By the end of Week 7, students will submit a document detailing their conceptualization of a clinically-based case, using information from the course text and the scholarly literature, and following the guidelines below.
Students will report on relevant aspects of the case history and will apply key concepts from course material, the course textbook, and the scholarly literature to the case in order to formulate a diagnosis, a working theory of causal factors, treatment recommendations, and a likely prognosis. Students will choose from among case studies provided.

Students will have worked on this assignment in three stages:  In Week 1, the case was selected and a topic area from the scholarly literature was identified.  In Week 3, an Annotated Bibliography of the scholarly articles was submitted.  In Week 7, the final paper is due.
In addition, as different aspects of psychopathology are covered in class readings and discussions each week, students should be thinking about how those aspects relate to the case they are analyzing. By using this step-wise approach, students will experience two benefits: course content will be more relevant as there will be a specific case against which to apply it and the writing of the analysis will be easier overall.

Students will write a thoughtful 8-10 page narrative report, following APA formatting guidelines, integrating the scholarly literature and information from the class text while addressing the main content areas described below.

RELEVANT HISTORY and PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: Are there any relevant aspects of the client’s history or the client’s characteristics, as reported in the Case Study, which might be relevant to understanding his or her current circumstances? How might you address those? If none are directly mentioned, what aspects would you want to inquire about or assess?

ASSESSMENT