Applied Final Project abnormal psychology

In this activity, you will demonstrate your understanding of the basic theories and techniques of abnormal psychology.

Guidelines

Gary is a 39-year-old male who comes into your office complaining of a variety of life stressors. To begin with, he lists the following:

· weight gain of approximately twenty pounds

· insomnia and interrupted sleep

· decreased self-esteem

· general fatigue

· moodiness and irritability

· anxiety

· loss of appetite followed by increased eating

· decreased libido

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· feelings of guilt stemming from loss of income due to economic troubles (business owner)

Gary has been married to his wife for twelve years. The marriage has had its ups and downs, but it is intact and relatively happy. Gary’s wife is a successful business owner with many irons in the fire and a healthy income (six figures). As is the case for Gary, his wife has to put the majority of her income back into her business ventures. The economy has taken a toll on the couple’s savings and investments, as well as on the way of life to which the two have been accustomed (doing and buying all they wanted—for an upper-middle income household). Gary holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. He obtained his MBA and has ventured out in his own business. He has one full-time employee and a receptionist/data entry person who works hourly. He recently moved from a home office, which he shared with his wife, to a new office that has space for his employees. The office is large enough to be used as a meeting space for his clients. His list of clients has grown, yet the clients tend to pay later than Gary desires (60 days or more), and he often has to have his virtual accounting office prompt them for payment.Applied Final Project

Gary has to have a good cash flow in order to pay his employees, pay off his bills, and meet his family obligations. Due to a pre-existing health condition (his wife has a chronic illness), his health care premium is enormous (over $1K per month for his family plan alone). This does not include the premium Gary must pay for his full-time employee. Gary’s wife paid the family health care premium on her own plan for over two years. It cost her $1,600 per month to carry the entire family (which she did with no complaints).

Gary took over the premium, as he felt that his wife had carried that nearly $2K per year burden alone while he built his company. She had also covered all the expenses he was not able to pay during that time. Gary has stated that he could not have embarked on his private venture without his wife’s support (financial and otherwise). He feels that this has put a strain on his marriage in these stressful economic times.

Gary and his wife have two children, ages 6 and 9. Both are healthy, smart, obedient, fun, and well-behaved, per his report. Gary has no concerns regarding the children at the time of his visit. His wife works very hard to support the family and take care of the children. While Gary works most days from 8 a.m. to any and all hours of the evening, his wife does “double duty,” making nearly 200K and acting as a stay-at-home mother.

Gary feels that his wife’s deteriorating health stems from her attempts to do it all and be there for the children and him. While his wife does not complain, he feels and understands that she must resent him for her 24/7 work schedule that has been set to accommodate his business. As the economy has declined, Gary has felt his overall physical, emotional, professional, and personal state in decline. Gary comes to your office asking you to help him regain control of his situation and make a plan to turn this cycle of decline around. Your assignment is to analyze Gary’s case and give this client a preliminary diagnosis using the DSM-IV. You will provide a diagnosis along each of the five axes.

Applied Final Project

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.