Abnormal Psychology
Assignment 3
Due Wednesday, April 30, 2008
You’re a nationally known clinical psychologist who specializes in working with children and their families. Calvin’s parents (from the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”) come to you for a consultation, because they have become concerned about Calvin’s behavior. They bring six-year-old Calvin with them to the consultation. During the interview, you hear several stories about different things that Calvin has done (some from Calvin and some from his parents), which are summarized by the 14 comic strips on this website.
Please answer the following questions. Your responses should be double-spaced in a standard 12-point font and be limited to 3 typed pages.
1. What information in the strips is relevant in making a diagnosis? (5 points)
What information in the strips (if any) is not relevant? (5 points). For both questions above, please be sure to justify your answer with references to either your text or the lecture.
2. What additional information would you want to obtain before you would feel comfortable making a diagnosis and designing a treatment plan. Justify your reason for needing each piece of information (10 points).
3. Although some information is missing, explain whether or not you think Calvin meets diagnostic criteria for any of the psychological disorders covered in class this semester (note: you may consider and select others, but you must consider ODD and ADHD). If you think he meets diagnostic criteria for a diagnosis, explain why using specific examples from the comic strips. If you do not think he meets diagnostic criteria for any psychological diagnosis, justify your answer (specifically, your decision to reject both ODD and ADHD) by using specific examples from the comic strips (10 points)
4. Regardless of whether or not Calvin should have a formal diagnosis, you still have to address the fact that Calvin’s parents are concerned about his behavior. Since a good intervention (or a decision to not intervene) depends on how one understands the etiology of the problem, pick one of the problems (e.g., egocentrism, noncompliance, inattention) evident in the comic strips and discuss its etiology from a family systems framework. In other words:
a. Explain (using specific examples) how Calvin’s family may have contributed to a specific behavior problem, without referring to traditional behavioral principles of punishment and reinforcement (5 points).
b. Similarly, explain how Calvin’s behavior problem (use the same one you did in part a) may contribute to the way the family is functioning. In answering this question, please consider both the potential negative and positive (e.g., what is the behavior doing “for” the family) impact of Calvin’s behavior (5 points).
- Given your answers to question 3, what systemic intervention (if any) would you want to implement. Be specific (i.e., it’s not sufficient to say “family therapy”; specify the specific goal of the therapy) and justify your decision. If you do not think that any intervention is necessary, be sure to justify that decision by connecting what you know about Calvin to what you learned about child behavior from lecture and your textbook (10 points).