Understanding of People and Behavior & Amy Paul Case study – Nursing Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Task 

Case study: Amy and Paul (Stress and health)

Task 1

1) Job strain:

1.  Excessive job demand from new senior manager:

•  be available for 24hrs a day
•  expected to submit report to manager the next day after recovering from floods

       2- Little control in decision: cannot questions manager’s decisions and do things his way.

Amy’s physical and mental health is impacted, as she becomes sick and spends less time with family and friends.

2)Primary and secondary appraisal

•  Amy appraises stress in work and floods.
• -Appraises stress as a threat in primary phase as they fear it could result in damage to their house.
•  Enters secondary appraisal where she feels she has no effective resources to cope with the situation and feels overwhelming, negatively appraising the stress.

3- Chronic stressors and catastrophic event

•  Faces chronic stressors with job and catastrophic event of floods, makes her feel no control over the situation as both stressors have no obvious end.
•  Short term but has long term effects (catastrophic)

1.  Views flood as the biggest stress she will ever overcome
2.  Feels emotional and tired and dealt with long term effects like repairing damages in the house.

4) Responding to stress (Selye’s general adaptation syndrome)
Amy feels work and floods as a prolonged stressful event due to the catastrophic ramifications they had on her life. Amy is in resistance stage heading towards exhaustion stage: prone to illness as she has got cold and persistent cough for a week, leading t  psychological and physiological consequences of stress

Task 2)
In order to reduce stress, Amy must take effective strategies to reduce her stress level. She must take the problem-based approach by identifying factors causing stress in her job.

•  Reporting issues regarding the new senior manager to higher officials in the work so that the issue can be addressed and solved.
•  Should weigh up the cost and benefits of her job and think whether it is good to look for a new job that gives her a relaxing environment to work with and happiness.

Amy could have taken steps to reduce job stress before the event of the flood happened. This could have made her stress level less and could
have dealt better with the catastrophic event of the flood. Also, this can make her identify the stress in flood as challenging and prepared, in
primary appraisal so that she would not have to enter secondary appraisal thus positively appraising the stress.
 

Case study: Sydney to Blue Mountains Train Consortium (effective teamwork)

Task 1

1) Social loafing
-This is because the effort and motivation of individuals lacked. Individuals felt less responsible, where people knew the issue of the tunnel corner but because of no communication and coordination, it was not addressed and taken seriously.

•  No one in the management team contacted train manufactures to check for updates. Thus, people were working alone instead of a team.

2)Groupthink

•  Had a strong goal but did not address issues properly.
•  Closemindedness and conformity caused people to ignore issues
•  Project managers (Directive leader) were pushing everyone and did not want to take proper action (informing transport minister).
•  People who had power to take action about problem isolated themselves from dissenting views, acting as if the issue wasn’t there.

3) Intergroup context
Several groups were involved in this goal but did not work together as a team as they were no communication or teamwork between groups, between project management and train manufactures. Each group created themselves as ingroup and others as outgroup, consequently not working towards the same goal, leading to issues.

4) Group norms:

•  People don’t go against norms of the group instead internalising it as being right. 
•  During the discussion of the tunnel corner issue, the group decided not to deal with it and not to be escalated to NSW transport minister (expectation and norm of the group)

Task 2

•  Firstly, should recategorize the ingroup and outgroup, ‘us’ vs ‘them’ situation so that there is better interaction with each group and thus a successful team is formed.

There should be a balance of superordinate identity and positive distinctiveness of the original group identity of the team that is formed.

• To make a project become successful, every individual and groups should come together as a team rather than working separately to accomplish the ultimate goal. For this to happen, there needs to be effective communication and coordination, commitment, good leadership and clear goals outlined for each group. Hence, this will ensure that the project does not fail and can be completed to the best possible standard without any errors.

Case study: Kevin and Whisky (health behaviour change)

Task 1

1) Socio cognitive theory Kevin’s behaviour is influenced by the way he perceives the situation. Although Kevin gets complications due to cancer and diabetes, he perceives susceptibility and seriousness of his health as trivial and finds him invulnerable. He feels there is more advantages in his behaviour than his health and does not want to take any action to change his behaviour.

2)Stages of change – transtheoretical model Kevin’s friends fed up with trying to help him as he is rude and rejects help, changes subject
when they approach him: pre-contemplation stage of change.
– He moves to the preparation stage when he considers two options to change his behaviour after meeting the women.

3)Biopsychosocial model of health and wellness Kevin’s health and wellness are a result of interplay between biological and psychological factors.

•  Biological: Like diabetes and cancer has negatively impacted his attitude as when in remission, he felt invulnerable and made him say “if stage 4 cancer didn’t get me what is there to fear?”.
•  Psychological: His care-free attitude, when friends tried to help but he was rude and rejects help.

4) Cognitive dissonance Despite knowing that his choices were unhealthy , specially due to diabetes he is in a state of cognitive dissonance and tend to justify his behaviour by stating “if stage 4 cancer did not get me what is there to fear “and takes “life is short” approach and continues to enjoy life.

Task 2
Kevin can try motivational interviewing meaning it is a method to see where they are and what is stopping them from going forward. This will benefit Kevin as he can speak to a professional about the stage of change he is in and what is making him stop from going forward. It also reduces cognitive dissonance and helps him change his health behaviour in a positive way and making him understand the consequences of not changing or not going forward.
Another solution could be consulting a dietitian instead of the 21-day meditation program. This is because it has been scientifically proven that 21 days are not enough to effectively change a health behaviour. Hence, he can consult a dietitian to seek eating plan for long period to deal with his present situation – diabetes, which can lead to positive health behaviour change. It is also important for his friends to support him so that he does not go to a state of cognitive dissonance but helping him to be fit and healthy.