Project 3: Making stress your friend

Due by 11:59 PM on Monday, December 4, 2017

Stress can be awful. It’s the end of the semester and we’re all facing intense demands on our time. Stress can also trigger mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Emerging research is finding that there are possible upsides to stress, though, such as heightened motivation. Interestingly, research is also finding that reaching out to others can be a powerful anti-stressor.

In your third project, you will create a one-page handout (a staple of business and policy presentations) for a TED talk about the academic research regarding stress. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Watch Dr. Kelly McGonigal’s June 2013 TEDGlobal talk and read/skim the three papers she references:
    • Abiola Keller et al., “Does the Perception That Stress Affects Health Matter? The Association with Health and Mortality”Abiola Keller et al., “Does the Perception That Stress Affects Health Matter? The Association with Health and Mortality.” Health Psychology 31, no. 5 (2012): 677–84, doi:10.1037/a0026743.

        
    • Jeremy P. Jamieson, Matthew K. Nock, and Wendy Berry Mendes, “Mind over Matter: Reappraising Arousal Improves Cardiovascular and Cognitive Responses to Stress”Jeremy P. Jamieson, Matthew K. Nock, and Wendy Berry Mendes, “Mind over Matter: Reappraising Arousal Improves Cardiovascular and Cognitive Responses to Stress.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 141, no. 3 (2012): 417–22, doi:10.1037/a0025719.

        
    • Michael J. Poulin et al., “Giving to Others and the Association Between Stress and Mortality”Michael J. Poulin et al., “Giving to Others and the Association Between Stress and Mortality,” American Journal of Public Health 103, no. 9 (September 2013): 1649–55, doi:10.2105/ajph.2012.300876.

        

  2. Create a one-page handout summarizing McGonigal’s presentation. Your handout must include the following:

    • Text summarizing the research (you get to write it this time)
    • 2 annotated figures, either extracted from the PDFs or created on your own in Illustrator
    • 1 stock photograph, used with correct attribution (see the Graphic Assets section of the References page for helpful resources)

    You should use typesetting software (InDesign, Publisher, or Scribus) to create the handout and vector editing software (Illustrator or Inkscape) to create or edit the figures.

  3. Export the final handout as a PDF.
  4. Write a memo (no word limit) explaining your design process. I’m specifically looking for the following:
    • Who is the audience for your handout?
    • How did you apply the principles of CRAP?
    • How do the design principles you used match audience needs and enhance the story?
  5. Submit the following outputs on Learning Suite:
    • A PDF of your handout
    • A PDF of the memo describing your design process

You will be graded on how well you use typesetting and vector editing software Example rubric for project 3

 and how well you apply the principles of CRAP, and how well the design assists with the structure of the story you’re telling. I will use this rubric to grade the final product.

The assignment is due by 11:59 PM on Monday, December 4.