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Skill Development Exercise 1 (20 Points)
Alexis Diamond, Haley Graves, Ammy Zuniga
Directions: Please follow the directions and where relevant, respond to each of the questions below. Record your response directly below the question. Imagine you are a psychologist and a client comes to you wanting to change a behavior (or improve a problem). You can be any type of psychologist you want (e.g., health psychologist, clinical psychologist, forensic psychologist, I/O (business psychologist), behavioral psychologist, sports psychologist, etc.). Your client can be any type of client you are interested in treating (e.g., young child, college student, athlete, etc.). Answer the questions below as they pertain to this case study. Insert your answer directly below the question for each question 1-6. The point value for each question is located at the end of the question. You will be graded based on the completeness of your answers (i.e., did you answer all parts), as well as whether or not your responses are correct. Your graph will be assessed based on correctness (e.g., does it match your measurement procedure and include all components) as well as if you labeled all components as done in the example. 1. In one paragraph, discuss the type of psychologist you are for this assignment and the hypothetical client you are interested in treating. Be very detailed when it comes to describing your client. You should discuss their age along with other important demographic characteristics that may influence your approach to treating the problem. To get ideas of demographic characteristics to include, do a quick google search for examples. (2 points) We are a cognitive psychologist named Dr. Cynthia Eiffelson. We are treating our client, Sheldon Murray. Sheldon is a 15 year old boy who enjoys playing basketball. He is Puerto Rican, and kind of short for his age (5’3). His parents are divorced. He doesn’t have many friends, especially at school, due to him being short which leads everyone to believe that he is bringing the team down at basketball. Because of these struggles, Sheldon has become bitter and has a lot of resentment towards both his parents and his school. 2. In one paragraph, describe the problem (i.e., why the client came to you). What do they want to change or improve in general? (2 points) Sheldon’s parents are concerned with his frequent outbursts of anger and irritability, which they had originally chalked up to puberty. However, as it continued to persist, his parents grew more worried and signed him up for therapy. According to Sheldon, he has been dealing with intense waves of anger, which makes him feel incredibly out of control. He feels as if his parents do not understand that their divorce is making his life harder, especially since they have been paying way less attention to him, and somewhat resents them for it. He also describes how his teammates in basketball bully him for being short, and because of these two factors, he feels as if he has nobody on his side. He wants to feel better about himself, because he doesn’t enjoy the anger. 3. If you were to do a case study on this, describe what your independent and dependent variable would be in general. (3 points) Independent Variable - Weekly sessions of therapy Dependent Variable - Levels of anger and outburst 4. Now get more specific and discuss how you might measure (or operationalize) your dependent variable using a direct observational behavioral measure. Be very specific with this and be sure to discuss how you would measure each instance (e.g., number, percent, percent of intervals, etc.) Also, be sure to state your timeframe for each measurement session or data point (e.g., 1 day, 1 class period, etc.) Before moving on to the next item, get feedback from Dr. Ferguson on your response to this question to be sure you are on the right track. (4 points) - Number of outbursts and how long they last observed by parents per week. - Outburst: yelling at his parents, throwing/destroying things, crying.
5. Graph: (5 points) The link below will take you to a brief tutorial that will walk you through the process of constructing a graph that is similar to the one below. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FcjV8YODnU4. After you have completed your graph, copy and paste it, or take a screenshot of it and include it for number 5. It should be constructed similar to the example below but contain your specific measures and timeframe. It should also include all labels:
6. Now (in 1-2 sentences) discuss how you might measure the problem using self-report data. Include a sample of 5 questions you could potentially ask and how you might rate them (e.g., on a 1-5 scale with 1 being always and 5 being never). Include your questionnaire below. You should also google this and will be able to easily find examples of Likert scale response options. (4 points) Questionnaire for Sheldon Rated on a (Strongly agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree). a. I have felt irritable. b. I have felt intense anger. c. I have felt like I was out of control. d. I have caused damage to my surroundings. e. I have felt alone and misunderstood.
