Written Assignment Psyc 1a online
Due: See syllabus
100 points
Application of Psychological Disorders
For this assignment, you should carefully read the chapter on Psychological Disorders. Then you should apply one of the psychological disorders you have read about to a character in a fictional movie, TV program, or book (comic book character is acceptable too) you have seen or read. You can use any disorder discussed in the chapter (please don’t choose substance abuse disorders for this paper). You will type a one page summary of the character, to orient the reader (i.e., me) to what film/show/book you are reviewing. And then, you will then type a 3-4 page ‘analysis’ of this character using your knowledge from the chapter. Thus, the entire paper should be 4-5 pages total (not including the references page). Also, be sure to discuss why you believe the character has the disorder, the role of nature vs. nurture in this disorder’s development, AND how you think this character might be best helped. Keep in mind that I may not have seen the movie or TV show you are discussing, so please describe the character in enough depth that I will be able to understand your paper. Be creative and have fun analyzing!
Your analysis of the character should come from information from at least 5 sources. Of those 5 sources, THREE of them must be empirical journal articles. An empirical journal article reports on a study the researchers conducted. The article will have an abstract, a methods section, and a results section, so if you don’t see those headings in the article, then it’s NOT empirical. Make sure to cite your sources throughout the paper and include a references/bibliography page, or else it is plagiarism and you will receive a failing grade for the assignment.
Checklist (make sure that you include all of the following in your paper):
Decide what character and disorder you plan to discuss in your paper.
Find five sources, three of which will be empirical journal articles.
Read about this disorder from these 5 sources you’ve found.
Write a summary of the character, to orient the reader (i.e., me) to what film/show/book you are discussing. No more than one page needed for this section.
Write about which characteristics he or she possesses that makes you think he/she has the specific disorder you are discussing. Include citations and info from your sources.
Write about whether you think this character was born with this disorder or developed it (nature vs. nurture) based on your readings. Include citations and info from your sources. This should be based on the research you found and not on your opinion.
Write about how you think this character might be best helped. Include citations and info from your sources.
Write about whether you think this disorder was portrayed accurately or whether there was a lot of “Hollywood” in the movie? What aspects seemed more accurate and what aspects seemed less accurate?
Include your references page at the end (not included in the page length requirement).
Make sure you cited your sources throughout the paper in either APA or MLA style. Info on APA style can be found on www.apa.org (Links to an external site.) or handouts from the library.
Check out the sample papers and the rubric so that you know what I’m looking for!
To find journal articles, you can visit the Mt SAC library database and look up ProQuest articles in the Psychology section. If you need help with this, please call or visit the library and they can walk you through it. The more journal articles you use, the better!
Examples of disorders:
“Split”: Dissociative Identity Disorder
“A Beautiful Mind”: Paranoid Schizophrenia
Monica on “Friends”: OCD
“Silver Linings Playbook”: PTSD