Belinda Marshall

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Online Workbook B Workbook Task 1 Signature Strengths My list of what I believe to be my top five strengths:
Kindness and generosity:
I believe that kindness and generosity is reflected in my life for the things that I do for others. I always try to be there for everyone including family, friends and even strangers. If someone is having a bad time such as sickness, sadness or just going through a tough time I do my best to cheer them up by either cooking a meal, buying a small gift, taking them to doctors, sending cards, calling to have a chat or babysitting. I believe that this is part of being a good person and part of giving back. I believe this will impact my studies in a positive way, either in team work at university, helping out a friend or teacher with information. If I can help out I will. I believe that I can use these strengths to improve my study by interacting with new lectures and students. I could use these strengths to be kind and supportive of new people I meet in my university journey.

Gratitude:
I believe gratitude is reflected in my life daily. I often give thanks to friends and family that help me out and in return always make an effort to express my gratitude with thanks and usually a small gift depending on the circumstance. I always make the effort to thank God daily for all of the good things in my life and never start a prayer without being grateful for all the good. I believe that this strength could only impact my studies in a positive way. Being grateful to my teachers, my peers and that I have the ability to continue on my studies. I think that my strength gratitude would help me with my studies just knowing that I am in a position to be able to further my career, to have access for continued learning. Gratitude could be used in my work in the future for essays and assignments and how I view things.

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Love of Learning:
My love of learning is reflected daily through my constant studying. I enjoy seeking out new information and learning new things every day. My self-esteem is growing due to this strength. I believe that this will impact on my studies because I wont give up. I have come to realise that when I am studying my anxiety is less, I feel more confident and I believe that this will show through in my university life. I believe that I can use this strength in my studies as this is key, a love of learning means that I enjoy what I am doing and hopefully can in the future encourage my children to continue learning too. I think that this strength could be shown through my eagerness to learn and help as much as possible, putting my hand up as a volunteer to learn new things.

Hope, optimism, and future-mindedness:

This strength is reflected in my life through my belief that things will get better. I believe that if you work hard you will be rewarded. I hope that my studies will continue. I look to the future as an adventure. I think this will impact my studies in the form that I will never give up I will keep trying to attain my goals. Yes, I believe that I can use these strengths towards my study having hope, optimism and future-mindedness I can see myself succeeding if I put in the hard work. I believe I can use this strength to my advantage in courses for Psychology. An example could be hope for my future, optimism that I can do this if I work hard its not beyond my reach and future-mindedness I see myself wearing my cap and receiving my award.

Humour and playfulness:

My last strength is humour and playfulness. Although not in my top 5 its in my top 10 and a strength I would like to work on. I believe this is reflected in my life when faced with adversity I try to make light of the situation. When someone else is feeling down I will try and make a joke and cheer someone up. I think this strength would impact my studies by being able to make light of stressful situations. This strength would help in my studies by not always taking things so seriously to see the positives in my hard work. This strength would help enhance my studies with being able to have a joke with my peers and lecturers. University life can be very demanding at times and being able to have a little bit of a laugh can be the difference between an okay lecture and an enjoyable and memorable lecture. Page 2 of 14

Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 2 Six Virtues

The virtue that I think would most benefit me as a student would be Wisdom and Knowledge, to be able to use my past learning experiences and incorporate them into my new university studies. Learning new things and incorporating them into all different areas of my life. The signature strength that I most relate to is my love of learning. This is one of my top 5 from the VIA survey of charter strengths. I love learning new things, trying out new programs and creating a more knowledgeable me. When I am learning new things myself esteem grows and I feel confident in myself. Learning is a life long journey for me, something I intend to do right into my old age and hopefully something that I can pass on down to my children and grandchildren.

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Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 1 Stress

1. What are the activities and pressures that give you the most stress and why?
The main stressors that I face daily would be dealing with children arguing, traffic, shopping centres, fatigue and financial stress. Two of these (traffic and shopping centres) are related to large amounts of people. When in large crowds I feel overwhelmed and I start to get anxious and at times have panic attacks. Arguing children causes me to feel stressed when trying to get them ready for school. I am often very tired due to worrying too much and not taking care of myself. Being constantly fatigued can at times make me feel stressed as I dont feel refreshed after a sleep. Financial stress I find is one of the hardest. When under financial pressure my relationship with my partner becomes frayed. The blame game begins and issues can last for months.

2. How do you act when you are stressed, and who do you usually take it out on?
When I am stressed I become very anxious. My anxiety leads to anger which I either internalise and explode or externalise and explode. I very rarely have bouts of tears due to the large amount of anxiety (fear) so everything builds up inside of me. I know that this is a very unhealthy way of dealing with things. The people closest to me are the ones who usually cop the wrath. I will often get very angry go and lock myself in my room to try and calm down.

3. How can stress be a positive thing?

I believe that stress can be positive in the way that it helps us to stay motivated and energised when required. An example would be, when the children are arguing in the car on the way to school I try to take that stress to get my courage up to deal with the traffic on the drive. Another example would be when faced with adversity or a confrontation I find that stress helps me to find my voice and to stick up for myself. Page 4 of 14

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4. What can happen to people who never take stress seriously?

If stress is not taken seriously it can lead to serious health problems and in some cases ongoing mental health problems. Some of the problems could be sleep problems, diet problems, anxiety, depression, inability to function on a day to day basis, decreased happiness, relationship problems. Stress, if not managed correctly can leach into all areas of your life.

5. What steps can you take to avoid being stressed?

Some of the strategies you can incorporate into your life to avoid too much stress are meditation, yoga, counselling, good support networks, time management, exercise, healthy eating and negative thought stopping. I believe it is very important to have a good balance of all of these things. Time management is crucial in ensuring that you are taking the time to look after yourself and keeping a healthy life balance.

6. What things do you do now to help relieve stress?

When under pressure or experiencing high levels of stress I use TRE (trauma releasing exercises) I find that this helps decrease my anxiety levels and relax the tension in my body. Listening to music or self hypnoisis is a wonderful tool to use daily. A more recent tool I have found is EFT (emotional freedom technique) where you use tapping of pressure points whilst saying an affirmation to help release your emotional worries.

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Workbook Task 2 Resilient behaviour

Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch (October 23, 1960 July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer, a terminal illness, in September of 2006. 1. Identify stressor: Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was told that he had 3-6 months to live. The cancer that Randy was diagnosed with was one of the most fatal cancers of all. Randy underwent massive surgery to remove a third of his pancreas and parts of his stomach. He then underwent rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Eight months later the cancer had returned. 2. Recoil: After receiving the bad news from the doctors Randy and his wife Jay cried for several nights in a row. Randy felt angry at the world and sadness at the thought that his family was going to go on without a husband and a father to their three young children. Randy felt that he had been dealt a great deal of bad luck. 3. Response: Randys response was not one off remorse or denial. He instead chose to harness his energies into living out his last days having fun, which was something that he always chose to do in his life. He never found being angry to be productive and after initially feeling upset about his situation he could not change it and so decided to address the elephant in the room and leave a legacy for his wife and children

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4. Rise: Randys rise was putting his energies into a lecture which he called The Last Lecture. In this lecture Randy talks about his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others and lessons learned. When watching Randys lecture you can see that hes happy. This doesnt look like a man about to die. Instead he chooses to live the last moments of his life to the fullest and leave a lifelong legacy of The Last Lecture for his wife and children. Some of the lessons Randy shared about rising above adversity was to show gratitude, dont complain just work harder, be good at something, find the best in everybody as people will eventually show their good side, when you do the right things good things will happen, get a feedback loop and listen to it cherish feedback and use it, your goals are possible if you get tough with yourself and face difficult truths, decide if youre a tigger or an eeore, experience is what you get out of situation when you didnt get what you wanted, have fun, never lose your childhood wonder, help people and be loyal. Randy also left another legacy in the program he founded called ALICE a computer program where students can design a story and learn computer program at the same time. The legacy being that students all over the world will be able to learn whilst having fun. Randy passed away on the 25th July 2008. He lived three years longer than was expected by the doctors which I believe was due to his optimistic approproach to his illness.

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Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 3 Personalised Avatar

Please hover over image and press ctrl+click to start. Once in Jing you will need to press play a few times to start the avatar talking. Above is my personalised avatar. I had many attempts at the avatar however it kept saying that I needed to sign up for 30 day free trial to use the talking avatar. Other students are commenting that its not free whilst others are saying that it is. The problem could possibly be different computer settings. Not willing to take the trial and then have my account charged I persevered and tried alternative ways to get my talking avatar working. I utilised the Jing screencast to link my talking avatar to show that it was done. However you have to click on the link to go to my Jing screenshot to activate my talking. I know that this isnt straight from Voki and embedded but I wanted to show that I still carried out the requested work.

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Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 1 Johari Window

My johari window is based on my marriage. My area 1 open/free is very large as my husband and I have been married for 18 years. There is not much that we dont know about each other. In 18 years we have only been apart for 3 weeks at the most due to work. I feel that my husband/partner is like a part of me now to lose him would be to also lose a large part of myself too (open/free). Throughout our marriage I am sure that my husband has judged me on many things as I am not a very housewifely person. I would rather be outside in the yard doing mans work such as mowing the lawn or fixing a car (blind area). There are some areas of my life that my husband doesnt know about, things to do with my upbringing and things that happened when I was at school, a lot of these things are really hidden because I dont want to re-live them (hidden area). As I study there are new things I am learning about myself everyday so I can only imagine how much my husband is learning too. My opinions are changing, my outlook on life, my health (unknown area) but I feel that these changes are all positive.

1. Open/Free

2. Blind Area

4. Unknown Area 5. Hidden Area

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Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 2 Love Language

1. What was your primary love language?
My primary love language was Acts of Service. I was surprised that this has changed from about 4 years ago. My love language was previously physical touch. I think that it has changed as my life has begun to get busier. With 3 children at school and sport and studying distance at home I have found that I am time poor and would love some help around the house cooking, cleaning and helping with the kids.

2.

Reflect on how you like to see this love language in action?

I would like to see this in action through not having to ask for help. That the people in my home would just put on a load of washing, clean up without being asked and if they see something out of place to take action and do the chore. Being a mum you feel like you are always nagging everyone. It would fill my love tank up if my household just did chores without being asked.

3.

Choose a significant other in your life and either ask them to do the quiz or guess what you believe their primary love language is.
I would guess my husbands love language to be Acts of Service. He likes me to do work for him such as lunches, chores, cleaning and washing.

4.

State the relationship between you and that person and explain what their primary love language is.
I really enjoyed this part of the course as my husband and I have previously taken the quiz together, doing it again was really interesting. Our love languages over a 4 year period had swapped places. His went from Acts of Service to Physical Touch. I was surprised as I honestly guessed that his would still be Acts of Service.

5.

Describe some actions that you can do to fill their love tank?
Some actions I can do to fill his love tank are what I previously needed. To be held, told that he is loved, holding hands, kissing, public displays of affection, and massage.

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Workbook Task 1 Communication Process

1. Sender decides to send message 2. Sender encodes message 3. Channel of communication is chosen 4. Message transported through barriers 5. Receiver decodes message

Example of positive communication I wanted to tell my family of my assignment results I was excited and proud and excited I wanted my family to be proud too I decide to send them a text message from my phone as I dont like using Facebook I am hoping that they dont see me as showing off My mum and sister returned message well done, knew you could do it.

Example of communication with a barrier I am so pleased with my results I am going to brag about it. I have worked so hard I deserve all the applause and credit due to me I send a text message. I wonder if they have received it? They will see how amazing I am. I always do everything right. Mum doesnt receive message. I feel deflated. They dont care. Sister receives the message and texts back your perfect.

The first example of positive communication received a happy outcome. The message was received well and the feedback encouraging. The second example with a barrier effect of high self-esteem was not received so well. I was acting with a bragging high self -esteem making me seem conceited and uncaring. In response one message was not received whilst the other has an undercurrent of sarcasm to the bragging. The changes that I would make to the process would be to make sure that my messages are being received in a humble way. To still get praise for my hard work but not making other people feel bad in the process.

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Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 2Emerging Technologies Emerging technology 1 - Prezi

1. What are the benefits of this form of technology for you as a student?
The benefits of the Prezi software is the ability to utilise this program for classroom presentations or assessments. The Prezi software is easy to use and great as a platform for many assessments. It has a zoom aspect making the presentations more engaging to the audience.

2. How can you see yourself utilising this type of technology?

I can see myself using this software in place of PowerPoint. Prezi has basic layouts and templates to choose from and I would use it in class presentations, assessments and projects in my future courses.

3. How easy is the program to use?

The program has a simple download and sign up. As soon as you log in you have a can start a new Prezi. You can choose from a template or a blank screen. You can add pictures and text and edit them all to what you want to present. You can then save and share your presentation through blog, Facebook, email, pdf, portable Prezi or present mode.

4. Would you recommend this technology or would you suggest a different form of technology to other students?
I would recommend this to other students as I believe its better to have more options available to you than not. Its basic to use and makes an impact. I believe that this would make an okay presentation better.

5. What interesting concepts have you discovered since learning about his new technology?
This was the first program that I have learnt about since learning basic word programs. I didnt even know that it existed so it was exciting to see that there is a lot more options out there for a student. Page 12 of 14

Belinda Marshall

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Emerging technology 2 - Blogging

1. What are the benefits of this form of technology for you as a student?
I have found the benefits of blogging to be wonderful. Not only did I learn about setting up a blog and learning how to edit, share, upload photos, select background the best thing I learning to use embedding. This has helped me so much in learning how to put objects, text and pictures into documents which has been amazing.

2. How can you see yourself utilising this type of technology?

I could see myself using this in the future more for personal use as we plan our trip to Cape York in a few years time. It would be wonderful to use a blog as a daily diary so friends and family can keep up to date with where we are and what we are doing.

3. How easy is the program to use?

The program is very basic to use. I nominated myself to do a pilot for the Positive Learning for University class. I signed up and have added on my blog easy to follow instructions on setting up. Blogging is no more difficult than navigating around Facebook.

4. Would you recommend this technology or would you suggest a different form of technology to other students?
I would definitely recommend this to other students as it is so user friendly. Blogging can be used for pretty much anything to do with a subject, journaling or anything the mind can create. Its very easy to embed from other applications and then share to other platforms such as email, Twitter, Moodle, and Facebook.

5. What interesting concepts have you discovered since learning about his new technology?
Since learning about blogging I have also learnt so much more. Learning how to embed has been life changing for me and the blog was the starting point for this. I would recommend anyone having a try at blogging it is fun, easy to use and youre learning whilst using it. Page 13 of 14

Belinda Marshall

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Workbook Task 3 Final Reflection

Concept 1 changing ANTs to POTs
The main concept that has stuck with me that I would take into my future pathway of Psychology is ANTs (automated negative thoughts). I think that this concept will benefit me because as soon as I learnt about ANTs I have been challenging them every day. I think that until a person is aware of these negative thought patterns its impossible to change them. Once you catch these thoughts running through your mind you can have a debate with them to see if they are factual, most of the time they are not. These thoughts can affect your whole day, month, and life and by learning the techniques to challenging them we can change our whole outlook. This strength will benefit me as I will be able to use these personally in my university journey and throughout my course and life.

Concept 2 Working on my strengths

After doing the VIA survey on strengths my top 5 will all be useful in my future career pathway. Kindness and generosity, gratitude, love of learning, hope, optimism, and futuremindedness, humour and playfulness. Now knowing what my strengths are is a very useful tool in helping me to build on those strengths. I could use all of these in my university life also in my career journey. For example kindness and generosity could be used in my interactions with students, lecturers and future patients. My love of learning will be shown in my dedication to my studies and results. Humour and playfulness will be shown in my ability to diffuse tense situations and help to make light of stressful times. My strength hope, optimism and future-mindedness will be shown in my future goals and ability to attain them, to never give up on my dreams and seeing better things for myself in my future. I hope to build on these strengths and carry them through into university and into my career.

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