KAPLAN UNIVERSITY

HW410 Stress: Critical Issues in

Management and Prevention

Stress
Management and
Prevention
1

Program Resource
Guide
KA P L A N U N I V E R S I T Y

Stress Management and Prevention

Program Resource Guide

By
Justin Aguayo
Kaplan University
HW410: Stress: Critical Issues in Management and Prevention
Oct 26, 2014

Table of Contents

UNIT

THE

NATU RE

OF

STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT

THE

BO DY

AS

BATTL EF IEL D

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT

F EAST

OR

FAM IN INE

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing: Journal Writing
UNIT

ONE

PL ANET

UNDER

STRESS

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

UNDER

STRESS:

WHAT

NOW?

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

AGEL ESS

WISDOM

OF

M EDITATIO N

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

SIGHT,

SOUN D,

AND

BO DY

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

THE

WEL L NESS

M ANDAL A

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises

WOR K

Tools: Journal Writing

UNIT

APPLYING

PREVEN TIO N

TO

STRESS:

YOUR

CRITICAL

PROF ESSI ONAL

M ANAGEM ENT

AND

L IF E

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
UNIT

1 0

APPLYING

PREVEN TIO N

TO

STRESS:

YOUR

CRITICAL

PROF ESSI ONAL

Information to Remember
Resources: Exercises
Tools: Journal Writing
ADDITI ONAL

INF ORM ATIO N

(End of the Guide)

M ANAGEM ENT
L IF E

AND

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2
Unit

Unit 1: The Nature of Stress

Information to Remember:
The fight or flight response describes the dynamics involved in the bodys
physiological arousal to survive a threat.
There are three kinds of stress: eustress, neustress, and distress.
As we begin a new century and millennium, a new term has taken hold in the
American vernacular: technostress.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 1.2 My Health Philosophy.
Everyone has philosophies and it is
important to take account what your philosophy is for it can help lead you to
the right path.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 1.6 The Wellness Paradigm Revisited. Health is the absence of
disease. Your definition of wellness will take this into account as well as the
fact that you want to ensure your better health.

Unit 2: The Body as Battlefield

Information to Remember:
Psychophysiology is the field of study based on the principle that the mind and
body are one, where thoughts and perceptions affect potentially all aspects of
physiology.

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Unit

The limbic system is the emotional control center. Several tissue centers in
this level are directly responsible for the biochemical chain of events that
constitute the stress response.
Decreases in both serotonin and melatonin are though to be related to bouts of
depression.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 2.1 Are you the Product of your culture? Some people tend to spend
more time enveloped in the cultural norms boasted by society. This exercise
finds the levels at which you are involved culturally.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 2.4 Its all about me: The Age of Narcissism. Listing things that you
can do to live a more sustainable lifestyle and reconnect with the biosphere is
important since the earth is the planet on which we live. Having a closer
connection to the earth is a good thing.

Unit 3: Feast or Famine

Information to Remember:
Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the effects of stress on disease; treats
the mind, central nervous system, and immune system as one interrelated unit.
The immune system is a network of several organs.
Neoplasms are another term for cancerous tumors.

4
Unit

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 3.2 Immediate, Intermediate, and Prolonged Stress Effects.
This
exercise will help you reinforce your understanding of each phase of the stress
response.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 3.1 Stress Physiology Review. This journal writing exercise will help
you remember the various hormones released from the hypothalamus,
pituitary, and the thyroid glands.

Unit 4: One Planet Under Stress

Information to Remember:
Sigmund Freud had a profound influence on the field of psychology.
Denial, Repression, Projection, Rationalization, Displacement, and Humor are
various coping strategies.
Individuation is a term coined by Carl Jung to describe the self-realization
process.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 4.1 Physical Symptoms Questionnaire. To itemize what kind of
tension and headaches that you have had in the past week. This can help you
to understand where you hold your stress.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 4.3 My health Profile. To facilitate where you stand on the healthy
charts. This journal will help you to set a base point from which you can
improve your health.

Unit 5: Under Stress: What Now?

Information to Remember:
Anger is a survival emotion common to all animals.
Fear stimulates a physical response to flee and hide from threats.
Depression is an emotion that surfaces as the result of unresolved stress.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 5.1 they Psychology of Your Stress, This exercise will help you
become more aware of your attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors during
episodes of stress.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 5.2 Domestication of the Ego. This Journal helps you to ponder things
that might push your buttons. in a manner that you can house train your ego.

Unit 6: Ageless Wisdom of

Meditation
Information to Remember:
Type A personality is now associated with unresolved anger issues.
Type D personality the D stands for Depression.
The Hardy Personality seems to buffer against stress: control, commitment,
and challenge.

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Unit

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 6.1 Anger Recognition Checklist.
This exercise can help you
understand how anger can surface in the course of a normal working day.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 6.6 Creative Anger Management Skills Action Plan

Unit 7: Sight, Sound and Body Work

Information to Remember:
Spiritual Hunger is a term to illustrate the quest for understanding of lifes
biggest question.
Spirituality and religion share common ground but they are not the same
thing.
Centering is a time for soul searching, cultivating ones internal relationship.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 7.3 Stress-Resistant Personality Survey.
This survey indicates
whether or not you have traits associated with the codependent personality.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 7.1 Under the gun: Stress and Personality. Learn how you employ
certain characteristics to help deal with stress.

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8
Unit

Unit

Unit 8: The Wellness Mandala

Information to Remember:
Information-processing model:
perceive sensory information.

A model that reveals how we potentially

Toxic thoughts and negative perceptions are often the result of low selfesteem.
Acceptance is accepting that which you cannot change and moving on with
your life.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 8.3 the Three Pillars of Human Spirituality. Define through your core
values and supporting values what system you have composed.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 8.1 Stress and Human Spirituality. Define through your relationships
whether or not stress is the absence of human spirituality.

Unit 9: Applying Stress: Critical

Management to your Professional
Life
Information to Remember:
Values are Abstract and intangible concepts of importance or meaning.

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 Modeling is the ability to emulate or imitate our behaviors from the

observation of others we respect.
Assertiveness is the ability to be comfortably strong willed.

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 9.5 The Things I take for Granted. Ponder what things you take for
granted. Try to imagine why you do these things.

Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 9.1 Reframing: Seeing a Bigger, Clearer Perspective. Identify
stressor and reframe perspective that allows you to get out of a myopic view of
life.

Unit 10: Applying Stress: Critical

Management to your Personal Life
Information to Remember:
Journal Writing is a coping technique; expression of thoughts, feelings,
memories, and ideas in written form to increase self-awareness.
Art Therapy is a coping technique of self expression and self awareness.
Humor is the quality of being funny or appreciating funny thoughts

Resources: Exercises:
Exercise 10.4 Healthy Boundaries. Listing areas in your life where you think
you have weak boundaries and other places where you have a sense of
balance.

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Tools: Journal Writing:

Exercise 10.1 Value Assessment and Clarification.
cores and values you hold.

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Lets you make a list of

Additional Information
none

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