Below are some sample PsychLogs from my PSY100 and PSY250 classes, all posted with permission of the students who wrote them.  Some of these were written several years ago, when students wrote more logs during the semester, with each worth fewer points than under the current system.  Thus, you will notice that the first bunch of logs here are fairly skimpy relative to how I've described they should be now.  While they merited most or all of the 8-10 points they were worth at the time (keeping in mind that there were eight logs written throughout the semester), they would definitely not be thorough enough to merit the full 25 points under the current system.

As an example of how these were scored:  The first one is from PSY250, and is a good example for the most part.  It describes in considerable detail the outside event/situation about which she is writing.  The section reviewing the course material is the weakest one, although she does clearly refer to the criteria for and one associated feature of ADHD described in the textbook.  She integrates these by noting which her cousin does and does not meet, and gives her own comments on what it is like for her to interact with her cousin.  Under the current scoring system, the relative lack of course material review would lead to a several-points deduction.  However, it is otherwise a good example of one way to approach a PsychLog.  The others included here also would receive varying scores as current assignments, but are included here to give you an idea of other ways to approach the PsychLog assignment.  If you would like to see additional samples (including several that received full credit recently), please feel free to stop by my office.

Sample Psychlog 1 - PSY250:

I found the topic of ADHD to be particularly interesting because one of my younger cousins was diagnosed with it.  While reading the section about ADHD in chapter 15, I could identify so much of the information to what I have observed in my cousin’s actions.  Although I have limited contact with her, I think that it is even more easily observed because usually when I do come into contact with her she is not on her medication.

My cousin is very hyperactive, she fidgets, moves around constantly, and especially has trouble sitting still or maintaining herself in situations where it is needed.  This fits into many of the descriptions given in the book.  She is however a very friendly child who can be very gentle and sociable at times.

Her behavior is especially evident when she is in an environment with my other younger cousins.  Unfortunately, they tend to view her in a negative perspective.  The cause of this is that she is so bossy while playing with them  and is unable to understand when enough is enough.  My other cousins try to maintain a distance from her, so as to not offend her I suppose, whenever we are at family gatherings.  You can tell that she really is trying to have fun with them and get along with them but to them her actions are unusual.  One particular instance happened between my cousin and me.  My mother and I had gone to visit my grandparents one weekend.  What made this visit different from most others was the fact that I had hurt my ankle badly the night before during a basketball game; it was swollen, hurt a lot, and I really could not even walk on it correctly.  When we got to my grandparents, my cousin and my aunt were there.  She asked why I was walking funny.  My grandparents then told her that I had hurt my ankle and to be careful not to bump into it.  The first thing my cousin did after hearing this was to bump into my ankle, as she had just specifically been told to be careful of it.  Also, at family gatherings such as weddings or showers, she really tries everybody’s patience.  It has come to the point where we now give a specific job to do at the event as soon as possible.  This seems to be the most productive strategy as of yet.

Although in chapter 15 it says that children with ADHD are more likely to be in a special education setting, my cousin is not.  This seems to be the only criterion she really does not meet.  She actually does quite well in school and is a very bright girl.  She did however have some problems earlier in school that led one of her teachers to believe she had ADHD.  The teacher could tell that she was in fact a smart child but her hyper behavior was preventing her from doing as well as she could on her academics.  Since being put on Ritalin however, she is able to override her behavior problems and do better in school.

I feel for my cousin because of her ADHD, but at the same time it is difficult to observe and accept her behavior.  This is especially true when she creates a scene or acts out for special family occasions like weddings or showers or holidays.  I do hope that she will gain more control over her behavior and will adapt better as she grows. 

Two years ago, my family went to Florida on vacation.  While we were there, we visited Universal Studios, and went on all the movie rides.  Our favorite ride by far was the "Back to the Future" experience.  The ride isn't actually a ride because about 20 people pile into a cart with rows of seats, and the cart doesn't move from its general spot in the room.  In front of the cart is a huge movie screen that wraps almost all the way around the passenger's visual field.  As the ride starts, images come up on the screen.  The ride is designed to make you feel as if you are flying a time machine through the futuristic streets of New York.  You dodge skyscrapers and get shot at by air police, and you even have a close encounter with a dinosaur's huge mouth.  The cart you are sitting on moves and jerks back and forth and up and down.  At one point in the ride, it seems as if you are flying off the edge of the cliff and plummet straight down toward the ground.  It seemed so real to me that I shut my eyes and pulled back my feet from the floor.  My dad said that it almost made him sick!

This sensational experience reminded me of looming, a topic we briefly discussed in class.  Looming is an aspect of visual depth perception where an object in your field of sight seems to be getting bigger and bigger, as well as closer and closer.  It signals a coming impact and often triggers reactions like flinching and the blinking of eyes.  The textbook points out that human infants of only a couple weeks old will blink their eyes and stiffen if they sense a coming collision.  Animals are also shown to react similarly to the illusion of expanding, looming patterns.

The ride I went on definitely exhibited looming.  During the cliff scene, the ground just kept getting closer and closer and it felt like we kept picking up speed more and more.  Objects like billboards and buildings would appear like they were getting larger as we were getting closer.  The ride was very lifelike and the looming effect scared me half to death!  I flinched and covered my fact many, many times because the looming was portrayed very well. 

 I have a cat named Peaches who is very spoiled.  At night she sleeps on my bed.  When morning comes she gets up with me and follows me into the kitchen.  In the kitchen I pour myself a bowl of cereal, open the fridge and pear some milk onto my cereal, before I put the milk back I pour her a bowl. After doing this a couple times she started to come into the kitchen every time the fridge was opened.  It didn’t matter what time of day it was.  During the day when she would come to the refrigerator I would not give her milk.  After some time she started to only expect mild in the morning and stopped coming every time the fridge was opened.

 This has to do with classical conditioning.  A conditioned stimulus (the refrigerator opening) was paired with an unconditional stimulus (the milk) to produce an unconditioned response (the cat drinking the milk).  Peaches formed an association between the refrigerator opening and drinking milk.  She learned to only come to the kitchen in the morning when she heard the refrigerator being opened, due to discrimination.  When I would open the refrigerator to make a sandwich in the afternoon she would come to the fridge but she would not receive any milk.  After a while she stopped coming when the refrigerator was opened during the day.  In the morning when I got up the conditioned stimulus was not paired with the unconditioned stimulus.  Peaches learned the significance between the refrigerator opening in the morning and getting milk.

 I think the 2 topics -  classical conditioning and discrimination - played a big role in Peach’s behavior.  I have not only noticed it in this example but countless others.  These 2 topics are present in every day life.  They help to form our daily routines.

 I believe this to be a good example of classical conditioning.  My cat never came into the kitchen until I started giving her milk in the morning.  It started out with her following me into the kitchen to get milk.  After a while she started to only come when she heard the refrigerator being opened because I do not always give her milk right away when I go to get breakfast in the morning.  Sometimes I would make my lunch before I prepared breakfast.  She learned that when I opened the refrigerator was when I was ready to give her some milk.  At times I wish I did not start this routine because she expects milk every morning and all she has to do is look at me and will give it to her.  Once the connection is made it is hard to break it.  When I returned home for Labor Day I noticed that on Saturday morning she was right there waiting for her milk when I opened the fridge.  It does not take much to create this association but is sure takes a lot to break it.

 A few moments later, the resident approached me again.  This time, he told me he needed to go up to his room, and he wondered if I might be willing to call his room when I saw the ICTC arrive.  Once again, considering myself a nice and helpful person, I agreed.  However, I felt as though I had been somewhat taken advantage of.  It was soon after that I realized the resident had successfully utilized the "foot-in-the-door" technique I had learned about in psychology call earlier that day.
 The foot-in-the-door technique is a simple method of persuading a person to do something.  A person will first make a small request to another.  In my case, this would have been the resident asking me to call across the room to his if I had seen the ICTC pull in front of the building.  This in turn leads to a changed or reinforced self-image within the individual to whom the request was made.  This would have been me considering myself a helpful desk receptionist in this example.  Once one has agreed to the first small request, a larger request is made.  Having had one’s self-perception reinforced, individuals will usually become more inclined to accept this larger request.  For me, this would have been agreeing to the resident’s request for me to phone his room when I saw the ICTC.

 People who are trying to receive unnecessary favors use the "foot-in-the-door" method quite frequently.  However, once one is made aware of the technique, he or she can benefit by being made capable of avoiding being taken advantage of by others as I am sure I will.
 

 There are many theories as to how this disorder develops in a person.  Anorexia often develops in the teenage years often after a life stress event.  Lisa’s parents were getting a divorce when her symptoms started.  Biological theories explore the role of the hypothalamus, the brain’s center of regulation of hunger and eating.  In anorexic patients the hormone levels used for regulation are abnormal.  But, are the levels a cause of the disorder or a result of it?  The segment did not explore this hypothesis with respect to Lisa’s condition.  Sociocultural factors include society’s standards of beauty and one’s culture.  One event that Lisa says triggered her thoughts of dieting happened in the tenth grade when a boy exclaimed that her thin body was fat.  Psychodynamic theories discuss the gaining control and substituting this for other family problems.  As stated above this disorder started after her parent’s divorce and she stated that she felt this was the only way to gain control over something.  Cognitive-behavioral theories emphasize a fear of being fat and the distortion of the body image.  These negative thoughts cause anxiety that is only reduced be self-starvation.  Also harsh criticism from peers can supplement the problem.  Lisa had a distorted body image as she described in her video journals and one of her friends taught her how to use laxatives after binges.

 Treatment for anorexics includes is important since this illness can be life threatening.  Lisa’s disorder damaged many of her vital organs.  Treatment for anorexia nervosa includes the following aspects.  The patients are often hospitalized because the disease is so life threatening.  The segment did not say whether or not Lisa was hospitalizes.  Family therapy is employed to remedy the family conflicts.  Once again the segment does not mention this type of therapy.  Other types of therapy include education, cognitive challenging, and support.  The last types of therapy describe Lisa’s therapy.  She attended therapy sessions and was educated to show how unhealthy her habits were.  She is now a counselor at the place where she first received her treatments.  She has a lot of insight about her disorder now, but I am sure that it is not always easy for her.

 This entry is about a movie called "In the Gloaming".  The story depicts a man who has AIDS who has come home to die.  The movie is a tale of his relationship with his family, who all display different levels of support.  His mother is the most supportive.  His father is unemotional and does not accept his son.  He embarrasses his sister.  The movie explores two aspects of psychology that we have studied, AIDS and homosexuality.  The effect of an illness on a person and the amount of emotional help a person has are shown.  Also, the affects of homosexuality on a person and how a family accepts the person’s lifestyle is explored.

 Homosexuality is not a psychological disorder and it does not appear in the DSM-IV.  In earlier editions of the DSM, it was included as a sexual deviation.  Due to pressure by activists and many professionals, this diagnosis has changed. Increasing tolerance to this lifestyle has also contributed to these changes.  It has become increasing evident that it is not abnormal to be homosexual, unless it causes the person extreme amounts of stress or dysfunction.  This dysfunction is more often due to society pressures or prejudice and not due to the wish to be heterosexual.  The current DSM only codes a disorder for the situations that describe a person that has distress toward one sexual orientation.  This disorder does not give reference to the term homosexuality.  The lead character in the movie, Danny, did not have distress over his lifestyle.  So he did not have a disorder.  However, his father and sister were not very accepting of him.  This was a cause of tension and stress but did not make him abnormal.

The other aspect of the movie that we discussed in class was the issue of AIDS.  Danny had come home to die from AIDS.  His family all possessed different amounts of support.  His mother tried to make him as comfortable as possible.  They spent many hours talking and getting to know each other.  His father did not accept the fact that he was going to die and avoided the subject.  His sister did not accept him and would not even bring her son to see him.  AIDS is a fatal illness that has three characteristics that relate to abnormal psychology.  The first aspect is that is usually arises from behavior that is irrational and self-defeating.  One can catch AIDS by having unprotected sex, using infected needles, or having contact with infected blood products.  The movie did not explore how Danny acquired AIDS.  Another aspect is that it is not curable by and medical means.  Having to deal with the fact that one is going to die can cause a tremendous amount of distress not only for the person dying by also the loved ones.  This movie explored this issue.  The amount of stress one has can be related to the amount of support one has.  Structured social support refers to the person’s relationships.  The movie showed very little structural social support for Danny.  Family was the only support he had or at least shown in the movie.  The functional social support was even smaller.  His sister ignored him and even tried to distract his parents from helping him.  His father talked very little to him and believed that he would just get better.  His mother was his only true social support.  She accepted all of him and helped him to deal with his illness. His family was a very clear example of the difference between structural and functional support.

 While this movie did not explore a specific psychological disorder, it did explore some of the various issues we discussed in class.  It was a good example of how abnormal psychology is a part of everyone’s life, not just those who have been diagnosed with a particular disorder.  It was a wonderful movie and was a good extension of what I have studied in class.  I am starting to see just how much abnormal psychology is a part of all of us.

 My future roommates, J, B, R, K, and G, (pseudonyms) are smart, funny, kind, wonderful people.  They love Magic (a card game), fantasy role-playing, Monty Python movies, Richard Adams novels . . . and pot.  Yes, my best friends are hooked on weed!  J and G have been using it since high school; B, R, and K never used weed till college, but they’ve become pretty fond of it.

 Marijuana is related to other drugs, such as nicotine, alcohol, sedatives, stimulants, and hallucinogens.  Focus 12.1 in the book talks about marijuana possibly being a "gateway" drug, a drug that start people on the path to abusing harder drugs such as heroin or cocaine.  Although J has tried cocaine, none of my friends regularly use anything harder than marijuana.  The book also talks about marijuana’s medicinal properties, such as its ability to stimulate appetite and reduce nausea.  K’s father, who suffers from Crohn’s disease (and is responsible for K’s introduction to marijuana) uses it for this purpose.

 The book says that marijuana makes its users feel more sociable.  This especially true for K, who flirts with me constantly when he’s high.  The book also says it brings "rapid shifts in emotion" and dulls attention.  I have seen J. giggle endlessly and then just as suddenly burst into tears after a bowl or two.  Also, it is very difficult talk to J or G when they’re high.  Little things, like broken glass or the foil of a cigarette pack, will catch their eye and it becomes impossible to get them to listen to you.  The text made a reference to hallucinations occurring with high doses, and I don’t think that has ever happened to any of my friends, although B said that he experiences sensory things more intensely while high – colors are brighter, sounds are clearer, "everything just gets prettier".  The book is also right about the effects of marijuana being delayed – once I was outside with J and he smoked a couple of bowls, but the giggles didn’t start until about fifteen or twenty minutes after he was finished.  J also has reverse tolerance; he smoked pot considerably throughout high school and his first two years of college, and he will get way more high than B 9 who has only smoked about five or six time sin his life) when they have both had the same amount.  I have also seen the eyes of my friends become bloodshot and their pupils become black basketballs after smoking pot – the book mentions that – and of course, I’ve seen the inevitable "munchies" hit.  Sometimes R and J will go through whole boxes of donuts and bags of chips after a "visit with Mary Jane."

 The book is right about memory impairments too.  J can’t remember anything for very long, and we all blame it on his long history of marijuana use.  You have to tell him everything at least a couple of times before it sinks in.  G takes pills for high blood pressure, even though he’s only twenty.  Although he is overweight, I think the large amount of marijuana he smokes may also be a contributing factor.

 I have tried marijuana, although I don’t use regularly.  I try to be open-minded about my friend’s marijuana use; I thin pot should be legal and I think it’s less harmful than a lot of other things people do, but I worry about my friends sometimes.  G’s allergic to marijuana, and sometimes using it makes him pretty sick.  Also, like I said, he has high blood pressure.  And G, K, and R find it hard to enjoy marijuana without a few cigarettes (something I disapprove of more than I do marijuana).  Mostly, though I think they put too much time and effort into trying to acquire marijuana and then trying to find a place and time to smoke it.  And of course once they find marijuana it’s pretty expensive.  Being college students, none of them have much money.  G is not proud of this, but he has been known to steal it from his roommates, and B has sold it just to get it cheaper for himself.  Plus, I’m dating B, and I’ve kind of found it harder than I thought to deal with his smoking pot and selling it since we’ve been going out.  I’ve found out that it’s one thing if my friends smoke pot, but quite another if someone I care about on another level smokes it too.

Sample PsychLog 8- PSY100

        Last year in my psychology class, our teacher
conducted an experiment with us concerning obedience.  She
split the room into two groups. One group became the
teachers and one group became the students.  She handed out
an explanation on what the teachers were to do and a set of
activities that the students were going to do.  I, as a
teacher, was not told to boss the students around or
implement any kind of punishment.  All we were ordered to do
was for us to “teach” them some science-related items that
we were given instructions for.  Throughout the experiment
though, the teachers sometimes implemented absolutely silly
punishments to their students.  One example is when
a “student” talked without raising her hand: the teacher
made the student put tape on her mouth.  This example of
unusual punishment was very evident through the power of the
teachers and the submission of the students.  
        In the book titled Psychology by Carole Wade and
Carol Tavris, Zimbardo’s prison study was discussed.  Young
men volunteered to be in this study and were assigned either
prisoners or guards.  They were given no behavioral
instructions.  The roles that these people played were
dramatic though.  The guards quickly became the dominant
powerful type, some following the rules while others became
more like tyrants.  For example, one guard tried unusual
cruel punishment by putting a prisoner in solitary
confinement. They may have been following blind obedience. 
That is when people obey whatever they are told no matter if
it is wrong or right, even if they don’t know why.  This
concept stemmed from the Holocaust where the German guards
were killing Jewish people and others of different
ethnicities even if they thought it was wrong, which was the
case.  In the case of Zimbardo’s study the prisoners played
their role accurate just like the guards.  They became very
submissive, often becoming panicky and scared by the actions
of the guards. 
        The study was not clear-cut research; it did not
have empirical evidence with facts and statistics and “the
researchers did not investigate relationships between
factors”(Tavris/Wade 273).  The two designers of the prison
study said that it showed the power of roles, even in a
fictitious set-up.  This study can show that no matter what
a person’s character may be, they may respond to an
uncomfortable situation by putting their personality traits
and private values aside.  The obedience shown in this study
is not always bad.  If there were no obedience according to
the book, the world would be a crazy place.  Most people
follow orders because of fear of the consequences, but they
try to justify with many things.  One way they justify it is
when participants just simply believe they should do
something because authority told them to do it.  The
prisoners did something because the guards told them to do
it.  Another way they justify their actions is because of
the routine of the task.  It is routine for guards to order
around prisoners so it is nothing new to them. The prisoners
and guards also want to be polite to the designers of the
study so they try to obey.  Lastly, people felt like they
were becoming entrapped.  They already committed to doing
something small, so now they feel as though they need to
keep making steps toward something greater to justify their
investment. 
        When you look at the study that I did in my
psychology class with the teachers and the students it
directly relates to Zimbardo’s prison study. The teachers
can be related to the powerful guards, while the students
can be related to the submissive prisoners.  The teachers,
like the guards, were given no real instructions but they
still played their role of the ones in charge.  The
students, like the prisoners, were not told to take
punishment and be submissive, but they followed the typical
role of society.  They followed these things because the
authority figure of the guards and teachers told them to do
certain things. 
        In my reaction to this study, along with my study in
high school, I think this is such a weird phenomenon.  I
believe that if I was in the guard role, just like I was in
the teacher role, I would like to become dominant because I
am a person who likes power.  The thing that really
surprises me is the more quiet submissive people were
playing the role of the teacher with much power. Many of my
friends who were very shy and quiet in class soon became
loud and ordered the students around.  This seems very weird
to me, but I am sure it also happened in Zimbardo’s study. 
I believe this study with the teacher/student and the
guard/prisoner cases, shows a lot about people.  This shows
that no matter what a person is like, we take into
consideration the roles that we hold in society and act
according. 

Sample PsychLog 9- PSY250

            This psychlog entry is about a friend of mine named Nicole. Nicole and I had been very close throughout grade school and high school. Soon after graduation, Nicole started acting very strange and withdrew from all of her friends. Several times Nicole would take off on foot without telling anybody and not return home for days or weeks. This behavior eventually led to her being put into a halfway house for girls. It was there that she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.  I’ve tried to stay in touch with Nicole as best as I can, but it has been difficult since she doesn’t seem to want to be involved with others. Despite Nicole’s retreat from society, I have managed to keep up on how she is doing through contact with her family. I found the chapter and discussion in class on schizophrenia to be very interesting because it has helped me to better understand what happened to Nicole.

            In chapter 11 of our book, schizophrenia is discussed in detail. The symptoms of this disorder can be classified as either positive or negative. The positive symptoms include formal thought disorder, hallucinations, and delusions. The negative symptoms are characterized by changes in behavior such as lack of energy (avolition), reduced quantity and quality of speech (alogia), and withdrawal from society (asociality). Schizophrenia is also divided into the following categories: disorganized, catatonic, and paranoid. The fact that people with schizophrenia can differ greatly from one another can make classification of subtype difficult.

            The first symptom that I noticed in Nicole was her lack of interest in being with her friends. I now know that this was the negative symptom, asociality. Nicole lived with her sister for several months and would just lay around and rarely leave her bedroom. She would often go several days without showering or fixing up. This was most likely a sign of avolition. One time when I went to visit Nicole, she continuously questioned my purpose for visiting her. I think this was due to paranoia. She also seemed to make many loose associations when we were talking. She often jumped from one topic to another quite quickly. This could all be a sign of disorganized speech. One hallucination that I remember her talking about was that she had bugs crawling on her. Another very disturbing incident that I was told about by some of her other friends was that she accused them of bringing a video camera to her place to tape her. She then attacked one of her friends and pushed her through the screen door. I think Nicole could probably be best classified at this time as a paranoid schizophrenic. Nicole refused to attend her sister’s wedding because she thought that everyone would be talking about her. I would expect that Nicole also heard voices since our book describes this as a very common symptom, but I don’t know this for sure.

Since Nicole didn’t tell anybody very much about what was going on with her, I don’t know what other kinds of symptoms she had. When she took off for several days, it was discovered that she went to a nearby campground and would hide out in the woods. One time while she was out walking she passed out from lack of food and water and the police picked her up. Nicole refused to give the police her real name, and it was after this that she was put into the halfway house. I think this was the best thing that could happen to her because it meant that she finally got the help that she needed. Nicole was put on medication and released from the halfway after being there for about a month.

The last time that I saw Nicole, I excitedly went up to her to talk to her, but she showed no emotion toward me. She said “hi” to me but that was about it. The book says that this blunted affect could be either a symptom of the schizophrenia or a side effect of the medication. Nicole’s mother contacted me a few weeks later to let me know that Nicole was receiving social security, living with her sister, and doing fine.

The book mentions several high-risk factors that are associated with schizophrenia, and Nicole did fit a lot of those descriptions. Nicole’s mother had psychological problems so that could have resulted in a genetic predisposition. I know that her mother had to take lithium, but I don’t know whether her mom had bipolar disorder, or if she too had schizophrenia. Consistent with the book’s description, Nicole was not a very good student, very passive, and withdrawn prior to the onset of the schizophrenia. Her family life was not very stable. Nicole’s father left them when she was little. Her family would be considered of a low socioeconomic status. The book mentioned that substance abuse is often comorbid with schizophrenia. Nicole’s family often drank and smoked marijuana.

            Despite all of her hardships, I always thought that Nicole would be able to rise above it and succeed. It was very surprising to me when Nicole suddenly stated acting different, but the book mentions that the onset often occurs in early adulthood. It is hard to see the terrible effects that schizophrenia can have on a person and to know that it is not curable. Nicole is no longer the same person that I remember as being one of my closest friends. I wish that there were more that I could do to help her. My parents told me just last week that her mother called and wanted to know how to reach me because Nicole would like to talk to me.  I am hoping that her wanting to reach out to me is a sign that she is doing better.

Sample Psychlog 10 - Psy250

It is common for a child to feel attached to her parents or caregivers, but when separating from that parent or caregiver becomes difficult, it needs to be addressed. Listed in DSM-IV-TR, separation anxiety disorder is the phrase used to describe this phenomenon and it is something that I was diagnosed with in the sixth grade. 

As a fifth and sixth grade student, I frequently refused to go to school. Upon arriving at school, I would get physically ill and then call home to my parents. I missed 17 days of school in a very short period, because my parents and the doctors initially assumed I was ill. I also slept with my parents or on their bedroom floor for fear of being separated from them. The doctor ran a complete battery of tests to ensure that there was not a physical explanation for my illness. Upon completion of these tests, he recommended that I see a psychologist for further analysis. The psychologist then diagnosed me with Separation Anxiety Disorder. After several appointments with her, she began coaching my parents in how to get me to sleep in my bedroom again and how to get me to stay in school. After a period of time, I was able to get through the issues, return to my own bedroom, and return to school without experiencing any physical symptoms.

Separation Anxiety Disorder is a condition that can affect people of all ages, but according to DSM-IV-TR, must be evident before the age of eighteen. It must last for at least 4 weeks, and must also cause harm to the child in at least one part of their life. The final requirement is that the issues are not part of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, panic disorder, or any other mental disorder.

 Finally, the DSM provides a list of eight separate characteristics and requires three of them for a diagnosis. I demonstrated the first one, “recurrent excessive distress when separation from home or major attachment figures occurs or is anticipated,” in the form of crying and just general emotional discomfort whenever I would be away from my parents, but most of this issue is actually more specific issues that are characterized in other pieces of the disorder.

“Persistent reluctance or refusal to go to school or elsewhere because of fear of separation,” was one of the most obvious issues. In the first few days of sixth grade, I attended so little school that teachers and counselors were noticing.

“Persistent reluctance or refusal to go to sleep without being near a major attachment figure or to sleep away from home,” was evident in my need to sleep near my parents. It is abnormal for a 12-year-old to insist on sleeping with her parents because she is afraid they will leave.

Next, “repeated complaints of physical symptoms (such as headaches, stomachaches, nausea, or vomiting) when separation from major attachment figures occurs or is anticipated,” was one of the most crippling symptoms. Upon separation, whether at night or school, I would begin vomiting. I believe this can be explained through unwanted operant conditioning. I discovered that physically getting sick allowed me to leave school and return home. So, it acted as a reinforcer to my getting sick, and although probably the result of an actual illness, my body discovered that it got me what I wanted. My parents unknowingly granted me the reinforcer.

Finally, “persistently and excessively fearful or reluctant to be alone or without major attachment figures at home or without significant adults in other settings,” was part of my diagnosis. At a time when most kids my age were begging to stay home alone, I would not do it, and there was a very short list of adults I would stay with, all of whom were close family.

 There are three specific criteria that I cannot be sure if I experienced; “persistent and excessive worry about losing, or about possible harm befalling, and major attachment figures, persistent and excessive worry that an untoward event will lead to separation from a major attachment figure (e.g., getting lost or being kidnapped) and repeated nightmares involving the theme of separation.” It would not surprise me if I did experience these things, but I do not remember the time in my life well enough to know if this was actually the case. Most specifically, I remember being physically ill and uncomfortable, but I do not remember the cause of my worrying or if the nightmares existed. Because I met enough of the other symptoms, I could be diagnosed without these things.

The etiology of separation anxiety is very similar to that of most other anxiety disorders. One of the main biological aspects is the general vulnerability factor, or the idea that all people are prone to some degree of anxiety, suggests that I may be on the high end. I would suspect that my mother is on the high end of anxiety levels, so it is very likely this is inherited. `Although some disorders are finding changes in there neuroanatomy, there are no specifics on separation anxiety in children to relate to my issues, but it is hypothesized that anxiety disorders are caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Behavioral inhibition can explain some childhood anxiety disorders because it is an issue that causes children to not participate in the society around them. I do not believe this was my problem, because I have never had a problem participating in the people and things around me.

The psychologist I saw used a behavioral and cognitive treatment called exposure to treat my condition. Because someone has been exposed to his fear, they can then overcome it. Specially, in my situation, in vivo exposure was used. She simply insisted that I do the things I was fighting. My parents left me in my bedroom and left me the necessities to care for myself should I get sick. They then ignored me for the night. They then did this for a period of nights until I was able to sleep alone. They also worked with a school counselor and arranged for me to go to his office when I felt I was about to get ill. I would then stay there until I could return to class, instead of going to the office where they would allow me to call home.  This is in vivo exposure because they forced me to face my specific fear and problems. Leaving me in school or in my own room showed me that it would not seriously harm me in any way, and as much as I could be told this, I need the in vivo exposure to show me this. It is also possible to use imaginal exposure. In this situation the person simply imagines that the event or situation is occurring. This is most useful when it is a fear rooted in the past, such as in the case of a rape victim. Finally, relaxation techniques can be taught to help the patient deal with their anxieties.

There are other possible treatments. A psychoanalytic perspective could be taken, and a psychologist could try to talk to the patient to try to understand what the base of the problem at hand is. They spend a large number of sessions trying to uncover the roots of the issue at hand. This can be effective, but it takes a long period of time. There are also biological ways to treat conditions such as separation anxiety disorder, such as medication. Although anti panic medication can be given to anxiety patients, it has been found that anti depressants actually help to treat the base of the problem. Anxiety medications simply treat the panic in the moment. There are also psychosurgeries that can do away with some anxiety disorders, specifically obsessive compulsive disorder. Cognitive and behavioral theories often have the best long term success, but medication has also proven to be very useful.

I selected this topic because it was a trying time in my life and it is comforting to know that something I felt alone in is actually a legitimate psychological condition. It is also interesting to reflect on something that happened many years ago and look at it from a different perspective. At the time, I was young and scared. I can now examine the symptoms more objectively and consider the effect this could have on my life. Although this was not a positive time in my life, I feel as if it is what is driving me to be a psychologist because of my experiences, both positive and negative, at that time.

This knowledge is also important, because it is speculated by psychologists that there are connections between separation anxiety disorder and other panic and anxiety disorders. If a connection is found, it would then be easier to focus on prevention of later psychological conditions of people who experienced separation anxiety as young children. By better understanding this topic I may be able to help myself in the future.

Sample Psychlog 11 - Psy100

On July 12^th, 19xx Gary and Susan N. were blessed with fraternal twin daughters named Rebecca and Rachael. Rebecca was born with bright red hair, while Rachael was born with her mother’s dishwater blonde hair. Both Rachael and Rebecca were raised in a small rural town just an hour south west of Pt. Huron called xx. Their parents made the decision that, although they were twins, Rachael and Rebecca would be encouraged to pursue their own interests instead of conforming to the twin stereotype. As time progressed both Rachael and Rebecca took a common interest in soccer. They played AYSO soccer for many years, and were always on the same team, by their mother’s request. Rachael began piano lessons in fifth grade, and Rebecca began learning trombone in sixth grade, so music was also a common interest among the twins.  As the girls entered middle school, their personalities began to take on unique characteristics. In school, Rebecca was a shy, studious, observant student while Rachael was an active, outgoing student leader. However, at home the roles were reversed, Rebecca became the dominant twin and Rachael became studious and reserved. Rachael and Rebecca were born with the same eye color and have also developed similar body types. However, Rachael and Becky do not share the same hair color. The ultimate question scientists are asking is whether their similar interests, personality traits, and body types are due to their genes or a combination of factors.

Heritability is defined as an estimate of the “proportion of the total variance in a trait that is attributable to genetic variation within a group (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.87).”  For example, physical traits such as eye color among a group of healthy adults are highly heritable because the variance in color is due to the genetic code that person has inherited from their biological parents. On the other hand, someone’s etiquette or social behavior may be contributed solely to the environment in which they were raised. Perhaps that person was abused as a child and thus avoids physical contact. The harmful environment that that child was exposed to is what caused their fear of physical contact, not their genetics. Therefore etiquette and social behavior have a low heritability rate. Heritability is an inconsistent statistic that applies to a specific group of people living in a specific environment (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.87). If a group of people all live in the same type of environment, in terms of receiving proper nourishment, education and family support, then the differences in intelligence measured among those people will be mainly due to genetics because the environment is held constant for everyone. Also, heritability statistics can not be applied to individual people because each person has their own unique genetic code and life experiences that contribute to their personal traits. Excelling in one subject doesn’t necessarily mean that you were genetically predestined to excel in that subject. It may just be the result of inspiration from your past. Additionally, even highly heritable traits can be affected by an unfavorable environment. For example, children in Africa that are starving for food may never grow up to be full bodied adults because although genetically they may be capable of achieving an average height, their environment prevents them from receiving the proper nutrition to do so.

In order to study heritability, it is surprisingly inaccurate to use biological relatives within families. Although biological parents contribute to the genetic makeup of a child, not all of that child’s traits can be attributed to genetics because many members of that immediate family often share a home environment which may also contribute to that child’s personality traits. For instance, a child in a family of people who like to eat lots of sweets will most likely develop a taste for sweets, but that cannot be contributed directly to their inherent genetics because the sweets were made available by people in his or her environment. Therefore, a better approach is the study of adopted children (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). The adopted child has one set of genes from their biological parents, yet they’re raised by two adoptive parents who contribute to their environment (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). The correlation between the traits the child exhibits compared to their biological and adoptive relatives help produce an estimate of heritability as the result of genetics or environment (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). Alternately, the third approach of comparing identical and fraternal twins also proves sufficient. The difference between fraternal and identical twins is that identical twins develop from one fertilized egg (monozygotic), while fraternal twins develop from two separately fertilized eggs (dizygotic) (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). The identical twins are born with an identical genetic code, and conversely the fraternal twins are no more similar then any other siblings in that family (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p.89). Often in research, groups of same sex fraternal twins are compared to groups of identical twins. The assumed theory is that identical twins will respond similarly because they share a genetic code. To combat this assumption, identical twins that have been separated in infancy and raised separately are used in most heritability studies. When the twins are separated at an early age, any similarities in the traits of the identical twins may be contributed to heritability because their environments are different, so any commonalities are probably due to genetic heritability (Wade & Tarvis, 2006, p. 90). 

Rebecca and Rachael are fraternal twins, and consequently should not be any more similar then any other siblings, yet it is not clear whether their similar personality traits and interests can be attributed to their genetic predispositions or the environment in which they exist. Is it the result of genetics that both twins enjoy soccer and music? In this scenario, heritability is harder to determine because the twins live in the same home and share an environment. They may both be genetically inclined to excel at both music and soccer. However, those skills may have been developed through practice and inspiration in their environment as well. Ideally, to test the heritability of this situation, Rachael and Rebecca should have been separated at birth as in the previously mentioned study with same sex identical twins to determine which character traits were inherited. Any distinct similarities in personality would most likely be the result of genetics if they were raised separately. Yet there is no scientifically accurate method for determining whether a person’s interests are the result of genetics or environmental cues. In the reality of this situation, heritability cannot be applied effectively because Rachael, Rebecca and their family all live in the same environment that promotes or discourages the same things, and because of the fact that heritability can not be applied to individuals.

 

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