Task1 Counselling 1aPhysical signs and symptoms of stress

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Unit 7 Assignment 1 Applying psychology

Task1 Counselling

a

Physical signs and symptoms of stress

By Dawn Bewick

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Physical signs and symptoms that Mrs.A may be suffering from

Because Mrs.A has very low-self-esteem, which is a core identity issue, essential to personal validation and our ability to experience joy, will cause her to feel bad about herself because she has absorbed negative messages constantly from her husband.

Due to her low-self-esteem, Mrs A will also feel depressed, stressed and suffer anxiety, causing her physical health to deteriorate rapidly.

Many times women with this problem don't go for regular check-ups, exercise, or take personal days because they really don't think they're worth the time.

Due to the marital breakdown that Mrs A has gone through, her needs have not been met by her partner because she will feel she does not deserve to have them met, and her relationship with her son has suffered, being unable to discipline effectively, set limits, or demand the respect that she deserves.

Physical symptoms that Mrs A maybe suffering from include:

* Sleep disturbances

* Irregular heartbeat, palpitations

* Back, shoulder or neck pain

* Tension or migraine headaches

* Asthma or shortness of breath

* Chest pain

* Upset or acid stomach, cramps

* Sweaty palms and hands

* Cold hands or feet

* Constipation, diarrhoea

* Weight gain or loss, eating disorder

* Hair loss

* Muscle tension

* Fatigue

* High blood pressure

* Skin problems

* Periodontal disease, jaw pain

* Reproductive problems

* Immune system suppression, more colds, flu and infections

* Growth inhibition

Types of stress that Mrs A maybe suffering from:

Acute stress

This results from demands and pressures of recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Most people recognise the signs of acute stress. They appear when something major happens like moving, changing jobs, or experiencing a loss.

Too much short-term stress can produce physical and emotional symptoms.

Daily naggings from a spouse or irritating noises can also make you feel stressed, but because it is short term, acute stress doesn't have enough time to do the extensive damage associated with long term stress.

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Episodic acute stress

If you endure acute stress frequently, you probably are experiencing episodic stress. You are always rushing, always late and if something goes wrong it is a major thing.

You are always trying to do too much and you can't organise the tangle of self-inflicted demands clamouring for your attention.

Chronic Stress

The grinding stress that wears people down day after day and year after year is chronic stress, which can destroy bodies, minds and lives.

If you are experiencing chronic stress, you cant figure out how to alleviate a miserable situation that seems to go on for an interminable period of time.

(b) How this Stress could be managed

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Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its affect on our lives is not sufficient for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are many possibilities for its management, however all require work toward change.

Changing the source of stress or changing your reaction to it.

> Mrs A must become aware of her stressors and her emotional and physical reactions.

> She must notice her distress, and not ignore it. Mrs A must learn not to gloss over her problems and determine how her body responds to the stress. Mrs A must ask herself, "Do I become nervous or physically upset", if so in what specific ways.

> Mrs A must recognise what she can change by avoiding or eliminating them completely.

> Will she be able to reduce their intensity (manage them over a period of time instead of on a daily or weekly basis). Mrs A must learn to shorten her exposure to stress, take a break, leave the physical premises, and devote her time and energy to making a change (goal setting, time management techniques, and delayed gratification strategies will be very helpful).

> Mrs A must reduce the intensity of her emotional reactions to stress, as the stress reaction is triggered by her perception of danger------physical danger or emotional danger.

> Mrs A is obviously viewing her stressors in exaggerated terms or taking a difficult situation and making it a disaster, by this, she is expecting to please everyone. Because Mrs A is so stressed, she is overacting and viewing things as absolutely critical and urgent and feels she must prevail in every situation.

> Mrs A must work at adopting more moderate views, and try to see the stress as something she can cope with rather than something that overpowers her and must try to temper her excess emotions and put the situation in perspective, and not labour on the negative aspects and "what if's".

> Mrs A must learn to moderate her physical reactions to stress, by slow, deep breathing to bring her heart rate and respiration back to normal. Relaxation techniques can reduce her muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure. Medications, if prescribed by her doctor, can help in the short term in moderating her physical reactions, however, they alone are not the answer. Mrs A must learn to moderate these reactions on her own which can be a preferable long-term solution.

> Mrs A must build on her physical reserves, exercise for cardiovascular fitness three or four times a week (moderate prolonged rhythmic exercise is best, such as walking, swimming, cycling or jogging).

> By eating well balanced nutritious meals and maintaining her ideal weight may also help.

> Mrs A must try to avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine and other stimulants, mix leisure with work and take breaks and get away when ever she can. I t will also help Mrs A if she could get enough sleep and be as consistent with her sleep schedule as possible.

> Mrs A must maintain her emotional reserves and develop some mutually supportive friendships/relationships. She must also pursue any realistic goals which are meaningful to her, rather than goals others have for her that she does not wish to share.

> Mrs A will have to expect some frustrations, failures and sorrows, but she must

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Always remember to be kind and gentle to herself - be a friend to herself.

By Dawn Bewick

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The Humanist Perspective when applied to counselling and how it will help Mrs A with her self concept

Introduction

Based on two theorists

Carl Rogers Humanistic perspective

By Dawn Bewick

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Abraham Maslow's humanistic perspective

The humanistic perspective is mostly widely known as the phenomenological approach to personality.

The Humanistic approach stresses the persons capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose one's own destiny and positive qualities.

These include trait theories - personality consists of broad dispositions, called traits, that tend to lead to the basic ways the person behaves, such as whether they are outgoing or friendly, or whether they are dominant and assertive.

Basic five factors

/ emotional stability - being calm rather than anxious, secure rather than insecure, self - satisfied rather than self-pitying

2/ extraversion - sociable instead of retiring, fun loving instead of sober, and affectionate instead of reserved

3/ openness - imaginative rather than practical, preferring variety to routine, and being independent rather than conforming

4/ agreeableness - being softhearted, not ruthless, trusting, not suspicious, and helpful not uncooperative

5/ conscientiousness - being organised rather than disorganised, careful rather than careless, and disciplined, not impulsive.

The humanistic perspective will help Mrs A to rely on the creation of a relationship that reflects three intertwined therapist attitudes such as unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence.

A paraphrased summary of Mrs A's words and especially her feelings and meaning that appear to accompany them is extremely important and should be carried out by the counsellor. This confirms the therapists interest, and will help Mrs a to perceive thoughts and feelings.

Mrs A's therapist should try to convey congruence by acting in ways that are consistent with Mrs A's feelings during therapy.

Through counselling the counsellor will seek to create a condition in which Mrs A can become more unified, self-aware and self-accepting and ready to grow again.

The counsellor will also prod Mrs A to become aware of her feelings and impulses that she has disowned and to discard feelings, ideas and values that are not really her own.

The counsellor will also do a lot of dialogues and pay attention to Mrs A's body language, drawing on the perspectives of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers as this

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view of self empathises individual growth towards self actualisation.

The counsellor will also place much of the responsibility for the treatment process on Mrs A, as they will take a non directive role, which is person centred therapy.

The counsellor has two primary goals of person centred therapy which will increase Mrs A's self-esteem and greater openness to experience.

Mrs A will look towards better self-understanding, lower levels of defensiveness, guilt and insecurity and learn to have more positive and comfortable relationships with others, increasing the capacity to experience and express feelings at the moment they occur, this approach relates to Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow theory.

Three interrelated attitudes on the part of the counsellor are central to the success of person - centred therapy which include congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy.

Congruence refers to the therapists openness and genuiness, the willingness to relate to Mrs A without hiding behind a professional façade.

Unconditional positive regard means the therapist accepts Mrs A totally for who she is without evaluating or censoring and without interrupting, judging or giving advice.

Using this method will create a non-threatening context in which Mrs A will feel free to explore and share painful, hostile, defensive, or abnormal feelings without worrying about personal rejection by the therapist.

By Dawn Bewick

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Task 2 Crime

Main concepts of the relevant psychological perspectives

The Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive perspective focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand and think about the world. By using this perspective, developmental psychologists hope to understand how children and adults process information and how their ways of thinking and understanding affect their behaviour.

Albert Bandura's theory focuses on how children and adults operate cognitively on their social experiences and how these cognitions then influence behaviour and development. His theory was the first to incorporate the notion of modelling, or vicarious learning, as a form of social learning. In addition Bandura also introduced several other important concepts.

Within this perspective humans are characterised in terms of five basic and unique capabilities, symbolising, vicarious, forethought, self-regulatory, self-reflective. It is these capabilities that provide humans with cognitive means by which to determine behaviour.

Bandura suggests that a persons behaviour will determine the aspects of their environment and that behaviour can affect the way in which they experience that environment through selective attention. People have the ability to influence their destiny, while at the same time recognising that people are free agents of their own will.
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Albert Bandura would suggest that Mrs A's son has learned aggression through behaviour modelling from his parents and that these aggressive responses are from observing others, either personally or through the media and environment.

Mrs A's son may live in a high crime rate area, so may act more violently than those who dwell in low crime areas.

If Mrs A's son is surrounded by culture conflict, decay and insufficient social organisations then this will be a major cause of his criminality. Because television is a source of behaviour modelling and that violence is ...

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