Term Paper: Each student should select one DSM diagnosis mentioned in the text and discuss its etiology, characteristics, and assessment. This is an assessment type paper and not a paper on treatment. Points will be deducted for too much information on specifics of treatment.
The student must select a specific disorder rather than an area or category. For example, the student should avoid writing on the general topic of schizophrenia and select a type, i.e. catatonic, paranoid etc. Same thing holds true for ADHD. Another example is the student should not write on a general area like anxiety disorders, but select a specific anxiety or OCD related DSM diagnosis like obsessive compulsive disorder.
The student should also provide a description of their own idea or theoretical perspective (behavioral, psychoanalytic, cognitive, biological, humanistic etc. or a combination) on the diagnosis and maladaptive behavior. While treatment may be mentioned in the theoretical area, it should not be elaborated. Rather, more information should be provided in the Assessment area of the paper with regard to the specifics of each procedure in assessment to include the clinical interview and specifics of the parts of the interview for the disorder as well as medical and psychological evaluation.
That means for the interview nclude presenting problem, pertinent history, specific characteristics often found in the mental status and vegetative signs, as well as medical evaluation procedures and the psychological evaluation including a description of pertinent tests. Moreover, any history important to collect should be discussed, i.e. family history, substance abuse history, school history, etc. Finally, it is important to address how the diagnosis is arrived at in the Case Summary and Formulation section. The paper should be a minimum of 8 double-spaced typewritten pages in length. The paper should be in APA style and organized according to the following outline which would include all of the subheadings noted in the outline below.
Note that the subheadings also have to be in the paper italicized and bold. Abstract: Provide a single-spaced indented overview of the paper. Introduction: Provide a brief introductory paragraph to the paper including the purpose and scope of the paper as well as reasons why you have chosen this topic. Etiology: Discuss the causative and contributing factors for the development of the disorder. This should identify specific factors, genetic and/or environmental.
If there are biological influences, then the specific ones should be identified. For example, instead of saying brain organs, one would talk about the role of the amygdala, hippocampus or what other brain organ has been found to be influential. Characteristics: A description of the disorder would be provided in this area. One should avoid discussing characteristics in general for a disorder when there are types of the disorder like Bipolar I or Bipolar II. One should address the specific (e.g. Schizophrenia, paranoid type or Schizophrenia, catatonic type).
Assessment: Describe how the disorder is assessed taking into consideration basic components of the interview(problem, mental status, vegetative etc.) historical data, medical evaluation and suggested medical tests(lab, scans etc.), psychological tests, etc. This does not mean to just briefly describe the interview or the need to collect, historical data, conduct a medical evaluation or do psychological tests.
This means for each assessment component whether it be the interview or the MMPI-2, the student should discuss how these assessment procedures determine the evidence for the disorder. In other words, when collecting historical data, what does one look for in the history of someone who has antisocial personality disorder or a person who has body dysmorphic disorder? What specific historical issues are evident in the family? What findings does a selected psychological test show or what scale that aids in the diagnosis of a particular disorder?
Which scale of the MMPI-2 might reflect antisocial characteristics? You have to do the research to answer certain areas. Case Formulation Discuss how the diagnostic impression is finally made based on the findings from the procedures, i.e. clinical interview parts, medical tests, psychological tests and any collateral data. Summary: Summarize the paper in a one half page paragraph or more.
References: Follow APA, 7th edition, style for each reference citation. Note: Students should follow APA style for referencing including alphabetizing all entries, italicing book titles and journal names as well as non-capitalizing where appropriate. Complete drafts of the term paper should be submitted by the due date according to the outline above. Tips or links indicating examples of term paper sections may be viewed in Course Content.
