Assignment 1: A Framework for Studying Human Resilience

Introduction

Now that you have completed the activities and web discussion for Module 1, you are ready to do Assignment 1 and submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for evaluation.

This assignment is out of 100 marks and is worth 15 per cent of your final course grade.

Instructions

The assignment is divided into two parts:

• Part A: Short- Answer Questions (56 marks)
• Part B: Risk and Resilience Research (44 marks)

Details of both parts follow.

Part A: Short- Answer Questions (56 marks)

Answer the following questions, using full sentences and short paragraphs as appropriate. Each question is worth four (4) marks. Your responses should be clear and succinct, approximately 75 words in length per question. No single question should exceed 125 words.

1. What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
2. You are interested in the effect of room temperature on how well students do at memorizing a list of unrelated words. You randomly assign half of the student participants to a cool room and half to a warm room. You then give each group the list of words. After showing them the list, you have them write down as many words as they can remember (a free-recall task). What is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable?
3. You want to examine the effects of poverty on the academic achievement of sixth-grade students. Would you use the experimental method or the correlational method to study this? Support your reasoning.
4. You conduct a correlational study and you find that there is a relationship between poor peer acceptance and delinquent behaviour in teenaged boys. You proclaim that poor peer acceptance leads to delinquent behaviour. What, with respect to the issue of causality, is the problem with making this assumption? How could a third variable, poor impulse control, influence both poor peer acceptance and delinquent behaviour?
5. You decide that a good measure of sociability in toddlers is to measure how many times toddlers interact with one another. However, you notice that some of these interactions, such as taking away toys or hitting, are antisocial, not prosocial. Is there a problem with reliability or with validity? Support your answer.
6. Explain the difference between a mediator variable and a moderator variable. Which of the two is more commonly seen in resilience research and why?
7. A researcher finds that a particular weight loss program helps overweight men lose weight, but not overweight women. Identify the risk variable, the moderating variable, and the outcome variable.
8. Another researcher finds that family poverty leads to parental stress, which leads to poorer parenting practices. Identify the mediating variable, the predictor variable, and the outcome variable.
9. What was the rationale for using a retrospective approach” in studying the history of individuals?
10. How were high-risk” children defined?
11. List three adverse outcomes identified in this study.
12. What generalizations could be made understanding at risk” individuals?
13. What protective factors were related to resilience for the at-risk” individuals? Give one example for each of the following: individual, family, and community protective factors.
14. How were the research findings applied in Kauai with respect to intervention?

Part B: Risk and Resilience Factors (44 marks)

Using the journal articles you located in Topic 3, Activity 6, identify the risk and resilience factors in each article. Are the risk factors individual, family, and/or community? Are the resilience factors individual, family, and/or community? What are the adverse outcomes discussed? In addition, provide a brief summary of your reaction to the findings.

Your response should be approximately 250400 words (one to one and a half double-spaced word-processed pages). It should be a polished piece of writing and will be assessed using the same criteria as any piece of writing. It should include an introduction, a body that presents your thoughts clearly and logically, and a conclusion. You may write in the first person, but be sure to refer to some of the ideas that were introduced in the module. The following rubric may be helpful in helping you organize your assignment. The rubric will also be used to mark your assignment.

Criteria	Target	Acceptable	Unacceptable
Organization	Information is very organized with well constructed paragraphs (including introduction, body, and conclusion). Assignment within 250 to 400 words.	Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed (introduction, body, and conclusion lacking). Assignment less than 250 words or exceeds 400 words.	The information appears to be disorganized. Little evidence of an introduction, body, and conclusion. Assignment less than 250 words or exceeds 400 words.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	A few grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Critical Thinking	Evidence of critical examination. Thoughts presented are reflective and insightful.	Some evidence of critical thought, although comments are repetitive of those presented in journal articles.	No evidence of critical thought.
Examination of Concepts	Is able to make inferences and comprehends deeper meaning consistently, demonstrating insight and the relevance to resiliency.	Comprehends the surface level meaning and begins to relate issues to those presented in the course/readings.	Is not comprehending or reflecting upon what is read.

Assignment 2: Resilience and the Individual

Introduction

Now that you have completed the activities and web discussion for Module 2, you are ready to do Assignment 2 and submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for evaluation. The assignment consists of four short-answer questions and a short essay.

This assignment is out of 100 marks and is worth 15 per cent of your final course grade.

Instructions

The assignment has two parts:

• Part A: Short-Answer Questions (20 marks)
• Part B: Essay (80 marks)

Details of each section follow.

Part A: Short-Answer Questions (20 marks)

Answer any four of the following six questions that relate to the Module 2 readings, using full sentences and short paragraphs as appropriate. Your responses should be clear and succinct, approximately 75 words in length per question. No single question should exceed 125 words.

Each question is worth five (5) marks.

1. In The Contribution of Emotionality and Self-Regulation to the Understanding of Children’s Response to Multiple Risk,” Lengua suggests ideas for future research. Can you think of two other ideas?
2. According to Tiet et al., why might a higher IQ be beneficial in coping with adverse life events? Can you think of another reason?
3. Why do Tiet et al. conclude that IQ is a more generalizable protective factor, compared to gender?
4. The results of the study by Qouta found that mental flexibility increased resilience under what circumstance, but not under what other circumstance? Can you suggest a possible explanation for this finding?
5. One study of adolescents found that more adolescents with bulimia nervosa recovered after receiving a family-based treatment than those receiving supportive psychotherapy. Can you suggest how resilience could be an aspect of prevention or either an integral component of successful treatment?
6. According to Wong, what changes in emotional factors may help learning-disabled children make and keep friends? Why was this proposed as an important area for longitudinal research?

Part B: Essay (80 marks)

Write an essay (500 words maximum) (23 double-spaced word-processed pages) on one of the following topics. Be sure that you are presenting the concepts in your own words and that you include current information.

Your word-processed assignments should follow APA format for preparing your essay and citing sources. The Library has an APA style guide that might be helpful.

The following rubric may be helpful in helping you organize your assignment. The rubric will also be used to mark your assignment.

Criteria	Target	Acceptable	Unacceptable
Organization	Information is very organized with well constructed paragraphs (including introduction, body, and conclusion). Assignment within 250 to 400 words.	Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed (introduction, body, and conclusion lacking). Assignment less than 250 words or exceeds 400 words.	The information appears to be disorganized. Little evidence of an introduction, body, and conclusion. Assignment less than 250 words, or exceeds 400 words.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	A few grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Critical Thinking	Evidence of critical examination. Thoughts presented are reflective and insightful.	Some evidence of critical thought, although comments are repetitive of those presented in journal articles.	No evidence of critical thought.
Examination of Concepts	Is able to make inferences and comprehends deeper meaning consistently, demonstrating insight and the relevance to resiliency.	Comprehends the surface level meaning and begins to relate issues to those presented in the course/readings.	Is not comprehending or reflecting upon what is read.

If you have any questions about the assignment, consult your course Open Learning Faculty Member. When you have completed the assignment, submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for comments and evaluation.

Note

Keep a copy of your assignment before submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for evaluation. That way, you have a copy to refer to during a telephone conversation or email conference with your Open Learning Faculty Member. Also, in the unlikely event that your assignment is lost, you will have an extra copy of your work. Many student writing manuals today suggest that students keep copies of all early drafts of their work as well, to protect themselves against mistaken charges of plagiarism.

Option 1: Shortage of Resilience Research on Canadian Aboriginals

Although there is a relatively large body of research on individual resilience factors for African-American individuals, there is very little research on individual resilience factors for Canadian Aboriginal individuals. What factors may put this cultural group at increased risk for poor adjustment? Why is it important to study individual resilience factors in this group? Can you think of any particular challenges to doing research on Canadian Aboriginals?

Option 2: Research on an Intervention Program for Individual Risk Factors to Increase Resilience

Find at least two peer-reviewed journal articles that discuss the results of intervention programs aimed at increasing individual protective factors and thus resilience. Who are the identified at-risk groups? What individual factors are targeted? Was the program successful? Why or why not? (Refer to Module 1, Topic 3, Activity 6 for help finding peer-reviewed journal articles in the Library’s online full-text databases.)

Criteria for Evaluating Assignments

Here is a set of criteria that will form the basis for evaluating the essay portion of the written assignments.

Substance (75 per cent)

• The essay provides evidence of critical thinking and analysis as well as synthesis of researched information throughout, and presents a logical and persuasive argument.
• The essay incorporates the concept of individual resilience and associated terms that were introduced in this module.
• Research sources are relevant, current, and credible. They are clearly documented in the paper.
• The introduction offers a sense of direction for the paper and presents a clear thesis statement to the reader.
• The body develops the necessary aspects of the main idea and provides examples, support, or illustration for each aspect of the main idea.
• The conclusion summarizes the main points and ties them to the thesis; it also presents an impact statement and/or suggests direction for future research.
• Paragraphs are unified, developed, and coherent, with transitions between ideas.
• Sentences are grammatically correct; words are chosen for accuracy and impact.
• The writing follows the conventions of spelling and mechanics (punctuation, etc.).
• The format follows the APA documentation style accurately and consistently.

Writing Style and Format (25 per cent)

Assignment 3: Resilience and the Family

Introduction

Now that you have completed the activities and web discussion for Module 3, you are ready to do Assignment 3 and submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for evaluation. The assignment consists of six short-answer questions and a short essay.

This assignment is out of 100 marks and is worth 15 per cent of your final course grade.

Instructions

The assignment has two parts:

• Part A: Short-Answer Questions (30 marks)
• Part B: Essay (70 marks)

Details of each section follow.

Part A: Short-Answer Questions (30 marks)

Answer the following six questions that relate to the Module 3 readings, using full sentences and short paragraphs as appropriate. Your responses should be clear and succinct, approximately 75 words in length per question. No single question should exceed 125 words.

Each question is worth five (5) marks.

1. With respect to the Walsh article, consider a family you know of that has been dealing with critical family issues such as addiction, mental illness, or job loss or is grieving the loss of a loved one. Adopt the family resilience model and list some of the strengths of the family. Can you outline how these family strengths may help build family resilience in the face of adversity? Ensure you do not reveal the identity of the family. You may use a pseudonym (e.g., Smith” or Doe”) in your response.
2. Describe the example given in the McCabe et al. article that illustrates the importance of not generalizing research findings from the majority group (i.e., Caucasians) to a minority group.
3. May’s article discusses gender differences between mothers and fathers when dealing with their child’s serious health issues. How might developing a social support program for fathers with children who have serious health issues help these fathers and, in turn, their children? What sorts of topics might be included in such a program?
4. Assume that you are an employer and draw from the Grzywacz and Bass’s research to suggest one recommendation you would make to foster optimum work and family environments for your employees. Explain the reason for your recommendation.
5. Based on what you learned from the Johnson et al. article, what would be the benefits of following up these youth and parents, say, four years after the initial training program? Suggest two questions you would include in an interview given to the parents and teens at these follow-up sessions.
6. Considering what you learned from the Lucy LeMare study on Romanian orphans, would you expect the relationship between length of institutionalization and IQ to weaken over time (e.g., when the children are assessed at 16.5 years of age)? How might a providing a warm and caring environment impact a future relationship between length of institutionalization and IQ?

Part B: Essay (70 marks)

Write an essay of 500750 words (23 double-spaced word-processed pages) on one of the following topics. Be sure that you are presenting the concepts in your own words and that you include current information.

Your word-processed assignments should follow APA format for preparing your essay and citing sources.

The following rubric may be helpful in helping you organize your assignment. The rubric will also be used to mark your assignment.

Criteria	Target	Acceptable	Unacceptable
Organization	Information is very organized with well constructed paragraphs (including introduction, body, and conclusion). Assignment within 250 to 400 words.	Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed (introduction, body, and conclusion lacking). Assignment less than 250 words or exceeds 400 words.	The information appears to be disorganized. Little evidence of an introduction, body, and conclusion. Assignment less than 250 words, or exceeds 400 words.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	A few grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Critical Thinking	Evidence of critical examination. Thoughts presented are reflective and insightful.	Some evidence of critical thought, although comments are repetitive of those presented in journal articles.	No evidence of critical thought.
Examination of Concepts	Is able to make inferences and comprehends deeper meaning consistently, demonstrating insight and the relevance to resiliency.	Comprehends the surface level meaning and begins to relate issues to those presented in the course/readings.	Is not comprehending or reflecting upon what is read.

If you have any questions about the assignment, consult your Open Learning Faculty Member. When you have completed the assignment, submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for comments and evaluation.

Note

Keep a copy of your assignment before submitting it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for evaluation. That way, you have a copy to refer to during a telephone conversation or email exchange with your Open Learning Faculty Member. Also, in the unlikely event that your assignment is lost, you will have an extra copy of your work. Many student writing manuals today suggest that students keep copies of all early drafts of their work as well, to protect themselves against mistaken charges of plagiarism.

Option 1: Other Family Resilience Research

You have been introduced to many family resilience factors in this module; however the effects of particular family factors protecting against other types of adversity (e.g., poor school performance) have not been discussed. Find at least two peer-reviewed journal articles that examine the protective effects of family resilience on an adversity that has not been discussed in this module. Summarize your articles, and provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion, based on evidence). Compare and contrast the articles (i.e., what similarities did you find? what differences?).

Option 2: Cross-Cultural Research in Family Resilience

1. Read and then summarize Cohen, Slonim, Finzi, and Leichtentritt’s journal article entitled, Family Resilience: Israeli Mothers’ Perspectives.” You may use the notes and focus questions below to guide your summary. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence).
2. Find an additional peer-reviewed journal article that examines family resilience using a cross-cultural perspective, and summarize the findings from that study. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence).
3. Compare and contrast Cohen et al.’s research article with your research article. What similarities did you find? What differences?

Notes for Family Resilience: Israeli Mothers’ Perspectives”

It is important and helpful to be aware of possible cross-cultural differences when it comes to defining family resilience.” As you have discovered in previous papers in this course, concepts can have different meanings to different people, depending upon the culture studied. Recall, for example, the problems in generalizing research results gathered from the white, middle-class, majority culture to the urban African American minority culture. The same could be said of generalizing findings from North American cultures to other cultures such as those of the Middle East. Thus, it is important to conduct research that examines specific cultures in order to find similarities and differences among particular concepts, such as family resilience.” This paper examines what family resilience” means to a sample of Israeli mothers. When we think of Israel, often visions of war, violence, and political unrest come to mind. But it is important that we appreciate that Israeli citizens also deal with the day-to-day stressors that most of us are familiar with, such as family illnesses and divorce. You will see by the results of this study that Israeli mothers’ concepts of family resilience are actually very similar to North American concepts, suggesting that family resilience is a fairly universal concept.

Another important issue to note is that this study is qualitative in nature. Most studies you have read so far are quantitative. A quantitative study is number-based, such as studies whereby individuals fill out questionnaires, and numerical scores for each questionnaire are generated for each participant. These numbers are then entered into a statistical program and statistical analyses are conducted. A qualitative study, on the other hand, uses methods such as interviews, observations, and case studies to gather detailed data about a particular concept.

This study on Israeli mothers used a semi-structured interview format as well as a small sample size. Leading questions, such as asking the mothers about a recent stressful event, how they interpreted it, and how their family dealt with the stressful event, were part of the interview, along with asking the women to give a general definition of family resilience.” Much data was generated, as the 15 interviews in this study averaged two hours each. The answers the mothers gave were then analyzed using what is called grounded theory,” a central component of qualitative analyses. This means that common themes in the women’s answers as they related to family resilience were identified, and categories were created.

The authors of this research article explain the processes involved in analyzing interview data, such as the different types of coding that take place. Researchers often use the themes identified in qualitative analyses to create questionnaires, which can consequently be used in quantitative analyses with a larger sample size. Thus, qualitative studies are often preliminary in nature, providing a basis for the development of quantitative studies.

Focus Questions for Reading

Consider using the following questions to guide your reading and written summary of this article.

1. What were the goals of the present study?
2. Why did the authors choose to interview women from Israel, rather than from another country?
3. What were the five main categories identified that captured the concept of resilience for the Israeli women? Give a brief description of each category in your own words
4. For each category identified in question 3, give an example from the article.
5. What was a limitation of this study? Can you think of any other limitations?
6. Read and then summarize Schwartz’s journal article entitled, Family Resilience and Pragmatic Parent Education.” You may use the notes and focus questions below to guide your summary. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence). You may also want to consider some of the issues raised in Lucy LeMare’s case of the Romanian orphan interviews.
7. Find an additional peer-reviewed journal article that examines family resilience, using an educational perspective, and summarize the findings from that study. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence).
8. Compare and contrast Schwartz’s (and LeMare’s, if you have chosen to include it) research with your research article. What similarities did you find? What differences?

Option 3: Foster Children and Family Resilience

Notes for Family Resilience and Pragmatic Parent Education”

What if we could teach parents how to build resilience into their families? As we have seen in past research, family resilience may protect both parents and children from adversity. Consider the case of foster children, who have often had their share of adversity. They are usually born into unstable home environments where they often experience abuse and/or neglect. This kind of family background may put these children at risk for developing emotional issues such as depression or behavioural issues such as delinquency. Furthermore, many foster children have been moved from one foster care home to another, adding to the instability of their situation. Thus, it is particularly important for foster parents to build protective factors into their parenting and into their family unit in order to help buffer the past, present, and future adverse effects of being a foster child.

Focus Questions for Reading

Consider using the following questions to guide your reading and written summary of this article.

1. What are some of the problems with generic present-day parent education programs?
2. Why might a very structured family environment work with young children, but cause adolescent children to rebel?
3. Describe a strength of the foster care system.
4. What was the purpose of the Family Resilience Project?
5. Re: case study: Why do you think a delay in responding to the foster child’s behavioural outbursts was less successful than responding right away?
6. Re: case study: Why do you think rigidity in responding to the foster child’s behavioural outburst was less successful than flexibility in responding?

Criteria for Evaluating Assignments

Here is a set of criteria that will form the basis for evaluating the essay portion of the written assignments.

Substance (75 per cent)

• The essay provides evidence of critical thinking and analysis as well as synthesis of researched information throughout, and presents a logical and persuasive argument.
• Research sources are relevant, current, and credible. They are clearly documented in the paper.
• The introduction offers a sense of direction for the paper and presents a clear thesis statement to the reader.
• The body develops the necessary aspects of the main idea and provides examples, support, or illustration for each aspect of the main idea.
• The conclusion summarizes the main points and ties them to the thesis; it also presents an impact statement and/or suggests direction for future research.
• Paragraphs are unified, developed, and coherent, with transitions between ideas.
• Sentences are grammatically correct; words are chosen for accuracy and impact.
• The writing follows the conventions of spelling and mechanics (punctuation, etc.).
• The format follows the APA documentation style accurately and consistently.

Writing Style and Format (25 per cent)

Assignment 4: Resilience and the Community

Introduction

Now that you have completed the activities and Web online discussion for Module 4, you are ready to do Assignment 4 and email submit it to your Open Learning Faculty Member for evaluation. The assignment consists of six short-answer questions and a short essay.

This assignment is out of 100 marks and is worth 15 per cent of your final course grade.

Instructions

The assignment has two parts:

• Part A: Short- Answer Questions (30 marks)
• Part B: Essay (70 marks)

Details of each section follow.

Part A: Short-Answer Questions (30 marks)

Answer the following six questions that relate to the Module 4 readings, using full sentences and short paragraphs as appropriate. Your responses should be clear and succinct, approximately 75 words in length per question. No single question should exceed 125 words. Each question is worth five (5) marks.

1. With respect to Big Brothers/Big Sisters Mentoring: The Power of Developmental Relationships,” why do you think minority Little Brothers and Sisters showed a more dramatic l