Posted: March 12th, 2024

Mental health in the movies

Movie Choices and Disorders Depicted
By the time of this second assignment, you have already hopefully picked and watched one of the films and associated disorder, and received back your marked literature review. For ease of access the movie links are repeated below. I need help writing my essay – research paper see the first assignment handout for other notes.

1. Nichols, M. (Director). (1990). Postcards from the Edge [Film]. Columbia Pictures.

The film depicts cocaine use disorder being experienced by Suzanne (Meryl Streep). [She actually uses multiple drugs but the cocaine use is indicated as central] (Note: The movie is Rated M for occasional course language. See https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100395/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg for content advisories.).

Mental Health in the Movies
This second assignment consists of three separate sections, which are submitted together.
Overview
a 1,100 word . The major assignment is made up of three separate sections plus a final reference list:
Part 1: Case formulation
Discuss the 4P’s and the biological, psychological and social factors that contributed to the presentation of symptoms of the disorder experienced by the character in your chosen film. Discuss what information is missing from the movie that would inform your formulation.
Part 2: Diagnosis
Discuss whether the disorder was portrayed accurately in your chosen film. Do this by discussing what symptoms from the disorder according to DSM-5 criteria 1) are present, 2) are absent, and 3) what additional symptoms were shown that are not part of the particular disorder. End the section by explicitly stating if you felt the movie accurately portrayed the disorder.
Part 3: Stigma
Discuss the positive and negative message/s that your chosen film gives the public about people with a specific disorder, and how these may impact on the public perception of the disorder.
Reference list:
An APA formatted reference list should be provided at the end of the document and contain all references used in the assignment.

Structure of the Assignment
I need help writing my essay – research paper note that the word counts here are shown as a guide only (only the overall word count is enforced). Use subheadings to clearly reflect the separate parts of your essay.

Part 1: Case Formulation
This task develops your ability to apply the knowledge of general causes and theoretical explanations of a disorder with respect to a particular case
Given your research for the literature review, you should have a clear idea of the biopsychosocial factors that are generally relevant to your chosen disorder. Therefore, in this section you are required to:
The Task: Discuss what biopsychosocial factors might be specifically relevant for this particular character’s disorder? If you had the chance, what information would you additionally want to find out about, and why?
You should utilise the basic grid framework that you have used in your seminars to identify what biopsychosocial factors according to the 4 P’s might be specifically relevant for the character in your chosen film, and the presentation of the disorder. As highlighted in the seminars (and rubric), be sure to carefully consider the strengths (protective factors) relevant to the character in the film.
As 4 P’s depend on what you define as the initiation of the episode, you can for the purposes of this assignment, assume for Postcards on the Edge that the disorder starts in her teenage years, and for You Were Never Really Here that it starts at the combat incident during the Middle East.
Additionally, as films are obviously not designed to give us full case formulations and so the formulation is incomplete, discuss two additional areas of information you would like to get, and note why (phrase these in the form of a question).
The Suggested Word Count: Approximately 450 words
The Suggested Structure:
1) Predisposing Factors: 1 biological, 1 psychological, 1 social
2) Precipitating Factors: 1 biological, 1 psychological, 1 social
3) Perpetuating Factors: 1 biological, 1 psychological, 1 social
4) Protective Factors: 1 biological, 1 psychological, 1 social
5) The two questions that you would most like to ask the character to inform your formulation, and why you would ask these.

FAQ:
1) Do we need to reference? No, not unless you are making statements of fact (e.g., “Genetics is a known predisposing factor”) or you bring research into the discussion yourself (e.g., “Past research has shown that…”). So long as you are theorising (e.g., “Genetics may be a predisposing factor”) then you do not need to reference.
2) But what if I can’t see a factor? If you cannot see a factor, you need to explicitly state that this factor(s) was not apparent in the movie. Otherwise we don’t know if you believe it is not there, or just forgot to talk about it! Note: Not every film covers every factor (they are films rather than educational tools) so not every factor will always be visible.
3) Do we need to be explicit? Yes, you need to explicitly state “A predisposing biological factor was…”. Without this, it will be just a list of factors and the marker will be unable to determine if you have understood the 4Ps or biological/psychological/social model.
4) Do we need to justify factors? This depends a lot on the factor. The marker will be looking to make a determination of if you have understood the model, so if a factor is clearly biological predisposing (e.g., genetic predisposition) then you would not need to justify this. But if it is subject to interpretation as either a different P (e.g., it could be predisposing or perpetuating) or a different biological, psychological or social factor (e.g., it could be psychological or social) then you would need a very brief justification for why you have placed it under that factor. As with the literature review above, there is not necessary a “correct” place it should be, so long as the marker can see your reasoning.
5) What sort of questions to ask? For example, if you don’t get information about the social support an individual has in the film, you may want to enquire about that, as you know more generally from reading for your first assignment (literature review) that this is an important factor.
Part 2: Diagnosis
The Task: Indicate how the disorder is portrayed within the movie and evaluate its accuracy.
You should discuss all the possible symptoms of the disorder; and comment on whether the character shows all possible symptoms, or only some of the possible symptoms of the disorder.
You should back up the diagnosis with the relevant symptoms displayed by the character. In other words, explain why the diagnosis is appropriate. Refer to the film to illustrate the symptoms that the character demonstrates, with respect to DSM-5 criteria for the disorder
If you are referring to a particular point in the movie that a symptom is shown, please also indicate the approximate time this occurred (h:mm) in parentheses [e.g., “John is shown hiding his food (1:20)”].
You also must discuss whether there are some symptoms displayed in the movie that do not fit with typical presentations of the disorder (this is not uncommon in “Hollywood” depictions of mental illness).
The Suggested Word Count: Approximately 350 words

The Suggested Structure:
1) Mention you are using the DSM-5 and provide a reference for this (reference the DSM-5)
2) Discuss all symptoms of the disorder (ones that are in the movie and explicitly state ones that are not in the movie)
3) Discuss 1-3 additional symptoms (symptoms shown by the character that are not part of the diagnosis of the disorder)
4) Conclude with a brief discussion of if the film accurately portrayed the disorder, drawing on symptoms of the disorder shown, symptoms not shown and additional symptoms
FAQ:
1) Do we need to write out the DSM-5 criteria? No, please don’t!
Once you have alerted the reader you are using the DSM-5 you are free to paraphrase where appropriate and use (A1) or (A2) when referring to symptoms.
For example, “John’s symptoms meet the criteria for acute stress disorder as he was personally in a life-threatening car accident (A1) and witnessed this as it occurred to his friend in the passenger seat (A2)”.
If symptoms aren’t present, mention that briefly too. You could say, e.g., “there was no indication that David had sleep disturbance (A4) or loss of energy (A6)”. Or, “Hughes does not appear to consume alcohol or any licit/illicit substances that could better explain his physiological or psychological symptoms (C).”
Assume the marker has a copy of the DSM-5 criteria with them, but you need to still orientate them to which symptom you are discussing.
Do I need to “make” the character’s symptoms meet the criteria for the disorder? No, the task is not to make the person’s symptoms meet the criteria (e.g., to “twist” some scenes in order to ensure that the right number of criteria are demonstrated), but to get you to apply the criteria sets. However, obviously if you cannot get the character’s symptoms to meet the criteria for the disorder, you would be arguing that the film did not portray it accurately or did not portray the full reality of the disorder.
2) Is XXX a symptom…? So long as there is a clear argument for why you believe something is or is not a symptom, the marker will be satisfied. In addition, make sure to apply the critical thinking from the week 1 seminar on abnormality. For example, if you wake someone from a nap and they are drowsy, this is not necessarily a clinical symptom indicating fatigue, so you would need to justify to the marker if you felt this was meeting a criterion from the DSM-5.
3) Timestamps? Yes, for this section, you will need to include timestamps of where symptoms are shown. This is to help the marker go look up that part of the film if you are offering a novel interpretation. This is important in this section so we can go and see what you are seeing (especially if you are being creative).

Part 3: Stigma
The Task: Discuss one positive and one negative message the movie gives the public about people with the specific disorder shown in the movie and how these messages may increase or decrease stigma associated with the disorder.
The Suggested Word Count: Approximately 300 words
The Suggested Structure:
1) One positive message the film indicates about the disorder.
2) One negative message the film indicates about the disorder.
FAQ:
1) Is this related to the movie or stigma in general? This section is specifically related to the messages this movie sends the public. Many people in the general community get their perceptions of mental illness through films (hence why a movie rather than a case study).
2) How many messages should I write about? You should include one positive and one negative messages relating to the depiction of the disorder
3) Sounds rather opinion based – can I use “I” and do I have to reference? Yes, you can write this section in first person and there is no need to reference in this section. However, if you are justifying your opinion by referring to a specific scene in the film please provide approximate time stamps.
OVERALL TASK: Spelling, punctuation, grammar, presentation and language, and APA 7th edition formatting and referencing are also worth marks.

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