BSc: Physical Culture and Sport Psychology
Mental health: Psychology
- Course name: Mental health: Psychology
- Code discipline: XXX
- Subject area: Behavioral science: psychology
Short Description
This course covers the following concepts: Psychohygiene; Mental Health and Life balance; The nature of our emotional processes, emotional burnout; Willpower; Procrastination; Erickson’s principles of thinking; Different practices and tools that help achieve personal goals and maintain comfortable psychological condition.; What is the purpose of this course?; The rhythm of life is very high in the XXI century. Abundance of products and service is available for us as well as abundance of tasks, goals, contacts, responsibilities, contradictory information and at last temptations. Managing with all these stimuluses make a great workload for our psychic (brain), that can lead to some unpleasant consequences such as emotional burnout, high level of anxiety or even panic attacks, periods of apathy or depression, low level of self-esteem and so on. Usual techniques of psychohygiene help cope with high rhythm of life and prevent mental difficulties.; The goal of this course is to introduce basic elements of psychohygiene (care of mental health and well-being) that help students manage all the spheres of their life easier, more effective and with more pleasure.; Students will be provided with knowledge of how our brain works and get the opportunity to try exercises and algorithms, which help improve brain’s work and adaptability to life’s challenges. They will also be given some concept about healthy/ecological way of communication with people.; Course Objectives Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy; What should a student remember at the end of the course?; By the end of the course, the students should be able to remember and recognize:; The main principles and value of psychohygiene (caring about mental health and emotional condition) and life balance.; The nature and particular qualities of emotional life; The nature and working principles of will power; The nature and reasons of procrastination; The nature and signs of healthy communication, personal boundaries; What should a student be able to understand at the end of the course? (5-7 points for bachelors and 4-5 for masters); Why people always need to care about their psychological health and life balance?; How to define their emotions, emotional conditions and the reasons of them; How to prevent emotional burnout; The connection between their minds (type of thinking) and fortune; The features of their will power and personal reasons of procrastination; What should a student be able to apply at the end of the course?; By the end of the course, the students should be able to:; • Identify destructive thoughts (ideas) and reformulate/transform them into constructive/effective ones.; • Identify their emotions and cope with them (live them through ecologically); • Make goals, plans and do the work according to the plan/schedule in time; • Make decisions according to their lifegoals and cope with temptation.; • Understand and apply the principles of healthy self-esteem (healthy attitude towards yourself) and self-boundaries protection.; Course evaluation (Do you have any special weight on the course evaluations of components that affect the assessment of the development of the discipline? By default, it will be as below. If you think it should be different please indicate this in the `Proposed points' column); Table 1: Course grade breakdown; Cooperation Policy and Quotations:; Grades range (Does this class have any particularities of matching the grades with a five-point scale? By default, it will be as below. If you think that should be different, please indicate this in the `Proposed range' column):; Table 2: Course grading range; Resources and reference material; Textbook(s): -; The Full Life. Radislav Gandapas, 2018, АСТ; The Gestalt approach and Eye witness to therapy. F.Perls, Palo Alto, Ca.: Science and Behavior Books, 1973; The Willpower Instinct. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., 2011 The USA; The Now Habit. Neil Fiore, Ph.D., 2007; Emotional Intelligence. Daniel Goleman, 1995; Secrets of Open Communication. Sergey Petrushin,; Course Sections; The main sections of the course and approximate hour distribution between them is as follows:.
Prerequisites
Prerequisite subjects
Prerequisite topics
Course Topics
| Section | Topics within the section |
|---|---|
| The notion of mental health and ways of its maintaining. Psychohygiene. Life balance. |
|
| Managing your emotions: the healthy emotional condition |
|
| Managing your mindset: effective life thinking |
|
| Managing your behavior: how to switch on your willpower and cope with procrastination |
|
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
What is the main purpose of this course?
The rhythm of life is very high in the XXI century. Abundance of products and service is available for us as well as abundance of tasks, goals, contacts, responsibilities, contradictory information and at last temptations. Managing with all these stimuluses make a great workload for our psychic (brain), that can lead to some unpleasant consequences such as emotional burnout, high level of anxiety or even panic attacks, periods of apathy or depression, low level of self-esteem and so on. Usual techniques of psychohygiene help cope with high rhythm of life and prevent mental difficulties.
ILOs defined at three levels
Level 1: What concepts should a student know/remember/explain?
By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...
- The main principles and value of psychohygiene (caring about mental health and emotional condition) and life balance.
- The nature and particular qualities of emotional life
- The nature and working principles of will power
- The nature and reasons of procrastination
- The nature and signs of healthy communication, personal boundaries
Level 2: What basic practical skills should a student be able to perform?
By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...
- How to define their emotions, emotional conditions and the reasons of them
- How to prevent emotional burnout
- The connection between their minds (type of thinking) and fortune
- The features of their will power and personal reasons of procrastination
Level 3: What complex comprehensive skills should a student be able to apply in real-life scenarios?
By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...
- • Identify destructive thoughts (ideas) and reformulate/transform them into constructive/effective ones.
- • Identify their emotions and cope with them (live them through ecologically)
- • Make goals, plans and do the work according to the plan/schedule in time
- • Make decisions according to their lifegoals and cope with temptation.
- • Understand and apply the principles of healthy self-esteem (healthy attitude towards yourself) and self-boundaries protection.
Grading
Course grading range
| Grade | Range | Description of performance |
|---|---|---|
| A. Excellent | 90-100 | - |
| B. Good | 75-89 | - |
| C. Satisfactory | 50-74 | - |
| D. Poor | 0-49 | - |
Course activities and grading breakdown
| Activity Type | Percentage of the overall course grade |
|---|---|
| Attendance | 50 |
| Assesments | 50 |
Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course
Resources, literature and reference materials
Open access resources
- The Full Life. Radislav Gandapas, 2018, АСТ
- The Gestalt approach and Eye witness to therapy. F.Perls, Palo Alto, Ca.: Science and Behavior Books, 1973
- The Willpower Instinct. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., 2011 The USA
- The Now Habit. Neil Fiore, Ph.D., 2007
- Emotional Intelligence. Daniel Goleman, 1995
- Secrets of Open Communication. Sergey Petrushin,
- Course Sections
- The main sections of the course and approximate hour distribution between them is as follows:
Closed access resources
Software and tools used within the course
Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities
Activities and Teaching Methods
| Learning Activities | Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (written based) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Discussions | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Formative Assessment and Course Activities
Ongoing performance assessment
Section 1
Section 2
| Activity Type | Content | Is Graded? |
|---|---|---|
| Question | 1. How do you understand emotions and why do we need them? | 0 |
| Question | 2. How can we improve our energy and mood? | 0 |
| Question | 3. What base emotions correspond to 4 elements? | 0 |
| Question | 4. How can we manage with these elements and our emotional conditions? | 0 |
| Question | 5. What questions should we ask ourselves for our emotional well-being? | 0 |
| Question | 6. What social emotions correspond to 4 elements? | 0 |
| Question | 7. How do we get social emotions? | 0 |
| Question | 8. How can we manage with our social emotions? | 0 |
| Question | *Typical questions for psychological exercises within this section | 0 |
| Question | 1. Greet everybody as you are 100, 80, 60, 40, 20 years old. | 0 |
| Question | 2. Play the game: show the written emotion to others and ask them to guess it. | 0 |
| Question | *Typical homework assignment within this section | 0 |
| Question | 3. Keep a diary of emotions during the week, using the given questions for reflection. | 0 |
Section 3
| Activity Type | Content | Is Graded? |
|---|---|---|
| Question | 1. How are our minds connect with our fortune? | 0 |
| Question | 2. Can we control and change our minds? How? | 0 |
| Question | 3. Have you got any life principles? | 0 |
| Question | 3. Do you agree with Erichson’s principles? | 0 |
| Question | 4. How can we use them in our life? | 0 |
| Question | *Typical questions for psychological exercises within this section | 0 |
| Question | 1. Go in a circle and share with partners with the learned principles. | 0 |
Section 4
| Activity Type | Content | Is Graded? |
|---|---|---|
| Question | 1. What is the structure and purpose of our Willpower? | 0 |
| Question | 2. How is Self-control connected with Willpower? | 0 |
| Question | 3. Why do we call Willpower a muscle? | 0 |
| Question | 4. What are 4 Tricks of our mind, connected with willpower and how to overcome them? | 0 |
| Question | 5. What is the algorithm of coping with self-blaming? How do you understand “to support yourself" | 0 |
| Question | 6. What makes us procrastinate? | 0 |
| Question | 7. What should we focus on in our mind for coping with procrastination? | 0 |
| Question | 8. How can we plan our work to make it more pleasurable and effective? | 0 |
| Question | *Typical questions for exercises within this section | 0 |
| Question | 1. Write the list of your willpower and procrastination challenges. | 0 |
| Question | 2. Choose one of your challenges and discuss with your partner what is the most difficult for you in it (this challenge)? Why? | 0 |
| Question | 3. Give the name to your impulsive part and play out its role with your partner. | 0 |
| Question | 4. Do the Willpower Meditation. | 0 |
| Question | 5. Do the breathing exercise, improving your willpower. | 0 |
| Question | 6. Tell about your successful willpower challenge, while performing certain actions. | 0 |
| Question | 7. Do reverse planning about one of your challenges. | 0 |
| Question | Typical questions for homework exercises within this section | 0 |
| Question | Schedule your week according to anti-timetable. | 0 |
| Question | Make reverse planning about one of your projects. | 0 |
| Question | Observe your decisions concerning your willpower challenge during the day and analyze them at the end of your day. | 0 |
| Question | Do the Willpower Meditation every day for 5 minutes. | 0 |
| Question | Make up trifle exercise for you and do it during the week for pumping up your willpower muscle. | 0 |
Final assessment
Section 1
Section 2
- 1. Why do we need emotions?
- 2. Describe the base emotions and tell how we can manage them.
- 3. Describe the social emotions and tell how we can work with them.
Section 3
Section 4
- 1. Tell about the part of our brain responsible for Willpower?
- 3. What are our mind tricks, connected with willpower and how to overcome them?
- 4. Describe the possible algorithm of coping with self-blaming.
- 5. Describe the thinking principles for effective activity.
The retake exam
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4