Case Study of Emotional Disorders.

Emotional Disorder—Male Vignette
Nadif is a seven-year-old Somali-American boy who is homeschooled by his mother. When Nadif was four years old, his family immigrated to the United States from war-torn Somalia after living in a refugee camp. His family has been concerned about him from the time they lived at the camp. He used to have an average appetite and slept relatively well. Now, he wakes in the night, often with nightmares in which he becomes lost or separated from his family. Nadif’s appetite has also been affected. He often reports stomachaches and lack of appetite. His parents describe him as “nervous” most of the time, particularly when his mother is not home. Nadif is too afraid to attend school away from his parents, so his mother has chosen to homeschool him until he feels more secure when away from his family.

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Nadif seems to feel relatively comfortable out in public, as long as his family accompanies him on outings. His parents are somewhat puzzled by his anxiety, as he has never been lost. Although they all experienced hardships in Somalia, none of them was a direct victim of any intensely traumatic event. Nadif claims he does not remember much of his time in Somalia. His family hopes therapy will help Nadif feel calmer when they are not present, so that he can attend school, develop friendships, and become increasingly more independent.

Emotional Disorder—Female Vignette

Jada is a sixteen-year-old African American girl enrolled as a junior at the local public high school. She has won numerous honors throughout her educational career for her academic performance; but her greatest joy comes from playing the piano and singing in her church choir. Jada’s vocal instructor raves about her singing voice and about her potential for a career in music.

Jada hopes to attend a prestigious music school in New York City upon graduating from high school, but worries about the cost and how much she will miss her family. The pressure of an upcoming audition at school has caused Jada a great deal of stress. She fears she will not be accepted or will not be able to attend for financial reasons. The stress has begun to affect her daily functioning. She is having difficulty sleeping, has lost weight due to decreased appetite, and is beginning to feel hopeless about her future. Jada’s friends describe her as being “irrational” about the situation and “catastrophizing.” Despite their best efforts, they cannot convince her that she has a strong chance. At her weakest moments, Jada has even spoken passively of wishing she would die, so she would not have to face the stress anymore.

During the past two weeks, Jada has been sad and tearful on most days and has lost interest in her favorite activities. Last weekend, she was caught drinking alcohol with some friends. She admitted to her parents that she has had alcohol on three separate occasions because it helps her “stop feeling stressed.”

Select one of the above vignettes and analyze it by completing the following:

Identify and describe two possible emotional disorders one might consider as DSMdiagnoses for this child or adolescent. Make sure you support those choices with specific symptoms observed in the vignette.
Compare and contrast the two diagnoses and then select one that you consider the most appropriate DSM diagnosis. Explain why one is more likely than the other.
After reviewing recent research studies, readings in your textbook, and other academic sources, provide a thorough description of the following:
The symptoms required for a diagnosis of that disorder
At least two possible causes of that disorder, incorporating at least one developmental factor and at least one multicultural factor that may be involved in the cause(s) of the disorder
At least three of the most effective treatments available for that disorder
At least one controversy, cultural bias, or ethical issue related to the diagnosis or treatment of that disorder
Ethical issues related to the use of psychiatric medications, like antidepressants, to treat emotional disorders in children and adolescents.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

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. Case Study of Emotional Disorders.

Case Study of Emotional Disorders.