critically review the literature on the diagnosis, etiology, and treatment of Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from this ‘biopsychosocial' perspective

 

Due: By 6.00 PM, Thursday April 30th, 2015

Length:          for undergraduate (HPS395) students:      1,500 words for postgraduate (HPS795) students:                                      2,500 words

Worth: 40%

 

Instructions:

The assignment will take the form of an essay, to be written in APA format and submitted   via   the   unit’s   CloudDeakin   Assignment   Dropbox   (more   detailed instructions will be provided closer to the submission date).

 

 

ESSAY TOPIC

 

The integrative perspective on health focusses on the interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors. Write an essay in which you critically review the literature on the diagnosis, etiology, and treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from this ‘biopsychosocial’ perspective.

 

 

 

Posttraumatic   Stress   Disorder   (PTSD)   represents   an   on-going   challenge   for psychology and neuroscience, and affects potentially significant numbers of individuals. There is controversy surrounding the assessment and diagnosis of PTSD, underlying neural versus social causes of and contributors to this disorder, and the possibility of neurally-targeted intervention. Furthermore, the controversy around PTSD has a sociological, psychological, and medical component. Cognitive neuroscience  takes  an  integrative  perspective  on  disorders,  focussing  on  the interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors. Therefore, your review of the relevant controversies will not only need to be broad and integrative, it will also need to be insightful, critical, and evaluative.

 

Please note that at third level you are expected to go beyond simply describing the existing literature for PTSD.  Instead, you are required to critique, evaluate, and analyse the research, methodologies, and theories/approaches relevant to PTSD.  Is it correlational research that you are relying upon to make your argument? If so, you need to be up-front about the limitations of this research. Similarly, consider the limitations inherent in all research attempting to relate biology to behaviours, feelings, and psychological disorders:  to what extent does identifying regions in the brain and relating these regions to particular behaviours constitute an explanation of these behaviours? Do pharmacological agents used to treat disorders actually target the underlying etiology, or do they merely affect the presenting symptoms?

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