Abnormal Psychology
Instructions
For the research assignment, you will be asked to show your level of competence in understanding abnormal psychology and abnormal behaviour. First, please read through the vignette titled “Disco Di” , as well as the supplemental document regarding Disco Di’s historical information (scroll down). After reading the vignette, I would like for you to research and discuss content in 3 areas –
1. Diagnostic Features/Differential Diagnosis;
2. Cultural/Gender and Social/Environmental Factors; 3 Paradigm & Treatment Methods. You will also be asked to write an introduction and conclusion for the paper.
The paper must be no more than 5-6 double spaced typed pages (12-point font) excluding the title page and references. You must have at least 5 scholarly, peer reviewed, journal references in your research paper and (e.g., American Psychologist, Psychological Bulletin). They must be current (i.e., the year 2007+). The paper must be in APA style; consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2009) or www.owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.
You will also be asked to cite and reference your arguments with pertinent theories and research in abnormal psychology. Research support is a good thing!!
Essay Grading Key
1. Diagnostic Features/Differential Diagnosis (5 points)
a. Why do you agree or disagree with the diagnosis given to Disco Di? Please indicate the diagnostic features that accompany the disorder or the features that are not present from the vignette (2 points)
b. What other disorder(s) do you believe Disco Di is experiencing? Please indicate the diagnostic features and overlapping features of the disorders (3 points)
Be sure to support your thoughts with research-based evidence about the disorder’s features and overlap.
2. Cultural and Gender Factors (5 points)
a. How does culture shape the diagnosis and the diagnostic features/symptoms? (2 points)
b. How does gender shape the diagnosis and the diagnostic features/symptoms? (2 points)
c. How does our social environment shape the diagnosis diagnostic features/symptoms? (1 point)
The diagnosis or diagnostic features can be from the diagnosis given to “Disco Di”or the diagnostic features of other related disorders. Be sure to support your thoughts with research-based evidence.
3.Paradigm/Treatment Methods (5 points)
a.Which 20th century paradigm best examines the nature of Disco Di’s behaviour?(3 points)
b.How should her disorder be treated? Which current treatment methods or potential treatment methods would help with the client’s diagnostic features/ symptoms? (2 points)
Be sure to support your thoughts with research-based evidence.
4. Introduction/Conclusion & APA Formatting (5 points)
a.Introduction – purpose, objectives of the essay (1 point)
b.Conclusion – Summarize your overall findings (2 points)
c.APA Format – title page, references, 12 point font, 1 inch margins, etc. (2 points)
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vignette titled “Disco Di”
Diana Miller, age 25, entered a long-term treatment unit of a psychiatric hospital after a serious suicide attempt. Alone in her enormous suburban house, with her parents away on vacation, depressed and desperately lonely, she made herself a Valium and Scotch cocktail, drank it, and then called her psychiatrist.
Diana had been an easy to manage child with a mediocre school record until she turned age 12. Then her disposition, which had been cheerful and outgoing, changed drastically; she became demanding, sullen, and rebellious, shifting precipitously from a giddy euphoria to tearfulness and depression. She took up with a “fast” crowd, became promiscuous, abused marijuana and hallucinogens, and ran away from home at 15 with a 17-year-old boy. Two weeks later, having eluded the private investigators her parents had hired, they both returned. She reentered school, but dropped out for good in her junior year of high school. Her relationships with men were full of passion, unbearable longing, and violent arguments. She craved excitement and would get drunk, dance wildly on table tops at discos, leave with men she’d just met, and perhaps have sex with them, sometimes in their cars. If she refused their sexual advances, she was sometimes put out onto the street. After one such incident, at 17, she made her first suicide attempt, cutting her wrist severely, which led to her fist hospitalization.
After her first hospitalization, Diana was referred to a therapist for intensive, twice-weekly, psychodynamic psychotherapy, for which she had little aptitude. She filled up most of her sessions with a litany of complaints against her family, from whom she seemed to want 100% attention. Sometimes she called her therapist several times a day about one crisis or another.
During her long period of unsuccessful outpatient treatment, punctuated by several brief hospitalizations, she had many symptoms. She was afraid to travel even to her doctor’s office without one of her parents. She was depressed, with suicidal preoccupations and feeling of hopelessness. She drank excessively and used up to 4 Klonopins (antianxiety meds) per day. She had eating binges, followed by crash diets to get back to her normal weight. She was obsessed with calories and with the need to have her food cut into particular shapes and arranged on her plate in a particular manner. If her mother failed to comply with these rules, she had tantrums, sometimes so extreme that she broke dishes and had to be physically restrained by her father
Diana has never worked, except for a few months as a receptionist in her father’s company. She has never been really certain of what she wants to do with her life, and has started a variety of careers and training programs but rarely finished anything. Her most certain goal is to be with a “truly romantic, sensitive man.” She has had few if any female friends, and her only source of solace is her dog. She has often felt “eaten alive” with boredom.
Efforts by her therapist to set limits have has little effect. She refused to join Alcoholics Anonymous or attend a day program of vocational rehabilitation center, regarding these as “beneath” her. Instead, she languished at home, grew more depressed ad agoraphobic, and escalated her Valium use to 80 mg/day. It was a serious suicide attempt this time that led her to current (seventh) psychiatric hospitalization.
Some Additional History:
Disco Di was born in Toronto and was raised primarily by her mother (immigrated to Toronto from Ecuador), as her father (immigrated to Toronto from Kenya) left the home when she was 3 years old. Her mother and father reunited when she was 12 years old. Disco Di currently lives with her mother and her father in downtown Toronto. She had a younger sister, Carol, who was killed by a drunk driver when Disco Di was 11 years old. During the intake interview, Disco Di reported a difficult childhood, having few friends and often relied on her sister for companionship and safety. During the interview, Disco Di reported feeling anxious (increased heart rate, sweaty palms, hands shaking). She reported feeling the same way each day when working at her father’s company. She indicated that she has extended family living in Welland, Ontario (who she visits once a year during the winter holidays) and has no other family contact. After her last impatient hospitalization, Disco Di was given a