What criteria are commonly used to determine whether a person might have a psychological disorder?

Chapter 8 can be used in this discussion along with Chapter 9!

What exactly is a psychological disorder? How is a psychological disorder diagnosed? What criteria are commonly used to determine whether a person might have a psychological disorder? What are some cognitive characteristics of depressed people? Do some research to see how mental disorders are treated in other countries?

Do you personally do anything to lessen poverty in our country (e.g., donate money to a shelter or charitable organization)?

1. Do you personally do anything to lessen poverty in our country (e.g., donate money to a shelter or charitable organization)?
2. Do you personally do anything to lessen pollution (e.g., vote for “green” political representatives, support recycling in your community, make fewer trips in your car)?
3. Do you personally exercise your freedom of speech (e.g., actively participate in town meetings/protests, vote in every election for which you are eligible, write to your congressional representative)?
What does this tell us?
• The attitude and behavior surveys might have highlighted discrepancies between what you said that you believe and what you actually do. You may be feeling some level of discomfort because of this difference. This cognitive dissonance sometimes motivates us to either change our attitudes or our behaviors or both, so that they are more congruous (matching). Check for incongruities (mismatches) between your feelings, thoughts and behaviors.
• When people experience cognitive dissonance, the result is unpleasant and the motivation is to change something so that the unpleasant feelings are reduced or eliminated. There are three basic things that people can do to reduce cognitive dissonance:
• 1. Change the conflicting behavior to make it match the attitude.
• 2. Change the current conflicting cognition (thought) to justify the behavior.
• 3. Form new cognitions (thoughts) to justify the behavior.
ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: Did you experience Cognitive Dissonance during this exercise? If yes, what did you do to decrease it? Can you think of another time in your life when you experienced Cognitive Dissonance? How did you lessen it then?
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Describe how setting and landscape may illustrate criminality and obsessions within the plotline of the Winslow novel.

1.) Use the following short quote from David Vann, who is an author and writer. His words emphasize the importance of setting in literary analysis and creative writing. Apply his thoughts to the Winslow book, The Winter of Frankie Machine.

“Landscapes (setting) indirectly illustrate the interior life of the characters and further the drama.”

To complete this first question of the assignment, explain this quote and its relationship to the novel. This analysis should include how the interior life and thoughts of certain characters are present in Winslow’s text through the “mirror image” of certain settings. Then describe how setting and landscape may illustrate criminality and obsessions within the plotline of the Winslow novel. You can choose any character or setting you wish but these elements should be fully explained.

Here are a few more points, if you need them, about settings in general. They are in addition to what I have presented in my lectures.

1.) Settings-physical location, time period, social milieu, and background events. These areas help plot evolution and character development.
2.) Specificity-accurate/current or past historical details, geographical knowledge of and physical structure connected with place, time of day, sensory details.
3.) Novelty- new expressions or unusual aspects associated with geographical location and physical space.
4.) Familiarity-well known landmark, or place/city/ country making storyline more approachable cognitively and emotionally.
2.) The second part of this assignment will consist of applying a quote, taken from The Hydra Head by Carlos Fuentes to our novel. Although we have not read the Fuentes’ work directly, many concepts and thoughts within this quote are applicable to Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine. You do not have to read the Fuentes novel as this question only refers to the ideas in Fuentes’ quote.

Here is the quote:

“We sought a place where we might be masters, not slaves. But one is master of himself only when he has no slaves. We did not know how to be masters, without new slaves, so we ended up by being executioners, in order not to be victims. We found victims to escape being victims. Each of us looks at the other and sees only his own suffering in the eyes of the enemy. To reject the others’ suffering, inevitably a mirror image of our own, [leads to] our only recourse, violence… power knows itself to be temporary, [so] it is always cruel.”

Although this quote was taken from a book, we did not read this semester, it presents many ideas about the book, The Winter of Frankie Machine, which we did read over this semester. In a two- page essay like response, explain how the dynamics of domination/oppression, cruelty, killing and criminality/obsession are present in Winslow’s book.

You might try to explain how the dynamic of domination/oppression (master/slave) is present in Winslow’s text. Since this quote seems to foreground violence and victimization as an integral part of the domination and oppression relationship, you might want to mention its presence in some way in the novel. Violence and victimization many times accompany suffering and predation. These elements often surface when there is an absence of mediating structures, such as government, police, military, church, families, education, etc., or when there is complicity among them.

Which obligation should be their highest priority, the subset of men who have sex with men, their whole community, or populations outside their community?

Before you begin the discussion, prepare by reading Chapter 9 in the textbook. Read the case study located in section 9.9 of your textbook, Case 4: Internet-based HIV-AIDS Education and Prevention Programs in Vulnerable Populations: Black Men Who Have Sex with Men. View the video summarizing the issues related to ethics in public health research.

Step 1: Analyze the Ethical Dimensions of the Public Health Issue and Context
There are two public health professionals involved in decision-making in this scenario. Dr. Albert is a social scientist with strong training in conducting research. Dr. Baines is a community worker who focuses on interventions with the community.
Dr. A wants to use this opportunity as a research study that could generate new information that could be generalized to other communities.
Dr. B wants to focus their efforts on intervening in their own community rather than spending time on conduction research.
This intervention would focus on a small subset of their community population, black men who have sex with men. Conducting research would allow them to generalize their findings to a broader population, but would also mean that the subjects in the control group don’t get the intervention. Conducting this education as an intervention would mean focusing on all black men who have sex with men within their community, but the outcomes could not be published as a research study that could benefit other communities and populations.
Respond to these questions on your discussion board:
As public health professionals, do Dr. Albert and Dr. Baines have ethical obligations to other populations within their community? How about outside the community? Which obligation should be their highest priority, the subset of men who have sex with men, their whole community, or populations outside their community?
On what basis is the public health agency justified in advancing interventions that target only a subgroup of the community?
Step 2: Formulate Alternative Courses of Action and Evaluate their Ethical Dimensions
What is the appropriate public health goal in this situation? Providing an intervention that will improve the health of the members of their community, or doing research to create new knowledge that could impact many communities?
If the educational program is used as a research study, what are the possible benefits and risks to the experimental participants? What are the possible risks and benefits to the control group?
Based on your answer to the first question, is approval from an IRB necessary?
What is the justification for your decision? (Which ethical principles take priority and why?)