Stress Management Research Paper

The purpose of this assignment is to help students learn where to find good information on stress management. Stress Management is an immense field with many different sources of information. Many people learn about this topic from family, friends, television, advertisements, magazines, web sites, community programs, etc. It is sometimes a challenge to distinguish between good and not so good information. It is important to be able to sift through the “latest craze” and “hearsay” and learn where to find accurate, up-to-date information on stress management.

 

PAPER GUIDELINES
Each student will have the opportunity to do research on a specific area of stress management. The paper will need to be seven, double spaced typed pages (this includes a cover page with your name, ID #, class you are in, and topic of your paper and a reference page at the end). It needs to follow APA style format and include a reference page with 5 to 7 appropriately listed references.

 

REFERENCES
References for this paper need to be derived from professional scientific journals. The articles in the journals may not be more than three years old (no articles older than January 2000). These journals are not magazines you can buy at the neighborhood grocery store. They are edited and published by professionals in the field of health, psychology, and medicine. They have no other purpose but to provide up-to-date, accurate health information. They do not sell anything or contain advertisements. These publications contain research studies that have been scrutinized by the scientific community for accuracy and content.

Some of the articles found in these journals are hard to read and some are boring – so don’t pick those. Choose articles on a topic that interests you. DO NOT just use the first articles you find. Read the article carefully and gather information needed for your paper. If you can’t understand what is being said, move to another article. There are thousands of articles on health topics related to this class.

Besides the five to seven articles that you find in professional journals, you will find one reference for your paper from three other locations:

·          Any popular book on the subject

·          A popular magazine such as Time, Newsweek, Men's Health, Psychology Today, etc.

·          Your Textbook

 

JOURNALS
For instructions on how to access appropriate journals through the Weber State Library, see the bottom of this page.  

 

TOPIC
The following is a list of possible topics from which you can choose for your research paper. Make sure that your paper explains how your topic relates to, is connected to, or influences stress and/or stress management. For instance, if you choose heart disease, your paper will need to be about a connection between stress and heart disease. If you choose music, it will need to discuss the relationship between music and stress.

Eustress

Headaches

Time management

Guided Imagery 

Meditation 

Acupuncture

Acupressure                   

Progressive Relaxation              

Mindfulness

Naps/ Sleep

Anger 

Heart disease

Cancer

Chronic disease

Personality types

Exercise

Nutrition

Immune response

Fears and Phobias

Yoga

Type A personality

Autogenic training                          

Depression/ Suicide                               

Stress buffers

Self-esteem

Self-efficacy

Rational Emotive Therapy

Alternative medicine

Operant Conditioning

Occupational stress

Hypnosis

Gender differences

Psychoneuroimmunology

Mind/body connection

Biofeedback 

Diabetes

Parenting 

Massage

Music

 

Instructions for using the Weber State Library online catalogue to find excellent research articles related to the health topic:

Put the following address into the address box of your browser http://library.weber.edu/  or click it on this page.

Under the “Find” menu, click the articles and databases link

Next, click on “Academic Search Elite.”

On the next page, you will need to enter your student ID number. (This is NOT your social security number.) This is the nine-digit number that is issued by Weber State to you. It usually starts with 88 and is found on your registration and scheduling materials. If you do not know what your student ID number is, you can call the Registrars office. (If you are using a computer on WSU campus, you probably don’t need to enter your ID to get into the databases.)

On the following page, in the search box, enter the words or phrases that will bring up information on the topic you have chosen. Under “Limiting Your Results,” IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO PUT A CHECK MARK IN THE BOX NEXT TO PEER REVIEWED or REFEREED. This will make sure that you are accessing only the journals that are acceptable for this assignment.

The next page will have a list of search results. Each will have a short abstract describing the content of the full article. For the articles that you would like to look at further for your research, click on PDF Full Text near the bottom of the page.

You will probably need to have the program Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer to read these studies. If you have a problem accessing these articles, you can call or visit the Weber State Library or Campus Computer Labs.

 

APA STYLE
This paper must follow the APA guidelines for research papers. APA stands for the American Psychological Association. This is the editorial style used in many of the social and behavioral sciences. This editorial style consists of rules or guidelines that a publisher observes to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written material. Editorial style concerns uniform use of such elements as

bullet punctuation and abbreviations
bullet construction of tables
bullet selection of headings
bullet citation of references
bullet presentation of statistics

APA's style rules and guidelines are set out in a reference book called The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Many of you probably have this book. If you do not, you may want to buy or borrow it, as many classes will require this format in papers and assignments.

APA LINKS ONLINE     
The Weber State Library has a link to some APA resources for formatting guidelines. When you enter the Library website, click on the Articles and Databases link under the Find menu. Then click on Reference. Then click on APA under the Citing Sources Heading.

The following are some tips to help you with the paper required in this class.

 

DUE DATES
The due date for this assignment is the end of week 11 of the semester.