Assignment:
Participation in personal health behavior change will improve a student's individual awareness of personal risk and health decision-making, as well as the challenges associated with successful behavior change.
Each student will identify a personal health behavior of focus and attempt to modify that behavior over the course of the semester.
Self-Survey
Are You in Control of Your Health?
To test whether you are the master of your fate, asserting control over your destiny, or just hanging on, hoping for the best, take the following test. Depending on which statement you agree with, check either (a) or (b).
1. a. Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are partly due to bad luck.
b. People's misfortunes result from mistakes they make.
2. a. One of the major reasons why we have wars is that people don't take enough interest in politics.
b. There will always be wars, no matter how hard people try to prevent them.
3. a. In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in this world.
b. Unfortunately, an individual's worth often passes unrecognized no matter how hard he or she tries.
4. a. The idea that teachers are unfair to students is nonsense.
b. Most students don't realize the extent to which their grades are influenced by accidental happenings.
5. a. Without the right breaks, one cannot be an effective leader.
b. Capable people who fail to become leaders have not taken advantage of their opportunities.
6. a. No matter how hard you try, some people just don't like you.
b. People who can't get others to like them don't understand how to get along with others.
7. a. I have often found that what is going to happen will happen.
b. Trusting to fate has never turned out as well for me as making a decision to take a definite course of action.
8. a. In the case of the well-prepared student, there is rarely, if ever, such a thing as an unfair test.
b. Oftentimes exam questions tend to be so unrelated to course work that studying is really useless.
9. a. Becoming a success is a matter of hard work; luck has little or nothing to do with it.
b. Getting a good job depends mainly on being in the right place at the right time.
10. a. The average citizen can have influence in government decisions.
b. This world is run by the few people in power, and there is not much the little guy can do about it.
11. a. When I make plans, I am almost certain that I can make them work.
b. It is not always wise to plan too far ahead because many things turn out to be a matter of luck anyway.
12. a. In my case, getting what I want has little or nothing to do with luck.
b. Oftentimes we might just as well decide what to do by flipping a coin.
13. a. What happens to me is my own doing.
b. Sometimes I feel that I don't have enough control over the direction my life is taking.