PSY 1010 applying knowledge of psychological disorders

Eight lettered sub-questions, a to h, and the assignment is graded on whether all eight are answered rather than on how well the prose flows. Use them as headings. The two most often lost are **f** and **h**: *what is the general class(es) of disorders to which this disorder belongs* is not a repeat of the specific diagnosis in **e** — it asks for the diagnostic category the disorder sits inside, and the bracketed plural is a hint that a presentation may touch more than one. And *how could you get his or her family involved* is a full sub-question that routinely receives a closing sentence. Budgeting roughly a paragraph each across the required two pages leaves the eight in proportion, which is what the marking is looking for. Answering them in order also keeps the diagnosis from arriving before the symptoms that justify it.

Read the vignette for its **pattern**, not its worst moment. Tony's description carries two distinct states: periods of elevated energy, rapid speech, grandiose plans, giving away his belongings and needing almost no sleep, and separate periods of withdrawal, oversleeping, self-neglect and veiled references to suicide. Diagnosing from either half alone is the trap the case is built to catch — the low phase read on its own looks like a depressive disorder, and the high phase alone looks like something else again. It is the alternation between the two, and specifically the reduced need for sleep alongside grandiosity and expansive plans, that gives the case its shape. Say that the *pattern over time* is what you are diagnosing. Quote the vignette's own phrases as you go, since a marker can then see which detail you took each conclusion from.

Register matters more than it might seem in a general psychology course. Write *the presentation is consistent with* rather than *Tony has*, because a paragraph of description is not a clinical interview and there is no history, no collateral, no medical workup and no timeline in front of you. That caution is not hedging; at introductory level it is the single clearest way to show you understand what a diagnosis actually requires. It also sets you up for sub-question **c**, which asks whether the client has a history with this problem — the vignette implies recurrence with “once” and “during other periods of time”, and saying what you would need to establish is a better answer than inventing a history the case does not give you. The same applies to sub-question e: name the disorder, then say which criteria the vignette evidences and which remain unknown.

The suicidal content in the vignette should be addressed, not stepped around. Sub-question **g** asks for your recommendations and a specific treatment plan, and a plan for someone making references to wanting to die begins with risk — asking directly, establishing intent, means and protective factors, and deciding on a level of care — before it reaches anything about longer-term therapy. Sequencing the plan that way is clinically correct and it is also the part a marker will look for. Sub-question **h** then follows naturally rather than as an afterthought, because family involvement in a case with risk has a concrete purpose: observation, support with adherence, and knowing what to do and who to call. Family involvement also raises consent and confidentiality, and noting that an adult client decides what is shared is worth a sentence.

Two constraints on sources are unusually specific. The brief supplies exactly one required text and says you *must incorporate research from the textbook to substantiate your diagnosis*, so the textbook has to be visibly doing the work — cited at the diagnostic reasoning, not listed at the end. The library is permitted but explicitly not required, so outside sources are a bonus rather than a requirement, and everything used must be cited, with paraphrase carrying a citation as much as quotation. Note finally that the brief says to choose one of the cases listed, while only case 1 appears in this version of it; check your course shell before assuming Tony is the only option. Two pages is a floor rather than a target, so there is room to answer all eight properly without padding any of them.