Homework Option #9
Personality and Psychological Disorders

Assignment requirements: Complete any one of the following activities in as much detail as possible using specific examples and definitions. Be sure to justify your responses with information from class or from the text. Please be sure your answer is no less than 1 full page and no more than 2 full pages of type-written text. If you choose to complete this assignment it must be emailed to me before the beginning of class on May 1.

1. Using either personality test you have completed: the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (ESPF...) online or the BFI (Big Five Inventory) in class, discuss your performance and whether it provides an accurate assessment of your personalty, and discuss why. Try to think about it from a "friends" perspective, is this how another person would describe you?

2. Be a clinician for an hour. Complete the PsycSim activity from your textbook website. Jump to Chapter 13, and the PsycSim activity. Complete the activity according to the instructions then write a summary describing what you were expected to do and your accuracy at diagnosis. Discuss how this activity has influence your thinking about diagnosing psychological disorders.

3. Read the Society for Neuroscience Brain Briefings entitled: Schizophrenia and the Prefrontal Cortex to better understand the neurological underpinnings of schizophrenia and how dysfunction in this very important brain region can lead to hallucinations and delusions. Be sure to summarize the article but also to discuss what you thought was most interesting or applicable to your life.

4. Are you interested in the genetic links to mental disorders? Read the Society for Neuroscience Brain Briefings entitled: Mental Disorders and Microarrays. Be sure to summarize the article but also to discuss what you thought was most interesting or applicable to your life.

5. Read the Society for Neuroscience Brain Briefings entitled: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to better understand the neurological underpinnings of this anxiety disorder and the links to neurotransmitter systems and brain regions. Be sure to summarize the article but also to discuss what you thought was most interesting or applicable to your life.