Case Study .Submitting a file upload
The purpose of this assignment is for students to apply what we are learning in class by identifying a fictional character suffering from a mental health problem, describing the symptoms the character is experiencing and whether they would be considered “abnormal,” and discussing some of the potential causes of the character’s symptoms.
The paper should be 3-4 pages long and should include three major components: 1) a description of the character’s symptoms, 2) an assessment of whether those symptoms would be considered “abnormal” as defined in the textbook, 3) a discussion of some of the potential causes of the character’s symptoms, including at least one biological, one psychological, and one sociocultural cause.
Additional information about each of these components is listed below.
First, you will pick a fictional character from a movie or television show who appears to be suffering from a mental health problem. Below, I have listed some suggestions, but you are free to choose your own.
Movies: Adaptation; American Splendor; Analyze This; American Psycho; As Good as It Gets; The Aviator; A Beautiful Mind; Black Swan; Birdman; Donnie Darko; Don’t Say A Word; Fatal Attraction; Fight Club; Gone Girl; Good Will Hunting; The Hours; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; It’s Kind of a Funny Story; K-Pax; Lars and the Real Girl; Memento; Of Mice and Men; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Ordinary People; Perks of Being a Wallflower; Rain Man; Requiem for a Dream; Running with Scissors; Shutter Island; Silver Linings Playbook; The Soloist; Take Shelter; The Weather Man; To the Bone; We Need to Talk About Kevin; What’s Eating Gilbert Grape; When a Man Loves a Woman; Wolf of Wall Street; Young Adult; 28 Days
Televisions shows: 90210; Atypical; American Horror Story; Bates Hotel; Breaking Bad; Degrassi; Dexter; Girls; Glee; Grey’s Anatomy; Gypsy; Homeland; House of Cards; In Treatment; Orange is the New Black; Mad Men; Mr. Robot; Monk; Nurse Jackie; Parenthood; Saved by the Bell; Stranger Things; The Night Of; The Sopranos; The Wire; United States of Tara; Unreal
Description of the Character’s Symptoms. Provide the reader with a sense of who this character is and why you think he or she is suffering from a mental health problem. You can detail your observations about this character over the course of the movie or television episode/series, or describe one scene in particular.
Feel free to use your creativity! Here are some questions to help guide you:
What behaviors is the character exhibiting on-screen? Are other characters talking about his or her behavior as being problematic?
What emotions is the character experiencing? How can you tell what he or she is feeling (e.g., facial expressions, body language, what he or she is saying)?
What about the character’s cognition? Is there voiceover with the character’s internal monologue? Is he/she expressing his/her thoughts to other characters or to the audience?
Assessment of Abnormality. Evaluate whether the character’s symptoms would fit definitions of “abnormal” that we discussed in Class 2 and as detailed in the textbook (pp. 2-5).
Are the symptoms deviant? Is it distressing to the character? How do you know?
Are they leading to dysfunction in the character’s life? For example, is it affecting his or her work, school, or relationships?
Are the character’s symptoms putting him or her in danger? Other people in danger?
Discussion of Potential Causes. For this component, I would like you to apply the models of abnormality that we discussed in Class 2 and that are detailed in Chapter 3 of the text. Discuss whether there is any evidence of different causes for the character’s symptoms presented in the movie or show. If there is no evidence (or only evidence supporting one of the models), speculate on other potential causes of their symptoms. Make sure to include at least one biological, one psychological, and one sociocultural model.
Biological models: Anatomy, chemistry, genetics, viruses and immune system dysfunction
Psychological models: Psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, existential
Sociocultural models: Family-social, multicultural
Grading Criteria
We will be using a rubric to grade your papers (see page 3). The rubric will include each of the three components above (with 20 points given to #1 and #2, and 40 points to #3), as well as a score for the quality of writing (20 points), for a total possible score of 100.
Quality of writing includes the following:
Organization: Does the paper “flow” well? Are the transitions between paragraphs smooth? Is there variation in sentence structure?
Lack of Errors: Is the paper free of grammatical and typographical errors?
Two great grammar resources: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ Links to an external site.and http://www.iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/grammar/Links to an external site.
Adherence to Formatting Guidelines:
Papers should adhere to the following guidelines:
12-point font
Font style: Times New Roman or Arial
Spacing:
Double-spaced
Margins: 1 inch for top and bottom; 1 or 1.25 inches for left and right
If you include any citations (see below), please use APA formatting. Other elements of APA formatting, such as a cover page and abstract, are not required for this assignment.
Academic Integrity: Is the paper in the student’s own words? If necessary, were appropriate citations used?
Note: You can feel free to cite the textbook or any other source for this assignment, although this is not required. If you do so, please provide a citation in the text and full bibliographic information in a separate Reference section, using APA formatting. For help on APA format, please see: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html
