Psychology Philosophy and Education

Psychology Philosophy and Education

Showing 1–16 of 456 results

  • Create a Statement of Organizational or Personal Capacity

    $7.00

    Week 4 – Assignment 2: Create a Statement of Organizational or Personal Capacity

    Top of Form

    Hide Folder Information
    Instructions
    This week, write a brief statement of organizational or personal capacity. Your statement of capacity should correspond with the requirements identified in the CHE Application Information Guide Stage II (pp. 3-4). Please note the character limit for the Application’s Qualifications is up to 2,400 characters or 350 words.

    Provide a brief overview of your personal or the organization’s capacity to undertake the work. Explain what, if any, experience you and/or your organization have had concerning the type of work for which you seek support. Be sure to indicate who will be responsible for the work and what expertise they bring to the project. Then, reveal whether other organizations in your community, region, or nation are doing similar work and if they are, explain if you have sought information from them or will work with them in any way.

    Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including older articles, may be included.

    Length: as required by the CHE guidelines

    Your assignment should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards where appropriate.

  • Films on Demand Sociology Collection

    $7.50

    SOC 100 Week 4 Individual Assignment Films on Demand Sociology Collection Social Institutions

    Films on Demand: Sociology Collection: Social Institutions

    Instructions:

    Review the list of Films on Demand: Sociology Collection: Social Institutions to select and watch one video from each of the following categories listed: family, education, and religion.

    Option 1

    Write a 700- to 1,050-word essay.

    Format your assignment according to appropriate course level APA guidelines.

    Submit your assignment to the Assignment Files tab.

    Include the following in your paper or presentation:

    • Prepare an introduction that identifies the major social institutions in society and why they are important.

    • Describe each video and the social institutions it addresses.

    • Explain the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives on the family, religion, and education. Which perspective does each film use to discuss the institution? Explain specific examples from the videos.

    • Provide a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas of the essay and describes how these institutions have influenced you.

    Format your references according to appropriate course level APA guidelines. Include citations in the speaker notes or in a separate reference list.

    Submit your assignment to the Assignment Files tab.

    Supporting Material: Films on Demand: Sociology Collection: Social

    Institutions Week 4 Assignment Rubric – Films on Demand

  • Individual Continuing Academic Success

    $15.00

    GEN 201 Week 5 Individual Continuing Academic Success

    Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper sharing what you learned and how you will apply what you learned in this course to take responsibility for your success in your education and your career. The paper should include the following:

    •    An introduction

    •    A minimum of three properly cited and referenced sources from the University Library

    •    A conclusion

    •    A reference page

    Include the following in your paper:

    •    How setting goals can lead to success

    •    At least one educational goal and one career goal

    •    How the writing process can help you advance in your education and your career

    •    An example of how the information from your Ethical Lens Inventory can help you make better decisions

    •    The steps will you take to improve your critical-thinking skills

    •    The university resources you will use to ensure academic success

    •    The benefits and challenges of working with outside sources

    •    Any other important lessons you learned in this course

    Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

    Please use the discussion space on the assignments to ask questions and clarify misunderstandings of the assignment. Feel free to offer suggestions to your classmates, but take caution, sharing work on assignments may be collusion.

  • Challenges Faced by Positive Psychology

    $25.00

    Week 7 – Assignment: Prepare a Transcript of a Fictional Debate About the Challenges Faced by Positive Psychology 

    Instructions

    Imagine that you are attending a psychology conference and you attend a session led by two distinguished researches in the field.  The first researcher, Dr. Adams, is extolling the successes of positive psychology and contending that this field will continue to be a viable force in modern psychology. The second researcher, Dr. Hernandez, believes that there are many challenges faced by the field of positive psychology.  The purpose of the session is to raise the challenges and listen to the arguments that are made to refute these issues.

    You need to prepare a transcript of the debate that ensues between the two researchers. Each researcher has the opportunity to first explain their position (e.g. Dr. Adams will give a brief overview of why she supports positive psychology and Dr. Hernandez will give a brief overview of why he is skeptical of the field). They then have a dialogue raising points and counter points about the criticisms that have been leveled at the respective approaches.

    • What challenges would Dr. Hernandez raise?
    • How could Dr. Adams respond to these challenges?

    You need to use at least 5 scholarly resources, including those you located last week. Make sure that you locate research that both supports and refutes each of the challenges.

    Length: 4 pages

    Your debate transcript should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect graduate-level writing and APA standards.

    This week you will learn about some of the challenges faced by the field of positive psychology. These challenges range from cultural to research to scope. For example, some contend that cultural context has been virtually ignored. What constitutes a positive emotion or trait in one culture is not necessarily the same in another.

    From a research perspective, there have been concerns about the rigor of the research and the conclusions that are being drawn based on a relatively small number of self-reporting participants. It is important to remember that this is still a relatively new field. Scientific studies that assess the benefits of positive psychology (e.g. positive psychology interventions) are limited. This will change, but for some psychologists the jury is out on positive psychology until more scientific studies are published.

    Still further concerns relate to the fact that positive psychology seems to extol the virtues of positive thinking without acknowledging the potential disadvantages (e.g. excessive positive thinking can lead to a disassociation from reality). Conversely negative thinking is discouraged when actually it might be beneficial for some (e.g. used as a protective factor). You will encounter additional challenges as you conduct your research this week.

    Since the late 1990s there have been numerous positive psychology research studies, articles, intervention techniques, etc. Many researchers have embraced positive psychology and believe that it has enhanced modern psychology. However, other researchers have raised concerns about what they perceive to be flaws and weaknesses associated with positive psychology.

    Some researchers object to what they believe is an over-simplification of positivity and negativity, specifically that thinking positively is good and thinking negatively is bad. There has been research that has documented the benefits of negative thinking for some. Moreover, psychologists have questioned the wisdom of instructing people to think positively to avoid problems or to cope with issues in their lives. Their concern lies in the fact that individuals who are not able to adopt this way of thinking may feel even worse about themselves because they are led to believe that they have the power to fix their issues and they are just not.

    Another criticism levelled at positive psychologists is that it lacks cultural utility. Positive psychology was borne in an individualistic culture and the application of the premises of this field in other cultures (e.g. more collectivist cultures) simply might not be valid.

    It is important to consider measurement and how positive psychologists have conducted their research. There has been concern that there has been an over-reliance on self-report measures in this field. Specifically, a lot of the data has been collected via asking people to complete questionnaires about themselves and these self-reports might not always be accurate.

    It is important to always evaluate both the strengths and the weaknesses. In this part of class, you are going to delve deeper into some of these key criticisms and learn about how positive psychologists have responded.

  • Warm Up Activity 4.1 VIA survey

    $32.00

    Instructions

    Warm Up Activity 4.1 VIA survey

    Go to The Via Institute on Character website, found in the Books and Resources for this Week, and learn about the VIA survey and character strengths and virtues.

    Assignment

    Imagine that you are a school counselor at a high school. You want to introduce a program that enables students to take the VIA youth survey, which is a version of the strengths survey designed specifically for children between the ages of 10 and 17. Students will then learn about their individual strengths and how they can apply them in areas of their lives (e.g. family relationships, future career directions, etc.).

    You need to convince the school administration of the value of the new strengths program that you want to adopt. Create a PowerPoint that you are going to deliver to the school administration. Make sure that it includes the following:

    • Introduce positive psychology and their ideas about the importance of character strengths.
    • Explain the VIA survey (e.g. how was it created? What strengths does it assess? Etc.)
    • Discuss how the VIA survey has been adapted for adolescents.
    • Evaluate the potential value of your program for the students.
    • Include specific examples of how strength knowledge might have a positive impact on specific aspects of the students’ lives.

    Support your presentation with at least five references from peer-reviewed journal articles.

    Length: 7-10 slides; expanded notes of 200-300 words

    Positive traits have been an important area of research for positive psychologists. Researchers wanted to establish a list of character strengths that are considered stable positive traits across cultures. Positive psychologists distinguish between strengths and talents. Talents are considered to be innate whereas strengths can be selected and nurtured.

    This week you will learn about a nonprofit research institute, the VIA Institute on Character. This institute has been responsible for administering the VIA survey created by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman to assess character strengths. This survey assesses 24 character strengths that are categorized under 6 essential virtues (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence).

    The strengths approach encourages individuals to identify their key character strengths. Individuals are then able to focus on these virtues and utilize their strengths to maximize success in many areas of their lives. When individuals play to their strengths they are more effective in the workplace and are more equipped to form close relationships. Character strengths can also protect us from mental illness.

  • Scale Construction Proposal

    $45.00

    Week 8 Assignment: Create a Scale Construction Proposal

    Activity Description

    For this task, complete the readings for this assignment, and then write a paper in which you complete the following:

    1. Write an introduction that examines the construct, its conceptual definition/s, and related concepts.
    2. Review the literature and the existing tools that measure the construct.
    3. Provide justification for your original scale.
    4. Discuss how you intend to construct the items, cognizant of the basic principles of item pool construction, the necessity of SMEs, the unidimensionality or multidimensionality of the construct, etc.
    5. Write at least 20 sample items that represent the construct you are planning to measure. You may construct negatively-worded items, but indicate these in a chart or table. If the construct you choose has two or more dimensions under it, write sample items indicating which items fall under which dimension. (See for example, the Life Position Scale that contained four dimensions I’m OK etc. at first, but after factor analysis the dimensions reduced to two—I and You.)
    6. Argue for a specific method of running an item analysis procedure.
    7. Argue for at least two specific methods of establishing your scale’s validity (Choose at least one method for construct validity, and another method for criterion-related validity. In criterion validation, it is not enough to simply write that you are planning to employ the method. Be sure to specify the variable(s) you will correlate your scale with.

    Length: 10 pages

    Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

    Learning Outcomes

    3.0   Select methods used in the creation of items that measure psychological constructs.

    4.0   Appraise different approaches to establishing item and instrument reliability.

    5.0   Evaluate the different approaches to instrument validation.

    6.0   Discriminate methods of establishing criterion or predictive validity.

    Introduction: 

    Your proposal is similar to a research proposal that expresses intent to perform a scientific investigation. However, unlike a research proposal that first establishes the existence of a gap in the knowledge and proceeds to argue for a relationship between or among variables, the scale construction proposal is just a scaled-down manuscript that discusses your intention to construct a psychological scale.

    Nevertheless, it should contain an introduction that discusses the construct of interest and a review of the existing tools created to measure it. It should also be ideal to explain why you intend to construct an original scale that measures your chosen construct or why the existing tools do not satisfy the purpose of your dissertation. What follows this should include specific methods that you will employ to construct the items, to weed out bad items and retain good ones, to establish item reliability and consistency, and a proposal to establish the scale’s validity. In establishing validity, you must be specific in the methods that you will employ and the variables that you will correlate with your chosen construct. Also, be specific in the variables that you expect to correlate highly with your construct and those that should yield weak correlations with it (as what you will expect in a Multi-trait, Multi-method matrix, page 287 in Kline).

  • Prepare a Literature Review

    $50.00

    Week 12 Assignment: Prepare a Literature Review

    Topic: Physiological and Neurological Aspects of Fear and Anxiety

    Signature Assignment

    Activity Description

    For your Signature Assignment, choose one of the primary emotions (happy, sad, fear, anger, disgust, or surprise), and then identify research that has been conducted on the emotion you selected. Your investigation should include research conducted on this emotion as it relates to the various topics discussed in this class. For example, if you select “anger” you could search for research conducted on the emotional regulation of anger, areas of the brain activated during an anger response, physiological changes occurring during an anger response, individual differences in the expression of anger, etc.

    The literature review should not simply consist of a series of article reviews; the literature review should provide an integrated synthesis of the research in the particular areas you select to include in your paper.

    In addition to the articles you used in your annotated bibliography, be sure to locate another five references from scholarly sources to support your assignment.

    Length: 12 pages

    Your literature review should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards

    Learning Outcomes

    1.0   Assess the concepts and theoretical framework of emotion, motivation, and cognition.

    2.0   Interpret the critical research findings related to emotion, motivation and cognition.

    3.0   Assess cultural and social influences on emotions, motivation, and cognition.

    4.0   Evaluate the development of emotional, motivational and cognitive skills throughout the lifespan.

    6.0   Synthesize concepts of emotions, motivation and cognition using a variety of communication tools.

    Week: 12

    Signature Assignment

    Introduction: 

    Your Signature Assignment for this course represents a culmination of your learning about cognition, emotion, and motivation. As you work to complete your literature review integrating research on a selected emotion, take a minute to reflect on what direction future research into cognition, motivation, and emotion may take. For example, the National Institute for Mental Health has laid out a research domain matrix that is an attempt to categorize areas, or domains, of research into mental health issues that show what is known and thus, provide some direction for future research.

    Additionally, as we continue to gain understanding of human behavior, particularly related to cognition and emotion, we likely will see the introduction of new therapeutic approaches or adaptation of existing methods to address psychological disorders reviewed in this course. For example, researchers have investigated treatment options for returning war veterans presenting with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Kopytin and Lebedev (2013) studied the therapeutic effects of art therapy among a group of Russian war veterans and found humor, long associated with positive emotion, increased.

  • Emotional Development Throughout the lifespan

    $7.00

    Emotional Development Throughout the lifespan Blog Entry

    Week 9 Assignment: Create a Blog Entry

    Activity Description

    For this task, imagine that you have been asked to contribute comments for a blog that discusses research on emotional regulation throughout the lifespan. This includes developmental changes during childhood as well as how emotional regulation changes in adults over age 60. The intended audience for this blog is a general population of adults who may not necessarily have a psychology background or be familiar with terms such as “emotional regulation” and “inhibitory control.” Although you should not provide formal “dictionary” definitions for these terms, you should clearly explain these terms throughout your blog.

    Length: 450-500 words

    Your blog entry should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

    Learning Outcomes

    1.0   Assess the concepts and theoretical framework of emotion, motivation, and cognition.

    2.0   Interpret the critical research findings related to emotion, motivation and cognition.

    4.0   Evaluate the development of emotional, motivational and cognitive skills throughout the lifespan.

    6.0   Synthesize concepts of emotions, motivation and cognition using a variety of communication tools.

     

    Week: 9

    Emotional Development Throughout the lifespan

    Introduction: 

    As you learned during Week 7, emotional intelligence consists of many factors related to the regulation of emotions within ourselves, along with the perception and interpretation of emotions in other people. Emotional regulation is crucial to success in social situations and research has found that children, who are better able to regulate their emotions, also are more successful in school and in social settings with their peers.

    The ability to regulate emotions is a developmental process that appears to develop at a young age. Hudson and Jacques (2014) discuss several factors important for the development of emotional regulation and one of these is inhibitory control. You may remember from Week 4 that inhibitory control is considered an executive function and the development of which may be linked to continued brain development in children, particularly the development of the prefrontal cortex. As you may recall from your other classes, the frontal lobes are the last areas of the brain to develop in children with some research suggesting that this development continues throughout adolescence. Interestingly, we see that the frontal lobes are one of the first areas of the brain to show age-related decline in older adults (over 60 years of age).

    Although frontal lobe declines tend to be negatively related to deficits in executive function, Isaacowitz and Blanchard-Fields (2012) provide evidence that emotional regulation actually increases in adults over the age of 60. These researchers suggest that this may be due to the changes in motivational strategies in older adults.

    Your assignment this week is to write a newsletter article that summarizes the research on emotional regulation. This should include development during childhood as well as how emotional regulation changes in adults over the age of 60.

    Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

  • Mock Interview on expression of emotions

    $20.00

    Mock Interview Task

    For this task, you will prepare a mock interview. Assume you were asked to interview a psychologist who is an expert on cultural differences. Your questions to the fictitious researcher should focus on the major differences in the expression of emotions, cognitive processes, and neurological differences.

    Your interview should be conversational in nature by critically discussing the following questions:

    What are the major differences in the expression of emotions among the various cultures?
    What are the major cultural differences in cognition?
    What does the research suggest about the influence of culture on the brain? How do these differences influence cognition?
    What are some of the limitations of the research?
    What aspect of cultural differences are you currently investigating?
    Support your interview with references from at least two peer-reviewed articles. You may elect to use information from this week’s assigned readings as well as other scholarly resources.

    Length: 3 page transcript of your interview

    Your mock interview should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

  • How can teachers communicate with refugees

    $105.00

    How teachers communicate with refugees

    How can teachers communicate effectively with refugees that come from a war zone

    YOU SHOULD USE:

    1: Rhetorical theories and methods!

    2: Your observations!

    Observations example:
    In the book “What the best college teachers do” Ken Bain argues that the best teachers try to get their students interest and attention by starting with something ”the students care about, know, or
    think they know, rather than just lay out a blueprint or an outline or tale or theory or account of our own” (Bain 2004: 110). BUT according to my observations the refugees at HKK are so diverse and have so different backgrounds, that it is hard for the teachers to find something they all have in common – something they all know and care about.

    Example of a book you could use: https://books.google.al/books?id=F0gSBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=bill+gillham+observation+looking+and&source=bl&ots=Ok_UGrgusV&sig=F9VZJa8xYT_1_7GhKhLW26g4sfU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHl_Gjv-jSAhVHhiwKHQy_CRAQ6AEILTAD#v=onepage&q=bill%20gillham%20observation%20looking%20and&f=false

    In the assessment formal matters such as language, structure and bibliography will be important – but even more so, contents, degree of independent work, and analytical depth.

    Format:

    The paper is to be written as a long, formal report. The paper must have a title page and a table of contents, indicating the outline of your text. Sources should be documented with references in the text (or in endnotes or footnotes). Sources must be listed in a bibliography/list of references.

    Length: Text should be minimum 35, maximum 45 A4 pages (title page and pictures, and/or graphs excluded). The text should be typed in Times or Times New Roman, font size 12, line spacing 1.5.

    Additionally, you must include an Abstract, approx. half a page (a brief summary of the entire paper) as well as the reason why you chose this topic.

  • Discuss Methods of Validity in Test Construction

    $35.00

    Week 6 Assignment: Discuss Methods of Validity in Test Construction

    Activity Description

    In 2002, Boholst constructed a Life Position Scale for the purpose of finishing his dissertation. The construct life position was one of the variables he studied in his doctoral dissertation titled, The Influence of Life Scripts and Life Positions on Psychopathology and Positive Mental Health: A Structural Equation Modeling. He had to construct this scale because there was no available one at the time. In 2005, he and two other authors wrote another article that found modest correlations between Life Positions and Attachment Styles—validating the scale by establishing the relationship between life positions and a variable that was theoretically argued to have conceptual parallels or to be “similar” with it. In 2012, Isgor and two other authors translated the Life Position Scale into Turkish and established its reliability and validity.

    This is often a realistic scenario where a tool slowly attains credibility by a gradual validation process across the years—often by different authors. For example, in 2004, Weisner wrote his doctoral dissertation in the University of North Texas on the relationship between Affective Traits and Life Positions. Hadzi-Pesic and others more recently (2014) validated the Life Position Scale and found correlations with alcohol addicts’ personality.

    For this task, write a paper that addresses the following:

    Discuss the different types of validity that have been employed—whether implicitly or explicitly to validate the life position scale. It is ideal therefore to read articles in chronological order starting with the A Life Position Scale, Life Positions and Attachment: A Canonical Correlation Analysis, and Life Positions Scale Language Equivalence, Reliability and Validity Analysis.

    Length: 7 pages, not including title and reference pages

    Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

    Learning Outcomes

    5.0   Evaluate the different approaches to instrument validation.

    6.0   Discriminate methods of establishing criterion or predictive validity.

    Techniques and Phases of Scale Construction > Week 6

    Week: 6

    Validity

    Introduction: 

    While an instrument may be reliable it does not necessarily follow that it is valid. A reliable instrument could be “reliably” erroneous! Validity on the other hand, however, necessitates that the instrument be first reliable because an inconsistent set of scores on a psychological scale can never claim to capture the construct it is trying to measure. Instrument validity has often been defined as the capacity of a scale to measure the construct it claims to measure. How do I know, for instance, that the depression scale I constructed really measures depression and not another variable such as loneliness? Well, I could ask a psychiatrist to provide me with a group of patients diagnosed with depression, gather another group of non-depressed individuals, administer my scale, cross my fingers, and hope that the former group would score higher than the latter. What method of validation would you call that? Or I could correlate my depression scale with an entirely unrelated variable such as monthly salary and with a slightly related variable such as loneliness. I should then hope that depression will have very low correlation with salary and a moderate correlation with loneliness. How would you call that method?

    For this week, you will read material on the different methods of establishing instrument validity.

  • Brochure Activity on Schizophrenia

    $20.00

    Brochure Activity on Schizophrenia

    Week 11 Assignment: Create a Brochure

    Activity Description

    Your task this week is to create a double-sided, tri-fold brochure that describes the symptoms, their impact on emotional processing, their effects on cognitive processing, and specific treatment options for the psychological disorder you selected last week.

    The intended audience for this pamphlet is college-educated adults.

    Support your assignment with at least three academic scholarly sources and these sources should be cited throughout the text in your brochure. The references for these sources should be provided on the back page of the brochure.

    You are allowed to use appropriate clip art to enhance your brochure. Remember to incorporate the research you located in Week 10 to support your assignment. Other resources also may be used.

    Length: 1 double-sided tri-fold pamphlet

    Your brochure should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

    Learning Outcomes

    1.0   Assess the concepts and theoretical framework of emotion, motivation, and cognition.

    2.0   Interpret the critical research findings related to emotion, motivation and cognition.

    4.0   Evaluate the development of emotional, motivational and cognitive skills throughout the lifespan.

    6.0   Synthesize concepts of emotions, motivation and cognition using a variety of communication tools.

    Emotions, and Cognition > Week 11

    Week: 11

    Psychological Disorders, Emotion, and Cognition

    Introduction: 

    Earlier in this course, you reviewed the physiological and neurological aspects of emotion. Last week, you read about some of the psychological disorders, their effects on emotional and cognitive processing, and treatment options. This week, you will consider how physiological changes may affect an individual’s emotional and cognitive states. Specifically, you will examine how neurological disorders, including those on the dementia spectrum affect not only how the individual may express emotions, but also how he or she may interpret others’ emotions.

    Not only do these disorders have evident physical symptoms resulting from the damage to the brain and nervous system, but they also have emotional consequences as the individual can have difficulty accepting or adjusting to the diagnosis. In addition, it is not uncommon for medications prescribed to these individuals to result in some emotional changes. Finally, there is also the aspect of how the disorder’s progression may affect the individual’s interactions with others.

    Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

    Warm-up Activity 11.1: Creating a Brochure

    You will create a brochure for the Week 11 assignment. To learn how to make a brochure quickly and easily please review the tutorial “How to Make Brochures on Microsoft Word” located under your weekly resources. This resource applies to Word 2007 and Word 2010. This resource describes how to use the existing templates in Word to create a brochure.

    If you have problems finding the templates, click “File”, then “New”. In the “Search Office.com for templates” area, you can type “tri-fold brochure” in the search field, and then click the arrow to the right or hit the “enter” key on your keyboard.

  • Develop a Proposal for an Organization Overhaul

    $50.00

    Week 12 – Assignment: Signature Assignment: Develop a Proposal for an Organization Overhaul

    Read the brief article, How Can You Create a Positive Organization?, found in the Books and Resources for this Week.

    Assignment

    In this signature assignment you are going to be writing a proposal to the leader of an organization. This leader has asked for proposals to suggest how to move their organization forward in a productive manner. You believe that this organization would flourish by overhauling their current mindset and adapting a positive psychology framework.

    You may select an educational institution, a business, a volunteer organization, etc.

    Make sure that the proposal contains the following sections:

    -Introduction

    -Positive psychology overview (e.g. history, key concepts, etc.).

    -Application (show how positive psychology has been applied in other institutions, share

    research on the impact of positive education, positive psychology in the workplace, etc ).

    -Outline your plan for the organization (discuss what changes need to be made, be specific in

    regards to what needs to be implemented to bring the organization in line with a positive

    psychology framework).

    -Challenges – Both to the overall field and to the specific organization (acknowledge the

    challenges that have been faced by the field of positive psychology, discuss research that

    refutes these challenges, and consider any unique challenges that might be faced by the

    organization as they transition over to this new framework.)

    -Future Directions (discuss both where the positive psychology field is heading and also make

    predictions about changes that would occur specifically in that organization were they to

    implement your proposal).

    Conclusion.

    The proposal should be 10-12 pages and incorporate at least 10 scholarly sources.

    Your proposal should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic.

    Signature Assignment: Future Directions

    In the positive psychology movement we have seen a shift away from the disease model to a model that focuses on strengths and human flourishing. Positive psychologists have contributed to our knowledge on a whole range of important issues such as the relationship between positive emotions and physical health, the importance of social support, and our capacity to be resilient. However, the field has also faced challenges and questions remain as to the future direction of the field. This week you will read a diverse range of scholarly opinions on this topic that consider both the merits of positive psychology and the limitations that may prove challenging as we transition into the next era of modern psychology. Some psychologists believed that positive psychology would always have a short shelf life because the purpose was to redress the balance in traditional psychology and not to provide a new and competing field. These psychologists believed that once this had been achieved positive psychology would fade away. However, at this time positive psychology remains a considerable force.

    In the signature assignment you will develop a business proposal for an organization to encourage them to adopt a positive framework. You will draw from your knowledge of the historical underpinnings of the field, key concepts of positive psychology, and potential future directions as you create this proposal. Research from the three pillars (positive emotions, positive traits, and positive institutions) will guide you as you formulate a plan to overhaul the current organizational model.

  • Interviews on Positive Aging

    $7.50

    Week 9 – Assignment: Conduct Interviews on Positive Aging

    Recruit two participants that you can interview for this assignment. Both participants must be at least 50 years of age. Ideally the participants would be in different decades (e.g. perhaps one of your participants might be 55 and the other 75).

    Using the research that you have conducted on positive aging create 5-10 questions designed to assess whether your participants are aging in a positive manner (e.g. mental health, physical health, cognitively, socially, economically, etc.). Include the following in your overview:

    • Transcripts of the interviews
    • Based on your research discuss what constitutes positive aging.
    • Based on your research assess whether your participants seem to be aging in a positive fashion.
    • Make suggestions and recommendations for your participants to increase their positive aging.

    Use at least 3 scholarly sources.

    Your transcripts and overview should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect graduate-level writing and APA standards.

    Aging is met with feelings of trepidation for some as they are concerned about potential deterioration in physical, cognitive, social, and psychological functioning. However, others are able to stay engaged in life as they age, view aging in a positive fashion, and take steps to maintain mental and physical health. This type of positive attitude towards aging is called positive aging. Research suggests that people who think positively about aging are more likely to live longer.

    There are several strategies that people can employ to encourage positive aging, such as maintaining good nutrition, managing stress, keeping the brain active, etc. Positive aging has societal benefits in addition to improving quality of life for individuals on a physical and psychological scale.

  • Create a Stress Management and Resilience Brochure

    $15.00

    Week 5 – Assignment: Create a Stress Management and Resilience Brochure

    Before you begin your assignment watch the video, Enhancing Resilience, found in the Books and Resources for this Week.

    Assignment

    Imagine that you have been asked to develop a pamphlet about stress management and resilience for individuals with serious medical issues and their families.   Your pamphlet should address the following:

    • What is the impact of stress (physically and psychologically)?
    • What are the benefits of resilience?
    • What strategies can you suggest to cope with stress and to be more resilient

     

    Make sure that your pamphlet incorporates at least 3 scholarly sources.

    Your pamphlet should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect graduate-level writing and APA standards.

    Length: 3 pages

    Stress has been viewed as resulting from negative emotions and poor coping strategies. Positive psychologists have focused on how we cope with stress and our ability to recover. Resilience refers to our capacity to withstand adversity. People are often impressed when they see examples of resilience, but we are all capable of being resilient. Positive psychology research has found that individuals who have more moments of positive emotions are able to increase their resilience. Individuals often experience post-traumatic growth after traumatic incidents meaning that rather than just surviving adversity we can actually achieve growth. Conquering challenges leads to a sense of satisfaction that enhances our wellbeing.

    There are certain factors that seem to help people be resilient. Specifically, individuals who are able to view failures as learning opportunities are more likely to display resilience. Furthermore, having an optimistic attitude is also related to increased resilience. This week we will examine how we can use the tenets of positive psychology to handle stress and become more resilient.

    Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You will be expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

  • Positive psychology is a new area of psychology

    $10.00

    Whether positive psychology is a new area of psychology or a reimagining of humanistic psychology

    Assignment

    Your task this week is to join the debate on whether positive psychology is a new area of psychology or a reimagining of humanistic psychology?

    Support your side with at least two references from scholarly resources.

    Length: 1-2 pages

    Week 1 – Assignment: Debate Positive Psychology as an updated version of Humanistic Psychology
    Instructions
    Warm-Up Activity 1.1

    Read Martin Seligman’s presidential address (pages 559-562 only): Presidential Address

    Warm-Up Activity 1.2
    Psychologist Martin Seligman discusses the history of psychology and the role of positive psychology as we move into the future:

     

    Week 1

    Assignment

    Your task this week is to join the debate on whether positive psychology is a new area of psychology or a reimagining of humanistic psychology?

    Support your side with at least two references from scholarly resources.

    Length: 1-2 page