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 a rationale 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 – Jacob 

Jacob is an 8-year-old boy. He lives with his mother and stepfather and has 2 older brothers aged 11 and  13. Jacob's father died of a drug overdose when Jacob was 3 years old and his mother has since remarried.  Jacob is frequently in trouble at school for getting into physical fights with other children, and has also been  known to truant (skip school) on a number of occasions. The family have recently had to re-home their pet  dog because Jacob would kick the dog when he was frustrated. Recently, his parents were called to the  school after Jacob was accused of vandalising and lighting a fire in the school gym after an argument with a  teacher. Jacob denied being anywhere near the gym. 

CASE STUDY # 2 – Cathy 

Cathy is a 22-year-old university student. Despite the expense, Cathy drives her own car to university every  day because she is extremely afraid of using public transport. She was originally very interested in business  studies but deliberately chose a less popular university course because she feels very anxious and  uncomfortable in crowds and did not feel that she would cope in a lecture theatre of hundreds of students.  Cathy only feels comfortable in classes if she can sit with a friend and if she can sit close to the exit, as she  has thoughts that if she is not near the exit, she may become trapped in the room.  

CASE STUDY #3 – Carl 

Carl is a 27-year-old male. Since his mid-20s, he has found it very difficult to maintain a career because of  his episodes, so he tends to have short-term jobs. Carl's long-term girlfriend has been very worried about  him because he has been acting unlike his usual self, particularly for the past week. Other friends and work  colleagues have noticed this change in behaviour also. Carl has been unusually talkative and excited, talking  continuously about many different ideas, particularly his ideas for investing in an app that he is convinced  will earn millions of dollars, despite having no experience with investing or apps. He has been hardly  sleeping for the last week, getting only about 3 hours' sleep at a time, although he tells his girlfriend that he 

feels full of energy. Despite this, Carl has been able to keep up his work and usual routine. Earlier this year,  Carl had been quite depressed for a period of about 3 weeks, telling his girlfriend that he 'felt empty', and  losing interest in his usual activities. He stayed in bed for much of the day, and seemed to have no energy.  

When he did get up, he only moved slowly around the house. During this time, he also expressed suicidal  thoughts and so his girlfriend took him to the doctor. Carl had no other medical conditions and had no  history of substance use, however he had experienced another previous period of depression a year ago.  

CASE STUDY #4 – Sumi 

Sumi is a 27-year old woman. As a child, Sumi spent hours on her homework because she wanted to have  each page of work perfect and she spent hours arranging her room so that it was in perfect order before  sleeping. By high school she was struggling to submit assignments on time because she wanted them to be  perfect and needed to check and re-check her work. When Sumi started university she began to worry that  she would cause harm to others, and so she developed habits such as being compelled to check electrical appliances for fear that she had started a fire, taps for fear that she had left them running, and door locks  for fear that she had left them unlocked. She was very afraid that if she did not perform these checks, she  would be responsible for causing harm to someone. These checks began to consume several hours a day  leading her to be late for class or to miss it entirely. She continued her childhood bedtime rituals of  arranging her room, but these grew to three to four hours, leaving her practically no time to sleep or study.  Exhausted, her appetite and mood plummeted and she stopped attending class. Sumi left university and  returned home but was initially afraid of telling her parents about her thoughts and rituals as she was  afraid that others would label her crazy.  

CASE STUDY #5 – Mario  

Mario is a 50-year-old male. He is married with a 10-year-old daughter. Mario and his family were driving  on the highway on their way back from visiting family when the driver of another vehicle fell asleep at the  wheel and hit Mario's car. The car rolled twice, landing in a ditch. While it was rolling, Mario could not hear  his wife and daughter and feared the worst. Luckily, all three of the family survived the accident but his  daughter had broken her arm and he and his wife both had minor injuries. Following the accident, Mario  kept having distressing memories of the accident every day. These memories would come to Mario at  various times regardless of what he was doing, but particularly when he was driving. He would also  sometimes picture images of what could have happened if the accident had been worse. During these  memories and images, Mario felt hot and sweaty and felt his heart beating in his chest. He tried to avoid  thinking about the accident, and avoided driving on the highway. However, Mario hadn't remembered how  many times the car rolled until his daughter told him. Since the accident, he had difficulty sleeping, felt  irritable and was overly alert and easily startled. He could not seem to shake the guilt that he should have  been able to avoid the accident.  

CASE STUDY #6 – Crystal  

Crystal is a 20-year-old woman. Her mother recently brought Crystal to her General Practitioner because  she had been reporting frequent headaches and chronic fatigue, and had recently fainted at work. She  seemed physically normal, except that she only weighed 35 kilos and was 154cm tall. Despite the warm  weather, Crystal was wearing several layers of loose clothing. When the doctor calculated what Crystal had  been eating, her average daily calorie intake was about 600 calories. Crystal strongly denied that she was  dieting, but she also was strongly opposed to seeing a dietitian. Crystal's mother reported that Crystal  avoided any form of junk food, and never missed exercising even for a day, despite her headaches and fatigue. She would spend an average of 2 hours a day exercising. Crystal did not see her weight as low, and  could not understand why the doctor seemed to be 'hung up on it' as a health problem.  

EXERCISE 2: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (SOCIAL INFLUENCE, ATTITUDE CHANGE, & PERSUASION) 

TASK 1 

Choose an image of a print advertisement (not a video but it could be the type of advertisement that  would appear in a magazine or on a webpage) from an internet search engine (e.g. Google images). You  have free choice on what type of advertisement, for example it could be for a product such as cosmetics, a  car or clothing, or could be a public awareness campaign about an important issue (these are just a couple  of broad examples). 

Provide the web address/hyperlink* to the image in your assignment (and be sure to check that the link  works before submitting your assignment). The marker will need to be able to find your advertisement  quickly. 

* Please DO NOT paste the actual image into the assignment as the image data will make the file size  difficult to submit and mark. 

(Criteria: Selection of material) 

TASK 2 

In this topic, we examined social influence, attitude change and persuasion. For this task, discuss how your  chosen advertisement has been designed to change people's attitudes and behaviours. In your response,  you should provide examples from the advertisement that demonstrate a psychological principle (or  principles) of social influence, persuasion, and attitude change*. That is, what strategies or techniques  from social psychology does the advertisement use to persuade its audience? You should also note which  social psychology theory or theories could be applied to the advertisement, and explain how they apply. So  consider the different types of persuasion and social influence that you have covered in your textbook and  in the online lectures (250 words). 

*As the word limit for this task is 250 words, you should choose just 1 or 2 principles of social influence,  persuasion, and attitude change to discuss, even though your advertisement may demonstrate several. 

(Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension and application of theory, Referencing and presentation) 

TASK 3 

Using psychological theory and principles of attitude and behavioural change, explain how effective this  advertisement would be in changing people's attitudes and behaviours and why. You should look at the  relationship between attitudes and behaviours when answering this question. In other words, evaluate  whether or not the advertisement is likely to achieve its aims based on what you know about attitude  change and behaviour (100 words). 

(Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension and application of theory, Critical thinking; evaluation  and analysis of psychological literature, Referencing and presentation)

EXERCISE 3: MOTIVATION 

The following exercise requires you to demonstrate your knowledge of the different theoretical  perspectives on motivation. 

TASK 1 

Using one (1) of the five perspectives on motivation (psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive, humanistic  and evolutionary), give an explanation of what might motivate someone's decision to enrol in a university  course. (150 words) Make sure that you don't just define motivation from that perspective, but that you  propose an appropriate explanation. 

(Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension & application of theory, Referencing and presentation) 

TASK 2 

Read the article Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development,  and Well-Being at the following link by Ryan and Deci (2000) on intrinsic motivation and extrinsic  motivation.  

https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2000_RyanDeci_SDT.pdf 

In a different article written in the same year, Ryan and Deci (2000) stated that 'intrinsic motivation…refers  to doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, and extrinsic motivation… refers to  doing something because it leads to a separable outcome' (p55). 

Utilising Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as outlined in your assigned article (and assuming  that you already have interest in your chosen field of study!), answer this question: What could your  lecturers do to enhance your (a) autonomy, (b) competence and (c) relatedness? (250 words) 

(Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension and application of theory, Critical thinking; evaluation  and analysis of psychological literature, Referencing and presentation) 

TASK 3 

Health and other human services professionals are often faced with a range of challenges when it comes to  encouraging clients to comply with their professional recommendations. It is important to understand the  individual's motivation when assessing their likelihood of adhering to recommendations (such as treatment  advice), and also compliance failures (not adhering to recommendations).  

There are 2 parts to this final task. 

For this exercise:  

(a) Based on your chosen area of study (that is, the university degree course you are doing), give a brief  (one or two sentence) example of a recommendation that would require a client to change their  behaviour (e.g. a parenting plan, a treatment plan, parole or bail conditions, homework-type tasks, flood or  bushfire emergency plans, etc.). In this task you should include what your chosen area is (e.g. social work,  criminal justice etc) and what type of a recommendation you might be making to a client in your field. (One  or two sentences only) 

(Criteria: Comprehension and application of theory) 

Task 3 continues on next page

(b) Evaluate why the client/patient/individual may not comply with your recommendation. In your  response you should: 

∙ Choose a theory of motivation that best explains why a person may not comply with your  recommendation. Include in-text citations to support your answer.  

∙ Provide an example of how this theory of motivation might inform how you would approach your  recommendations with this person in the future. (300 words for Task 3b) 

(Criteria: Selection of material, Comprehension and application of theory, Critical thinking; evaluation  and analysis of psychological literature, Referencing and presentation)

Topic 1

Psychological Disorders and Psychological Treatments

Chosen case study: Study 5- Mario

The psychological disorder addressed in this particular case is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is recognized as a trauma and stressor related disorder as per the DSM-5. PTSD, is recognized as a series of symptoms which occur in an individual who has survived or witnessed a particularly traumatic or threatening event (Santiago et al., 2013). At the time of the event, the brain of the patient becomes overwhelmed with pain and fear and as a result the individual face challenges in processing the problem effectively. As per Bisson et al. (2015), in patients with PTSD, the patient' brain becomes overwhelmed with the trauma, as a result of which they re-experience the event again and again. This is evident in the case of Mario, who keeps on remembering the event again and again. He is seen remembering the events in their most tragic outcomes, and is getting distressed because of the same, which is again a symptom. He has trouble remembering some aspects of the event (in this case, the number of time car rolled during accident), and is avoiding the actions associated with the event (in this case driving) (Bisson et al. 2015). All these variables reflect that the patient needs to be treated for PTSD.

A psychological disorder is a complex issue which can occur at any point in life of a being. Much like the physical wellness, the psychological health is also associated with our overall wellness (Harvey and Gumport, 2015).

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)