Question:
Psychological Disorders and Treatments: Part 1
Task 1
Heather Case Study
Heather, a University student aged 20, has a fear of speaking with people she doesn’t know.
She chose large lectures in her first and second year so she could hide behind the podium and not be seen by other students.
Heather was a top performer in all her subjects.
Heather will now be required to take classes with smaller classes in her third year. This means that she will need to participate in small groups and do group work.
Heather is certain that she will make a mistake, like vomit, and people will be harshly critical of her.
Heather is considering quitting University because she has trouble sleeping at night due to these fears.
Task 2
Be specific, e.g.
You must identify the psychological disorder (not just Anxiety, but Social Anxiety Disorder) and give a reason for your identification.
Task 3
Based on the diagnosis you made in TASK 2, choose the combination of two therapies that would be most effective in treating the disorder.
You should explain why you believe these two therapies would be the most effective, based on the evidence in the literature, the suitability of each therapeutic approach, and how they work together to treat the disorder.
Liste of therapeutic approaches
Psychoanalysis
Behaviouraltherapy
Cognitive therapy (either Beck’s cognitive therapy or REBT)
CognitiveBehavioral Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Gestalttherapy
Grouptherapy
Pharmacotherapy
Exercise 2: Social Psychology (Social Influence and Attitude Change & Persuasion).
Task 1
Google images or another image search engine such as Google Images (or similar) will provide you with an image of an advertisement.
Bing images
Include a link to the image in the assignment. Before submitting your assignment, make sure that it works.
Task 2
Discuss the purpose of this advertisement, which is to influence people’s attitudes.
You should use examples from the advertisement to demonstrate principles of social influence and persuasion as well as attitude change.
Task 3
Based on your knowledge and readings about attitude and behavioural change, how effective would you believe this advertisement to be in changing people’s attitudes and behaviors?
You will need to show your understanding of motivation from different perspectives.
Task 1
Two of the five perspectives of motivation (psychodynamics, behaviourists, cognitive, humanistic, and evolutionary) can be used to explain why someone might decide to enroll in a university program.
Task 2
Ryan and Deci have created the following article (as an additional PDF) on intrinsic motivation.
Ryan and Deci (2000, p. 3) state that intrinsic motivation refers to doing something because it is intrinsically interesting or enjoyable.
Refers to the act of doing something that leads to a separate outcome.
Ryan and Deci’s Self-Determination Theory, (SDT), is a framework that allows you to explore your interest in your chosen subject. What can your lecturers do for you?
Task 3
When it comes to clients following their health behavior changes or other requirements, health professionals often face a variety of obstacles.
When assessing the likelihood that a client will follow treatment advice and also if compliance fails (non-compliance with recommendations), it is important to understand their motivations.
For this Exercise:
Based on the area of your study, provide a short (or two-sentence) example of a recommendation that would be required for a client’s behavior to change (e.g.
Not attending regular appointments as recommended by the clinician, not adhering with parole or bail conditions and not completing homework tasks.
You should include the following in your response
You can choose the theory of motivation that best explains why patients may not follow yourclinical. Include in-text references to support your answer.
Give an example of how the theory of motivation can inform your future clinical recommendations for this patient.
Answer:
Task 1
Heather has Social Phobia. This is an Anxiety Disorder.
Task 2
Social Phobia is also known as Social Anxiety Disorder.
Social Phobia is a fear of situations unknown to the individual or situations where they are likely to be watched or evaluated by the outside world.
These situations can be so frightening for an individual that they may avoid them or stop socializing.
Social phobia is characterized by fear of being judged, evaluated, and embarrassed in public.
The Diagnostic Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM V) lists the following criteria as a diagnostic for social anxiety disorder (Heimberg and al.
Fear and anxiety in social situations can be interpreted as external judgments.
Conversation with strangers or going to a public event can be part of social situations.
Feeling excluded by the outside environment
Anxiety is triggered by social situations.
Social situations are avoided by the patient.
Fear and anxiety are out of control.
Avoidance of social situations persists for longer than six months.
Distress of the mind can cause impairment in personal and professional lives.
Any substance abuse can cause anxiety and distress.
Fear and distress are not caused by any other mental disorder.
Heather, a University student at 20 years old, has problems speaking in public.
She also chose large lectures in her first and second years so she could hide behind the podium and not interact with other students.
Heather has a fear of being in public events at her college.
Heather’s symptoms are clearly consistent with the DSM V criteria for Social Phobia.
Task 3
You can treat social phobia by getting rid of the anxiety that comes with certain situations.
Two types of therapy are used to treat social phobia.
The Exposure Therapy is a form of Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and the other is Group Therapy.
CBT assists the patient in identifying the anxiety and the triggers.
Social anxiety can be managed in many ways.
Exposure therapy is the most effective way to manage social anxiety.
Exposure therapy is a counseling program that helps patients feel comfortable in public settings.
The counselor will instruct the patient to picture themselves in a social setting and give suggestions for how to manage it without worrying.
After the counselor has observed that the patient is able to handle public confrontations without anxiety, the patient is allowed to go outside (Heimberg and al.
You can go out to lunch, or even attend a party.
The patient will feel secure that no one is judging or evaluating them after a few public meetings.
By taking small steps to expose oneself to the outside environment, it is possible to fix social phobia.
Social phobia can also be managed with group therapy.
Group therapy is a group approach to therapeutic goals that involves multiple people meeting with another group.
Each group consists of five to ten people.
Working together as a group.
The group helps participants explore their personal issues within the context of different group processes.
There are many types of group therapy. One variation is the self-help group, where people with similar experiences meet without professional guidance.
Group therapy allows socially phobic patients to be exposed to an external group, which encourages them to grow as individuals.
Group Therapy allows individuals to share their own experiences and can learn from one another (Caine Wijesinghe, Winter, 2014).
Time is essential for any mental disorder to be treated.
The treatment is achieved by changing the person’s behavior.
The combination of two treatments is required to treat a socially phobic patient.
First, group therapy is administered.
Combining these two therapies can help the patient overcome social phobia.
Refer to
Personal Styles in Neurosis: Implications for Small Group Psychotherapy (RLE: Group Therapy). (Vol.
Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach.
Behaviour therapy and research, 58: 10-23.
Cognitive-behavioral treatment for chronic pain: Innovations, efficacy, and directions for future research.
American Psychologist, 1969(2), 153.
DSM-SOCIAL ANXIETY Disorder.
Depression and anxiety 31(6), 472-479.
Task 1 Hyperlink
Task 2
Above is an advertisement that depicts a person suffering from social phobia.
The above picture shows a person with social phobia. AADA has a website where they can offer therapy.
AADA (Anxiety and depression Association of America), an international NGO, is dedicated to the prevention, treatment, and cure of OCD and anxiety.
AADA’s mission focuses on improving the quality of life for people with anxiety disorders.
Mental disorders are still a stigmatized topic in society.
People all over the world have a negative view of people with mental disorders (Tsai and Bagozzi 2014).
This advertizement is a bold move towards solving these problems.
If social phobia is detected early enough and treated properly, it can be easily managed.
This advertisement informs the public about this issue and gives details about how to get help.
This advertisement shows that mental issues are being discussed in public through the media.
This will inspire the affected people to seek help, and allow them to live a normal lifestyle.
Task 3
Social influences are any outside factor that influences the behavior, opinions and emotions of the masses.
Persuation can be used to describe the social influences, beliefs and changes that occur in a society.
There are three types of social influence: Compliance (when people agree with others, but keep their decisions private), Identification(when someone is influenced and celebrated by society) and Internalization (when people accept a behavior or belief and then agree to it publicly and privately).
Six principles are the basis of Cialdini’s social influence principles.
First, Reciprocity. This means to usually return a favor.
Reciprocity is the foundation of any social phenomenon (Dishion 2016,).
If there is no reciprocity, any social change can only occur.
It is essential for society to have a reciprocal system.
Second, Commitmrnt or Consistency refers to people who commit to any idea or goal. They are more likely than others to be honored for their dedication to the idea or goal.
Social proof is the social proof of the positive changes made by people society can look up to (Lambert 2017, 2017).
They should make positive changes in their lives that will inspire their confederates to emulate them.
Fourth, Authority is the affirmation towards someone who has made a positive contribution to society.
Fifth, Liking refers to the idea of attraction towards a certain idea that is intended to bring about societal change.
Finally, scarcity refers to the inability to obtain any factor that will increase the demand for the socity.
Therefore, society must change.
Refer to
(2016).
Journal of abnormal child psychology 44(1): 57-61.
Workers, Factories, and Social Changes In India.
Princeton University Press.
Contribution Behavior in Virtual Communities – Emotional, Social, and Cogntiive Influences
Mis Quarterly 38(1): 143-163.
The impact of social changes on subjective well-being among older Chinese citizens: A cross-temporal metaanalysis, 1990-2010.
Task 1
The world knows that behaviour is influenced by the environment.
Individuals’ needs reflect their desires.
Drives are the state of arousal associated with unfulfilled needs such as hunger and thirst.
To be able to choose a course of higher education at a university, one must have the drive to do so.
Benach et.al.
Students can lose their drive and motivation for future studies if they lack it.
A cognitive view of motivation is also important.
To be able to choose a subject for further study, expectancy theory and goal setting theories can also be used.
A person should be motivated to do something in their lives. To achieve that goal, a goal and a goal must be established.
To choose a subject for study, the student must have both a cognitive and behavioural perspective (Reeve 2014).
Task 2
Self determination theory is an approach that uses human motivation and personality to use a meta theory about the organism that focuses upon one’s inner resources for self-regulation and personality development.
Motivation is all about energy, direction, persistence and equifinality – all aspects that affect activation and intention.
Psychology has always been concerned with motivation.
There are two main types of motivation.
Motivation that is intrinsically motivated by the inner drive and urges.
Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is governed by external factors.
Task 3
The student chose Biology to study at the University.
The student is driven and motivated to complete his higher education in the subject.
For his personal benefit, the lecturer must consider three factors: Competency, Relatedness, and Autonomy.
Competence gives you control over the outcome and mastery of your experience.
The Lecures should be sufficiently competitive to give the student sufficient knowledge.
The concept of relatedness involves interaction within the class. Students should feel connected to the exercises discussed in class.
To gain a thorough understanding of the subject, it is important to practice reciprocity.
Autonomy is the universal urge to act as causal agents in one’s life and be in harmony with oneself.
The lectures provide an opportunity for students to reflect on automy and apply it in their own lives.
Health care professionals are often faced with problems with patients.
Socially anxious patients have shown resistance to treatment and skipped follow-ups.
Socially phobic patients must be encouraged to bring out their intrinsic motivations by clinicians.
Social phobics are often resistant to public interaction.
The therapist could use Maslow’s Theory of Motivation in this instance. This theory is part of the Humanistic Approach to Motivation. In the theory, self-esteem gives an individual the desire to be known and gain respect from society (Jackson, et al.
Socially phobic people will not feel the need to be acknowledged.
Because to be accepted by society, one must interact with it.
You can trigger an individual’s internal motivation to increase this urge.
The therapist must motivate and encourage patients to set goals for their lives.
The therapist can give direction to patients and help them to plan their lives.
The therapist helps patients to overcome their fear of the outside world by guiding them to ways to build self-esteem and live a happy life.
A Humanistic Approach can help a socially phobic patient.
Refer to
Understanding precarious employment as a social determinant for health.
Annual review of public Health, 35, 229-253.
Understanding precarious employment as a social determinant for health.
Annual review of public Health, 35, 229-253.
Understanding emotion and motivation.
John Wiley & Sons.
The Concept of Motivation: Its Types and Subjects.
Journal of Clinical Healthcare 14(2014_3) 02-05.
Improved patient care using the prisms of psychology: Application of Maslow’s hierarchy of sedation, delirium and early mobility to the intensive care unit.
Journal of critical care, 29, 3, 438-444.