Module 4 Learning Activities

15 points

Meditation is the action of silence

Krishnamurti


It is important for all of us to realize that the mind can affect health and well-being. Positive thoughts and emotions can improve health, aid healing and recovery from illness and injury, and increase longevity, whereas negative thoughts and emotions contribute to decreased health and longevity.

Read:
 • The Mind and Health
 • Test Taking
 • Test Anxiety
 • Stress

Answer Questions 1-15 below. E-mail your responses to the Instructor. Each correct response is worth 1 point. Add relevant links to your Bookmarks/Favorites Health 1 Folder.

1. Jill is supposed to meet Andrew so they can go to a concert together. Andrew looks at his watch and sees that Jill is 30 minutes late. Andrew thinks "Jill's being so rude," which produces the emotion of anger. By the time Jill shows up 15 minutes later, Andrew is boiling mad and is in a massive sulk; he refuses talk to her, as withdrawal is Andrew's major anger-style.
 • Read how the method of Cognitive Reframing can help you change your thoughts to produce a greater sense of well-being.
 • How could Andrew have used the method of cognitive reframing to make himself feel better and possibly not behave in a way that harms his relationship with Jill?

2. In the United States, cardiovascular disease kills roughly half a million women each year, making it the leading cause of death for women. African-American women have a disproportionately higher rate of cardiovascular disease and death. Researchers found that exposure of middle-aged African-American women to chronic, subtle, everyday disrespect or mistreatment is associated with a build-up of calcium deposits in the coronary arteries -- an early sign of heart disease. Use the concept of psychosomatic illness to explain this finding.

3. A woman found herself in an unpleasant life situation. Not a day went by that she was not aggravated and upset by it. She believed it was in the best interest of her child not to complain, try to change things, or leave. Whenever she got aggravated and explosively angry, she would say nothing, but inside her mind she would hurl violently angry tirades against the offending situation.

On a few occasions during this time in her life she became very sick, which she interpreted as the result of stress. After a couple of years, she realized that she was hurting herself with her reactions to the situation. She realized that if she was not going to change things for the better, then she had to change herself, which she did through the method of thought stopping. Describe how this woman might have used thought stopping to improve her life. Here is an example of Thought Stopping helping an LPC student lessen the power of unpleasant thoughts.

4. For each of the following test-taking behaviors, provide an alternative that would lessen text-anxiety and increase the likelihood of better test performance.

5. In your own words, paraphrase and give an example from your own life of the scientific definition of stress.

6. Go to the Mayo Clinic on Stress Relief. Scroll to the "See Also" list and choose a topic that interests you or that you might find helpful and write a brief report on what you learned.

7A. How do you experience stress? Look at this list of possibilities.
7B. What (if anything) do you do to lessen your experience of stress? (Besides responding to this question in your assignment, you may share your comments and experiences with the class on the Discussion Board).

8. If you get a cold this winter, perhaps the reason is illustrated by this experiment, in which the competency of the immune system of a group of college students was measured in relation to an important exam. The results were:

8A. For yourself, make a graph of these results. On the vertical axis, plot the degree of immune functioning. On the horizontal axis, plot the weeks.
8B. For credit, answer this question: What is a likely explanation for these results?

9. Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. So wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the German author of Faust and other literary works. Answer these questions: 9A. What is your interpretations of Goethe's idea?
9B. How does letting things which matter most be at the mercy of things which matter least contribute to stress?
9C. How susceptible are you to stress from letting things which matter most be at the mercy of things which matter least? What could you do to reduce that stress?

10. In August 2005, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. Analysis of a local hospital's records showed that in the two years following the hurricane, 2.18% of all people admitted to the hospital suffered a heart attack. In the two years prior to the hurricane, only 0.71% of hospital admissions were due to heart attack. Besides more heart disease, compared to the pre-Katrina heart attack victims, the post-Katrina group had a significantly higher prevalence of smoking and substance abuse. Offer an explanation for the difference in pre- and post-Katrina heart attack rates.

Sources:
 •  Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the incidence of acute coronary syndrome at a primary angioplasty center in New Orleans.
 • Unemployment may be hazardous to your health.

11. John hasn't liked being Margie's supervisor since her first day of work. She just doesn't get it. And she's the boss's niece! In the past six months, whenever Margie is on John's shift-team, his shoulders stiffen and he gets terrible pains in his neck.
Question 11A: What's a likely explanation for John's neck pain?
Question 11B: John takes muscle relaxants and Motrin to lessen the pain in his neck. Which coping strategy does this represent?

Questions 12 and 13:

College students are notorious for not getting sufficient sleep. Many view cheating on sleep as necessary in order to carry out all of a day's activities. What generally isn't appreciated is that mental efficiency drops significantly when a person is sleep-deprived. Furthermore, sleep deprivation feels terrible, increases stress hormones and makes you susceptible to depression and a variety of illnesses.

Contrary to myth, sleep is not a waste of time. Sufficient sleep (for most adults between 7-9 hours a night) restores the mind and body from a day's activities. It aids memory processing (so you actually remember what you study!) and creativity (so you can write a dynamite term paper or ace that math problem set).

12. Which of these healthy sleep habits could you incorporate into your life? Explain your reasoning.

13. Go to the National Sleep Foundation. From the menus labeled "Sleep Topics" or "Sleep-Related Problems" (upper left), click on at least one topic of interest to you personally. Write a brief paragraph describing what you learned and how what you learned could improve your life.

More info:
 •  MedlinePlus on Sleep and Sleep Disorders
 •  Insomina Treatment: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Instead of Sleeping Pills
 •  Guide to Healthy Sleep...PDF download from National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
 •  What is Sleep and Why Do We Do It?
 •  Understanding Sleep...from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

14. Depression is very common. You should be able to recognize it in yourself and in others. List five common signs of depression. More info: Depression...from the Mayo Clinic

15. Anxiety is a sense of fearfulness, worry, and uncertainty. The brain is capable of generating anxiety as a way to protect you from potential dangers. Anxiety can be triggered by stressful thoughts ("I have too much to do!!), fear of encountering in reality or in memory prior traumatic, fearful experiences, and/or biological factors. Go to the National Institute of Mental Health's Anxiety Disorders page. Choose one topic from the list of anxiety disorders that is of interest to you and write a brief paragraph describing what you learned.