Environmental Response Paper

2. Changes in behaviuor are the result of an individual's response to events that occur in the environment.

A survivor and a psychiatrist by the name of Victor Frankl wrote the essay of “ Tragic Optimism” explaining that there are components of human existence that are unavoidable. Every human no matter their gender, race nor age will be faced with an obstacle in their own way during the duration of their lifetime. These components construct what is other wise known as the tragic triad - pain, guilt and death- which all coexist to create a blockage that one must learn to overcome. By adapting, we learn to grow and advance therefore becoming more suitable for the remainder of our journey in life. He states that “ what matters is to make the best of any given situation” by the way of remaining optimistic. However , you have to be willing to make a change. A person must search for a new beginning, a search for purpose. An abounding amount of people when dealt with the wrong hand that life has given find it immensely challenging and baffling to find a way to prevail. However, Victor Frankl believes that by following his methods it would thus lead to a new beginning for many individuals around the world . Especially those who are close to calling defeat with the game of life.

Science is in my blood. I grew up always being fascinated in science both physical and environmental. My love for science started early when I was able to play outside every day and performing my own experiments in the backyard. Throughout middle school and high school, I took every available science course, I simply just wanted to know more. I did not know my exact path of study until my senior year in high school. I enrolled into an AP Environmental Science class, a brand new test run course at my school. Thinking back to AP Environmental Science, it was not just the material that directed my study. Ultimately it was my teacher, Mrs. Andre, who strengthen the flames of desire and intrigue to continue along the environmental studies path. Her drive and passion every day is what inspired me to focus on environmental education and communication.

Resilience, fundamentally, is the ability to bounce back from hardship and the phenomenon of overcoming stress or adversity, for example: personal crises, poverty, mental illness and trauma (Occupational Health & Wellbeing, 2012). This skill can help individuals overcome the most difficult of situations (Occupational Health & Wellbeing, 2012). Resilience theorists generally agree that the presence of protective factors can reduce the effects of exposure to adversity. The more protective factors (or “assets”) available, the more resilient a person will be. Protective factors are conditions or attributes that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and eliminate risk. On the contrary, risk factors are attributes or characteristics

The two major concepts in his theory center on the person-environment relationship and appraisals (McEwen & Wills, 2011). “The person-environment relationship includes such factors as personality, values, beliefs, commitments, social networks, social supports, demands and constraints, social cultural factors, and life events” (McEwen & Wills, 2011, p. 289). And, there are three types of appraisals: primary, secondary, and reappraisal. With each appraisal, the coping mechanisms emerge. If the coping mechanisms are triumphant, adaptation to the

Since I was young, I have always had an affinity of people watching, and trying to figure out what type of life they lived. Especially, what type of events would cause people to adopt a positive (happy) outlook in comparison to people that dwell on the negatives attributes? Growing up, my mother had a peculiar thought process that would always managed to lead to negative (not happy) thoughts. In the beginning, I too would follow similar thought process, but I quickly realized how exhausting it was to maintain. Before reading Shawn Achor’s book, I wanted to clear my mental database and allow for this new information to be absorbed into my life.

In the strength of positivity, an individual is often smiling, praising other people for their accomplishments, smiling and always keeping a positive attitude in every situation (Rath, 2007). The eager for enjoyment in life is very attracting, as an individual with positivity strength views the world in a better place. As this person comes in contact with other people in this world, a positive vibe is transformed into their lives. Even if negative things are happening around this individual, the positivity strength defeats and overcomes the negative energy (Rath,

What inspires someone is often revealing of who they truly are through the exposure of their values. For instance, I am inspired by people who are highly dedicated to achieving their objectives as I too take pride in reaching my goals both academically and otherwise. In particular, I am committed to studying diligently towards my goal of earning my Bachelor of Science degree. Likewise, I focus the same level of concentration towards mastering choreography within my dance and color guard performances. Both fields, academics and art, contribute to who I am as an individual.

Resilience has been topic that we have learned and are discussing in my English class. When you can overcome hardships faster and easier when you are more resilient person. We have been analyzing an article called “The Science of Bouncing Back” by Mandy Oaklander. Oaklander discusses methods of many people on their experience, becoming a more resilient person. People respond to emotion and hardships in their life differently, and people with more struggles overcome it more gradually, and Mandy Oaklander made me consider the possibilities resilience has, and can offer in everyday life.

According to the Center, “Positive psychology is the systematic study of human strength, resilience and qualities that empower individuals and group of people to succeed” (Positive Psychology Center, 2014). Positive psychology’s founders learned through study that people usually place more emphasis on what goes wrong in their lives; they focus on their failures. For instance, divorce, financial obligations, or losing a job. It is imperative to comprehend the characteristics of undesirable experiences in an individual’s life. As an alternative to focusing on failure, focus can be placed on the positive situations in life and understand those are the occasions worth living for. Positive psychology emphasizes strengths and weaknesses, magnifying the positive aspects of life, and healing the effects of negative experiences. Positive psychology focuses on a person’s strengths and the hope of something larger then oneself to lead individuals to a more meaningful

Global warming or climate change is at the top of the agenda as far as major environmental issues go. All our current environmental issues end up becoming a global problem. Take any one, two, or even three issues; water levels rising, carbon emissions, temperature increases and you have global warming. These issues and more combined starts a cascade effect like gradual heating of earth, ocean levels start to rise due to melting of polar ice caps in short, a greenhouse effect.

There is a certain importance in knowing the earths climate. The importance of climate change effects everything. Climate and the ecosystem of our earth is often over looked. To understand the importance of climate change you must know what it is; What is climate change and how does it effect us? Climate change is the early 19th century increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. Climate change is very important to my major. I am an uprising junior majoring in agribusiness. Often known as a stem major, I study everything from animals, plant production, and the production to the management of corporations. While majoring this, I often must know when and where is best to produce certain

Our environment and our upbringing is a major role on how we behave in our life.

Psychologist Martin Seligman introduced the term ‘learned helplessness’ to describe the outlet retort. The stressful events are outside the range of our control, we believe that we can do nothing about it, we are likely to believe ourselves helpless and we are, in turn, likely to become depressed. On the other hand, optimism, the opposite of pessimism, seems to have protective value. Martin Seligman in Learned Optimism points out that

I believe it is one of the major determinants of resilience. Having personal attributes such as calm, patience and adventurous will facilitate us to become a more resilient person. We will not become panic-stricken and lose control of ourselves when we encounter adversity. Other positive traits such as cheerful and optimistic can also conduce to resiliency. It can help us to find positive meanings in our lives despite adversity. On the contrary, negative traits such as pessimistic, impulsive and emotionally unstable can affect our resiliency and also our well-being.