Describe the range of emotions associated with being the parent of a child with special needs. Select two emotional states and describe how you, as a teacher, would work with a parent experiencing these emotions.

/in /by

As is discussed in Chapter 7 of our course text, balancing the demands of work, parenting, and family is a challenging—but necessary—task for a significant number of American families. When these pressures are not balanced, it can lead to a negative, unpredictable home environment. Therefore, it is important that we are aware of some of the potential challenges families may face as they strive to have balance between work and family. For this discussion, address the following:

  • Explain some challenges that working  families face.
  • Discuss how these challenges can impact a child’s behavior.
  • Summarize three strategies you could share with families to help them achieve a balance between family life and work. Use one additional scholarly source to support your summary.

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two by providing feedback or suggestions, or offering friendly guidance to extend their strategies.

Though two replies is the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have posted for you. Remember, continuing to engage with peers and the instructor will further the conversation and provide you with opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real-world experiences with this topic.

discussion 2
IRIS Module

Ashford University Discussion

Locate Collaborating With Families from the IRIS website (for an alternate accessible resource read this article: “Understanding Families: Applying Family Systems Theory to Early Childhood Practice”). Select the “Challenge” balloon to begin the module. After completing the module, choose one of the five discussion topics listed below.

  • Describe the range of emotions associated with being the parent of a child with special needs. Select two emotional states and describe how you, as a teacher, would work with a parent experiencing these emotions.
  • Identify and describe three roles that a parent of a child who has a disability might fulfill that are unlike the roles typically associated with parenting.
  • Reese is a young girl with cerebral palsy. Her primary means of mobility is a manual wheelchair, though she is also able to take a few independent steps. Reese’s parents have recently separated and are in the process of divorcing. Reese, her mom, and her two older siblings have temporarily relocated and are now living in the upstairs of her grandparents’ house. As a result of the move, Reese has transitioned to a new school. Although her mom is generally very involved with her child’s education, there are currently many stressors in her life. Describe at least two of the stressors, besides divorce, that Reese’s mom might be experiencing and explain how you think they might affect her time and involvement with the school.
  • Imagine you are a teacher in Reese’s new school. Describe three ideas you have for building a relationship with Reese’s family and how you would go about making the family feel welcome in your school.
  • Imagine that you, as Reese’s new teacher, have just returned from a visit to Reese’s grandparents. During your home visit, Reese’s mother vented about her failed relationship with her husband and the reasons for their divorce. Now the teachers in the teachers’ lounge are pushing you for the juicy details. What is your responsibility in this situation and why?

Write a summary paragraph explaining the outcome: Overall, scores ranged from X to XX (M = X, SD = X.X), indicating…. Subscale scores revealed…. Be sure to include means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s alphas, and interpretations of the data.

/in /by

In the Assignment Instructions folder, there is an SPSS data file that will be the basis for your analysis. The data included are fictional and were created solely for this assignment.

The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D scale) is often utilized to measure depressive symptomology (Radloff, 1977). It is a self-assessment that is completed by the individual. The CES-D contains 20-items rated on a 4-point scale (0 = Rarely or None of the Time to 3 = Most or All of the Time). The phrase “Within the past week did you…” prefaces the questions in order to emphasize recent depressive mood. Scores are summed and can range from 0 to 60. Traditionally, individuals with scores over 16 are identified as “depressed” (Weissman, et al., 1977), though due to high false positive rates, a score of 27 is considered a more useful cut-off (Zich, et al., 1990). The full scale can be accessed at: http://www.chcr.brown.edu/pcoc/cesdscale.pdf. Items 4, 8, 12, and 16 are reversed to avoid “yay-saying” or “nay saying” (Radloff, 1977). Several studies have validated four subscales across a variety of subgroups (i.e., depressive affect, well-being, somatic, and interpersonal) (Gliem & Gliem, 2003).

 

Reliability and Subtest Scoring

You will continue the analysis of the CES-D data by learning to score the survey and create subtest scores. Note: we are creating our own norms on this survey for Friberg University students so there are no scores for comparison.

According to Knight, Williams, McGee, and Olaman (1997) and many others (e.g., Gliem & Gliem, 2003), the following subscales can be calculated:

 

CES-D Subscales

DA = Depressive Affect

W = Well-being

S = Somatic

I = Interpersonal

 

  • S
  • S
  • DA
  • W
  • S
  • DA
  • S
  • W
  • DA
  • DA
  • S
  • W
  • S
  • DA
  • I
  • W
  • DA
  • DA
  • I
  • S

 

  • Reverse code the appropriate items (4, 8, 12, and 16) for calculating the total score (0 becomes 3, 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 1, and 3 becomes 0).
  • Compute the total CES-D score.
  • Compute the four subscale scores. (Note: Be careful when interpreting “well-being.”)
  • Calculate Cronbach’s alpha for the overall scale and each subscale.
  • Create a single table to show the appropriate measures of central tendency and dispersion for all of the variables (total, depressive affect, well-being, somatic, and interpersonal).
  • Create the appropriate graphs to show the distribution of scores for each subscale.
  • Write a summary paragraph explaining the outcome: Overall, scores ranged from X to XX (M = X, SD = X.X), indicating…. Subscale scores revealed…. Be sure to include means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s alphas, and interpretations of the data.

 

This assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 3.

Discuss how Gary’s environment has influenced his behavior and decision-making during his adolescence.

/in /by

For this assignment you will be reading a case scenario in your text and responding to some questions related to the impact of the environment on behavior and choices, the impact of the client-human services professional relationship, and how identifying potential ethical issues and the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) Ethical Standards can help guide you in working with clients.

 

Teen pregnancy affects millions of adolescent clients and their families every year. As a human service professional working with adolescents and families you will build reciprocal relationships that make a lasting impact on both the client and yourself. Understanding how the environment is impacting the client and their family helps build the trust required to better understand what interventions and resources may be available to empower the client and their family. In the field of human services you will be interacting with individuals with a variety of needs within many systems, especially when working with families. Due to the span of diversity among individuals it is important for you to become familiar with the ethical standards as set forth for human service professionals. The following Assignment will require you to find and discuss the importance of the ethical standards as developed by the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS). A code of ethics is “an explicit statement of the values, principles, and rules of a profession, regulating the conduct of its members” (Barker, 2001, p. 84). Understanding how to consider ethical issues and how we may resolve them using ethical standards is critical to successful and ethical client outcomes and ensuring both the human service professional and the client are protected from potential conflicts.

 

Go to page 290 in your text and read the case study in Spotlight 6.2 titled Portrait of a Single Father. Next go to www.nationalhumanservices.org website and review the NOHS Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals.

 

After reading the case study and NOHS Ethical Standards, reflect on the situation Gary finds himself in, his environment, and possible ethical considerations in the case and that the worker may need to consider as part of an ethical approach to the client and his family. Answer the following:

 

  1. Discuss how Gary’s environment has influenced his behavior and decision-making during his adolescence.
  2. Discuss how working with a Human Service Professional (HSP) in a reciprocal relationship may help Gary change his behavior and decision-making to address his current life challenges.
  3. Considering the case study details and the NOHS Ethical Standards, identify one ethical concern you would have when working with Gary and/or his family. Provide one NOHS Ethical Standard that you believe would be important to apply in this case to ensure this ethical issue is addressed within the client and HSP relationship. Refer to the specific NOHS Ethical Standard in your response.
  4. Discuss one specific way using ethical standards impacts the behavior of a HSP when working with clients such as Gary.
  5. Provide the name and contact information for one human service agency you believe a HSP could refer Gary to in order to provide assistance with his current issues. Explain how you believe this agency could specifically assist Gary.
  6. Considering your responses to the assignment questions, explain how Gary’s case outcome might change from the ending offered in the case study epilogue. Discuss how familiarity with ethical standards and available resources strengthened the relationship between the Human Service Professional and Gary in your response.

 

The paper should be 6 complete paragraphs, resulting in approximately 2 pages of text in addition to the cover page and the final reference page. It also should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. The Assignment should be double-spaced, using a 12 point Times New Roman font.

 

The Assignment should include a cover page and a final reference page where you cite your course text and any other sources you choose to include in the paper. The only required sources are your text and NOHS Ethical Standards of Human Service Professionals.

 

You can explore the Kaplan Library or credible Internet sites for additional sources, but the text and NOHS Ethical Standards are your primary sources of support. Your opinions also are valued, but it is important to keep in mind that your main objective in completing this project is to illustrate your knowledge of the course material.

 

Citing Sources:

 

It is important to always attribute credit to the proper sources when relying on the text, articles, websites, or other sources. You must credit your work when you:

 

  • Summarize concepts and theories that you learned in the text, articles, or internet sources.
  • Use others’ ideas, theories, and concepts in constructing Discussion topic responses or completing Assignments.
  • Use direct quotes in the context of your paper (when quoting directly, you must use quotation marks).

 

Your Assignment must be your original work; plagiarism will not be tolerated. Be sure to review the Syllabus in terms of what constitutes plagiarism.

 

Reference: Zastrow, Charles, Karen Kirst-Ashman. Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Cengage Learning, 02/2012. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.

 

How much do we learn about such psychological functions by studying the brain?

/in /by

All assignments MUST be typed and double-spaced, in APA style and must be written at graduate level English. The content, conciseness and clarity of your answers will be considered in the evaluation of your work. You must use and integrate the material presented in the course text and cite your work according to APA format. Use of outside resources can be used to enhance the text information, but cannot replace the text.

Respond to each question in 1- 1 ½ pages per question.

Total assignment should be 4-6 pages total plus a Title and Reference Page

Do not copy the questions in your responses. See APA style on how to create Topic Headings.  Suggested Topic Headings follow each question.  You may use them or create your own.

Question One: Consider the Research by Zhu, Ziang, Fan, and Han in the text on Cross-Cultural Differences in Brain Activation When Considering the Self.  What does it mean to have a self-concept that is so fused with representations of others?  What does it mean to have a self-concept that is NOT fused with representations of others?  What might the behavioral implications be?

Suggested Topic Heading: Self-Concept and Cross-Cultural Differences

 

Question Two: Some psychologists have suggested that while individuals tend to use traits to describe themselves and others, this merely tells us something about the cognitive functioning of individuals and about their interpersonal perceptions– it does not tell us that traits represent the best tools for the scientific analysis of personality. How important is the fact that the layperson finds the trait a useful construct? If we accept the importance of the layperson’s use of this construct for theory development, does this also commit us to accepting the specific trait names and categorizations used by the layperson (e.g., honest, aggressive, sympathetic)?

Suggested Topic Heading: Trait Constructs

 

Question Three: Big five terms are great for describing differences between people. But are they also good for explaining people’s behavior? Is it reasonable to say that “Liz smiled and greeted people happily because she is an extravert”? Or is that similar to saying “It is sunny and warm in San Diego this week because San Diego has nice weather”? In other words, is this sort of “explanation” one that just takes you around in circles?

Suggested Topic Heading: The Five-Factor Model

Question Four: The text discusses research on brain systems involved in higher-level psychological functions, such as self-concept. How much do we learn about such psychological functions by studying the brain? In other words, since we know that some systems in the brain have to be involved in any psychological function, does an analysis of underlying neuroanatomy answer the most pressing questions about personality? Or does it leave unanswered critical questions about the ways in which these psychological capacities develop and function in the social world? In short: Can there be a neuroscience of personality?

Suggested Topic Heading: The Brain and Psychological Functions

Cervone, D. & Pervin, L.A.   (2016).   Personality theory and research.   (13th ed.).   New York , NY   Wiley, John & Sons, Inc.    ISBN 9781118976296