Case Study Paper

Goal of this assignment is to for students to apply case history to their conceptualization of the client’s problems as presented. Students will identify and disorder and analyze the case based on the clinical case material provided. Students are expected to make proper usage of the abnormal psychology textbooks and outside references (if needed) to complete this assignment.

PAPER CONTENT – 45 points

Case presentation section – Select one of the following clinical case vignettes which describes a client’s symptoms and provides other clinical information.
Summarize client’s symptoms (in brief, be sure that you orient the reader to a brief list of symptoms that lead to your diagnosis).
DIAGNOSIS: What is the client’s DSM-5 primary diagnosis?
NOTE: All clinical cases are provided from DSM-IV casebooks. The student must ensure that they are using the current DSM-5 diagnoses as demonstrated in class.

Case analysis section – In written essay format, analyze the client’s case as presented by addressing the following areas:
Address the critical thinking questions as identified in the provided case.
ASSESSMENT: Which assessment tools would be best for this client?
Identify some key areas of the Mental Status Examination that might help with this case.
Assess suicidality risk (even if not included in the vignette, extrapolate information based on what we know about at-risk groups and certain disorders and suicide risk).
Which assessment tools might be indicated for this case?
CASE CONCEPTUALIZATION: Identify and explain potential etiology (biological, social, cultural) of the client’s problems?
ENVIRONMENT/CULTURE: Keeping in mind the multipath model from our course textbook, identify and explain any relevant social, cultural, sociocultural considerations (including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, profession, language, geography, etc.) that might be relevant for this case? Be sure to include impact of family and other relationships (if indicated) as well.
APPLICATION OF THEORY: Select and clearly identify one (1) psychological perspective (psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, others) and how this theory might help explain and help us to understand the client’s problems?
TREATMENT: Based on our textbook and class discussions, which treatment options would be effective for this client? Provide at least two (2) treatment options.
PROGNOSIS: If client follows the treatment recommendations (as identified above in question “5”), what would their recovery/prognosis look like? Would this client recover or see symptom reduction?
Personal reflection section – why was this particular case study selected? Provide detail about student’s personal interest in the disorder or other factors involved. This is an opportunity for students to be introspective during completion of this assignment.
FORMAT – 5 points

Minimum length: 2 typewritten pages of content. With title page and reference page, this would amount to 4 physical sheets of paper.
Maximum length: 5 typewritten pages of content.
Paper shall be typewritten, double-spaced and submitted to Turnitin technology via the Course Canvas website by stated deadline. Late/emailed papers will not be accepted.
Paper shall be in proper APA Style format with a title page, reference page, and academic scholarly language in accordance with the Sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. An example of what the title page should look like is available on Canvas and page 3 of this instructions sheet.
Students must ensure that spelling and grammar errors have been corrected, and the writing style shall be clear and concise for full credit points.
When referring to material from the textbook, student must provide proper in-text citations including the page number. In-text citations are covered at length in Chapter 6 “Crediting Sources” of the APA Publication Manual, 6th
Example: The treatment that might be most effective for Susan’s phobia is __________ for at least 1 month (Sue, Sue, Sue & Sue, 2014, p.85).
Students must submit their paper with an APA formatted References page. See Chapter 7 “Reference Examples” for proper format of the References page.
This assignment is worth 50 points toward total course grade

Case Vignettes (large PDF file)

BrownBarlow.pdfPreview the documentView in a new window

Index of Brown/Barlow PDF

Case 1 – Anxiety Disorders (pp.1-4, 14-15)
Case 2 – Anxiety Disorders (pp. 16-19, 30)
Case 9 – Depressive Disorders (pp. 121-123, 133-134)
Case 10 – Bipolar Disorders (pp. 135-137, 148)
Case 12 – Eating Disorders (pp. 162-165, 174-175)
Case 15 – Personality Disorders (pp. 203-205, 212-213)
Sattler_W16.pdfPreview the documentView in a new window

Index of Sattler PDF

Anxiety disorders – pp. 1-8, 8-13, 14-19
Dissociative disorders – pp. 26-27, 40-44
Depressive disorders – pp. 67-74
Bipolar disorders – pp. 74-80
Suicide – pp. 81-88
Psychophysiological disorders – pp. 100-104, 105-108
Schizophrenia – pp. 121-130, 138-144
Substance Use – pp. 167-171
Paraphilias – pp. 191-195

*The two pdf files will be uploaded.