Course Reflection

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Course Reflection on Psychology 201

As I reflect on the class as a whole I realize that I have a very neutral point of view of the class. I see it as neither good or bad. I normally enjoy psychology as a whole and find it quite fascinating to learn about how or brain works and the causes of our behaviors. On the other hand though, I really dislike classes that are online. Besides that, chapter 12 really stands out to me because of experiences that I have going on in my personal life.

Chapter 12 is about stress. The chapter talks about types of stress and how different stressors have different amounts of impact on our lives and health. The chapter also talks about how to cope with these stressors in different ways to try to reduce the impact that they have on your life and health. Basically the chapter is about health psychology. According to the book, “health psychologists study how a person’s behavior, thoughts, personality and attitudes influence his or her health for better or for worse” (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2019).

This chapter really stands out to me because back in September, my best friend was killed in a violent car accident. I just so happened to be following him home that day when it happened and was the first person on the scene to try to help. From that day on I have struggled heavily with PTSD type symptoms and major depression. This chapter does a lot to give me insight into why I feel the way I do and what I could possibly do to help myself on top of already seeing my counselor. The direct correlation into my personal life is why this chapter really stands out to me.

Section one of the chapter is titled “Change is Stressful” (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2019). It discusses how majorly or minorly life events affect you. It really applies to me because on the Holmes and Rahe social readjustment rating scale the death of a close family member, which is what I considered my best friend to be seeing as how I lived with him for almost the past two years, ranks number five in severity. The chapter goes on to talk about how as a college student along with the major stressor like that in our life we also have stressors that aren’t on the scale. These stressors are caused by school itself. The section really gives me a sense of hopefulness because it shows me there is a reason behind why I feel the emotions that I do to the extent that I do.

Section three offers insight into coping skills both emotionally and physically. From an emotional point of view, it talks about cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal is basically a process where we change how we interpret whatever event that is causing us stress (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2019). I see this apply to me and helping me in such a way as not viewing my friends passing as a loss but viewing what I gained from his life. He was very influential in helping get me to the position I am in my life today. I even live with his parents still, which has saved me from a lot of stress and earned me opportunities I would’ve never been able to have before. This is really helpful for me and after I read this chapter I have been trying to implement this in my everyday life. Viewing the glass as half full instead of half empty.

From a physical standpoint the section talks about things such as exercise, relaxation, and social support (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2019). I have tried to engage in all of these in some way or another. Recently I have started going back to the gym, because in high school the gym was a very stress relieving place for me. Also, I relax by spending time playing PC video games with my friends in the afternoons. We all get on and just try to have a good time and that is a really good stress reliever for me. For the social support I have stayed in touch with a lot of the people who were really close with my friend as well and I have seen it help tremendously in how I carry myself through my day to day life. The coping portion of this chapter is the part that I was most able to apply to my real life. It gave me tips and recommendations for ways to cope with the pain of losing my best friend that I previously hadn’t thought of and I have seen major improvements in my day-to-day life by learning to implement them. Recovery is a long road but being honest, the book has actually helped me to a surprisingly large extent.

Overall I normally struggle pretty heavily with classes like this. I have taken quite a few online courses and never been able to do well. I enjoyed that this class only met once a week because it lightened the feel of my course load by giving me slightly more time throughout the week. On the other side of that though I very much disliked having almost all of our graded assignments being online. I struggle with being able to keep up with online classes by myself. Although, Professor Tam did a really good job on reinforcing the things we were supposed to be learning each week during our time in class. The group activities really facilitated a great deal of learning for me despite the trouble I had with the work in my own time. From a purely learning point of view, I believe that I did as well or better than I would have in a normal class, but from a success point of view, I believe I have done much worse than I would in a normal class. I feel as though, for me, meeting more often through the week gives me more drive and reminders to make sure I stay on top of work that I am supposed to be doing at home.

In conclusion, I found Chapter 12 to be a very helpful chapter for me in this time of my life. It did great things in informing me of how to deal with the ways that I feel on a daily basis. Also, I have very neutral feeling for the class overall due to how I struggle with mostly or purely online classes. Either way, learning psychology is an enjoyable thing for me, and a nice change of pace from the basic math, science, literature, and history classes that we are normally forced to take.

References

Pastorino, E. E., & Doyle-Portillo, S. M. (2019). What is psychology?: Foundations, applications & integration (Fourth ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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