Unit 3 Assignment & Discussion

Diagnostic Approaches

For this assignment, consider the following case vignette:

Annie is a 13-year-old Asian American girl; the youngest child in a family of four older siblings. Her parents are both high school teachers and came to United States from India to attend college and stayed to raise a family together. They travel as a family to India several weeks of every year to be with extended family. Annie understands some phrases in the dialect spoken by her extended family, but she and her sisters consistently speak to their parents in English. When Annie was 5 years old, she was hospitalized for three weeks for a serious illness. Since that time, she has been in good health, but has struggled with her fears and anxiety.

Annie is extremely shy and avoids situations in which she needs to interact with new people or large groups. She worries about making mistakes in her schoolwork and becomes extremely anxious when taking tests. Sometimes, she becomes so nervous that her heart races; she begins to tremble and has difficulty breathing. Annie is also afraid of the dark and does not want to be alone in her room at night. She often requires the presence of one of her parents or older sisters until she falls asleep. As her oldest three sisters have left home to pursue their education and careers, the family is finding Annie’s need for reassurance more burdensome.

Instructions

Download Unit 3 Assignment Template. Use it to complete your assignment.

Part I: Examining Three Models of Psychopathology

• Review each of the three models of abnormality—biological, psychological, and sociocultural—and apply key principles from each model to frame what is happening to Annie and her family.

• Analyze how each model explains the factors leading to Annie’s presenting behaviors.

Part II: Assessment Instruments to Aid in Diagnosis

Formulate a culturally sensitive assessment strategy using a combination of at least two measures listed below (and linked in Resources) to assist with the assessment of Annie and her family. Describe how the assessments will be administered and interpreted using scholarly sources to support the strategy.

Unit 3 Discussion 1

Depressive Disorder Diagnosis and Assessment

Read the following vignette, keeping in mind the importance of knowing symptoms, and their duration and severity:

Christina is a 25-year-old Mexican American woman who has been working as an elementary school teacher since she graduated from college three years ago. Although she does well at her job, she has been feeling low ever since she left college. When she took this teaching position, she had to relocate to a city over four hours away from her family and the house she grew up in. Even though she has made some new friends, Christina still feels disconnected and lonely. She is also concerned about her mother, who has been diagnosed with a serious health condition.

For the past month, Christina has felt much worse. She reports feeling very sad and tired most of the time and is having difficulty concentrating at work. She says that she does not have enough energy to accomplish the things she would like to do. She admits to overeating to “unwind” after school, and is concerned she is sleeping too much on the weekends. She also has very low self-esteem, despite being well-liked at her school and receiving good performance evaluations.

Christina describes her life as “heading nowhere” and says that lately she has felt extremely hopeless. She wonders if she will ever feel as happy as she did when she was in college. She does not have a history of ever feeling worse than this, and is in good health.

Based on the information presented, address the following questions in your discussion post using headings to match content in each bullet point:

1. What depressive disorder diagnosis would you consider assigning to Christina?

Describe the process you used for making this decision, including your use of the “Differential Diagnosis by the Trees” from the DSM-5 Handbook of Differential Diagnosis (linked in Resources).

2.  Describe how the Beck Depression Inventory-II would aid in making a diagnosis for this client. (See page 63 of Abnormal Psychology).

3. What V and Z codes would you consider for Christina? How would including these systemic considerations help you understand Christina’s presenting symptoms and consider your treatment approach?

Support your ideas with references to the course texts, articles from this learning unit, articles from the optional resources on the course syllabus, or articles from peer-reviewed journals that you locate in the Capella University Library.

Resources

• Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.

• Capella University Library.

• Differential Diagnosis by the Trees

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.

Diagnostic Approaches

Diagnostic Approaches

Diagnostic Approaches