The main theme of this thesis is the influence of stress factors on the students at the Medical Social Science Faculty. Stress is a very broad theme and has a wide range of effects on the students. It can affect every part of our life. If we truly want to understand its influence on students Medical Social Science Faculty we first have to find its origin. In the theory part we find that a lot of authors agree that stress originates in us, it is in us, it comes from us and that we create it within ourselves. This diagnosis, however, is not satisfactory because there are great differences between the ways people create their own stress. We go on to find out what influences we tend to follow in creating behavioral patterns, as a nation, family or as individuals. These influences we regard as true and indiscriminately use as guidelines for our day to day lives. We find that from our early years we develop a view of the world around us using different mechanisms. One sees a glass half full and another half empty. So, also each one of us deals with problems and stressful situations in various different ways. We find different opinions on how to deal with the wrong influences and patterns in our lives. We realize that anyone, if they want and believe, can completely change beyond recognition and be happy. We also find that happiness is closely connected with the spiritual. The practical part of this thesis is done in the form of deep interviews with the students Medical Social Science Faculty. To my surprise the students were very open to these interviews. The thesis describes the stress factors on the students. I find that the field of stress factors is very wide and the students often have trouble dealing with it. Because they don?t know the principles, functions of stress and methods of how to work on themselves and how to get rid of it, they often seem to negatively influence its effects. Thanks to acquiring a deeper understanding of the subject, the obtained information can serve as a basis for improving the quality of education and the students? life. It can also be used for further research in the area of stress and its complications. I hope that my thesis will be an inspiration for others like myself who are trying to deal with stress and the problems and difficulties of student life and that it will encourage and help guide them in dealing with everyday life.

Submitted by Edilene de Souza Leite null (edilenesz@hotmail.com) on 2017-04-07T12:30:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 EdileneSz Meditação e Monismo publicada.pdf: 1502925 bytes, checksum: e1bd0b706103c532c177742e1d1d732e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-04-17T13:53:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 leite_es_me_mar.pdf: 1502925 bytes, checksum: e1bd0b706103c532c177742e1d1d732e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-17T13:53:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 leite_es_me_mar.pdf: 1502925 bytes, checksum: e1bd0b706103c532c177742e1d1d732e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Pesquisas sobre meditação em muitos campos de investigação cresceram amplamente no Ocidente no último século, principalmente por causa de seus benefícios. No entanto, não há um conceito bem definido do que é meditação. Há uma diversidade de técnicas e tradições de culturas diferentes que a cultivam, de tal forma que podemos encontrá-la em todos os continentes. No campo científico, a maioria dos pesquisadores procura pelas relações da meditação e atividades cerebrais, contribuindo para investigações sobre a consciência e para filosofia da mente, e ajudando a abordar debates não resolvidos sobre percepção, atenção e processos de aprendizagem. Neste trabalho enfrentamos o desafio de abordar filosoficamente a meditação, considerando a variedade de abordagens disponíveis e a diversidade de achados empíricos. Revisamos teorias e interpretações sobre a natureza da mente, e abordamos a hipótese de Walach (2014) que a meditação seria uma capacidade epistêmica da consciência que acessa uma realidade objetiva. Partindo do Monismo de Triplo Aspecto de proposto por Pereira Jr. (2013, 2015) assumimos que a marca da consciência é o sentimento, e resgatamos os antigos argumentos budistas de Nagarjuna sobre o sofrimento para conceber a meditação como uma experiência que é sobre o sentimento. Sugerimos também ao final da dissertação que a intuição pode ser vista como uma maneira de conhecer o mundo por meio de práticas de meditação. / Research on meditation in many fields of investigation has been widely growing in the Occident in the last century, mainly because of its benefits. However, there isn‘t a well-defined concept of what is meditation and there is a vast quantity of technics and traditions from different cultures that cultivate it, in a way that we can find it in every continent. On the scientific field, most of the researchers are looking for the relations of meditation and brain activities, contributing to investigations on consciousness and to the philosophy of the mind, helping to approach unsolved debates about perception, attention, and learning processes. In this work we present the challenge of working with meditation, considering the many approaches available and the diversity of empirical findings. We review theories and interpretations about the nature of the mind and address a hypothesis by Walach (2014) that meditation would be an epistemic capacity of the consciousness that accesses an objective reality. Starting up from Monism of Triple Aspect proposed by Pereira Jr. (2013, 2015) we assume that the mark of consciousness is feeling, and rescue the ancient Buddhist arguments of Nagarjuna about suffering to conceive meditation as an experience that is about feeling. We also suggest by the end of the dissertation that intuition can be regarded as a way of knowing about the world by means of meditation practices.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar se o treino de meditação da atenção focada promoveria melhoras em variáveis emocionais e cognitivas. Foram realizadas duas intervenções de diferentes durações, as quais foram avaliadas antes e depois através de um paradigma experimental que permitiu analisar a interferência emocional e o controle cognitivo, assim como de medidas de autorrelato avaliando variáveis de ansiedade, afeto, dificuldades de regulação emocional e atenção concentrada. A primeira intervenção compreendeu um ensaio randomizado de seis semanas, com encontros semanais e com dois grupos controle - relaxamento progressivo e lista de espera. A segunda compreendeu um ensaio de cinco dias consecutivos, com apenas um grupo controle de lista de espera. Os resultados de ambas intervenções indicaram que a meditação da atenção focada pode ajudar na modulação da interferência emocional, no controle cognitivo, assim como na melhora de aspectos emocionais, tal como redução de ansiedade e afeto negativo, e melhora na atenção concentrada. Além disso, estes resultados foram superiores àqueles observados nos grupos controle. Ressalta-se que apesar de complementares, os achados da intervenção mais curta foram menos robustos, indicando que um treino curto já pode produzir mudanças, mas que estas ganham maior magnitude à medida que o tempo de prática aumenta. Discute-se o papel da interrelação entre as variáveis investigadas para a regulação emocional, sugerindo-se que a meditação pode ser caracterizada como um tipo particular de estratégia regulatória. / The present work aimed to evaluate whether a focused attention meditation training would promote enhancements in emotional and cognitive variables. Two interventions with distinct durations were carried out, which were evaluated before and afterwards through an experimental paradigm that allowed the analysis of emotion intereference and cognitive control, as well self-report measures assessing variables such as anxiety, affect, difficulties in emotion regulation, and concentrated attention. The first intervention comprised of a six-week randomized trial, with weekly meetings and two control groups - progressive relaxation and wait list control. The second comprised a five-consecutive-day randomized trial, with only a wait list control group. Results from both interventions indicated that focused attention meditation can help modulating emotion interference, enhance cognitive control, as well as improve emotional aspects, such as reducing anxiety, negative affect, and increasing concentrated attention. In addition, these findings were superior to those observed in the control groups. We highlight that despite being complementary, the results from the short intervention were less robust, indicating that a short-term training can already promote some changes, but that the extent of their magnitude seems to be related to the amount of practice. We discuss the role of the interrelationship between the investigated variables for emotion regulation, suggesting that meditation can be considered a particular type of regulatory strategy.

As Políticas Nacionais de Atenção à Saúde propostas nos últimos anos visam a garantir a execução de estratégicas educativas que promovam o cuidado integral dos usuários do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar os benefícios do uso da prática contemplativa em grupos de usuários com dor crônica para, posteriormente, propor sua integração no serviço de atenção à saúde do SUS. O estudo consistiu numa intervenção na qual foi utilizada a prática contemplativa durante 13 semanas com oito participantes que apresentavam dores crônicas havia mais de um ano. Foram aplicados um questionário constituído de dados biossociodemográficos, a Escala Visual Analógica de intensidade de dor (EVA) e a Escala de Consciência e Plena Atenção (MAAS). Também foram utilizados questionários com perguntas abertas para avaliar os efeitos da intervenção sobre o cuidado dos participantes com os seus sintomas de dores crônicas. Os resultados indicam que a Prática Contemplativa possibilitou o gerenciamento da dor crônica e a melhora da atenção plena nas atividades do cotidiano, apresentando-se como uma ferramenta pedagógica para promover o autocuidado com vistas à educação do Ser. / The National Policy for Health Care proposed in recent years aimed at ensuring the implementation of educational strategies to provide comprehensive care for the users of the Unified Health System (SUS). This study assesses the benefits of contemplative practice in groups of users with chronic pain in order to propose their integration into the health care service offered by de SUS. For this study, Contemplative Practice was used for 13 weeks with eight participants who were suffering from chronic pain for more than one year. A questionnaire was used to collect biological, social and demographical data, in addition to the Visual Analogue Scale for pain intensity (VAS) and the Scale of Consciousness and Mindfulness (MAAS). Open-ended questionnaires were used to assess the effects of the intervention affected the participants on the participants’ care with chronic pain symptoms. The results indicate that the Contemplative Practice provides an opportunity to manage chronic pain and improve mindfulness in daily activities, functioning as as a tool to promote self-care and the education of Being.

abstract: School bullying is a serious problem for children and adolescents, associated with a multitude of psychological and behavioral problems. Interventions at the individual level have primarily been social skills training for victims of bullying. However, investigators have had mixed results; finding little change in victimization rates. It has been suggested victims of school bullying have the social skills necessary to be effective in a bullying situation; however they experience intense emotional arousal and negative thoughts leading to an inability to use social skills. One intervention that has been getting increasing acknowledgement for its utility in the intervention literature in psychology is mindfulness. However, there has been no research conducted examining the effects of mindfulness meditation on victims of bullying. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an online intervention for victims of bullying that utilizes the cutting-edge technique of mindfulness and to determine the efficacy of this intervention in the context of bullying victimization. Participants were 32 adolescents ages 11 to 14 identified by their school facilitators as victims of bullying. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to assess the efficacy of the NMT program versus a treatment as usual (TAU) social skills program. Results revealed significant decreases in victimization and increases in mindfulness among both treatment groups from pre-test to follow-up and post-test to follow-up assessments. There were no differences found between the two treatment groups for mean victimization or mindfulness scores. Overall, the NMT program appears to be a promising online intervention for bullied teens. Directions for future research and limitations of this study were also discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2013

Numerous studies have presented physical and psychological benefits of meditation. Many of these are due to the so called Relaxation Response. In our study, we compared a concentrative meditation practice and a relaxation practice to investigate potential differences in the elicitation of the Relaxation Response. The study was performed during 12 weeks on 15 subjects employed by the Police Authority. We measured the subjective well-being, according to the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and by reading blood pressures. The descriptive analysis of the results, supports that the Relaxation Response is elicited by meditation and, although weaker, by physical relaxation. An elicited Relaxation Response is, however, maintained by relaxation. We also looked at the possibilities of introducing these practices in the work environment. There are several issues to deal with if the methods are to be applied in the work environment, mainly creating the time and place for the employees.

Esta tese investiga, basicamente, o ensaio Que philosopher cest apprendre a mourir, do filósofo francês Michel de Montaigne. Trata-se de um texto que é um bom exemplo da forma como o filósofo rejeita a tradição metafísica na qual o problema da morte sempre foi pensado (dos pensadores gregos aos teólogos medievais). Mostramos que a originalidade deste ensaio reside no fato de Montaigne nos aconselhar a seguir a natureza (a qual, em seu pensamento, se confunde com o costume), e, com isso, ele se distancia não só da dogmática cristã, mas também dos ensinamentos morais helenísticos. / This thesis investigates, basically, the essay Que philosopher cest apprendre a mourir, by the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne. This is a text which is a good example of how the philosopher rejects the metaphysical tradition in which the problem of death has always been thought (from the Greek thinkers to Medieval theologians). We show that the originality of this essay lies in the fact of Montaigne in advising us to follow the nature (which, in his thoughts, it confuses with the usual), and thus, it gets away not only from the Christian Dogmatics, but also from the Hellenistic moral teachings.

FundaÃÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Cearà / O projeto principal de nossa pesquisa à o âPrograma Fortaleza em Pazâ que convida à meditaÃÃo coletiva. Assim, o nosso trabalho à resultado de uma experiÃncia educativa com jovens da escola Joaquim AntÃnio Albano que à uma instituiÃÃo educativa pÃblica e profissionalizante em Fortaleza â CearÃ. Facilitamos reflexÃes e buscamos coletar, junto a professores e estudantes, suas percepÃÃes sobre o âPrograma Fortaleza em Pazâ, na referida instituiÃÃo. Justificamos a escolha dessa temÃtica pois acreditamos que esta prÃtica pode mudar sobremaneira a atitude e forma de pensar dos jovens e educadores no ambiente educativo, bem como suas posturas diante do meio em que estÃo inseridos, incitando-os a uma cultura da paz. O presente trabalho, de cunho qualitativo, apresenta enfoque etnogrÃfico. Realizamos uma pesquisa bibliogrÃfica entrevistas, observaÃÃes e oficinas de cultura de Paz com os sujeitos pesquisados. Utilizamos as oficinas de cultura de paz como principal recurso metodolÃgico. O essencial na realizaÃÃo das oficinas da paz à a criaÃÃo de espaÃos de discussÃo que possibilitam a construÃÃo de sÃnteses de saber. Isso acontece de forma grupal, reforÃando a idÃia de paz coletiva. A partir das expressÃes dos jovens, obtidas por meio de falas, desenhos, textos escritos, pudemos perceber que eles anunciam alguns âbenefÃciosâ em relaÃÃo a participarem do evento de meditaÃÃo na escola, como a promoÃÃo da qualidade de vida, bem-estar, saÃde, alÃm de diminuir os Ãndices de violÃncia na cidade. Houve melhora no bem-estar pessoal, concentraÃÃo em sala de aula, relacionamento familiar e no ambiente educativo e melhor desempenho escolar. AlÃm dos benefÃcios psicolÃgicos e espirituais obtidos na prÃtica de meditaÃÃo diÃria, acreditamos na importÃncia de anunciarmos exemplos exitosos em termos de educaÃÃo para a paz. Vimos que o âPrograma Fortaleza em Pazâ pode ser utilizado como uma estratÃgia pedagÃgica favorÃvel a uma educaÃÃo integral. Neste sentido, a experiÃncia das oficinas de Cultura de Paz pode em muitos aspectos, favorecer a reflexÃo e formaÃÃo dos sujeitos envolvidos no grupo de meditaÃÃo na escola sobre o impacto dessa vivÃncia em suas vidas. ConcluÃmos que a tÃcnica da meditaÃÃo provocou conseqÃÃncias positivas para esse grupo pesquisado. Esta à somente uma dentre tantas possibilidades de trabalhos de Cultura de Paz. O caminho para uma educaÃÃo que respeite a dimensÃo integral do ser humano e forme, de fato, cidadÃos capazes de exercer plenamente seu potencial, à certamente uma longa jornada. A instigante trajetÃria que percorremos nessa pesquisa esperamos ser um passo nesse sentido, rumo à construÃÃo de uma Cultura de Paz, que â acreditamos â serà tambÃm consolidada essencialmente por meio da educaÃÃo. / The main target of our research is the program âFortaleza em Paz" which calls for collective meditation. Thus, our work is the result of an educational experience with teenagers from school Joaquim Antonio Albano, which is a public professional and educational institution in Fortaleza - CearÃ. Discussions were facilitated and as result of them, the perceptions of teachers and students about the âFortaleza em Paz" program, in that institution, were collected. The choice of this theme is grounded in the belief that this practice can greatly change the attitude and thinking of young people and educators in the educational environment as well as their positions on the environment in which they live, urging them to a culture of peace. The present study has a qualitative nature and an ethnographic view. Literature search, interviews, observations and workshops on culture of peace were conducted with the study subjects. The workshops of culture of peace were used as the main methodological resource. The essential on the promotion of workshops for peace is the creation of discussion forums that enable the construction of summaries to know. This happens in group, reinforcing the idea of collective peace. From the expressions of the young, obtained by means of speeches, drawings, texts, it could be realized that they announce some "benefits" in relation to attend the event of meditation in the school, such as promoting the quality of life, welfare, health, and reduce levels of violence in the city. There was improvement in personal well-being, concentration in class, family relationship and the educational environment and better school performance. Besides the psychological and spiritual benefits obtained in the practice of daily meditation, we believe in the importance of announcing successful examples in terms of education for peace. It could be seen that the âFortaleza em Paz" program can be used as a teaching strategy in favor of a holistic education. In this sense, the experience of the Culture of Peace workshops can in many ways, encourage reflection and development of persons involved in the meditation group at school about the impact of this experience in their lives. Then, it can be concluded that the technique of meditation brought positive consequences for the group studied. This is only one among many possibilities of work culture of peace. The path to an education that respects the scale of the human being and form, indeed, citizens can exercise their full potential, it is certainly a long journey. The exciting journey experimented in this research will hopefully be a step in that direction, toward building a Culture of Peace, which will also be consolidated mainly through education.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar se o treino de meditação da atenção focada promoveria melhoras em variáveis emocionais e cognitivas. Foram realizadas duas intervenções de diferentes durações, as quais foram avaliadas antes e depois através de um paradigma experimental que permitiu analisar a interferência emocional e o controle cognitivo, assim como de medidas de autorrelato avaliando variáveis de ansiedade, afeto, dificuldades de regulação emocional e atenção concentrada. A primeira intervenção compreendeu um ensaio randomizado de seis semanas, com encontros semanais e com dois grupos controle - relaxamento progressivo e lista de espera. A segunda compreendeu um ensaio de cinco dias consecutivos, com apenas um grupo controle de lista de espera. Os resultados de ambas intervenções indicaram que a meditação da atenção focada pode ajudar na modulação da interferência emocional, no controle cognitivo, assim como na melhora de aspectos emocionais, tal como redução de ansiedade e afeto negativo, e melhora na atenção concentrada. Além disso, estes resultados foram superiores àqueles observados nos grupos controle. Ressalta-se que apesar de complementares, os achados da intervenção mais curta foram menos robustos, indicando que um treino curto já pode produzir mudanças, mas que estas ganham maior magnitude à medida que o tempo de prática aumenta. Discute-se o papel da interrelação entre as variáveis investigadas para a regulação emocional, sugerindo-se que a meditação pode ser caracterizada como um tipo particular de estratégia regulatória. / The present work aimed to evaluate whether a focused attention meditation training would promote enhancements in emotional and cognitive variables. Two interventions with distinct durations were carried out, which were evaluated before and afterwards through an experimental paradigm that allowed the analysis of emotion intereference and cognitive control, as well self-report measures assessing variables such as anxiety, affect, difficulties in emotion regulation, and concentrated attention. The first intervention comprised of a six-week randomized trial, with weekly meetings and two control groups - progressive relaxation and wait list control. The second comprised a five-consecutive-day randomized trial, with only a wait list control group. Results from both interventions indicated that focused attention meditation can help modulating emotion interference, enhance cognitive control, as well as improve emotional aspects, such as reducing anxiety, negative affect, and increasing concentrated attention. In addition, these findings were superior to those observed in the control groups. We highlight that despite being complementary, the results from the short intervention were less robust, indicating that a short-term training can already promote some changes, but that the extent of their magnitude seems to be related to the amount of practice. We discuss the role of the interrelationship between the investigated variables for emotion regulation, suggesting that meditation can be considered a particular type of regulatory strategy.

As Políticas Nacionais de Atenção à Saúde propostas nos últimos anos visam a garantir a execução de estratégicas educativas que promovam o cuidado integral dos usuários do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar os benefícios do uso da prática contemplativa em grupos de usuários com dor crônica para, posteriormente, propor sua integração no serviço de atenção à saúde do SUS. O estudo consistiu numa intervenção na qual foi utilizada a prática contemplativa durante 13 semanas com oito participantes que apresentavam dores crônicas havia mais de um ano. Foram aplicados um questionário constituído de dados biossociodemográficos, a Escala Visual Analógica de intensidade de dor (EVA) e a Escala de Consciência e Plena Atenção (MAAS). Também foram utilizados questionários com perguntas abertas para avaliar os efeitos da intervenção sobre o cuidado dos participantes com os seus sintomas de dores crônicas. Os resultados indicam que a Prática Contemplativa possibilitou o gerenciamento da dor crônica e a melhora da atenção plena nas atividades do cotidiano, apresentando-se como uma ferramenta pedagógica para promover o autocuidado com vistas à educação do Ser. / The National Policy for Health Care proposed in recent years aimed at ensuring the implementation of educational strategies to provide comprehensive care for the users of the Unified Health System (SUS). This study assesses the benefits of contemplative practice in groups of users with chronic pain in order to propose their integration into the health care service offered by de SUS. For this study, Contemplative Practice was used for 13 weeks with eight participants who were suffering from chronic pain for more than one year. A questionnaire was used to collect biological, social and demographical data, in addition to the Visual Analogue Scale for pain intensity (VAS) and the Scale of Consciousness and Mindfulness (MAAS). Open-ended questionnaires were used to assess the effects of the intervention affected the participants on the participants’ care with chronic pain symptoms. The results indicate that the Contemplative Practice provides an opportunity to manage chronic pain and improve mindfulness in daily activities, functioning as as a tool to promote self-care and the education of Being.