Vignette Psychology Essay

 Jacob is a 32-year old African-American male who just returned from his 2nd tour of duty overseas.  Before he is able to begin a 3rd tour of duty, his commanding officer is mandating that he seek counseling due to what Jacob describes as “odd behaviors”.  Jacob admits that over the past few weeks, he does not feel safe, but he cannot tell you why.  He cannot leave the house without checking that all the doors are locked 3 times.  Once he feels the house is safe, he is hypervigilant about walking the property to make sure that the outside is secure and that no one is lurking in dark corners.  He does not believe that this impairs his life nor interferes with his judgment and ability to meet his daily responsibilities. He is only seeing you because he shared this with his commanding officer who is now requiring that he seek counseling.
During your intake session, Jacob discloses that he grew up in a rough neighborhood where it was not uncommon to hear gun shots and people screaming.  When he was 6-years old, he witnessed his uncle being shot to death, but cannot tell you details.  He describes his parents as very loving, trying to shield both he and his brother from life on the streets. His uncle’s death was never talked about. He does admit that he used to have flashbacks and nightmares of his uncle’s death, but that they went away.
Jacob also has experienced violence during his last tour overseas. While he denies actually seeing or participating in direct combat, he does admit to hearing gun fire and the cries of other soldiers. During this time, he admits to recurring thoughts of his uncle’s death. He is able to correlate his military experience with his childhood experience of trauma and violence. He describes his ability to compartmentalize those experiences as ‘the past’ and wants to move forward. Jacob sees the military as his family and wants to dedicate his life to his country.   He is adamant about not wanting a wife or family of his own, for fear that “what if something would happen to them and that I would not be able to protect them”.

1. Formulate a Differential Diagnosis for Jacob. Consider what comorbid disorders may exist and what additional information you may need to confirm your diagnostic impression.  Choose one provisional diagnosis for Jacob. Support your diagnostic impressions by walking thru the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria (letter by letter) for the proposed diagnosis and match each DSM-5 criterion with vignette content. (See Sample Vignette Analysis located under Resources for guidance)
2. Choose two (2) theoretical models and explain how each may conceptualize Jacob’s clinical presentation. From the perspective of each theoretical model, discuss how you would provide clinical treatment. Integrate vignette content to illuminate your treatment approach.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
• Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
• Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.