Week 3 Case Study: Bianca and Juan Week 3 Case: Bianca and Juan (W3LO 3) This assignment focuses on vignette analysis and direct application of course concepts to the persons and situations presented in the vignette for each question. All discussions must take into account the legal and ethical considerations, as well as issues of culture and human diversity that may pertain to the situation presented below.  Cultural information is in both the course text and DSM 5. You may use alternative cultural resources to enhance your work. You are also encouraged to familiarize yourself with and apply the laws and ethics of mental health professionals in your state or country. Use the reading assignments thoroughly in an integrative discussion. Remember to reference all work cited or quoted by the text author. You should be doing this often in your responses You are encouraged to use the DSM-5 Level I Assessment Measures which can be found in your DSM-5 book or visiting the following website: https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/... Please keep your responses focused on what is presented in the vignette. Do not add information but use your creativity to support what you see in the vignette as written.  Avoid elaborations and assumptions. This assignment MUST be typed, double-spaced, in APA style, and must be written at graduate-level English. Case: Juan and Bianca are a middle-aged couple of Latino descent. The couple has two children, both away at college. Juan and Bianca were referred by their priest for counseling, due to Bianca’s history of depression and suicidal ideation. Bianca tells you, “life has always been a struggle for me. I was raised by my grandmother who tried to protect me, but I was molested many times as a little girl. I’ve often wanted to end my life, but my religious beliefs don’t allow me to”.  Bianca does report periods of joy and happiness in her life, especially regarding her children. She admits that during the last 5 years, she has had a few periods where she has actually felt euphoric, energized and elated with life. These times are brief and infrequent and, “I return to that suffocating place of despair.” She describes her husband as, “a good man. I don’t know why he has stayed with me all these years.”  Juan is very supportive of his wife, but his worry about her has resulted in exhaustion, missing work and obsessively checking that all the kitchen knives are accounted for. He tells you that, “sometimes Bianca cries out in her sleep and I don’t know how to help her.  I worry that she will do something to end her life during one of these night terrors. Even though she’s never tried, what if it happens and I’m not able to stop her.” Directions: Consider Mood, Anxiety, OCD, and Trauma Related Disorders 1.  Taking into account the genetic, neurobiological, sociocultural, familial and environmental factors of assessment and diagnosis, what are your diagnostic thoughts for Bianca? What about Juan? Use the DSM-5 criteria to formulate your diagnostic impressions for Bianca and Juan, supporting what you see in the vignette that supports your diagnostic impressions. 2.  Using the psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions discussed in the text, describe an initial treatment plan for Bianca and Juan. Remember to treat the persons in the vignette, and not the diagnosis. Also remember to consider culture and legal/ethical issues. 3.  Given the diagnosis you have made, describe your medication treatment strategies. Discuss not only initial choices of medications but also your next-step strategy and why you’ve chosen it. (In doing so, be sure to provide a rationale for your choices.) What questions should be addressed about the class of medications that is chosen (e.g., mood stabilizers)?

In need of a 250 word response/discussion to each of the following forum posts. Agreement/disagreement/and/or continuing the discussion.Original forum discussion/topic post is as follows:a. What are three key "take-a-ways" you will take with you from completing the course Integrative Project Literature Review and how do you think working through the review will benefit you in the future?b. Thinking aback across the courses you completed for this degree…How do you see them as contributing to your knowledge of the larger field of psychology?Which course did you find the most interesting?Which course did you find the most challenging and why?Which course did you find the easiest and why?Which instructor behaviors (the person’s actions not his/her name) did you find most helpful and why?Which instructor behaviors did you find the least helpful and why?If you could change one thing about the degree, excluding being able to be face-to-face in a physical classroom which isn’t an option for a fully online university, what would it be? c. Where do you plan to go from here (pursuit of advance-level studies such as a doctorate or additional applied master’s level degree such as a Masters in Mental Health Counseling [MHC]; seeking pay and responsibilities advancement in an existing career; using what you learned for personal life enhancement...or...? [Note: These don’t have to be mutually exclusive]) and what will you do as first steps to initiate that plan?Forum post response #1First off, this course had been great, and I would like to say farewell and good luck to each of you as we wrap up this final week. I would also like to apologize for the length of the post, but Dr. Curtin said the university values feedback, so I chose to be real and sometimes blunt, and I needed a lot of space to do that. I put a lot of time into writing this as I waited for my final draft to be graded this week. a. What are three key "take-a-ways" you will take with you from completing the course Integrative Project Literature Review and how do you think working through the review will benefit you in the future?Take away 1:Completing this course has taught me to recognize things in my writing that I was never aware of before: anthropomorphisms, using active voice, writing more concisely, etc. These things are going to be incredibly beneficial when I complete the writing portion of the GRE. I wish my professors had pointed these issues out to me in the beginning of the program so I could have worked on them in each course paper I wrote. Take away 2:This course has been beneficial for developing effective time management strategies. I had intended to arrive to the course with all my articles pre-selected and if I had it surely would have been a smoother process. However, since I did not, I was fearful that eight weeks was not enough time for this project. I still do not believe it is and I am glad this has been changed for other students so that they will have more time. Due to this fear, I created a calendar on the first day of class scheduling what I needed to complete each day to meet all the deadlines. This strategy will help me over the next few months with all the tasks I have ahead of me. I am going to apply this same strategy to GRE preparation, doctoral applications, and the job application process. Take away 3:By completing a few weeks of research into my chosen topic, I realized how much time I need to review the literature on a given topic of interest. Its more than three-four weeks! I know that I did not read all the literature on my topic and areas where I think there are gaps may have multiple studies completed that I didn’t dig deep enough into. Through this process I have learned that I should have spent the five weeks I had free between courses researching as I had originally intended. I will not make that same mistake again in my doctoral studies. If I have time, I will use it. b. Thinking aback across the courses you completed for this degree…How do you see them as contributing to your knowledge of the larger field of psychology?The things that stand out as most important were the earlier assignments like “what does a psychologist do” where we examined what distinct types of psychologist do. For example, I had never read anything about gerontology before then and it is important to be aware of these specialty fields. This also offered an opportunity to see the growth opportunities within various sub-fields. The things I enjoyed the most and feel that I benefited the most from were these assignments that happened behind the broader stuff. The things we did in the background of the courses were the best learning opportunities for me since most of the courses covered content identical to undergrad. I enjoyed writing the Mock IRB. I would have enjoyed this assignment even more if we had been able to write it for one of the studies that we designed in research methods rather than on a seminal study. I learned a lot about multicultural issues in psychology in this program. In fact, I believe that may be the largest thing I take away from this program. I studied many things about race and gender before this program, but I did not have any prior knowledge regarding culturally competent counseling. I enjoyed the assignment within our Ethics course where I learned about the local tribe here in Arizona in the thought experiment that I accepted a job on a reservation. Which course did you find the most interesting?I found Contemporary Issues in Psychology the most interesting because it provided information that I had not previously studied throughout the course, making it more engaging that many of the other courses. The wide topics within Media Psychology were interesting and thought provoking. For example, learning about “technoference” made me put my phone and laptop away more often while in my partner’s presence. Which course did you find the most challenging and why?Are any of us not going to say this one? But seriously, this course has been the most challenging. I had a clear understanding on how to use library search filters (such as dates and “studies”) and did not have some of the same challenges as my peers. Even so, I had plenty challenges of my own. It was difficult for me to stop researching and do the outline when I wanted to keep finding articles and preparing my annotated bibliography and not yet lay down an outline. I made that assignment more complicated than it needed to be because I wanted to see the big picture first. The biggest challenge of this course was mostly due to the size of the project and the timeframe that we had to complete it. But it has also been the most rewarding. I think the factors that made this course so challenging for me will be assuaged by the new 16-week format. Which course did you find the easiest and why?I had trouble choosing here because other than this one, none were particularly difficult, but I am going to choose Personality and Counseling Theories. It did have quite a bit of reading due to having two textbooks, but it was mostly a replica of my undergraduate Counseling course. I really enjoyed the short essays we wrote using a famous or fictional character to apply theories we were studying. I used Sheldon Cooper in one and Larry David in another, and well, they are both messes, so it was fun. Which instructor behaviors (the person’s actions not his/her name) did you find most helpful and why?I enjoyed when instructors gave feedback, this is the only way we can improve as students. I also enjoyed when professors were active in the forums. Like really active, asking questions regarding specific content in student’s forums – be it about content that was missing or pulling out a deeper discussion from students that provided strong posts. It was nice to know the professor was reading the forums thoroughly and hopefully graded accordingly. Which instructor behaviors did you find the least helpful and why?One professor took four weeks to post the first grade in the course and continued to be behind in grading for the entire course. This left me wondering how I was doing in the course the whole time.Several professors gave me perfect grades with zero constructive feedback This was very unhelpful because I reached the end of a graduate program not knowing my paragraphs were spaced wrong, not knowing about anthropomorphism, and not knowing I needed to tinker with my grammar check. When I say I am angry about this it is an understatement. I feel extremely cheated on what I spent on this program and what I received. I expected to do rewrites on every single paper based on what graduate students that taught some of my courses during undergrad told me about graduate school. It was unhelpful when professors posted canned replies in forums. Be it praise or asking the same question to multiple students. I enjoyed extra questions that would stimulate learning but asking the same question of five students does not do that. I feel instructor’s engagement in forums is one of the biggest things that needs improvement. I had one professor tell me it was okay to slow down, that I was doing more work than the other students. I found that weird and unhelpful because I don’t think anyone should be encouraged to do less. This professor said this to me in two courses. The same professor gave me lots of praise in one of the courses for using extra sources in the forum when in fact I was only using proper APA format to cite the chapter author’s name in my citation along with the chapter name and “in ___ textbook” instead of the name of the editor like everyone else was. I guess it looked like I was using three-four outside sources if one only gave it a quick glance. However, I was properly citing the book three-four times. I would have enjoyed, “great job on your citing” more than “great job with extra sources”. If you could change one thing about the degree, excluding being able to be face-to-face in a physical classroom which isn’t an option for a fully online university, what would it be? I wish our academic plan had included coursework that would transfer towards a doctoral program. The courses were too general and depending on what program I end up in, 0-3 of our courses will have any relevance. I have trouble reconciling what the intention was with this program design. The university has been clear this program did not prepare us for licensing, but I feel it did not fully prepare me to move on to doctoral studies either and the university asserts that is the intention of the program. I have seen there has been some change to the program design that will improve this for future students, especially those interested in organizational psychology. This is a great move. There are several changes to the curriculum versus our academic plan, but I think the I/O concentration is the best as far as developing graduate students to move on to PhD programs. While I personally found I/O boring, it is the fastest growing, top paying subfield of psychology.c. Where do you plan to go from here .....If everything goes according to plan, I am heading to the University of Arizona. I plan to apply there for both employment and a doctoral program. I am also considering Arizona State in Phoenix as a backup. If I do have to move away from my partner our commute would be short. He asked me a few days ago how I would feel about moving to Mexico City, so who knows, I may end up putting my studies on hold and enjoying a nice cultural experience as his work sets up new offices in Mexico City. That would be a twist. Forum post response #2A. What are three key "take-a-waysTake away 1:The first take away is that research is monumental in getting a fresh perspective in any topic in Psychology. Oftentimes we have our on ideas about how things occurred and the resolution for it. Being able to see more than one perspective allows you to give the best insight to the client. Identifying more than one solution and more than one cause allows the client to drop their guard as well. People respond better to you saying research has shown that typically this action occurs due to event versus because you acted in this manner now this event has occurred. People want to be held accountable but they don't want to be blamed which seems illogical. Getting a clear understanding from research that gives statistics from experiments and case studies allows you to see the issues in a different light to be more informative when giving solutions to the clients. Take away 2:The second take away is that if the research from the past is not being remade and reinvestigated then the content or knowledge must be obsolete. When things become outdated and it's no longer effective in Psychology you will no longer hear about it. The research for my Literature review had been investigated and researched so many times from the original author until now. That signified that there was still more to explore and that the topics were making impact in people's lives and enabling client's to become better individually and collectivley. The foundation was determining how to make the individual come to a place of healing to ensure the family is whole and they are able to establish healthy relationships. Take away 3:The third take away is that each course focused on something specifically dealing with a person that connected to the mind. Example personality dealt specifically with mind of a person developed by experience with others and perception of self. Another example is Culture dealt with the environment of a person that affects their mind and social interactions with others. Each course helps you to get a full open minded idea of clients and the things they are experiencing before they get in your office. B. Thinking aback across the courses you completed for this degree…How do you see them as contributing to your knowledge of the larger field of psychology?Each course has been a stepping stone and building block to gain more insight on the overall field of Psychology. Learning and Cognition helped me to be able to understand the processes our brain went through to develop thinking patterns. This helped me to understand that although we all have learned the same things from an academic standpoint the way we comprehend is not the same. This exlained why people can all be in the same place and go through the same thing but all recall the experience differently. This has helped me to understand people do not think the same so I can't expect the same behavior from each person I encounter. Which course did you find the most interesting?The most interesting course was Social Psychology because I am very social. I enjoyed learning about the social thinking that happens in groups amongst family and friends. I have never been a conformist so to understand on the nuerological bases why people conform was interesting. I do understand compromise and I am willing to meet people halfway once they had displayed they understand and respect my feelings. I enjoyed learning about social influence and seeing the impact of negative and positive feedback from others that affected relationships and perception of self and others. Learning about the culture dynamics that are intertwined in social interaction was interesting as well. Social Psychology was my favorite course and that instructor was my favorite as well. Each week what we learned I was able to apply and use at work and home so it made the learning experience so much more practical and real time. Which course did you find the most challenging and why?The most challenging course was the first course for me which i had to repeat because I couldn't understand any concepts of the program. I felt overwhlmed instantly and was not able to meet deadlines or turn in quality papers. I took the same course again withthe same teacher because I wanted to prove to her I could do it and I had to prove to myself that I could be successful as well. Entering a graduate level program was very different then the undergraduate program so the adjustent took me six weeks and by then it was too late. Which course did you find the easiest and why? I do not feel that any course was easy although I have my Bachelor's in Clinical Psychology I felt that the material presented in APUS was different as if learning for the first time. Each class was a challenge and it made me focus from start to finish. I know I earned my degree from this experience because I was always studying and researching and writing putting countless hours into my work in these classes. Im interested to see who felt any class was easy maybe it was the instructor because I was challenged in all courses. Which instructor behaviors did you find most helpful and why?The instructors that were the most helpful were the ones who graded things quickly. This was important because you automatically knew what was good and what you needed to work on. If something was graded early then if you needed to edit anything you could do it quickly and not be behind for the next week. I especially liked the feedback received that helped you for the next week. I enjoyed having instructors who were active in the classroom and responded to posts quickly as well. The more engaged the teachers were in class the more engaged the students were in that class. Which instructor behaviors did you find the least helpful and why?The instructors who never responded to emails were the least helpful due to not being able to have face to face communication or telephone access. Communication is key to ensuring their is success in the classroom. If you are unable to see the person then emails need to be addressed in a timely manner so everyone stays on track and nothing is unclear. When communication is a barrier then it prohibits forward progression because if you are confused you can't move forward successfully. I only had one instructor like this the others were very good about contact and answering questions to ensure success. If you could change one thing about the degree, excluding being able to be face-to-face in a physical classroom which isn’t an option for a fully online university, what would it be? I would make the literature review be completed in portions throughout the course of the graduate program. If a student selects a certain course as a section for their paper the research and leg work should be completed during that course. The student can then have portions of the assignment already completed and approved when they enter the final class so they are already set up for success. This would ensure requirements are met and that people are not stuck in a certain spot not able to progress forward when they are in their last class. This would alleviate stress and also ensure despite questions being asked that everyone has a clear understanding of the expectation of the final project. C. Where do you plan to go from here Upon successful completion of this course I will submit my transcripts to the Army and prepare to leave the Marines. I have applied for AMEDD to become an Army officer and the package was apporoved just pending my transcripts from my graduate degree. I will enroll in a Doctorate program and pursue the next level of education while entering into an externship to begin working in the Clinical Psychology field. In order for this plan to be effective I had to complete some tests and paperwork in the new military branch I desired to enter. I had to complete three interviews and do some on the job training which proved my qualifications. Now the last part to finalize this process is successful degree completion at a master's level. Forum post response #3Good morning Dr. Curtin and my fellow classmate,Here we are in the final week of this course and our degree program and it is time to celebrate our accomplishments! We all should take time to savor this moment of victory! This was the most challenging and rewarding course that I have taken in my academic journey and I feel rather accomplished to be here. When I started on my associate’s degree as a requirement for licensure as a substance abuse counselor back in 2005, I never thought I would pursue or complete a master’s degree program. What are three key "take-a-ways" you will take with you from completing the course Integrative Project Literature Review and how do you think working through the review will benefit you in the future?Take away 1: My first take away is that I can accomplish more than I think I can. As I entered this course with 3 weeks left in another course, I felt overwhelmed and wondered if I had done the right thing. I now am thankful that I did even though I would not recommend two courses with this course as it was very time and energy consuming. Being able to complete such a task as our integrated review paper lets me know that I can pretty much do anything I put my mind to, if I apply myself and don’t give up.Take away 2: I feel much more confident in my research, organization and writing skills after completing this course. I look at the finished project, and remember how much time and effort was put into it each part of the project and how it all came together in the end to something to be proud of. I will be using this course as a reference for the men at my center in how you can accomplish more than you thought possible with help, work and focus.Take away 3: I think my biggest take away is the importance of taking time to read the instructions thoroughly and follow them. If I would have done this in the beginning, I could have saved myself some undue self-inflicted stress. Dr. Curtin gave us all the instructions we needed in the proper order to succeed in formulating our paper. She also gave me several gentle reminders when I was off task, and I finally got back on task by following her direction. I remember wondering why we had to stay at 250 words for our annotated bibliography, and then when putting the rough draft together I figured out why. I didn’t have to add any fluff to this paper as I was worried about going over the page limit. It was neat seeing the paper come together into the final product. Something I tell my residents nearly daily is to follow direction and trust the process. I have another great example to show them from my own experience through this course. b. Thinking aback across the courses you completed for this degree…How do you see them as contributing to your knowledge of the larger field of psychology?Which course did you find the most interesting? This is a hard question to answer, as there were several especially the courses I chose for the Capstone project as they were equally interesting to me. Upon entering Substance Abuse and Addiction (PSYC620) I thought I would learn much since I have worked in this field for 15 years, but I did learn a lot from this course especially in the history and social influence content. The case study paper was similar to this course in that everything we covered in the course was applied in the paper for hands on learning. Social Psychology (PSYC515) was very interesting to me seeing how we humans are so impacted by the need to fit into a social group and how society impacts our behaviors. Contemporary Issues in Psychology (PSYC590) brought up relevant issues impacting psychology and current topics that impact our society. Professional Ethics and Standards (PSYC550) was interesting as the case vignettes allowed for critical thinking and real world application. Of course the Capstone project reinforced these courses and pulled it all together into a nicely wrapped package. Which course did you find the most challenging and why? Statistics was my least favorite course as the formulas were like reading a foreign language from start to finish. Substance Abuse and Addiction had several heavy writing assignments in it and I completed it during the first 3 weeks of this course, which made it extremely challenging.Which course did you find the easiest and why? I think that if you read the instructions and follow the direction of the instructors, each course can be similarly easy. My first course was my lowest grade, as I entered the course assuming it was similar to the previous college attended and those assumptions showed in my grades. Professional Ethics and Standards is was a reinforcement of something I practice on a daily basis.Which instructor behaviors (the person’s actions not his/her name) did you find most helpful and why? Instructors who are engaged, encouraging, providing constructive timely feedback are the most helpful to me, as I only get better by being pushed in the right direction. Which instructor behaviors did you find the least helpful and why? Not being available, not providing critiques for improvement, and not returning grades in a timely manner.If you could change one thing about the degree, excluding being able to be face-to-face in a physical classroom which isn’t an option for a fully online university, what would it be? Some of the courses did not require text books, but the amount of online reading was overwhelming, and some of the links to required online reading didn’t work. I think the library should have citations that are correct as well. c. Where do you plan to go from here ? I chose to complete the master’s degree to increase my knowledge for my current career path, and it has done that. I currently do not see pursuing any further academic adventures in the near future. I love my current employment as it is more of a ministry than a job, so I am quite content with where I am for now. Who knows what the future holds, as I never ever thought I would be where I am today obtaining a master’s degree, and being the program director of the program I sought help from in 2002!I wish you all the best in your future life journeys and I hope to see you at commencement in May 2020!