In this 1500-word essay, you will apply what you have learned to this point to a fictional case study that you will be creating. You will be leveraging your knowledge about clinical training, clinical assessment, interviewing, multicultural and ethical issues, psych testing, etc.
This case study that you create here will follow you into your Unit 7 assignment, but more on that later!
The instructions below may look like a lot, but you will quickly find much of it is explanation. The steps of your work are carefully laid out and the guiding outline provided will help scaffold your thoughts so you can plan your approach.
For this assignment, you will
not be playing the role of clinician – we are not planning an assessment, making any diagnoses, or coming up with a treatment plan. Those of you interested in graduate school will get formal and professional training in doing that level of work then. Here, in PSYC436, we are using the case study approach to demonstrate your grasp on foundational concepts.
Note: After reading the following instructions, you might view this
Example Paper,
which shows what is meant by detail, example, specificity, and resonance (all required to score well on this assignment)
Step 1: Develop a Fictional Case
Rather than present all learners with the same case (which may or may not resonate with your specific interests), for this project you will create your own fictional character.
If you’ve taken PSYC 353: Psychopathology and Mental Health, you may feel comfortable presenting a case that depicts a specific mental disorder. You are encouraged to leverage that knowledge when writing this case, but presenting a case on a specific mental illness is not required.
Instead, you can present a situation where a person is dealing with a life change (i.e., job loss, death, new baby, marriage/divorce, empty nest, the list goes on). Clinical psychologists are trained, able to, and primed to help anyone in need – so the symptoms and the situation here don’t matter as much as the fact that the person needs psychological help. We are not diagnosing anyone with anything, just describing their story.
· Your fictional person will have a fictional name.
· Provide some basic demographic information (i.e., age, cultural background, gender identity, maybe where they live if that is relevant).
· Include some backstory/background information to provide context.
· Conclude with a description of your fictional person’s current psychological struggle – the issues for which they are considering psychological services.
Here is an example – you can use this to inspire and scaffold your own, but do not use this case. Assignments carry more meaning when you write from the point of view of something you’ve created. This one is just under 250 words. Yours should be no shorter than 200 and no longer than 300.
Ellie is a 32-year-old young Caucasian woman who recently gave birth to her second child (a son). She and her husband and been happily married for 7 years; their first daughter is 3. Prior to this most recent birth, Ellie worked as a paralegal in Indianapolis’ top law firm, but she’s decided to take some time off and stay home with their children until they are both off to kindergarten.
Lately, Ellie will spontaneously start crying over what she considers “small things,” and she’s constantly frightened that something bad will happen to one of her children (she triple-checks their car seat buckles when they go out, convinced her children will get hurt in some inevitable car crash). She’s sad and tired a lot. She does experience moments of joy when nursing her baby and when her extroverted daughter does something silly, but the sleepless nights and constant fretting over her children’s safety is taking a toll. Most of Ellie’s friends are “work friends” and she misses them. Was leaving work the right decision?
Ellie and her supportive husband saw a pre-marital counselor years ago and she remembers this as a helpful, good experience. That different perspective the psychologist provided was helpful in getting out of their own heads, so to speak. She wonders if going back to something like that might help her. She’d like to have more of those moments of joy and fewer moments of self-doubt, exhaustion, and worry.
Whoever your “Ellie” is will join you in your Unit 7 Assignment. So, spend some time with this. You are not required to give a full case history – as you’ll soon find out, this case will be fleshed out more over the two assignments. Here, the goal is enjoying the process of creating a 2-3 short paragraph eagle-eye view of the situation.
Do not AI-generate this (see statement on use of Generative AI technologies below).
Part of this learning experience is for you to immerse yourself in a situation you create.
Step 2: Seeking Help
Your person has decided they need help. While they could seek help in a variety of ways (i.e., from a licensed clinical social worker, a pastoral counselor, a masters-level therapist, etc.), because we are here in PSYC436, your person will expressly be seeking help from a clinical psychologist.
Your person (or their parents, in the case of a child/adolescent client) has a bit of legwork to do first. Taking on the narrator’s role, walk us through your person’s thought and research process by answering the following questions. This should be done in a narrative, storytelling form, not in question-and-answer form. What you learned in Hecker and Thorpe’s (2016) Chapter 1 regarding clinical training will guide you here.
· Why did your fictional person choose to see a clinical psychologist rather than another helping professional? Be specific to them (this person), not general. You’ll want to pinpoint specific elements of your fictional person’s story and perspective here.
· Your fictional person hops onto the internet to search for local clinicians. As they scroll…(narrate):
·
· What are they looking for?
·
· What qualities is your person wanting in their helper? What specific sociocultural factors are they concerned about that are guiding their selections? (i.e., maybe your person is a first generation child of immigrants and is seeking a clinician who views them in this proper context).
·
· What are they looking for in terms of training? Degree? Clinical experiences/internships/practicums they’ve had?
·
· Why are those things important to your fictional person?
Again,
specificity is important here, avoiding generalities. In the Unit 2 Quiz you were quizzed on what you generally know about clinical training. Here we want to apply all you know about who clinical psychologists are, how they are trained, and what their background looks like.
End with a choice – what is the (fictionalized) name of the clinician your person has selected and describe what it was about that psychologist’s professional background that led to that decision. Describe how your fictional person feels upon making this decision.
Step 3: The Interview
Your fictional person did it! They made an appointment. This is an accomplishment in itself. The therapeutic process really starts here. Even before they meet their professional helper! And today is the day of that appointment, which is the clinical interview.
Your fictional person arrives at their clinical psychologist’s office – where are they? Maybe they are at home, in front of their computer, doing a telehealth session. Maybe they are about to walk into a hospital where there are clinical psychology offices. Maybe the location is a cute office space inside of a house zoned for commercial use. Paint the scene for your reader.
The clinician opens the door to greet your person. What is the first thing they say? It is okay for you to offer some dialogue here as the storyteller. You won’t have to do a screenplay-esque scene here, but you-as-storyteller will want to expand upon the following points – which may or may not include dialogue between your person and their clinician.
You’ll be referencing our Unit 2 Overview and the Jenkins (2007) chapter (located in your Learning Resources) to help you here. If your fictional person is a child, you’ll also want to look at Hecker and Thorpe (2016) Chapter 6 in the supplemental/recommended reading section of your Learning Resources.
What type of interview is this? What kinds of questions is the clinician asking? How is this client replying or reacting to these questions? What were the reasons behind the clinician’s choice to use this approach?
What techniques is the clinician using to establish rapport? To get the answers they need? What behavioral observations are they making that inform their clinical impressions? Walk your reader through the stages of the interview (using pages 13-19 in your Jenkins (2007) reading to help – from “first contact” to the “end phase”).
Remember, this is an interview that is happening between your fictional person and your fictional psychologist – be
specific. Ground your knowledge of the structure, purpose, and cadence of the clinical interview in this world you have created.
Being specific means making sure to bring in specific techniques that are referenced in your reading to demonstrate your command of them (i.e., empathy, paraphrasing, and summarizing as well as open, focusing, and clarifying questions). Show your understanding of maintaining cadence and tempo, etc.
Another nod here – if your person is a child, you will want to reference Hecker and Thorpe (2016) in the supplemental/recommended reading section of your learning resources.
What cultural issues are at play here in your case? How is the therapist demonstrating cultural competence? Show that you understand your Unit 2 Readings (especially the Lu et al.’s [2024] piece).
How does the interview end? As storyteller, tell us how your fictional person feels and what they think as they are leaving the meeting. Are they happy with how it went? Frustrated? Draw on your own empathy for how this person might be feeling right now and discuss it a bit. Your fictionalized clinician does mention that the next session will include some psychological testing. What does your person think/feel about that?
Step 4: Psychological Testing
Your fictional person has arrived for their second session! Now, it is time for the clinician to home in on the presenting problem through psychological testing.
· The clinician starts the session by explaining the purpose of psychological testing. You, as storyteller, walk us through what they say – here, you are demonstrating your synthesis of what you learned in Chapters 5 & 7 of your Hecker & Thorpe text.
· After that explanation, the clinician asks your person, “Do you have any questions?” Yes! They do! What are those questions and how does the clinician answer them? Your person can be curious about many things, like what kinds of tests they will be given, what standardization means, what exactly the tests are meant to measure? It seems like your they might be a psychology student, too, because they ask pointed questions like “How do we know if a test is valid or reliable? Why are personality questionnaires so long? How will all this information be used?”
· The clinician you’ve created is an ethical one, and this is noted in how they conduct psychological testing. Here, you-as-storyteller, give us some insights along these lines. Use what you have learned from Section 9 of the APA Ethics Code to paint a picture of your psychologist’s ethical approach.
· Your fictional person seems to be more at ease now and is ready to begin. You-as-narrator explain at least three (3) specific psychological tests (not just the general categories of tests) the clinician has chosen and examples/explanations of what those are like for your person and what use they will be (you can review the links on Page 2 of your Unit 3 Learning Resources: Psychological Testing – Cognitive, Personality, and Symptoms for ideas and guidance here).
·
· These specific test selections must be relevant and directly tied to this client’s case (not just discussed in generalities). You will want to vary this a bit (i.e., don’t choose three personality questionnaires, for example…those would roughly yield the same information and you are looking to explore more avenues).
·
· You may not be 100% accurate as far as what a trained clinical psychologist would choose – but you should know enough about why certain tests are given to make some educated guesses.
· Briefly, you-as-storyteller, describe how your fictional person feels when testing is complete.
Step 5: Conclusion
You-as-narrator will end your piece by describing how the fictional person you created is feeling and what they are thinking now that the assessment phase is finished. This conclusion will serve as a segue into your Unit 7 Assignment by describing your person’s expectations for treatment…which is the focus on Unit 7’s essay!
Reminders
This is a learning moment – you are a student of psychology, not a trained licensed clinical psychologist. So, you might not choose the ideal interview approach a psychologist would. You might not have specialized insight into the subtleties of multicultural assessment or the nuances of the ethics of psychological testing. You might not choose “the” best psych tests for this client’s presentation.
What matters here is that you make educated guesses that reflect your solid and synthesized understanding of what we have covered in this introductory course.
Here is another nod to this assignment’s focus on
application. You will be giving definitions, explaining things, demonstrating knowledge but all in context of this fictional case you’ve created. You are not reporting what you have read in this assignment, you are showing how you can apply it to a situation; not as a trained clinical psychologist, but as someone who has just completed three units of PSYC 436 and knows a thing or two about clinical assessment!
Because you are being asked specifically to demonstrate your command over our specific learning resources through the lens of a case you yourself have created, Generative AI tools will not aid you in this assignment.
See Generative AI statement below for more details.
Proposed Outline
You can use the subject headings suggested below or create your own.
I. Case Presentation
· Your 200-300 description of your fictional clinical case
(Step 1)
II. Seeking Help
· Thorough 250+ word exploration of
Step 2
III. The Interview
· Thorough 450+ word exploration of
Step 3
IV. Psych Testing
· Thorough 450+ word exploration of
Step 4
V. Conclusion
· Your 150+ conclusion that segues into your Unit 7 piece (focusing on therapy)
Paper Writing Guidelines
· Paper should meet the 1,500-word mark, not to surpass 2,000 words (title page and references do not count toward the length requirement).
· Paper should be written in
APA 7 style; this includes title page and document formatting (1-inch margins, double-spaced, 12-point font, etc.) as well as properly formatted
in-text citations and reference page. An abstract is not required.
· This paper will have in-text citations throughout, since you will be referencing your learning resources, including Section 9 of the APA Ethics Code. So, you will have at least 4 resources, cited in the text properly in APA format as well as a full references page to close your piece.
· Apply sound writing mechanics: write with clarity and pay attention to spelling/grammar. Consider reading your paper out loud or having a friend, family member, or dictation software read it back to you for a different perspective.
· Review this
Example
Paper
as your guide for how this will ultimately come together in the end. The story you present will be significantly different and take you in different directions, but example shows you what a paper like this “looks like” and what is meant by detail, example, specificity, and resonance (all required to score well on this assignment).
· Do not rely on Generative AI (ChatGPT) as a content generator. Its output does not satisfy the requirements of this assignment (i.e., needing to hear your authentic voice and application of our course concepts in order to gauge your personal progress toward course learning goals. See more on this below. Hyper-general and tell-ridden content does not score well on the assignment’s rubric.
· Use subject headings to visually organize your paper for you and your reader. These can correspond with the outline above.
· Submit completed document by assigned due date.
Use of ChatGPT/Generative AI
Generative AI programs like ChatGPT can produce content that, on the surface, might look “like” a good effort on this assignment. However, because this assignment requires you to write creatively (and demonstrate this ability through your authentically created case study) as well as synthesize and apply your understanding of our first three units of learning resources specifically, AI databanks do not have the insights necessary to provide the attention to nuance, critical thinking, and authenticity needed to do well on this assignment.
We are also going for very concrete, specific examples here and AI is
infamous for offering vague connections and overgeneralized commentary. This does not reach the level of specificity, creative/critical thinking, and genuineness we are looking for here (it also does not produce good writing – using overly flowery, expansive, over-used language [i.e., “AI-tells”] so characteristic of its algorithm).
So, in this instance, over-reliance on AI generative tools will not satisfy this assignment. AI simply doesn’t do a good job with it; its output has been examined and it is of low quality. This is indicated in the grading rubric.
You could potentially use ChatGPT and other generative AI software to ask a pointed question (i.e., “What’s a synonym for ‘depression’?”) or to offer feedback on your finished product (thus practicing using AI for your process but not your product. Process NOT product).
Your writing is your thinking and that’s what your instructor needs to see.
Your writing must speak from the point of view of the scholar of psychology that you are and bring in points that authentically represent your synthesis and evaluation skills. In other words, the written, submitted text must be exclusively your own.
If you need help getting started with this assignment or have any questions, please reach out to your instructor in the Ask the Professor thread in class. This can provide you (and other students reading it!) the clarity you need to get around any obstacles you might encounter! Your performance on this assignment is not hugely contingent on how perfectly you write (notice grammar/mechanics aren’t weighed heavily), but rather on the depth of your exploration and the authentic effort you make and engaging in this learning moment.
