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Activity 1
For the following scenarios, describe the activating event and provide two cognitive appraisals for the situation, the corresponding self-talk, and the emotion that may be attached to the event.
Nursing Scenario
You have just finished a meeting with your nurse manager to discuss your upcoming schedule that needs to be changed. Your sister is getting married next month, and she has asked you to be the photographer for the event—you practise photography as a side job to make ends meet. You needed to speak with your manager because you are scheduled to work the weekend of the wedding, which is out of town. Your sister wants you to take pictures both days on the weekend to capture the events (rehearsal party and wedding, etc.). You want to take the pictures, but you also need the money from work to make your car payment on time (that’s why you practise photography on your days off). Since she is your sister, she won’t be paying you for the weekend.
Barb, a nurse manager, is preparing for a meeting with a staff member about scheduling. These meetings have been becoming more and more consistent in the past months. This always becomes an urgent matter for staff members when summer arrives. There are weddings, summer vacations, family reunions, and a whole host of other events that take place in the summer. Staff members always believe they are entitled to time off and rescheduling in the summer months, and there is always a fine balance between doing what is right for the hospital and doing what is right for each staff member. There are currently two other staff members who are off duty. One is away on sick leave after a second round of chemotherapy for lung cancer, and the other is away for a family reunion with family who have travelled from Ireland to come together with their grandmother who may not survive the summer. The hospital’s safety policy allows for two staff members to be off at one time. Any more than that, there is a budget process that needs to be implemented that can take approximately six days to approve a staff member being called in for another staff member on leave.
Business Scenario
You have been working for eight years as the HR manager of a small company that has recently confirmed that they will be expanding. The VP of the company has just announced to his employees that there will be three new manager jobs posted in the next few weeks and current managers are eligible to apply for these new positions. One is the marketing manager for the company, a role you have been interested in since you started your career here. The competition will be steep because you know of a few other managers who would be interested in this position. One other manager has already mentioned his interest. He has been with the company for ten years and is very well liked by the VP.
You are the VP of a small company on the cusp of expansion. You need to choose three new managers for the new division. The job ads are going to be published next week and your board of directors has also hired a firm to manage finding the right candidates. You know there are at least three people who currently work for your company who are interested in the new manager positions. Being the VP of a company that is growing is exciting. You see the vision and the value of having the right people in positions of leadership when a company is in a state of change. With change comes resistance and you also know that managing the fall out after a hiring consultation process can be detrimental to the change process, especially when people from within are not hired for new positions. You have an open mind and have at least one person in mind who you would recommend for one of the new positions. The other positions are up in the air.
Communication Scenario
You have been preparing all week for the midterm exam in your psychology class. For the first time, you actually created cue cards, studied with a group of students, and practised all the exercises in the student guide to make sure that you are well-versed with all the major concepts that will be on the exam. Lucky for you, the exam is scheduled at the beginning of the week, and you have three more midterms this week that still need your study attention. When you arrive to class, the professor announces that the exam is rescheduled to Friday due to a printer problem with the exams.
You are a professor of a psychology class. You have planned an exam this week, but the printer is not working to print the exams. The university is in a budget freeze and outside services for repairs are called in only once per week instead of on an as-needed basis. With the decline in government funding and the freeze on tuition, it is getting more difficult to manage a budget for faculty and all of their needs. Now, you need to go into the classroom and tell the students that the exam needs to be rescheduled by one week.
Activity 2
Emotional Expressiveness
Marie and Dave have been married for several years. Marie is extremely expressive, yelling one minute, crying the next. By comparison, Dave is non-expressive. This difference is now causing problems. Dave feels Marie reacts impulsively without thinking her feelings through; Marie feels Dave is unwilling to share his emotional life with her.
What skills do Marie and Dave need to learn?
Activity 3
What Would You/Should You Do?
You're out running errands with your father, and things haven't been going well. Your day started off with a dead battery in your car, which made you late for your father's doctor's appointment. The doctor ordered some tests, and so that appointment went over time too. Now you have to pick up your mother at work, and neither of you have had lunch. You decide to zip through a drive-through window. As your father is ordering, the server keeps interrupting him – “Do you want cheese on that?” “Do you want fries?” etc. These interruptions put your father over the edge. He starts to be rude and insulting to the person taking his order. You know that he's just frustrated by the day, and you feel bad for the person on the receiving end of his tirade. What should you do when you see someone taking out his or her bad feelings on an innocent bystander?