General Psychology
Paper AssignmentSpring 2017
DUE: 7/11 in Turnitin (Do not submit a hard copy of the paper) –
**if using pages instead of word, you must covert your paper to a PDF before submitting
- Complete The Student Stress Scale adapted from the Holmes-Rahe Stress Life Stress Inventory (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) and the Positive and Negative Coping Skills Inventory (Anspaugh, Hamrick, & Rosato, 1991).
- Review the concept of stress from at least three scholarly sources, including the class lecture notes, your textbook (Spielman, 2014), and in at least one research article on stress and coping (instructions on how to find a scholarly research article is included below). Do not cite websites, especially Wikipedia, Psychology Today, etc.
- Based on your review of the literature, in essay format (12-point, Times New Roman Font, double-space, 1-inch margins, body of the paper 3-5 pages) discuss the definition of stress and coping, and summarize the various coping mechanisms (emotion-focused coping, problem-focused coping, and avoidant or avoidance coping). Discuss the findings of one research article on stress. Next, report your score from The Student Stress Scale. List in order the three major life stressors you currently face as indicated by the Student Stress Scale. Also, provide a scholarly definition of daily life hassles and from greatest to least, list your fivemost frequent daily life hassles.Using the Positive and Negative Coping Skills Inventory, discuss whether you rely on more positive or negative coping skills when dealing with stress. Further, identify the coping mechanism(s) (emotion/problem/avoidant) you typically utilize and discuss whether the coping mechanisms you utilize are effective in dealing with your stressors. Finally, and identify three positive coping mechanisms you can use to reduce your stress levels in the future and what you learned about stress. An outline for the paper is located at:
- You MUST include a title page, abstract, and a reference page using APA format. Your paper will be graded in terms of application of course content and writing quality (including organization, clarity, punctuation, and grammar). Please review the grading rubric attached to the assignment.
- You must submit your essay in Turnitin at Instructions on creating a Turnitin account are included below.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING A TURNITIN ACCOUNT
- You MUST submit your paper in Turnitin. To create a Turnitin account. Please go to:
- If you already have an account, your login ID and password will be the same.
- If you do not have an account, please click on the create account link on the upper right hand corner.
- Once you create an account, you will need the class ID and password. The password is case sensitive.
- Class ID: 15589437
- Password: stress
- Here is a video link if you need assistance setting up an account.
FINDING A SCHOLARLY RESEARCH ARTICLE
Los Angeles Harbor College’s Library database at: is one resource you can use to find scholarly research articles. Once in the site, scroll down until you see Psychology and click on the Psychology Collection. You will then enter the login page and need to follow the instructions:
Use the library password and login. Login information is below:
- Students: user name is first 3 letters of your last name, the first letter of your first name, and the last four digits of your student ID number password is your birthday month and birthday day
- For example, if I am George Washington, my student ID is 07041776 and my birthday is February 22, my login would be:
- User name: wasg1776
- Password: 0222
- Notice that February is 02 (not just 2) and that we are using the numerals, not letters.
Once you log in to the site, within the search area, you will have many of choices. A simple approach is to type in a couple of key phrases that will get you into the right topic. Be sure to pull down the correct term. You can try subject terms if you are not looking for a specific article. Be sure to click on the "peer-reviewed" option and also the "full text" option. This ensures you will not waste time with only abstracts or magazines that are not authoritative.
Student Stress Scale
The Student Stress Scale focuses on events that may occur in the life of a student to offer you a different perspective for evaluating stress. The Student Stress Scale is an adaptation for college students of the Life Events Scale developed originally by Holmes and Rahe. This popular stress assessment measured the amount of change, using Life Change Units, a person was required to adapt to in the previous year. It was designed to predict the likelihood of disease and illness following exposure to stressful life events. Each life event is given a score that indicates the amount of readjustment a person has to make as a result of change. Some studies have found that people with serious illnesses tend to have higher scores on similar assessments.
For each event that occurred in your life within the past year, record the corresponding score. If an event occurred more than once, multiply the score for that event by the number of times the event occurred and record that score. Total all the scores.
Life Event / Mean Value1. Death of a close family member / 100
2. Death of a close friend / 73
3. Divorce of parents / 65
4. Jail term / 63
5. Major personal injury or illness / 63
6. Marriage / 58
7. Getting fired from a job / 50
8. Failing an important course / 47
9. Change in the health of a family member / 45
10. Pregnancy / 45
11. Sex problems / 44
12. Serious argument with a close friend / 40
13. Change in financial status / 39
14. Change of academic major / 39
15. Trouble with parents / 39
16. New girlfriend or boyfriend / 37
17. Increase in workload at school / 37
18. Outstanding personal achievement / 36
19. First quarter/semester in college / 36
20. Change in living conditions / 31
21. Serious argument with an instructor / 30
22. Getting lower grades than expected / 29
23. Change in sleeping habits / 29
24. Change in social activities / 29
25. Change in eating habits / 28
26. Chronic car trouble / 26
27. Change in number of family get-togethers / 26
28. Too many missed classes / 25
29. Changing colleges / 24
30. Dropping more than one class / 23
31. Minor traffic violations / 20
Total Stress Score ______
Score Interpretation:
Researchers determined that if your total score is:
300 or more - statistically you stand an almost 80 percent chance of getting sick in the near future.
150 to 299 - you have a 50-50 chance of experiencing a serious health change within two years.
149 or less - you have about a 30 percent chance of a serious health change.
This scale indicates that change in one's life requires an effort to adapt and then an effort to regain stability. Stress is a natural by product of adapting and then regaining internal homeostasis. Take note that this assessment considers only the events that occur, not individual perception of these events in life. Perception is a critical part of the ultimate stress experience, so while the Student Stress Scale has value in increasing awareness of potential stress-producing events, ultimately individual perception of the event is an important variable.
Positive and Negative Coping SkillsInventory
People react differently to stressful situations. Following is a list of what would be considered "positive" responses. Check off the appropriate response for each of these. If there are other positive ways that you deal with stress, please list them at the bottom of the list.
Response / NEVER / SOMETIMES / OFTENMeditate / _____ / _____ / _____
Stretch / _____ / _____ / _____
Engage in progressive muscle relaxation / _____ / _____ / _____
Listen to music / _____ / _____ / _____
Exercise aerobically / _____ / _____ / _____
Watch television / _____ / _____ / _____
Go to the movies / _____ / _____ / _____
Read / _____ / _____ / _____
Work on puzzles or play games / _____ / _____ / _____
Go for a leisurely walk / _____ / _____ / _____
Go to a health club / _____ / _____ / _____
Relax in a steam room or sauna / _____ / _____ / _____
Spend time alone / _____ / _____ / _____
Go fishing or hunting / _____ / _____ / _____
Participate in some form of recreational activity / _____ / _____ / _____
such as golf / _____ / _____ / _____
Do some work in the yard / _____ / _____ / _____
Socialize with friends / _____ / _____ / _____
Sit outside and relax / _____ / _____ / _____
Engage in a hobby / _____ / _____ / _____
______/ _____ / _____ / _____
______/ _____ / _____ / _____
______/ _____ / _____ / _____
Listed below are some negative ways of reacting to stress. Check off the appropriate column for each of these. If there are other negative ways you react to stress, list these at the bottom of the list.
Response / Never / Sometimes / OftenAct violently / _____ / _____ / _____
Yell at someone / _____ / _____ / _____
Overeat / _____ / _____ / _____
Do not eat for long periods / _____ / _____ / _____
Drink for excessive amount of alcohol / _____ / _____ / _____
Drink lots of coffee / _____ / _____ / _____
Smoke tobacco / _____ / _____ / _____
Kick something / _____ / _____ / _____
Throw something / _____ / _____ / _____
Drive fast in a car / _____ / _____ / _____
Pace up and down / _____ / _____ / _____
Bite your fingernails / _____ / _____ / _____
Take tranquilizers / _____ / _____ / _____
Take valium or other drugs / _____ / _____ / _____
______/ _____ / _____ / _____
______/ _____ / _____ / _____
______/ _____ / _____ / _____
You should compare the number of positive and negative responses. If your negative responses outnumber your positive responses, you have reason to be concerned about your stress level. You will need to try some of the positive responses in an attempt to reduce your level of stress.
Modified from Anspaugh DJ, Hamrick MH, Rosato FD:Wellness: concepts and applications,St. Louis, 1991, Mosby.
General Psychology Written Work Grading Rubric
This rubric is designed to clarify the grading process for written work by detailing the key elements expected for the assignments in this course.
Assignment Specific Criteria
____Definition of stress from a research article, the text, or lecture is provided. (5/5points)
____Definition of coping from a research article, the text, or lecture is provided. (5/5points)
____Problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping are defined from the literature. (5/5points)
____Summarized the results of one scientific study on stress.
____10/10 no significant problems describing the hypothesis/purpose, method, participants, results, and
strengths/weaknesses
____8/10 needs some improvement
____5/10 not a scholarly research article
____3/10 needs significant improvement
____Identified which coping mechanism(s) (emotion/problem/avoidant) is/are currently used. (5/5points)
____Student Stress score was reported and interpreted (3 major stressors discussed). (5/5points)
____Term daily hassles is define and 5 personal daily hassles are identified and discussed. (5/5points)
____Results from the Negative and Positive Coping Skills inventory are reported. (5/5points)
____3 positive coping skills are identified for future personal use. (5/5points)
Grammar/Sentence Structure/Clarity/Punctuation
___ No major grammatical errors and writing is clear and logical: presents no problem for understanding any sentences or paragraphs. (10/10 points)
___Slight grammatical errors and/or parts are unclear: presents minor problem for understanding some sentences/and or paragraphs. (8/10 points)
___Some major grammatical errors and/or parts are unclear: presents moderate problem for understanding some sentences and/or paragraphs. (5/10 points)
___Many grammatical errors and/or writing is unclear: presents major problem for understanding sentences and/or paragraphs (3/10 points)
APA Paper Format
____No significant problems with APA format (follows guidelines, citations included in the text,
abstractand title page included, and APA formatted reference page). (10/10 points)
____Slight problems with APA format (follows guidelines, citations included in the text, abstract and
title page included, and APA formatted reference page). (8/10 points)
____Some problems with APA format (follows some guidelines, citations included in the text, abstract
And title page included, and APA formatted reference page). (5/10 points)
____Significant problems with APA format (does not follow guidelines, missing citations in the text,
missing abstract, title page, or APA formatted reference page). (3/10 points)
Critical Thinking
____Demonstrated adequate critical thinking skills. (5/5 points)
____Needs some improvement in critical thinking skills. (3/5 points)
____Needs significant improvement in critical thinking skills. (1/5points)
Total Grade: ____/75 points
APA Format: Basic Overview
What is APA format?
APA Style was developed by social and behavioral scientists to standardize scientific writing. It is used for term papers and research reports and studies.
Manuscript (Paper) Format:
APA style includes a specific format, including Times New Roman 12 point font, double-space between lines of body and text and titles, headings, and block quotations. The reference list is also double-spaced. The first line of every paragraph is indented one-half inch with the exception of the abstract. The text is aligned to the left-hand margin.
APA format also includes a title page (page 1), abstract (page 2), body of the paper (page 3), and a reference list.
Title Page: The title page includes a “Running head” followed by a short title in all caps in the header. Page numbers are inserted in the header on the right side of the paper. The full title of the paper, the name of the author, and the author’s affiliation is also included on the title page.
Example of the format for the Title Page:
Running head: SHORT TITLE ALL CAPS Page Number
Title of Your Paper
Name
Author’s Affiliation
Abstract: The abstract is on its own page. It includes a brief summary of the information included in your paper. The abstract is limited to one paragraph (150-250 words) and is double-spaced, but the paragraph is not indented.
Body of the Paper:
Headings are used to help readers find the key points of your paper and track the development of your thought. The first heading needs to be centered, boldfaced, and in Upper and Lowercase. The second headings are flush left, boldface, and are upper and lowercase headings. (Additional levels of headings may be used as well for more detailed papers).
Citations in the Text:
“Citing while you write” is an important part of APA format. Anytime you cite information, including ideas, information, theories, or findings that directly influence your work, even if you paraphrase or describe someone else’s idea (including any ideas/information from your textbook), you must give the author(s) credit in the body of the essay. If you do not give the author credit, it is considered plagiarizing.
How do you cite while you write?
APA uses the author-date citation system. It allows the reader to find the sources in the reference list. To insert a citation in the text, include the author’s last name and the year of publication. For a direct quote, include the page number of the original work. Even if you borrow information from a lecture, the lecturer must be given credit using the same author-date format. For example, if the author of a study published in 2003 is Kessler, you might use the following citations styles in the body of the paper:
- Kessler (2003) found that among samples…
- Early onset of a disease may lead to poorer prognosis (Kessler, 2003).
- In 2003, Kessler’s study showed that…
Basic citation styles:
- One author: Walker (2007) or (Walker, 2007).
- Two authors: Walker and Allen (2004) or (Walker & Allen, 2004).
- Three-Six authors:
- First citation in text list all author’s last names- Walker, Allen, and Soo (2004) or (Walker, Allen, & Soo, 2004).
- Second citation in text – Walker et al. (2004) or (Walker et al., 2004).
- Six or more authors:
- You only need to use the first author’s last name followed by et al. and the year of publication - Walker et al. (2004) or (Walker et al., 2004).
- Direct Quotes
- **If it is a direct quote, then the page number must follow. “Psychology is the study of mental processes and behavior” (Walker & Allen, 2004, p. 63). Note that the period follows the citation.
Reference List:
The purpose of the reference list is to help readers find the sources you used. Therefore, the reference list should include all of the sources cited in your paper. The reference list starts on a new page. References are put in order by the author’s last name or the first author’s last name if there is more than one. Use the handing indent paragraph style and double space the entire reference list.
Reference List Example:
If the source is a book:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher City: Publisher Name.
If the source is a journal article:
Author, A. (date). Tile of article. Italicized Title of the Journal, Vol # (issue #), and page #.
Citation creation helps you format your references, and can be found at the following link: