Overview This assignment requires you to write about a fictitious case from the
ID: 3501537 • Letter: O
Question
Overview This assignment requires you to write about a fictitious case from the perspective of two different models of abnormality. Choose two of these five models for your assignment: (a) biological, (b) psychodynamic, (c) cognitive-behavioral*, (d) humanistic-existential, or (e) sociocultural. Then apply the two theoretical models that you chose to the sample case below The cognitive and behavioral perspectives are combined into one perspective for the purposes of this paper. If you choose the cognitive-behavioral perspective, you may write about primarily cognitive ideas, primarily behavioral ideas, or a combination of the two. Case Description Arlene is a recently divorced, 58-year-old woman who lives in a low-income neighborhood just outside of Chicago. She has had some anxiety for much of her life, but this anxiety has become much worse in the past year, and it's now causing her to spend much of her time at home. She used to work full-time but was fired for poor attendance at work, and she is unable to find a new job because she is afraid she will fail in a new job. She has few friends or close family members with the exception of her 81-year old mother who she describes as “demanding" and "constantly in my business." Arlene does not like to talk about the past, although when asked she cannot recall any traumatic event having occurred in her life. She does say that she is worried she will become just like her mother and instead wants to find the "real Arlene." Arlene's anxiety takes several forms. She has physiological symptoms such as "the shakes" and a racing heart, she has out-of-control thoughts that keep her up at night, and she has a sense of being imprisoned by symptoms as if her anxiety defines her as a person. Sometimes her anxiety gets so out of control that Arlene shuts herself in her room because she is afraid of what might happen, and shutting herself in her room seems to help her to feel better. Arlene believes that her anxiety has grown worse in the past few years--she seems to be anxious about most things, but the anxiety is particularly bad when she is in social situations. For example, when she interacts with other people she thinks about all of the things that could go wrong. She desperately wants to have close friends, and she wants to date men, but she reports believing that nobody could ever care about a "pathetic woman" such as her. She spends long hours at home wondering if she will ever feel connected to people or whether she will matter in this worldExplanation / Answer
Answer.
1. According to the Psychodynamic model, Arlene’s presenting symptoms of anxiety indicate towards the existence of unconscious motivation and aggressive impulses where her fear of failure at work and fear of rejection in interpersonal interactions with others outside of home have led to ‘ neurotic anxiety’ or the ego’s response to threat created by id impulses and wishes. Instead of the emotional risk involved in interacting with others, Arlene unconsciously substitutes her fear with her symptom of anxiety in social situations.
On another level, her constant feeling of anxiety about her professional abilities and absence from work indicates that an underlying anxiety due to unresolved ‘Electra Complex’.As a result, she seems to have some unresolved aggressive wishes agianst her mother which has led to a harsh and punitive superego part of herself to dominate the healthier and more adaptive ego and created the symptom of social anxiety as a defense against leaving her mother unattended and instead has made her stay in proximity with her.
Thus, from a psychodynamic theory of anxiety, Arlene’s presenting symptoms point towards a history of conflict between the id, ego and the superego and her previous experience with loss and divorce have created the symptom of anxiety and the ‘ somatisaion’ of symptoms as a defense mechanism in order to repress her unconscious desire to pursue new relationships.
2. An alternative explanation of Arlene’s symptoms can be traced in the cognitive behavioral theory according to which Arlene’s false and negative beliefs and thoughts have a greater influence on her emotional experiences of anxiety. According to model of ‘cognitive Triad’, Arlene’s anxiety can be represented as a result of false and negative beliefs about herself that is her ability to perform well at work, negative beliefs about the world such as a judgement that other people will not approve of her and negative views about the future- that she will remain alone and she would not matter to anyone else in the world. This negative triad of thoughts leads her to repeat specific self defeating and maladaptive behaviours such as remaining bed ridden, avoiding work which further create anxiety about failure and rejection in a negative feedback loop.
From a behavioral perspective, her anxiety can be observed as a pattern of complex overt and maladaptive behaviours which are symptomatic of her condition. For instance, staying bed ridden, locked in her room, avoiding going to work are negatively reinforced as they help her to escape the possible negative rewards in the form of rejection by others. These symptomatic behaviours of anxiety are thus learned response to the negative emotional stimuli in her interpersonal and social environment.
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