causes more energy to be produced throughout the body. This can also be seen as another form of meditation. Taking a mental vacation can help by thinking of a relaxing place from a memory such as a beach, the sun, baked cookies, and anything to take you away from the moment which is causing stress. The article later suggested hobbies as a way to relax and provide relief.

Athlete

The article regarding athletes and stress management provided what the difference between an athlete with a large stress load and one without. An athlete with a lot of stress will constantly get injured, lack a competitive edge, and have trouble sleeping. Although most of the information when talking about stress relates to the negative impact, with athletes it could also have a positive outlook. Say an athlete was in a critical part of the game and they have three people from the other team coming at them, evidently causing stress. Rather than shutting down and freezing, the stress and adrenaline boost from the release of the stress hormone in our body, can work in using our fight-or-flight response. In any case, this can happen regardless of being an athlete or not. To use the stress one is enduring and fighting through the challenge. The negative impact from athletes enduring stress, is the continuation after the game ends. For managing stress when training is using breaks rather than training harder. When it revolves stress around preforming, using good scores and success in playing will increase the athletes confidence until the stress resides. With the emotional stress components which can become ignored with athletes, it is important to recognize whether the training is helpful or harmful. If the component of the sport are causing more pain than taking away it is negatively impacting the person. Exercise is an important way to reduce stress but too much can have a negative effect. Lastly, addressing proper eating and sleeping schedules will help manage the stress level in an athlete.

All three articles addressed the negative impacts of stress learned in class along with similarly healthy ways to improve overall stress levels for college students, parents, and athletes.

https://www.learnpsychology.org/student-stress-anxiety-guide/

https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/family-living/stress/#.W3HzJCOZM_U

https://www.moneyinstructor.com/doc/stressmanage.asp

Chapter 9 impression

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

In school, my first positive experience was with my 2nd grade teacher who knew I had test anxiety. When I finished 2nd grade and had a state wide test in 3rd grade, my 2nd grade teacher pulled me out of class and had me do cartwheels in the hallway. She knew I loved gymnastics and so she used this in order to allow me to relax when I was anxious. This is an example of improving a students performance in the classroom.

In high school, I had straight A’s for the most part and had a pretty good work ethic but I was never in the highest classes. Comparison kills and we all do it, but there was never a point where I felt smart. I was never given the chance to be challenged based off of one test when I was in 8th grade. I tried to move up but it never worked, until I just gave up. I wasn’t challenged or given the chance to be challenged until I was in college. Once I got to Elizabethtown, professors for the most part, treated me with respect, asked for my advice, want me to go to extra credit events just to take attendance on who was there, and more. I was given a new set of responsibility which I never was trusted to have before. This is probably a main factor as to why I am so hard on myself. I never had this respect before.

I strongly believe that education is impacted in places outside of the classroom. The first interaction about my intelligence wasn’t inside of a school but at home. My father was very strict and at anytime on the weekends or when we didn’t have any homework when we wanted to watch television, we had to read in equal amount of time. I had a lazy eye and undiagnosed ADD which made school harder, especially in comparison to my sister. He would continuously compare my sister and I together and refer to me as the pretty one and her as the smart one. He would also comment on how beauty fades and to marry rich and young. Welcome to the 60’s. It was often when he said comments like these to my sister and I. She grew up thinking she was fat and I grew up thinking I was unintelligent. The dream team.

Until I reached Elizabethtown, I never knew how far I could go. I didn’t really question it, I just assumed I would be a subpar student. Now when I get a low grade, I question everything to where it becomes personal. I am still mad I was placed in a harder English class and got a B+ when my college essay got me a scholarship. Talk about irony. My life becomes revolved around succeeding in my career and in academics, not because I am an ultra perfectionist who needs it, but it is as though I am making up for prior encounters along with receiving approval from myself. I don’t need any adults approval, but my own. From this, I would conclude that the environment where someone is, largely impacts the growth and development of success in school and a future career. School systems could provide trust in their students to succeed while challenging them appropriately along with realizing the additional challenges they could be facing.

Chapter 11 Impression Post

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

I picked the 1st option and my direct answer to the question is at the bottom but I also enjoy the impression blog posts so here it is:

College students have a lot of stress based off of the idea that we have to go to college in general. This may come off as cynical, naïve, and hypocritical but hear me out; college is designed for continual profit and the perpetuation of financial debt and income. For us to overall fail. We are fully signing up for years worth of debt to throw us into a system where unemployment is at its highest and social security for this generation is overall failing. But god forbid an 18 year old has a drink of alcohol but enlist in the army? Sure! Sign up for years’ worth of debit with high interest? Even better! Both at the end resulting in years’ worth of therapy and detoxing from the 9-5 job everyone has and hates. The American Dream ladies and gentleman.

Maybe poor humor and amounting to mediocre academic success is something I, like many others, fear greatly, but the stress accompanying it takes the cake. So this is where I am now as a cynical naïve hypocrite, working 70+ hours a week to have a job I have worked at for 8 years on top of another summer class. Doesn’t everyone love the sweet smell of minimum wage jobs. So my strategy this summer has been pretty much the ideology of going until I burn out. I hit that target right on the head.

To better my mental health and stress relief, which pretty much correlate, I am taking off work until school starts. I am putting my focus on myself and my school work which will make it easier to manage given the 52.5 extra hours I am going to be given M-F. I won’t even know what to do with myself.

When I hit these low points of stress I normally vent to my parents and together we create a tactical plan to accomplish my goals. They proceed to say I am unrealistic and I continue to cry demonstrating the effects of a house full of women. I swear, this is the peak of therapy here. We come together to a meeting point of what I hope to accomplish and how it can be possible. Realizing I lean on my parents for a large part of when I hit stressful points in my life, at school I go to my roommate for advice. We communicate differently and when I am upset she has me calm down, explain myself, and puts it into a new perspective that I understand and am able to regroup to accomplish the new task. To fully make sure I have answered the question I have each listed for clarity:

Current stress management strategies:

Sleep
Longer showers
Talking to my parents
Talking to my roommate
I work at camp and I have realized I have been taking my stress out on them slightly so I work on letting it go and focus on the moment
Get my nails done

Assess how well they work:

I have been trying to get more sleep since I have gotten a cold and it has mildly benefitted but not significantly
Long showers are good for the soul, bad for the environment
I used to hate being vulnerable (up until the last few months) but talking to my parents helps with managing stress
My roommate is one of my best friends and we are very different but both focus heavily on academics. She puts my goals in perspective while reminding me it is okay to not be perfect all the time while still holding me accountable.
With camp, if I raise my voice at a camper I apologize and we talk about being safe and why I spoke loudly (normally when they try and stick their hand in a fan) but I realize the impact it has on them. We also sing a lot and I never would have thought 4-5 year old’s would be asking me about Drake and learning the “kiki” dance but that is 2018 for you.
I pick at my nails when I am stressed so when I have them done I don’t touch them and they feel like I have my life mildly put together.

Stress routines I need to work on:

Not working over 70+ hours a week with a hard class
Giving myself free time to myself
Having me socialize with people above the age of 7
Becoming satisfied with my accomplishments even though they don’t always show
Holding myself accountable but not to perfection
Sleep
This assignment and blog posts similar-> writing down thoughts on a blog. (feel like you are heard).