Discussion: Personality Disorders Fact or Fiction?
Discussion: Personality Disorders Fact or Fiction?
Personality disorders are chronic and persistent behavioral and emotional disturbances that are often difficult to treat. Some professionals argue that these disorders are not mental disorders at all, but personality styles—that these individuals are just odd or unusual. Review your text book and a minimum of two peer reviewed references and develop an argument for or against the inclusion of personality disorders as a diagnostic category in the next version of the DSM. Be sure to support your position with relevant research on the causation, diagnosis, and treatment of personality disorders.
Develop your position into a 2-3-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources and include a cover page and reference page. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M4_A2.doc.
By Wednesday, August 13, 2014, deliver your assignment to the M4: Assignment 2 Dropbox.
| Assignment 2 Grading Criteria | Maximum Points |
| Developed a persuasive argument for or against the inclusion of personality disorders as a diagnostic category. | 40 |
| Discussed the causation, diagnosis, and treatment of personality disorders in support of the position chosen. | 20 |
| Supported statements with reasons and research information from your text and a minimum of two peer reviewed references. | 20 |
| Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. | 20 |
| Total: | 100 |
Looking Ahead
Keep in mind that early in Module 5 the final piece of your course project is due. In this 4-5 page paper you will integrate the material you received in your interview/field research on your disorder of choice.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
