I think that this article makes good point, which I agree with. I think that spanking is a useful form of punishment, which should be occasionally used in combination with other forms of punishment. My little cousin is punished for his wrong doings in a way that I believe is very effective, much like how the article says it should be done. When he is bad, my aunt or uncle tell him that it was not okay. Instead of spanking they usually give him a time out and often take away his TV and computer time. If he does something really bad they usually spank him and then send him to his room. Because of the effective punishment he is growing up to be a very good boy. If I have children I will try to use similar techniques.

Reflection on Group Work

All of the members of the group that I choose seemed to be fun people, and I wanted to get to know them better. Each one of us pulled our own weight and did a good job at getting the assignments done. Like most groups, we had some difficulties working together, but we worked through our difficulties and did what we had to do.
The USEM project was a great way to get better at working with a group. We worked very hard on all aspects of the assignment. I don’t think that we were the best team at working together, but we all worked hard and did a good job. If I could choose a different group, I think that I would have picked a group where that did not have all female members, to cut down on the drama that girls often seem to start. There was quite a lot poor communication between group members and some backstabbing. I dealt with the backstabbing and drama the way I normally deal with it; I ignored it and tried to keep my involvement with it small as possible.
The ADD essay and speech are the biggest group projects that I have ever done; it was allot of work for each of us. It was difficult to find time that all five us could meet to work on our project, but we did. We ended up spending several hours in the library together. We split up the work for the things that only one person could be working on at a time. Rachel did most of the PowerPoint, which turned great. Sammie did most of the group essay organization, which took much hard work. We were all motivated to do well on this project because it accounts for a large portion of our grades.
Most of the time, I didn’t enjoy working with my group on this project. My group was very good at getting all parts of the project done well and on time, which I liked, but I would have rather done it alone or with a different group (please don’t tell them about any of this). I was okay with all of the work that I did alone and I worked very diligently on it.
Sometimes I enjoy working with groups, but I didn’t have a very good experience this time. Although I didn’t enjoy my group as much as I hoped to, I learned from it. In life, there are often people that you will have to work with, and you don’t always like these people. The ADD group project helped me improve on working with people whom I didn’t always want to work with.

Verbal Skills

I am not a horrible speaker, but I am definitely not a great one either. I often get nervous when I have to stand up in front of a class to speak or give a presentation. I tend to not get as nervous when I am not the only person in front of the class, but I still get nervous. I have never had very good verbal skills, but have slightly them improved over the years.
Last term I was doing a demonstration for my T’ai Chi class. For some reason I was extremely nervous for this presentation. I got to choose to either face the class or face the front of the room, when giving my presentation. I choose to be brave and face the class. After a couple of moves, I stopped and said that I actually don’t want to face the class. After turning around, I went though the T’ai Chi steps. I did many of the moves that I knew well incorrectly, and I added an extra one. After I was done with my presentation, the class was to tell me what I did well and what I should improve on. The professor could tell how nervous I was and half was through the people telling me what I did well, and what I should work on, he told me that I could sit down. This is a good example of just how nervous I can get when standing in front of a group of people.
I have given many good speeches through out my school days, as well as a few number of speeches where I was so nervous that I did a very poor job, even on well-reversed presentations. I have no idea why I sometimes get extremely nervous, and sometimes I hardly get nervous at all. I often get nervous when talking to a cute guy or a person that I am trying to make a good impression on. I have never had very good verbal skills, but I think that I am improving every day. I think that if I give speeches more often, I will become more comfortable with them. I hope that USEM 103 will help me become more comfortable with standing in front of classes to give speeches and presentations.

Writing

I have always struggled with all of the language arts. When I was in fifth grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and I had to take my reading and writing classes with Special Ed. I was made fun of for going to Special Ed and it soon lowered my self-confidence. I wanted to prove to myself and my peers that I was just as good as them, so put allot of effort in improving in the language arts. Once I got into middle school I just had a study hall in Special Ed, but didn’t take any classes there. I tried so hard in my English class and eventually was doing well enough that I didn’t have to go to any special classes anymore. I have always had to try harder than other students to do well in the language arts, but I never stop trying.
I went into the ADD project thinking that it would be a lot of work, and I was right. I’ve never had to write an essay near the required length of the USEM research essay. The most difficult part of the writing process was finding creditable information to write about. I knew allot about ADD before researching because of my personal experiences, which made writing a little easier. After I was finished researching, I had to figure out how to word my findings and what order to put them in. Because writing has always been difficult for me, the writing process took me a long time. After I was done writing, I had much editing to do. I am still quite bad with spelling, but luckily my computer could help me with that! I read my essay several times to myself and had a couple friends help edit it for me. Although it was a difficult project, I found my topic to be very interesting and enjoyed learning more about it.
I am satisfied with how my essay turned out. I learned much information from the project and feel like my writing skills may have improved a little from it. I now can confidently and accurately explain most anything about ADD or the drugs used to treat it. I feel that I can help people that I know with this knowledge, so they won’t have to go through bad experiences similar to the ones I have had concerning my ADD.
I usually don’t enjoy writing, but I often fell accomplished after. I have found that once I get into my “writing mood” I can write quickly and well, but it often takes me a while to get there. I need to improve my writing in many aspects, especially spelling. I hope that USEM 103 will improve my writing skills.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Article Analysis: Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors

Cancer is something that humans still do not fully understand, which is why it can be fascinating, terrifying, and often deadly. Because it is so powerful and frightening to us, scientists are constantly trying to learn more about it. The peer-reviewed Journal article “Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” does a good job at discussing the changes in people after surviving cancer.
The journal article is about a study that’s based on behavioral changes and coping perspectives of cancer survivors. I believe that the independent variable is surviving cancer, and the dependent variable is lifestyle change. For their study, researchers mailed out 600 questioners to cancer survivors, and 250 were completed and returned. The participants were about two-thirds women, and one-third men. The mean age was of the participants was 45 years. The journal article has many interesting facts and is very informative.
The article “Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” says that after surviving cancer, many people feel vulnerable. Feelings of vulnerability in cancer survivors often result in a new respect for their body and good health, which lead to positive health changes. The most common health change that cancer survivors make is an improved diet. Other healthy changes that were often observed were increased amounts of exercise and sometimes more sleep. Although the majority of the cancer survivors experience healthy changes, many used negative coping mechanisms and therefore experienced negative health changes. The article says, “In a study done on young adult survivors, higher levels of life stress were related to higher levels of risky behaviors”. Another common negative health change in cancer survivors is lack of sleep. These changes are due to positive and negative coping mechanisms, which are discussed in chapter 12 of the textbook (Weiten. Psyshology themes & variations, 7th edition, briefer version).
The study focused on the “reports of actual change rather than intentions to make change”, which is something that no one has done before. They found that more survivors reported positive changes than negative changes. The researchers hypothesized that “approach coping would be related to adaptive health behavior, while avoidant coping would be related more to negative health behavior changes”, which has recently been supported by studies described in the article.
There are so many people that are suffering from cancer these days. Several people in my life have suffered from cancer, and I have noticed positive lifestyle changes in all of them after diagnosis. I choose this to read and write this report on “Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” because I wanted to learn more about what people with cancer go through and why they make the lifestyle changes that they do. Now that I have read this article I feel that I can understand cancer survivors much better, which may allow me to help them better if I am ever put in that position as caregiver.
“Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” is a very interesting and enlighten article on a topic that anyone can learn more about. It is very different from the Popular Press article, “In Health: Strength in Numbers” by Margret Farley Steele, because it is written in a scientific way, it’s not as biases, and is very factual. Because it is peer reviewed, has great references, and from the Journal of Health and Psychology, I believe that it is a very creditable article. It makes some great points and I recommend it for others to read.
Crystal L. Park, Donald Edmondson, Juliane R. Fenster, & Thomas O. Blank. (2008). Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors. Journal of Health Psychology. Retrieved February third, 2009 from hpq.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/13/8/1198.pdf

Popular Press Article Analysis: Strength in Numbers

It is not always easy to find the motivation to workout, or eat a healthy diet. I know from experience that it is even more difficult to get in shape when recovering from an illness or injury. I have found for myself that it is much easier and more enjoyable to workout with friends than it is alone, and the cancer survivors in the magazine article, “In Health: Strength in Numbers” by Margret Farley Steele, agree with me.
The main point of the article is to share how several women, who have survived cancer, found their strength to exercise and improve their health with the help of a cancer survivor’s exercise group. I learned that in our modern society there are many more cancer survivors, and there are an increasing number of workout programs being formed specifically for them. The study concluded that women in cancer surviving exercise groups are more likely to stick to their workout routine.
I have found that magazine articles like this are much easier and enjoyable to read than the peer-reviewed articles, but not as factual. This article is biases, because keeping a regular exercise routine is difficult for everyone with our busy modern lifestyles, not just people that are in recovery. Another flaw of this article is that is based more on option that actual fact, which is the opposite of the Peer-reviewed article on cancer survivors. The study described in the article doesn’t seem to very accurate, but that is okay because magazine articles aren’t expected to be nearly as accurate as peer-reviewed articles.
The magazine article, “In Health: Strength in Numbers” by Margret Farley Steele, I found to be an enjoyable and inspiring article. The theme of the magazine article is very similar to the theme of the peer-reviewed article that I picked: cancer survivor making their lifestyles healthier. If women that just went through cemotherapy can jump on a treadmills and exercise on a regular basis, young healthy people like me certainly should be able to find some motivation to do that too!

Steele, M.F. (2006, October). In Health: Strength in Numbers. Connect Magazine [online]. Available: http://www.connecticutmag.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2329&dept_id=571885&newsid=17521342 [2009, March 24].

Hindsight Bias

Humans have a natural tendency to mix the facts so that they can make themselves look and feel like they know more than they really do. The Critical thinking application “Hindsight in everyday analysis of Personality” is a very informative piece of writing that describes and analyzes hindsight bias. Hindsight bias very can be bad; they can cause big problems, especially in some professional fields. It is important to know how to recognize hindsight bias to prevent problems from occurring.
Hindsight bias are accretions made after a event has occurred; The psychology textbook (Wayne Weiten. Psychology, themes & variations, briefer version) describes it as “the tendency to mold one’s interpretation of the past events to fit how the events actually turned out”. Most people do this on a regular basis. It’s easy to come up with possible explanations why something happened, or why someone we know well has a certain personality trait. Hindsight bias make everyone seem like an expert on personality or a situation.
Hindsight bias can be harmful in a variety of professional fields. In the medical field, when patients go to another doctor to obtain a second opinion, if the doctor knows the original diagnosis they are much more likely to have the same diagnosis. Hindsight bias can also be a issue in politics, games, evolutionary theories, and many other things.
Hindsight bias are a much too common thing these days. If we were to be more careful about our everyday assumptions, it would prevent a large number of problems. People need to be critical thinkers that, as the book says, “understand that knowing the outcomes of events biases our recall and interpretation of the events”.