Perspectives in Psychology Paper

Purpose: Select a case study to explain, choosing 1 out of the 3 presented below. Next, choose 2 out of 5 psychological perspectives using each to explain (not diagnose) the behavior presented in the case study. Your paper must be at least 3-4 pages, double-spaced, in 11-12 point font. Be sure to cite all your work (author, year) for any references that you did not write.
Select and Introduce your case study, choosing 1 out of the 3 presented. The different case studies are below.
Select 2 out of the 5 presented perspectives to explain the behavior presented in your case study. Keep in mind you are EXPLAINING behavior. DO NOT diagnose the person.
Biological
Learning/Behavioral
Cognitive
Sociocultural
Psychodynamic
Present your first choice of a Psychological Perspective as an explanation for the behavior in your first choice of case study
Present your second choice of a Psychological Perspective as an explanation for the behavior in your case study
Find at least 2 scholarly peer-reviewed references. Your text may count as a reference. In addition, you may use only factual scholarly websites ending in edu or org. Do not use popular magazines like Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, or ask.com. You must use APA style (NOT MLA).
Conclude and give references for the paper. Be sure to conclude the paper tying in all of the different perspectives selected to explain the behavior. If you must diagnose, present only 1-2 lines for any possible diagnosis of the client’s behavior in the conclusion in only.
Include a reference page (The 3-4 page limit does not include a reference page).
Case Study # 1 – Jessica
Jessica is a 28-year-old married female. She has a very demanding, high-stress job as a second-year medical resident in a large hospital. Her job is very competitive, as the other residents try to “out-do” one another on a daily basis. Jessica even had another resident give her the wrong directions on how to get to a lab, so he could get there first, with the patient’s specimen.
Jessica has always been a high achiever. She graduated with top honors in both college and medical school. She has very high standards for herself and can be very self-critical when she fails to meet them. She believes that any grade lower than an ‘A’ is a complete failure. Lately, she has struggled with significant feelings of worthlessness and shame due to her inability to perform as well as she always has in the past.
For the past few weeks, Jessica has felt unusually fatigued and found it increasingly difficult to concentrate at work. Her coworkers have noticed that she is often irritable and withdrawn, which is quite different from her typically upbeat and friendly disposition. She has called in sick on several occasions, which is completely unlike her. On those days she stays in bed all day, watching TV or sleeping.
At home, Jessica’s husband has noticed changes as well. She’s shown little interest in sex and has had difficulties falling asleep at night. Her insomnia has been keeping him awake as she tosses and turns for an hour or two after they go to bed. He’s overheard her having frequent tearful phone conversations with her closest friend. When he tries to get her to open up about what’s bothering her, she pushes him away with an abrupt “everything’s fine”. Every time she pushes her husband away in her head she hears her mother saying, “You have to be a strong woman, no man wants a weak woman.”
Although she hasn’t ever considered suicide, Jessica has found herself increasingly dissatisfied with her life. She’s been having frequent thoughts of wishing she was dead. She gets frustrated with herself because she feels like she has every reason to be happy, yet can’t seem to shake the sense of doom and gloom that has been clouding each day as of late.
Case Study # 2 –Martin
Martin is a 21-year-old business major at a large university. Over the past few weeks, his family and friends have noticed increasingly bizarre behaviors. His bizarre episodes began in high school, but his parents chalked his behavior up to puberty.
On many occasions his family overheard him whispering in an agitated voice, even though there is no one nearby. Lately, he has refused to answer or make calls on his cell phone, claiming that if he does it will activate a deadly chip that was implanted in his brain by evil aliens.
His parents have tried to get him to go with them to a psychiatrist for an evaluation, but he refuses. He has accused them on several occasions of conspiring with the aliens to have him killed so they can remove his brain and put it inside one of their own. He has stopped attended classes altogether. He is now so far behind in his coursework that he will fail if something doesn’t change very soon.
Although Martin occasionally has a few beers with his friends. He has a long history of abusing marijuana, his parents have allowed this behavior because the marijuana appears to calm his behavior at times. He does, however, have an estranged aunt who has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals over the years due to erratic and bizarre behavior.
Case Study # 3 – Janet
Janet is an 18-year-old college student. She has requested counseling from her college counseling center at the urging of her friends. Janet’s family lives out of state.
Janet’s friends believe that she may have an eating disorder. Janet sees herself as fat, but to her friends, she is startlingly thin. In fact, she is so thin that they are afraid that she will become seriously ill.
Janet maintains this low weight mainly by eating practically nothing and drinking two quarts of water a day. She says that she thinks about food “all the time” when she is restricting her food intake, but that she does not want to eat because she is afraid of getting fat. When she does eat, she will run on the treadmill until all of the calories she has consumed are “burned off.”
During her evaluation intake, Janet shares with the counselor she has been restricting her food intake on occasions since middle school. She recalls her mother purchasing a dress that was a size smaller than her normal size for a friend’s party. Her mother stated the reason she purchased the dress a size smaller was, “because butter balls don’t wear pink.” Janet really wanted to wear the dress to her friend’s party. Coincidentally, Janet got the flu the next couple of days, she did not have an appetite because of the flu and she did not eat any solid foods for about 4 days. After she recovered from the flu to her surprise she was able to fit in the dress. Because of her illness, she had lost 10 pounds in 4 days. Her mother was so proud of her.
Janet noticed over the years the more weight she lost, people seemed to pay more attention to her. Janet’s dorm room is adorned with models and she constantly compared herself to these models.

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