PSY111 Foundations of Psychology for the Health and Human services
Assessment item 5: Short answer exercise B
Task: For this assessment, you must complete ALL parts of ALL three (3) exercises.
Each of the exercises is broken into smaller tasks.
Rationale:
This assessment will allow you to further develop your skills in selection of material, comprehension and application of theory, and referencing. The exercises explore the topics of Psychological Disorders and Treatments, Social Psychology and Motivation.
Presentation:
Each exercise should start on a separate page and have clear headings (e.g. Task 1, Task 2, etc.) to indicate which questions are being answered.
You do NOT need to provide the actual full question for each task, just a heading such as “Task 1”. You should provide a separate reference list at the end of each exercise, so altogether you will have 3 reference lists within the assignment
. Important note:Please remember that this is a psychology assignment, so you should try to include principles and theories of psychology wherever appropriate, and use appropriate psychology sources (e.g. psychology textbooks, psychology journal articles) to support your answers.**Remember to also refer to the detailed information about this task including format/presentationrequirements and the marking criteria in your Subject Outline
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EXERCISE 1: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AND TREATMENTS
TASK 1
Choose ONE
(1) of the following case studies (at the end of this exercise). Write which case study you have chosen (e.g. Case study #1, John).
TASK 2 (200 words)
Identify the psychological disorder in your chosen case study (use the proper name for the disorder as per the DSM-5 and be specific e.g. Social Anxiety Disorder not just Anxiety) and provide arationale on how you identified this disorder, including key symptoms. (Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension And application of theory, Critical thinking; evaluation And analysis of psychological literature, Referencing and presentation)
TASK 3 (300 words)
It is common for psychologists to use a combination of therapies in treating an individual patient. Based on your diagnosis of the disorder in TASK 2 (above), choose a combination of TWO (2) therapies that you believe would be the most effective for treating the disorder you have identified in the case study. In your response, you should provide a justification for:
- why these two (2) therapeutic approaches would be effective based on evidence from the literature (that is, why are the techniques used within each of these therapeutic approaches suitable for this patient), and •how the two (2) therapeutic approaches might work together to treat the disorder List of therapeutic approaches
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy • Psychoanalysis •Behavioural therapy •Cognitive therapy (either Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy or Beck’s cognitive therapy) • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy • Gestalt therapy• Client -centred therapy • Group therapy • Pharmacotherapy •Electroconvulsive therapy (Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension and application of theory, Critical thinking; evaluation and analysis of psychological literature, Referencing and presentation)
CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY # 1
– John
John, 53, a married man, whose life is complicated by his mother living with him and his wife, complains that he feels tense and irritable most of the time. He fears that something will happen to his mother, his wife, his children, or himself. He has no definite idea what it is that he fears might happen.
He also worries about work, money and his health and finds it difficult not to worry. Often he breaks out in profuse perspiration. His mouth always seems to be dry, even though he drinks a great deal of water and he cannot sleep.
CASE STUDY # 2
– Heather
Heather, a 20 year-
old University student, has an intense fear of speaking to people she does not know very well. During her first and second years, she chose subjects with large lectures, where
she could hide in the back of the lecture theatre and not speak to other students or participate in
class discussions. Heather received high marks in all of her subjects. In her third year, Heather is
now required to attend subjects of smaller class sizes in which class participation and small group
work is required. She is sure that she will do something embarrassing, such as vomit, and others
will judge her negatively. Because of these fears, Heather has trouble sleeping at night and is
considering dropping out of University.
CASE STUDY #3
–Karen
Karen is 24 years old. She describes often having difficulty breathing, where her breaths get very
shallow and she feels like she is going to stop breathing. She feels that the air feels like it gets
thinner and is not coming up through her nose. She then takes short rapid breaths and gets very
dizzy and disoriented. She reports feeling like she cannot sit or stand still and will start pacing,
