Psychology 115 Developmental Psychopathology Assignment

The guidelines presented below are intended to provide you with a comprehensive framework by which you should construct your final paper. Furthermore, these guidelines serve to indicate the criteria by which your final paper will be evaluated. Paper format: • Your final paper should be approximately 6 – 8 pages in length (double spaced). o We will stop reading after 8 pages so be clear and concise! • You are required to use 12 point Times New Roman font. • Your paper should have 1” margins. • Your final paper must also include a reference page. • You must use proper APA format (6th edition) to cite your references in the body of your paper as well as to list your references on the reference page. References: • You are required to cite SEVEN references in your paper: o ONE reference must be one of the assigned readings from class § Many students use the Sroufe article to describe how the DP perspective is useful in understanding the development of their disorder of interest. o SIX references of your choice. Note: these references must be psychological journal articles (empirical and/or theoretical) or book chapters. § Three should be used to describe how one could develop the disorder of interest. Three should be used to describe how the disorder might manifest in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Paper Objective: A primary goal for this course is that you develop a strong understanding of the major tenets of the developmental psychopathology perspective. Two of these tenets are to be used as the underlying theoretical framework for this paper. Specifically: 1). Psychological disorder (psychopathology) can be best understood by considering both multiple intraindividual characteristics as well as risk factors present in one’s environmental or social developmental context(s), and 2) psychological constructs (and disorders) manifest in different behaviors across the lifespan (e.g., coherence). Given this framework, your objective for writing this paper is as follows: 1. Identify a psychological disorder that is particularly fascinating to you. 2. Describe how the developmental psychopathology perspective would allow you to explain how it is that a person could develop this disorder in light of the research you have selected to incorporate in this paper. 3. Describe how the psychological disorder (or the psychological construct) might manifest in different behaviors (or symptoms) at three different stages in development (i.e., childhood; adolescence; and adulthood). Page 2 of 2 Paper Content Specifics (please read carefully): In the first 1-2 paragraphs of your paper, you need to do the following: 1. Name the psychological disorder that is of interest to you and why research on this disorder is particularly important (e.g., what are the personal, familial, economic and/or societal “costs” of this disorder). Rely on your selected readings to help you formulate this argument and cite these references; do not use opinion or anecdote. In the second 1-2 paragraphs of your paper, you need to do the following: 2. Explain how the DP perspective is particularly useful for examining the specific psychopathology you have chosen to write about. Use the basic tenets of DP to guide you. This does not have to be a lengthy section; just make it clear that you understand ways in which the DP perspective is preferred over the medical model (or the DSM-V approach) with regards to the ontogenesis of your disorder of interest. In the next 2-3 pages, you need to do the following: 3. Use at least 3 research articles you have selected to describe how one could potentially develop the psychological disorder you have chosen to focus upon in this paper. Specifically, use the references you are citing to develop a strong argument for at least three different factors (e.g., characteristics of the person (psychological or biological); family factors; community factors, and/or macro-social factors that could help to elucidate the processes whereby one develops a psychological disorder. Use one reference for each factor. The key here is that you describe at least three differing perspectives that each shed light upon how a person could develop this specific disorder. In the last 2-3 pages, you need to do the following: 4. Use at least 3 research articles you have selected to describe how the psychological disorder might manifest in different behaviors (or symptoms) at three different stages in development – specifically in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. If research aimed at explicating age-related patterns in symptomatology is limited or non-existent, then you need to explain that. But, you’re not off the hook! If this information is not provided, you need to provide reasonable speculations (based on empirical literature regarding normative developmental milestones) about how it is that this disorder might manifest across the 3 age ranges. Finally, you must include a reference page. 5. Your reference page should be in proper APA format. Note: If it helps, you may use sub-headers in your paper to indicate each required section.