Assignment Code: BPCG-173/Asst /TMA/July 2022-January 2023

Course Code: BPCG-173

Assignment Name: Psychology for Health and Wellbeing

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Total Marks: 100

NOTE: All assignments are compulsory.

Assignment I

Answer the following questions in about 500 words each. Each question carries 20 marks. 2 x 20 = 40

Q1) Describe relaxation techniques and Yoga as techniques of stress management.

Ans) The body of the person who is under stress goes through several physiological changes. These could include things like shallow breathing, an accelerated heartbeat and pulse rate, tense muscles, and more. Relaxation techniques can be employed in this case, especially to help the person who is stressed out feel less tense in their muscles. In addition to reducing stress, relaxation techniques can also help with anxiety, improved sleep, blood pressure control, headache, and migraine reduction, and more.

The approach primarily begins with inhaling, holding, and exhaling. It's crucial to maintain calm and comfort while using this technique. The procedure can be performed with closed eyes. Repeating the breathing technique several times can be followed by tensing and relaxing various muscles. This method calls for alternately contracting and relaxing 16 muscle groups. Arms, hands, shoulders, neck, forehead-eyes-scalp, jaws-mouth, chest-torso, stomach, lower back, buttocks, thigh, and foot-calf muscles are among these muscles.

After exercising, it's crucial to maintain your calm and avoid jerky movements, however you can stretch one last time. Count from ten to one backwards before opening your eyes, then rub your hands together and place them over your eyes. The feeling of relaxation can then be savoured when the eyes are gently opened.

Types of Asanas

1. Padmasana: This posture, often known as the lotus pose, is appropriate for usage during meditation. In padmasana, you sit upright on the ground with your feet resting on top of your thighs. This asana is fairly challenging; therefore, it may take some practise to perform it correctly.

2. Sukhasana: Cross-legged seating is required for this. Like Padmasana, this simple asana can be practised during meditation.

3. Siddhasana: This is comparable to Padmasana but easier. You must sit in this position with your toes tucked between your thighs.

4. Vajrasana: The Sanskrit word vajra, which means "diamond," is used in this sentence. By resting the hands on the knees, one sits back on their heels.

5. Trikonasana: In order to perform this asana, you must stand on the floor with your legs apart. Then, you must stretch your body to the left, keeping your spine straight, facing forward, and your arms perpendicular to the ground with your left hand resting on the floor and your right hand raised straight up.

6. Bhujangasana: This position, often known as the cobra stance, requires the practitioner to lie face down on the floor with their hands directly behind their shoulders. The next step is for the person to carefully lift their head and chest. Keep the elbows close to your torso while maintaining a straight neck and an upward gaze.

7. Pranayam: Although it has many other health advantages, pranayam is a breathing practise that can be done to reduce stress. Put your right thumb on your right nostril and take a big breath through your left nostril to perform this. Then you hold your breath for a few seconds while covering your left nostril with your right index finger. Finally, breathe out via your right nostril. The same procedure can be carried out on your left nostril.

Numerous advantages of yoga include stress reduction, increased productivity, mindfulness, and general improvement in physical and mental health. But before practising, it's crucial to gain comprehension and receive the proper instruction.

Q2) Explain psychosomatic illnesses with a focus on Somatic Symptom and Related Disorder as given in DSM 5.

Ans) Personality qualities, environmental influences, genetic and biochemical variables, and more can be linked to psychosomatic disorders. Additionally, they could be the outcome of learnt behaviour. Psychosomatic disorders can also arise as a result of stress, anxiety, and sadness. A person's ability to function in daily life and their quality of life can both be negatively impacted by psychosomatic disease. A person who has a psychosomatic ailment will struggle with both mental and physical problems.

It was referred to as somatoform disorders in the DSM IV-TR. The condition includes somatization disorders, pain disorders, and hypochondriasis, which were previously categorised as somatoform illnesses. People who have this illness have physically uncomfortable symptoms, and they respond to these symptoms with thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours that are abnormal. "A condition where a person's somatic or bodily symptoms create distress or disturbance in physical health that is not consistent with a medical ailment," said Ray of somatic symptom disorders.

People who have this disorder have excessive and continuous thinking about how severe their symptoms are. Additionally, they exhibit heightened and ongoing anxiety about their health or the symptoms they are experiencing. They are preoccupied with these issues and spend a lot of time and energy concentrating on them.

Following are the Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders as stated in DSM 5:

1. Somatic Symptom Disorder: When a person places an excessive amount of attention on physical symptoms like pain and fatigue that cause affective distress and interfere with day-to-day functioning, this disease is suspected. There might or might not be another health issue. However, the individual's response to the symptoms they are experiencing is abnormal.

2. Illness Anxiety Disorder: Prior to now, this was known as hypochondriasis. People who suffer with this disorder exhibit anxiety of already having or developing a serious sickness or disorder.

3. Conversion Disorder (Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder): In spite of having no medical conditions, the person in this case exhibits neurological symptoms. The motor and sensory functions may be impacted by the symptoms, which are realistic.

4. Psychological Factors Affecting Other Medical Conditions: This disorder is identified when a general medical condition is negatively impacted by psychological or behavioural characteristics that are unrelated to another psychological disorder and that not only hinder therapy but also have the potential to cause morbidity and mortality.

5. Factitious Disorder: In this disorder, a person acts as though they are afflicted with a medical or mental sickness. This is not on design because they want to appear ill or hurt to others. Affective problems and perceived stressors like stressful circumstances are frequently associated to this illness.

6. Other Specified and Unspecified Somatic Symptom and Related Disorder: The existence of somatic symptoms and associated illnesses that produce distress while not fully satisfying any of the symptoms and related disorders' full requirements serve as a marker for other specified somatic symptoms and related disorders. Unspecified somatic symptom and related disease indicates the presence of somatic symptoms but insufficient data prevents a definitive diagnosis from being made.

Assignment II

Answer the following questions in about 250 words each. Each question carries 10 marks. 10 x 3 = 30

Q3) Describe the effect of stress on health.

Ans) The effect of stress on health are as follows:

1. Stress can have an effect on a person's immune system, making them more susceptible to various infections and disorders. Stress can quicken the ageing process.

2. Stress can cause people to acquire cardiovascular diseases. One of the physiological changes that take place when there is a feeling of stress is an increase in blood pressure and heart rate.

3. As the sympathetic nervous system is triggered and blood pressure rises and stays elevated for a longer amount of time as a result of prolonged stress, this condition is also known as hypertension. Furthermore, persistent hypertension raises the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and kidney-related conditions.

4. We occasionally encounter kids who experience stomach distress prior to being examined. This might possibly be linked to the stress they were under. An individual may also get ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel illnesses as a result of ongoing stress.

5. One of the variables that can cause someone to acquire asthma is stress. The breathing difficulty associated with asthma is caused by obstruction of the bronchial airways.

6. Long-term stress may potentially increase the risk of cancer in some people. Migraines are headaches that a person may have on one side of the head for an extended period of time.

7. Because prolonged periods of stress can have a deleterious impact on the thyroid, which regulates several physiological functions in addition to metabolism, hyperthyroidism can also be brought on by stress.

8. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can also occur as a result of extreme stress (PTSD). An individual may get PTSD after going through a terrible event.

Q4) Explain acute and chronic pain.

Ans) Acute pain is defined as pain that is fleeting, that is, lasting less than six months, and that may endure for a few months. As a result, acute pain can also be thought of as a necessary physiological reaction brought on by an illness or damage. Acute pain examples include a fractured leg, labour pains during childbirth, and bruises. It is possible to manage such pain with medication. It is important to remember that acute discomfort can become chronic pain. Even if acute pain may not stay for a long time, those who encounter it frequently struggle with their mental health at least while the pain is present.

On the other side, chronic pain is felt for a longer period of time and persists even after six months. Pharmacological treatment may not work for those with persistent pain. Examples of chronic pain include cancer and arthritic pain.

Additionally, people with chronic pain may show indicators of hopelessness and helplessness in addition to psychological anguish. They might not get enough sleep, which causes weariness and exhaustion. Not only does pain create suffering, but it also frequently prevents people from falling asleep because of worry and other distracting thoughts that they have while in pain. Additionally, people who have prolonged sleep deprivation will likely experience negative emotions and may also become more susceptible to discomfort.

Chronic pain affects daily activities, making it difficult for those who experience it to concentrate on their personal and professional objectives. In their lives, suffering actually has a central role. Financial ramifications result from the persons' inability to continue working owing to bodily and psychological pain, as well as from the possibility of high treatment costs.

Q5) Elucidate cognitive restructuring.

Ans) "A process of replacing stress-inducing negative thoughts and beliefs with more constructive and realistic ones which lessen cognitive assessment of the threat," is how cognitive restructuring is defined. As a result, cognitive restructuring mostly entails altering the way that one thinks to make it more rational and constructive. For instance, if a student receives very low grades on a test, rather of viewing themselves as failures, they can chose to learn from the experience and strive harder the next time.

The "error made by an individual during his/her presentation at work" is the activating event. He or she may hold an illogical or sensible belief regarding this. It happens occasionally, and making a mistake is not the end of the world, could be sensible beliefs in response to this activating experience. The result of a sensible view would be that the person would experience brief sadness (emotional consequence), but they would work harder the next time to prevent making the same mistakes (behavioural consequence).

However, the person may have illogical ideas about the activation event, such as "I am insufficient" or "I am not good enough," which would have the emotional effect of having the person give up and avoid giving presentations in the future (behavioural consequence).

By identifying, evaluating, and disputing the irrational ideas, it is crucial that they be refuted. The result of disputing will be for the person to adopt a more rational perspective on the activation event if they are able to refute the irrational viewpoint. In this situation, the person will have to convince himself or herself that one error is not the end of the world, that mistakes like this do happen occasionally, that there are many more possibilities for him or her, and that just one mistake does not make the person unworthy or inadequate.

Assignment III

Answer the following questions in about 100 words each. Each question carries 6 marks. 5 x 6= 30

Q6) Holistic model of health

Ans) Both the function of practitioners and that of patients are given equal weight in the holistic approach. It views a doctor as a mentor and an example whose job it is to inspire patients to take charge of their own health rather than putting naive faith in doctors' abilities.

1. A thorough and all-encompassing examination of health and disease is referred to as holism.

2. As there is no one single cause of sickness, we need to understand health from a variety of angles.

3. A holistic practitioner may treat patients using a variety of healthcare modalities, including conventional medicine and complementary therapies.

As a result, several academics urged the development of an alternative model that would take into account all facets of health and approach health holistically. The first holistic model, called "Biopsychosocial," was proposed by Engel in 1977. Since then, numerous other holistic models, including the Eastern Body-Mind-Spirit Model, the Expanded WHO ICF Model of Illness, and the Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model, have been developed by scholars. According to studies, treatment based on holistic models can help patients feel better about themselves, have less despair and anxiety, and have better quality of life.

Q7) Measurement of stress

Ans) The following are various ways in which stress can be measured:

Physiological Measures: It is possible to perform physiological measurements utilising a variety of tools and equipment, such as a polygraph. Additionally, because stress causes the release of chemicals like adrenaline, norepinephrine, cortisol, and others, it is possible to evaluate stress using biochemical methods.

Psychological Tests: Self-report inventories could be used for these psychological exams. In self-report inventories, the person is required to respond to specific assertions, and interpretations can be formed in light of the responses.

Checklist: Stress can also be assessed using a checklist. For important life events, for example, a checklist can be employed. The person is asked to select the significant life experiences they have had over a specific period of time from a list. Major life events could include things like a loved one's passing, a divorce, a job relocation, and more.

Interview: Interviews are yet another way for measuring stress because they allow for face-to-face collection of detailed information from the subject. Structured, unstructured, or semi-structured interviews are all possible.

Q8) Proactive and avoidant coping.

Ans) The person will face the stressful situation or event head-on when practising proactive coping. By getting a deeper understanding of the circumstance that is causing stress, someone who uses this kind of coping will take immediate action. As the name implies, an individual who uses avoidant coping will make an effort to stay away from unpleasant situations or may downplay the significance of stressful events. As a result, the behaviour of the person is intended to prevent particular ideas or sensations from emerging as a result of the stressful scenario. Individuals who use avoidance coping techniques may experience tension, worry, as well as a negative impact on their self-confidence.

Q9) Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome

Ans) The virus HIV targets the immune system (the T cells or CD4 cells). As a result, the immune system is weakened, making the person more susceptible to infections and illnesses. Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome can also occur if treatment is not obtained and symptoms are not controlled (AIDS). Despite the fact that there is no cure for HIV, it can be managed with antiretroviral medication, allowing those who have it to live healthy lives. Headache, fever, rash, muscle soreness, swollen lymph nodes, and others are some of the symptoms. In the section on chronic illnesses under AIDS, HIV has been further examined. People with HIV can be treated using pharmacology.

Q10) Gainful employment

Ans) Work and job hold a significant part in a person's life. Following close personal relationships, work is the most significant factor in determining quality of life. It has a big impact on everything else in one's life. In psychology, "gainful employment" refers to rewards from work that enhances our wellbeing. Snyder, Lopez, and Pedrotti created the phrase "gainful employment" to emphasise the importance of labour in leading a healthy life.

There are three stages in the strengths-based approach to gainful employment:

1. The employee's qualities or advantages are identified.

2. Integration of these abilities into the employee's self-perception so that they are mindful of them.

3. Any success or accomplishment in the workplace is attributed to the individual's strengths, showing a behavioural shift in the employee where s/he concentrates and takes ownership of the skills or assets she or he has.