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Forum 2 Week 2
Classmate Responses
Response 1: Chynar Ashirmyradova
I strongly agree with your point of view that Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) intends at creating profound understanding of clinicians and psychologists about mental health issues, making fine distinction between various disorders i.e., personality, mood, psychosis and intellectual disability, and guiding the therapeutic interventions accordingly. With all this convenience, DSM carries central place in the professional lives of mental health professionals because they make important diagnostic, prognostic and treatment decisions on the basis of its classification system. Other point that you raise that DSM is satisfactorily not credible is quite true as well; it can rightfully be said so because some criteria for mental disorders were completely accepted even in the presence of insufficient research material. Some disorders can only be diagnosed with sufficient 2-months or 6-months period and surprisingly, symptoms were completely disregarded if it happened prior to a 2 or 6 month period.For example, diagnostic criteria for depression requires 2 month duration and treatment are only valued after 2 months but what about the maladjustment and misery that client suffered during these two months? His symptoms clearly show depression but he cannot be diagnosed, so just because he has to complete 2 months; this point does not make any sense in my perspective too. Your point is quite compelling. Can someone answer; why do DSM developers put 2-month, 6-months criteria for disorders?
Response 2: Tami Sloan
It was another interesting answer; I specifically favor this phrase of yours: “there is categorical diagnosis where you either have a disorder or you don’t and it does not give leeway to environmental stressors” because DSM is like a black-white publication that neglects various significant shades of grey possessed by the individuals who embrace predisposed or environmental factors distinctively and uniquely including their mental disorders too. For example, some people might feel sad with insomnia even for one week; some might feel sad without insomnia and other symptoms throughout the year, some might feel sad every other day but depression can only be diagnosed when their symptoms (sadness and other associated symptoms) complete two months period but what if they have only few of these symptoms i.e., only sadness, only sadness and insomnia and only sadness without eating disturbances and suicide ideation? Would they be left undiagnosed? These points require authors of DSM to look at such problems more profoundly because mental health issues are not mere mathematical problem that can successfully be addressed in discrete categories. For that matter, DSM authors are working hard to put its next edition in the market which will hopefully attempt to address and minimize these draw backs.
Response 3: Brent Fleetwood
Dear fellow! you propounded the most unique notion about theclassification of DSM that it depends on our personal perspective that how we perceive the classification of mental health disorders i.e., a person who belongs to biological school of thought would perceive this manual differently as compared to the one who favors psychoanalytical approach. Likewise, individuals with genetic, behavioral, cognitive and social perspectives will have different viewpoints on its classification. Moreover, psychology students would view this manual differently from mental health professionals because their understanding and approach towards mental health issues is different. Hence, DSM authors cannot please all the stakeholders at the same time so it is a bit inconvenient for them to address the concerns of all. Another reality is that Darwin’s theory of individual differences must be kept in view because thinking patterns and behaviors of individuals, even identical twins follow holistically distinctive patterns; it is quite hard to make universal classification on the basis of variety of behavioral approaches as behavior is strongly affected by cultural and environmental factors which are completely different from each other’s. Hence, DSM must follow an all- inclusive approach which explains and incorporates the behaviors of individuals belonging to all cultures.
Week 2 Quiz 600 words submitted on portal
Current Event Paper 1
I was scrolling news articles and instantly an event that grabbed my attention as a student of abnormal psychology was a news headline: “HBO to add mental health alerts before some programs including The Sopranos and Euphoria” published in culture section of the Independent Section news agency. I found this article interesting because it was related to mental health and demonstrated that many media masterpieces might trigger mental health concerns in the viewers.
Full description of this event
Realizing the importance of media in learning, HBO on Thursday, announced that it must highlight mental health issues and prospective triggers and increase awareness about such issues through introducing characters that acquire and struggle hard to undermine their depressive, substance abuse and obsessive- compulsive symptoms (Harris, 2019). It emphasized the behaviorist nature of mental health issues that one can develop immunity or coping against such redundant elements of psychological health by watching role models on television.
This initiative was named as its okay and it was further stated that alerts and trigger warnings will be mentioned prior to on-airing the episodes if they contained any models having mental health issues for example one example of alter was, “this following program may contain depression” such alerts will not only be added in the new series but also to existing mental series including “Euphoria,”The Sopranos” and “Barry”(Harris, 2019). In the end, any viewer who feels like requiring help will be encouraged to contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness for further assistance at the end of episodes. The Voice President of HBO stated it clearly that these triggers are only invitations, not warnings for the audience. He further stated that we would not say that viewer’s discretion is advised rather the need of the hour is to say “viewer’s conversion is advised.”
Besides this initiative, Dr. Ali—a mental health professional and clinical psychologist—will discuss prospective scenes focused on psychopathological content in the series including their historical background, possible etiologies, adversities and treatment options in a thread of videos named “Doctor Commentaries” broadcasted by HBO network (Harris, 2019). First video of this thread was released this Thursday that explored the character of Hannah Horvath in a series “Girls” having obsessive compulsive disorder. Although other TV shows, for example, a Netflix series named “the Politicians” have also added advisories about devastating political issues but it is all about a warning that viewers may or may not watch it—it is less guiding this way.
In the same way, another Netflix series named “13 Reasons Why” have also added warning notice for viewers including “abuse and suicide” after a research paper was released in 2017 by the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry which claimed that in the month of April, the suicide rate among boys jumped to 10-17 after this series was aired in 2017 (Harris, 2019). The suicide scene was removed in July 2017 in response to criticism and appeal from mental health professionals. In a nutshell, it can be concluded that media plays mandatory role in the lives of viewers either directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously which can be explained by the “priming” theory of media psychology.
The Text book concept
Cognitive and behavioral perspectives in relation to abnormal behavior and wellbeing
In the textbook, I studied that human beings are social animals that observe each other and learn new things. These observed attributes are first used for changing already existent mental schemas and associated behaviors at micro level; massive alterations at macro level also happen when individuals observe each other and acquire certain cognitive patterns and behaviors collectively. Like other learned entities, mental illness and wellbeing is a learned phenomenon too. I would hereby mention and explain cognitive-behaviorist approach in which we learn new ways of thinking and behaviors on the basis of experiences that we gain from our daily life experiences. There are two ways to learn behaviors through our experiences; classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning says that people learn new behaviors through making associations between two neutral stimuli. Eventually, we start associating neutral and other unconditioned stimuli and learn new set of benchmarks for committing certain behaviors. According to this view, we learn many abnormal behaviors through associating neutral stimuli with the unconditional stimuli.For example, we develop phobias when negative feelings are erroneously conditioned with the neutral objects such as crowd, people, places, water, blood, height, events and animals (Maddux & Winstead, 2016). On the other hand, operant conditioning is inspected when individuals learn on the basis of consequences of their own and others’ behaviors. If something positive is done by us and we receive positive reactions, we are more likely to commit certain behaviors again and again. On the other hand, an individual is less likely to eliminate certain behaviors if he is subjected to negative experiences. Operant conditioning explains the interplay between reinforcement and punishment. Munchausen’s Syndrome can be explained using this type of conditioning for example when mother hurts her child and gains sympathy and attention which is positive reinforcement for the mother (Maddux & Winstead, 2016). With the passing time, she becomes more likely to hurt her child and gain positive outcomes. Another explanation of abnormal behavior is Social Learning Theory; when we see someone committing abnormal action and getting rewarded; we are more likely to acquire such behaviors or strengthen such already existent behaviors. For example, girls might observe their models and try to be the same in figure because they receive immense applause and fandom from common people. In order to gain similar desirability, they develop abnormal eating condition called anorexia nervosa (Maddux & Winstead, 2016). This is how cognitive-behavioral perspectives suggest the acquisition of abnormal behavior.
Integration and synthesis of the textbook concept with the selected current event
The above stated section attempted to explain the selected current event and i.e., HBO’s attempt to mention mental health notes and alerts at the start of each episode and instructional videos regarding mental health issuesdemonstrated in the scenes, their background, etiologies, risk factors, prevalence and treatment options. Besides this, the next section encapsulated text book concepts of my choice; cognitive and behavioral perspective regarding abnormal behavior. After deliberate analysis, in this particular section, it will be explained how HBO’s attempt is linked to the cognitive-behavioral perspective.
The HBO network decided to broadcast informational videos regarding mental health awareness in which Dr. Ali—a Subject Matter Expert and Clinical Psychologist—will provide individuals with the essential information regarding mental health issues depicted in the scenes including how do we develop these issues with the passage of time, what might be the potential risk factors for these, how can we overcome such issues and what self- help and professional interventions might help us leading a normal and happier life. The basic rationale behind this attempt falls under the conceptualization of social learning theory. For instance, as mentioned earlier, a teenager boy suffering from depression who watched “13 Reasons Why” developed strong identification for the characters of series because of their age, physical attractiveness, appealing dialogues, similar problems and emotional congruence. With the passing time, he observes these characters are starts acquiring the same behaviors because he them due to some common personal and environmental attributes. A favorite character of series suffering from depression fails to survive the traumatic life experiences i.e., physical abuse, rape and bullying and finding all the efforts to survive futile; he commits suicide. Now, the teenager boy will figure his life circumstances and a spell of uncertainty and hopelessness coupled with “how his favorite character coped depression” will provide him a fine solution for his problems; suicide. He will pay attention to those characters, develop congruence, commit same actions and will ultimately attempt suicide because this was what his model did in similar situation. This is the point where Social Learning Theory of Bandura finds it application and requires mental health professionals to take strict notice of what individuals are taught on the media. HBO’s director realized the urgency of media models and attempted to minimize the ongoing spell of suicide and homicide promotion that is worth appreciation. Besides this, the concept of operant conditioning can also be applied here; a teenager watching his favorite super hero, performing heroic actions disregarding the right and wrong and breaking the laws; will definitely develop the feelings of grandiose. He would think that he can do well for the society even if he breaks the laws because laws are just man- made conventions established to ensure their wellbeing and it is alright if one breaks them for the sake of common wellbeing. He would try to commit certain actions in the real world, if he acquires positive outcomes i.e., he is praised by his fellows or certain section of society; the likelihood of committing certain act will become twofold. Hence, series full of superhero content might influence the audience negatively through developing grandiose and law-breaking tendencies. Based on these principles, we can conclude that HBO’s attempt is quite satisfactory because the impact of media characters on the viewers particularly teenagers is quite well documented.
References
Maddux, J. E., & Winstead, B. A. (2016). Psychopathology: Foundations for a contemporary understanding.4th ed.New York: Routledge.
Harris, A. E. (2019). HBO to add mental health alerts before some programmes including The Sopranos and Euphoria. Independent.co.UK. retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hbo-mental-health-alerts-depression-ocd-the-sopranos-barry-euphoria-a9153051.html
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