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magine you are a psychopathology instructor tasked with creating content for a new online course. You know that it is one thing to talk and read about mental health symptomology, but that it is an altogether different thing to see it live and in action. You’ve decided that to bring these conditions to life for your learners, you need to locate video or audio clips that demonstrate the hallmark symptoms of the disorders you cover in class. You’ll want to provide them with context, too, explaining the clip so that your learners can make connections between what they read and what they are seeing and hearing on the screen.
And, because you are also taking a hopeful, treatment-focused approach in your course, you’ll also want to make sure students are aware of current best practices in treatment for these conditions as well. So, for every clip you choose, you will also provide your students with a current article that speaks to how a clinician would treat that issue therapeutically.
Your Task:
Step 1: Choose three (3) mental disorders we have covered (or will cover through Unit 8). Choose three that you are interested in or have always been curious to learn more about (you may need to read ahead in Unit 8 if you are most interested in neurodevelopmental disorders or gender dysphoria, given we haven’t covered those yet).
For this assignment, you’ll want to cover a wide swath of the DSM-5-TR. So, the only recommendation is that you choose three disorders from different diagnostic categories. For example, you wouldn’t choose both anorexia and bulimia as they both represent the eating disorders category. An exception here might be for mood disorders, as depression and mania are two entirely different manifestations within one diagnostic category. It would be okay to select major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, for instance. Likewise, the personality disorders are quite diverse, so choosing two of those would be okay…but branch out to another category for your third.
Step 2: Identify a hallmark symptom of each of those three disorders you choose. For example, if you chose schizophrenia, then auditory hallucinations are a hallmark symptom. When you think “schizophrenia” you think “auditory hallucination.” While auditory hallucinations might be present in other mental health conditions, they are clearly part and parcel of a schizophrenia diagnosis.
Another example – pressured speech is a hallmark symptom of the manic phase of bipolar illness. While one may experience pressured speech in the context of another mental health disorder, pressured speech is a telltale feature of mania.
One more example, purging is hallmark symptom of bulimia nervosa. It is the identifying characteristic of this disorder and the one causes a great deal of distress and impairment for the person who is experiencing it.
Step 3: Find audio or visual representations of each of these three hallmark symptoms that bring them to life for your learners. You will need to provide a direct link to it or make sure it is available somewhere for your learners to view (here, for the purposes of this assignment, your “learner” is your instructor! You need to provide a link or direct reference to it so that your instructor can go view it themselves). To reiterate, you will be finding three audio or visual clips that correspond with the three hallmark symptoms you chose.
Note: You are not finding audio or visual explanations of these symptoms given by professionals in the field. This is not what we are going for here. We want to see the symptom – or the first-person effects of it – in action. This might be a real-life depiction like in a documentary or a correctly dramatized depiction in a movie or tv show. We are wanting to see or hear the symptom or learn about the experience of it from someone who has experienced it.
Examples of where to locate these audio or visual representations:
YouTube: If you find a video on YouTube that demonstrates the hallmark symptom, link to it with the appropriate time stamp (i.e., 5:04 – 7:11). You want to be as specific as possible, since you will be directing your learners (i.e., your instructor) to it so they can view it. For example, if you find an entire episode of the show Hoarders on YouTube, don’t just link to the whole video. You will also want to pinpoint exactly in that clip where the hallmark symptom is being demonstrated – for example, the time stamp corresponding with a depiction of the person experiencing severe anxiety when someone throws one of their possessions away (a hallmark feature of hoarding disorder).
Podcasts. If you can locate a podcast episode where a person is offering a first-person account (their own story), or if you follow a fiction podcast where a character demonstrates a hallmark symptom, you can link or otherwise direct the reader to that show, episode, and corresponding time stamp. So, for example The Stop Binge Eating Podcast, Episode #286: Binge Eating Success Stories à 3:37 – 6:15, special guest Lisa talks about her experience with binge eating sweets her whole life and how it affected her in myriad ways.
Streaming services. You can take clips from shows, movies, or documentaries found on streaming services, but only use ones you already subscribe to – you do not need to buy anything to do this assignment. There are plenty of depictions available on YouTube and on podcast apps for free. But if you watch a show or can call to mind something from a movie that you know represents a hallmark symptom of a disorder and you have access to it through a streaming service, you can use it. The only caveat here is that you will want to make sure your instructor can access it, too. You might send your instructor a note and ask them, “Do you have access to Netflix?” or “If I use a clip from a Hulu documentary, will you be able to see it?” Your instructor may release an announcement prior to this assignment letting you know which streaming services they have access to, to head this question off at the pass. If you choose this option, you will want to be as specific as possible (episode numbers/titles, time stamps that direct your reader to the specific scene where the symptom is demonstrated, etc.). An example: Iron Man 3 on Disney+ (11:25 – 12:10) Tony Stark experiencing a panic attack, a hallmark symptom of panic disorder.
Step 4: Write up a 150-200 word “play-by-play” description. This will walk your learners through the scene, detailing what is happening and how the visual/audio depiction lines up with what they learned about that disorder/symptom in class. If something about the clip doesn’t quite align with what was learned, explain why, and use it as a learning moment. The activity is for you to “play the teacher” here, and in doing so, you are showing your instructor that you “get it” and can identify key symptoms of mental health disorders in the world around you.
Step 5: Find one peer-reviewed scholarly journal article (per disorder/hallmark symptom…so x3) reporting on a treatment study designed to help someone with that symptom/issue/disorder. You can use the UMGC library or Google.com/scholar to aid your research. Introduce and cite the article in APA format and summarize
- the treatment it is testing and
- the results/conclusions of the study.
Then, apply that treatment approach specifically to the person/case in the corresponding audio/visual clip.
Do not stick with generalities here (i.e., you wouldn’t just say, “CBT-E would help someone who has an eating disorder.”). Rather, you will find a treatment study that shows CBT-E to be effective with eating disorder, summarize it, and then show how one might apply that treatment specifically to the person in the corresponding clipand discussing just how it could help them.
This section (summary of treatment study article/application of it to the case in the clip) should reach the 200-word mark per hallmark symptom (so, around 600 total between the three hallmark symptoms). Going over some is fine, if it is in the spirit of specificity and deep diving into the case at hand and not a lengthy overgeneralized explanation. (See note below on how overreliance on Generative AI/ChatGPT software – which skews toward lengthy, vague, overgeneralized commentary – will not satisfy the demands of this assignment).
Step 6: Bookend your piece with an introduction and a conclusion (each 150-200 words). Review your work prior to writing these sections as it will orient you to your thesis and take-home messages.
Your introduction will be you opening the discussion with your students, telling them what you will be showing them and why demonstrations like this are helpful for those learning about psychopathology. Tell them what you hope they will learn from reviewing the specific resources you’ve collected from them. Engage them and get them excited to dive into the clips and articles.
Your conclusion will review the take home messages you hope your students will leave with and you might end with a few conversation starters for a related discussion forum activity; questions that will get students talking about what they just watched, listened to, and learned.
Step 7: Reference section. Remember to include an APA formatted list of references used to write up this paper, including the academic journal articles and any video/audio clips you chose.
Here is a helpful outline to help you organize your approach to this assignment.
APA formatted title page
Introduction (150-200+ words)
Body of work
Link to Clip for Hallmark Symptom #1 (with time stamp) <-You can title these headings something creative!
150-200+ word play by play of what is happening in clip 1 and how it represents the hallmark symptom
200+ word peer reviewed article summary and direct application to the person in the clip 1
Link to Clip for Hallmark Symptom #2 (with time stamp)
150-200+ word play by play of what is happening in clip 2 and how it represents the hallmark symptom
200+ word peer reviewed article summary and direct application to the person in clip 2
Link to Clip for Hallmark Symptom #3 (with time stamp)
150-200+ word play by play of what is happening in clip 3 and how it represents the hallmark symptom
200+ word peer reviewed article summary and direct application to the person in clip 3
Conclusion (150-200+ words)
APA formatted reference section
