Chapter 15 First Impression Prompts – Mental Health Treatment

Here are the prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag "Mental Health Treatment."

Option 1:

Your textbook lists 4 major types of psychotherapy (psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic). Rank these types of therapy according to how helpful you think they would be if you needed therapy and explain what it is about each one that you like/dislike.

Option 2:

Former First Lady Michelle Obama contributed a considerable amount of energy and support into a campaign targeting increased awareness of mental health issues called Change Direction. Using the information provided on their website (http://www.changedirection.org) evaluate how effective you think the campaign will be in general. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign? Will college ...

Chapter 14 First Impression Prompts – Mental Illness

Here are the prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag “Mental Illness.”

Option 1

Schizophrenia is often depicted dramatically in the media, and has been the subject of many major films like A Beautiful Mind, The Soloist, and Donnie Darko. Less frequently, however, do people get the chance to think about the daily life of someone who experiences hallucinations and delusions. Watch this video which simulates the experience of a person with schizophrenia, share your reactions, and compare this to how you typically see schizophrenia in the media.

Option 2

People often associate schizophrenia with the homeless population or mental hospitals, but rarely do we think about people who are professionally very ...

Chapter 9 First Impression Prompts – Intelligence

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Intelligence."

Option 1:

Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is substantial evidence that the environment and social processes play a large role as well. Since schools are a place where children try to determine how smart they really are, it is important for educators to understand the impacts of their subtle or not-so-subtle interactions with students. In your blog post, reflect on your interactions with educators throughout your school career, and discuss what changes to the school system could improve students’ performance in the classroom.

Option 2:

In 1998, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed spending $105,000 of ...

Chapter 11 First Impression Prompts – Stress

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag "Stress."

Option 1:

Stress permeates American society, and college is a very stressful environment for everyone involved. Stress management is a critical component of academic success in college. Describe your current stress management strategies, assess how well they work, and discuss what other stress management activities you could realistically incorporate into your routine to help you deal with stress more effectively.

Option 2:

Stress is something all too common in college students’ lives, but what if you could change your relationship with stress? Kelly McGonigal discusses doing just that in her TED talk “Making Stress Your Friend.” Watch the video, share your reactions, ...

Chapter 13 First Impression Prompts – Personality

We all want to know more about our ourselves, and psychological tests are one way to explore our personalities. While the full psychological tests are often long and require a fee to take, there are an abundance of free versions online. Take the four personality tests linked below, discuss how accurately they describe your perception of your personality, and discuss the credibility of each test. Make sure to use the tag “Personality” on your post.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Chapter 10 First Impression Prompts – Emotion

Here are the prompts for this chapter. Please use the tag "Emotion."

Option 1:

We all want to enjoy life and seek ways to make ourselves happy. Indeed, we spend much of our lives chasing the goal of happiness. But how good are we at actually finding it? Dan Gilbert discusses the ways in which we sabotage our own happiness in his TED talk. Watch the video, share your reactions, comment on the speaker’s credibility, discuss how reasonable you find its message to be, and discuss ways in which you can incorporate more synthetic happiness into your life.

Option 2:

A large portion of communication is non-verbal, including a lot of clues about people's emotional states. Effective communication involves being able to ...

Chapter 3 First Impression Prompts

Here are the prompts for this week. If you select Options 1 or 2, use the tag "Sleep" and if you select Options 3 or 4, use the tag "Drugs":

Option 1:

In this TED talk, Russell Foster outlines 3 prominent theories about why we sleep. Watch the talk and argue for the theory you find the most convincing. Make sure to explain your thoughts about the credibility of each of the three theories.

Option 2:

College students are often heavily sleep deprived as they sacrifice sleep in order to study, work, and/or have a social life in addition to their academic commitments. Assess your current sleep habits and how healthy you think they are. What is a realistic goal for ...

Spring Break Bonus First Impression Prompts – Chapter 10 – Motivation

Here are the prompts for the bonus post for this week. It comes from Chapter 10. Whichever post you use, make sure to use the tag "Motivation." The first impression post is due at 2pm on Wednesday, 3/6, and the refinement post is due Sunday, 3/10, at noon. These posts will be treated like any other blog posts; they are NOT extra credit. If you're behind on posts, however, this is a great chance to catch up.

Option 1

America is currently facing an obesity epidemic that some experts have labeled the biggest public health threat we have today. We have all heard the recommendations to eat healthier and get regular exercise. Some people, however, are taking the message of healthy eating too far. A new mental health ...

Bonus First Impression Prompt – Chapter 6 – Sensation & Perception

The first impression post for this prompt is due Tuesday, 2/26, at 5pm. The refinement post is due Sunday, 3/3, at noon. These posts will be treated like any other blog posts; they are NOT extra credit. If you're behind on posts, however, this is a great chance to catch up. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag “Sensation & Perception” on your post.

Option 1:

Synesthesia is a condition in which people’s perceptions of one sense activates another (for example hearing colors or seeing sounds). Watch Daniel Tammet explain his experience of synesthesia in a TED Talk entitled “Different Ways of Knowing.” Share your reactions to this video and discuss how you think this condition would affect someone’s day-to-day life.

Option ...