Abnormal psychology Case vignette

The purpose of this assignment is to have you examine a case vignette, identify symptoms associated with a wide variety of mental health disorders, defend the presence/non-presence of relevant disorders (to the vignette), and come to an informed decision regarding the diagnosis best suited given the information provided in the vignette. This is an empirically validated approach to diagnostic decision-making and one that most clinicians use in everyday practice. The overall benefit of having you complete this assignment is to generate some exposure to the complexities psychologists encounter in their applied practice. Remember, diagnostic decision making processes are not about finding the “right” mental health condition, but about identifying the most defensible mental health conditions. Procedure Below I will provide you with a case vignette to evaluate in terms of diagnostic impressions. I want you to deconstruct the vignette from a scientifically valid approach. I am going to ask you to follow an in-depth approach to the diagnostic process. In this exercise, I want you to read the vignette and complete the following tasks: Identify a COMPREHENSIVE list of symptoms that may be helpful in determining a diagnosis. This should include all symptoms and signs endorsed within the vignette. Discuss how the the symptoms identified meet the five criteria for abnormality (the 3 D’s). Make sure you provide enough evidence to clearly defend how symptoms are dysfunctional, distressful, and deviant. Categorize your symptoms by AT LEAST 3 categories that will help you evaluate potential diagnoses. You may create the labels that you place symptoms under. EXAMPLES OF CATEGORIES: physical symptoms, anxious symptoms, depressive symptoms, mood-based symptoms, psychotic-based symptoms, social symptoms, academic-related symptoms, etc. Next, you are to choose three diagnoses that you want to consider in the diagnostic process. You must evaluate at least three disorders. For each disorder you evaluate, you must consider converging evidence (evidence that confirms the presence of a specific disorder) and diverging evidence (evidence that disconfirms the presence of a specific disorder) based on the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for the disorder. You will need to reference the notes and the textbook to determine the specific criteria for the diagnoses you are considering. You want to match the symptoms to the criteria — a checking off process. If you have enough symptoms to meet a specific criterion for a disorder — you want to note that criterion A (for example) is met because of the presence of two more psychotic symptoms (for example). Clearly defend how each criteria for a diagnosis is met or not met. Construct a confidence assessment based on your defense process. Here I want you to rate (from 1 to 10 with 10 being a score reflective of great confidence) how confident you are in terms of the diagnosis being present within the case vignette. Do this for each disorder you consider. I want you to chose one (or more) diagnosis(es) that you feel best characterizes that symptoms present in the vignette. You may need to consider some specifiers if we reviewed them in the notes. After making your selection, I want you to write up a small summary that defends your conclusions.