Positive Psy-5&6

5.3 Assignment: Coaching Someone Using the Best-Possible-Self Exercise

Getting Started

Life coaching is an exciting and growing field that has limitless applications. Many people need that objective person in their life to help them see new angles or opportunities for change that seem to elude them for any number of reasons. And, to be a competent life coach, you need to practice. That is exactly what you get to do in this assignment.

You will conduct an actual coaching session with another person of your choosing using the Best Possible Future Self exercise that you were exposed to in Workshop Four. As part of the planning for this coaching session, you were asked in Workshop Two to set up the coaching conversation with a person you know (an adult family member, a friend, or a coworker). It is best if you have some ongoing relationship and a good rapport with this person. In setting up the conversation, you were to ask the person if they would help you with a school-related assignment that focuses on life coaching. You were to introduce it as a 30-minute conversation where you will ask them some questions about how they would ideally like their future life to look—this could include their job, health, desire to help others, family life, finances, etc. You didn’t want to tell them much more than this so their responses would be spontaneous.

The goal of this assignment is to give you an actual feel for how to coach someone using principles from Positive Psychology and integrate key learning from other parts of the course in the coaching process.

You will conduct the coaching session using a modified approach of the Best-Possible-Self Exercise you did for yourself in Workshop Four. You will recall from Workshop Four that this tool is commonly used in coaching to help increase optimism. It requires the person to envision an imaginary future where everything has turned out exactly as that person would have liked. This exercise has been shown in studies to increase a person’s mood and well-being.

As you do the coaching session, remember that you are a coach-in-training. Don’t expect everything to go smoothly or to know all of the answers. Stick with the questions and the agenda provided for you and it should enable you to walk through the session on solid ground. If you want to ask questions in addition to the ones provided, feel free to do so. But, keep the conversation focused on the person’s future self.

Specific directions are provided in the Background Information section. A few additional pointers:

· After asking for and acquiring their permission, verbally ask your coaching subject the questions and record the conversation so that you can refer back to specific points when writing up your reflection paper for this assignment.

· Be sure to ask all of the questions provided and any additional ones you think are relevant.

· After the conversation is completed, listen to the recording of the coaching session and write a four- to five-page paper that reflects on the questions listed in this assignment.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Conduct a coaching session using a proven coaching tool.

Background Information

Here is the modified approach to the Best-Possible-Self Exercise that you will use with your subject. Be sure to ask  all of the questions listed.

Instead of having your subject write out his/her ideas of a future self, you will verbally ask a series of questions and record the conversation after asking for and acquiring their permission. Most people have phones that will record. Tell your subject, “There are no wrong answers, but you should dream and dream big (but realistically) as you brainstorm answers to the questions.”

Here are the questions you will ask your subject:

· What type of work would your ideal future self want to do (it doesn’t depend on outside factors)? What interests you about this work?

· What talents, skills, and abilities would your future self like to have? How would you use them?

· How would your ideal future self define your purpose in life? Do you feel that sense of purpose now? If not, why not?

· How would your ideal future self like to make a difference in the lives of others? Get specifics.

· What would your ideal future self like to change, if anything, as it relates to your family life?

· What other parts of your future self would you like to envision?

Once you’ve completed the interview, you will go into more of the coaching interaction with the subject. Frame the following questions with your chosen coaching style in mind: problem-solving, identifying values, or facilitating growth. Ask your subject these  processing questions:

· Having brainstormed these ideas, do you feel more optimistic about your future? If so, how?

· What have you learned about yourself in your responses to these questions?

· What is one future item you mentioned that you would like to begin working on right now in order to realize that future vision?

· How do you intend to start? (If the person is general and vague, offer a more concrete suggestion that is measurable.)

· Insert a question of your own that reflects your chosen coaching style (record this question in your paper).

After the conversation, listen to the recording of the entire coaching session and write a four- to five-page paper in response to the question in the assignment.

Instructions

1. Read Chapter 9, “Coaching through Transitions and Change,” in your textbook  Positive Psychology in Coaching: Applying Science to Executive and Personal Coaching.

2. Conduct the practice coaching session following the instructions in the Background Information section.

3. After the coaching conversation, listen to the recording of the coaching session and write a four- to five-page paper in response to the following questions:

a. What impressions do you have of your subject’s ideal future self? Are his/her dreams realistic and achievable? Could you see optimism or an upbeat mood in the responses?

b. What did you think you did well in the coaching conversation? Be specific.

c. What do you need to work on in future coaching sessions? Be specific.

d. If you were to develop an action plan for this person based on his/her answers, what three points would you suggest as places to start to facilitate change? Again, be specific and show emphasis in your action plan on your chosen coaching approach: problem-solving, values, or growth.

e. If you were to do this conversation over again with the same person, what would you change? Explain each point.

4. Be  specific in your responses and use concrete examples from the textbook, supplemental readings, outside sources, and personal experiences to frame your writing.

5. Use APA 7th Edition Paper Template.

6. If you use outside resources in the development of your paper, be sure to appropriately cite the material.

6.4 Managing Negative Emotion

Getting Started

If you’ve been exposed to A.A. Milne’s famous character Winnie-the-Pooh, then you probably also know Pooh’s friends. The one most pertinent to this discussion is Eeyore, the gray stuffed donkey who is generally pessimistic, gloomy, and depressed. Everyone knows at least one real-life Eeyore who always tends to see the glass of life as half empty. This type of person can be difficult to deal with, especially if you are in a position to manage or help them, as you might be in a life coaching situation.

But, rather than trying to change their whole disposition on life, a better approach might be to try and understand what contributes to their pessimism or lack of hope. Every person has a story that if understood by someone would help to explain that pessimistic person’s behavior and attitude.

With that in mind, another related question needs to be addressed: Are there truly “negative” emotions in contrast to “positive” ones? Or, are all emotions simply an expression of what is going on for that particular person at a given time? For example, most people consider anger to be a “negative” emotion. But, anger is a legitimate expression of feelings.

Perhaps the larger question isn’t whether there are negative or positive emotions, but rather how to best express a difficult emotion, such as anger, grief, disappointment, sadness, etc. Most people overestimate their emotional intelligence, or their ability to make sense of their own emotion and communicate it effectively to another person. Perhaps we should put the emphasis on better emotional awareness and communication instead of trying to suppress or avoid what is often termed “negative” emotion.

In the final assignment of the course, you will have the opportunity to explore this landscape of emotion in greater detail. Specifically, you will examine what we often refer to as negative emotion and how to manage it in others from the life coaching perspective. It is stating the obvious to say that when someone expresses strong, negative-like emotion, it can be very challenging. You’ll have an opportunity to see how you might approach these types of emotion using the framework of positive psychology as a guide.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Describe how to manage negative emotion using life coaching principles from positive psychology.

Background Information

An important part of this assignment pertains to the final question: How might you view your own “negative” emotion if you applied a principle or two from positive psychology? As a future life coach, you need to have a firm understanding and comfort level with your own emotion. When your inner life is familiar to you, you can be comfortable entering into the inner life of another person. For example, if you have worked through where your anger tends to come from and have learned to express it in a way that lets others hear you and respond favorably, then you will be effective in helping others with their anger. As a life coach, your own honest work on yourself will always enhance your work with others.

Instructions

1. Read Chapter 12, “Negative Emotions in the Context of Positive Psychology” in your textbook  Positive Psychology in Coaching: Applying Science to Executive and Personal Coaching.

2. Review the article “ Why We Need Both Negative and Positive Emotions (new tab) .”

3. After completing these steps, respond to the following questions using at least four substantive paragraphs:

a. How can you tell the difference between a person who is discouraged and could be helped with coaching from a person with discouragement who would benefit more from therapy?

b. Comment on the following points: Some people believe that emotions shouldn’t be labeled as positive or negative. In other words, why should we say that anger is negative and happiness is positive? Can’t anger or sadness or discouragement be positive if viewed through the lens of positive psychology? Explain your response.

c. How could you begin to see some of your “negative” emotions differently by applying a principle from positive psychology?

4. Be  specific in your responses and use concrete examples from the textbook, supplemental readings, outside sources, and personal experiences to frame your writing.

5. Use at least two scholarly resources in addition to the readings assigned in this workshop.

a. Use in-text citations and APA7 format for direct quotations and references to the readings

6.3 Integrating Spiritual Formation.Life Coaching. and Positive Psychology

Getting Started

We covered a lot of ground in this course and it can be very helpful to take time to think carefully about what you’ve learned thus far. An important concept in the learning process is often referred to as integration. The root of that word is  integrate. To integrate something is to make it whole or complete. That is really your ultimate goal in your learning: to bring together the most important ideas you’ve been exposed to, like pieces of a puzzle, and figure out how they fit together to form a whole, complete picture. If you can see how those pieces relate to one another, then you can leverage that powerful learning as you move forward in all realms of your life.

In this assignment, you will have the opportunity to pull together much of your learning from the course with an integrative or synthesis paper on the Good Life. It will bring together concepts from positive psychology, spiritual formation, and life coaching. You’ll need to put on your critical-thinking cap in order to thoughtfully answer the questions for this assignment. But that is actually good news. The more you are prompted to think deeply about these ideas, the more you grow in knowledge, faith, and personal insight. The effort spent on this integrative paper has the potential to pay big dividends over time.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Integrate learning from the course on spiritual formation, life coaching, and positive psychology.

Background Information

This concept of critical thinking is frequently referred to in academic settings. But it is often assumed students know what it is and how it should be applied. A simple definition of critical thinking is: using careful analysis and judgment to determine what is true or of value. So, to apply critical thinking to the questions in this assignment, here are a few practical suggestions:

· You could raise questions or pose problems that you might try to solve.

· You would want to adequately gather or review information about important ideas and concepts you’ve been exposed to. This might involve going back over previous workshops or assignments to review your initial thoughts on the subject and see if your views have changed.

· You would also want to take an open-minded approach that considers various alternatives before making any conclusions. The skill of critical thinking, if learned during your academic years, can serve you in limitless ways in virtually all areas of your life.

Instructions

1. Read Chapter 11, “Leveraging Positive Psychology in Culturally Competent Coaching,” in your textbook  Positive Psychology in Coaching: Applying Science to Executive and Personal Coaching.Review/watch the following:

a. TED talk:  What Makes a Good Life? (new tab)

b. Article:  Good Genes (new tab)  

c. Article:  Psychology & Spiritual Formation (new tab)

d. Video: “Mark McMinn, Ph.D. Interview – Integration of Psychology & Theology Perspective” and/or read the  video transcript (Word document) :

2. After completing these steps, write a five to six-page paper addressing the following:

a. Open the  Good Life Synthesis Paper Outline (Word document)  and integrate your conversations, research, and lessons learned in this program in a five-to-six-page paper. 

b. Be sure to provide a title page, an introduction, a summary of your Good Life Conversation, additional content with in-text citations in the body of the paper, a conclusion to your paper, and a reference page. 

c. You will need to cite 8 sources in your paper and in a reference page according to APA formatting.

3. Use at least six scholarly resources in addition to the readings assigned in this workshop.

a. Use in-text citations and APA format for direct quotations and references to the readings.

5.3 Assignment: Coaching Someone Using the Best-Possible-Self Exercise

Getting Started

Life coaching is an exciting and growing field that has limitless applications. Many people need that objective person in their life to help them see new angles or opportunities for change that seem to elude them for any number of reasons. And, to be a competent life coach, you need to practice. That is exactly what you get to do in this assignment.

You will conduct an actual coaching session with another person of your choosing using the Best Possible Future Self exercise that you were exposed to in Workshop Four. As part of the planning for this coaching session, you were asked in Workshop Two to set up the coaching conversation with a person you know (an adult family member, a friend, or a coworker). It is best if you have some ongoing relationship and a good rapport with this person. In setting up the conversation, you were to ask the person if they would help you with a school-related assignment that focuses on life coaching. You were to introduce it as a 30-minute conversation where you will ask them some questions about how they would ideally like their future life to look—this could include their job, health, desire to help others, family life, finances, etc. You didn’t want to tell them much more than this so their responses would be spontaneous.

The goal of this assignment is to give you an actual feel for how to coach someone using principles from Positive Psychology and integrate key learning from other parts of the course in the coaching process.

You will conduct the coaching session using a modified approach of the Best-Possible-Self Exercise you did for yourself in Workshop Four. You will recall from Workshop Four that this tool is commonly used in coaching to help increase optimism. It requires the person to envision an imaginary future where everything has turned out exactly as that person would have liked. This exercise has been shown in studies to increase a person’s mood and well-being.

As you do the coaching session, remember that you are a coach-in-training. Don’t expect everything to go smoothly or to know all of the answers. Stick with the questions and the agenda provided for you and it should enable you to walk through the session on solid ground. If you want to ask questions in addition to the ones provided, feel free to do so. But, keep the conversation focused on the person’s future self.

Specific directions are provided in the Background Information section. A few additional pointers:

· After asking for and acquiring their permission, verbally ask your coaching subject the questions and record the conversation so that you can refer back to specific points when writing up your reflection paper for this assignment.

· Be sure to ask all of the questions provided and any additional ones you think are relevant.

· After the conversation is completed, listen to the recording of the coaching session and write a four- to five-page paper that reflects on the questions listed in this assignment.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Conduct a coaching session using a proven coaching tool.

Background Information

Here is the modified approach to the Best-Possible-Self Exercise that you will use with your subject. Be sure to ask  all of the questions listed.

Instead of having your subject write out his/her ideas of a future self, you will verbally ask a series of questions and record the conversation after asking for and acquiring their permission. Most people have phones that will record. Tell your subject, “There are no wrong answers, but you should dream and dream big (but realistically) as you brainstorm answers to the questions.”

Here are the questions you will ask your subject:

· What type of work would your ideal future self want to do (it doesn’t depend on outside factors)? What interests you about this work?

· What talents, skills, and abilities would your future self like to have? How would you use them?

· How would your ideal future self define your purpose in life? Do you feel that sense of purpose now? If not, why not?

· How would your ideal future self like to make a difference in the lives of others? Get specifics.

· What would your ideal future self like to change, if anything, as it relates to your family life?

· What other parts of your future self would you like to envision?

Once you’ve completed the interview, you will go into more of the coaching interaction with the subject. Frame the following questions with your chosen coaching style in mind: problem-solving, identifying values, or facilitating growth. Ask your subject these  processing questions:

· Having brainstormed these ideas, do you feel more optimistic about your future? If so, how?

· What have you learned about yourself in your responses to these questions?

· What is one future item you mentioned that you would like to begin working on right now in order to realize that future vision?

· How do you intend to start? (If the person is general and vague, offer a more concrete suggestion that is measurable.)

· Insert a question of your own that reflects your chosen coaching style (record this question in your paper).

After the conversation, listen to the recording of the entire coaching session and write a four- to five-page paper in response to the question in the assignment.

Instructions

1. Read Chapter 9, “Coaching through Transitions and Change,” in your textbook  Positive Psychology in Coaching: Applying Science to Executive and Personal Coaching.

2. Conduct the practice coaching session following the instructions in the Background Information section.

3. After the coaching conversation, listen to the recording of the coaching session and write a four- to five-page paper in response to the following questions:

a. What impressions do you have of your subject’s ideal future self? Are his/her dreams realistic and achievable? Could you see optimism or an upbeat mood in the responses?

b. What did you think you did well in the coaching conversation? Be specific.

c. What do you need to work on in future coaching sessions? Be specific.

d. If you were to develop an action plan for this person based on his/her answers, what three points would you suggest as places to start to facilitate change? Again, be specific and show emphasis in your action plan on your chosen coaching approach: problem-solving, values, or growth.

e. If you were to do this conversation over again with the same person, what would you change? Explain each point.

4. Be  specific in your responses and use concrete examples from the textbook, supplemental readings, outside sources, and personal experiences to frame your writing.

5. Use APA 7th Edition Paper Template.

6. If you use outside resources in the development of your paper, be sure to appropriately cite the material.