HPS308 Assessment Task 1: Literature Review
Overview:A 1,500 word (10% leeway) assignment worth 40% of the overall unit grade (35% for HPS788).One of the general goals that diagnostic classification systems are intended to serve is that knowledge of what kind/type of disorder a person is experiencing should allow you to gather
additional knowledge from the literature regarding potential causes/maintaining factors/etc.Such knowledge of causes is a key-learning objective for this unit (Unit Learning Outcome 1). Therefore, you are required to:
HPS308 Psychopathology Literature Review Assignment-Deakin University Australia.
The task: Critical Literature Review
Perform a critical literature review discussing biological, psychological and social factors that are most strongly linked to the aetiology and/or maintenance of the disorder in your chosen film (either Post traumatic Stress Disorder or Cocaine Use Disorder). In so doing, you should clearly evidence whether an integrative approach is superior to unidimensional models (e.g., better than models with only biomedical,psychological, or social causes).
Please ensure that you read and work with the marking rubric when planning and writing your assignment. Note that the movie should not be discussed in the literature review (save that for assignment 2!)
Suggested Structure
1)Title Page (not included in word count)
2) Introduction (generates interest, overview of what will be discussed, including brief description of the clinical features of the disorder and why it is important to understand its causes, and what this review will do)
3) A major biological factor that contributes to the aetiology and/or maintenance of the disorder portrayed in your chosen film.
4) A major psychological factor that contributes to the aetiology and/or maintenance of the disorder portrayed in your chosen film.
5) A major social factor that contributes to the aetiology and/or maintenance of the disorder portrayed in your chosen film.
6) Discussion of potential ways in which the biological, psychological, and social factors could add to each other in causing/maintaining the mental illness (e.g., do they interact, is a single factor by itself sufficient to explain all cases of the disorder; you should also briefly touch on this throughout the review), leading to:
7) Short conclusion (summarise main points from body of essay, including overall limitations in the literature and future directions, and clearly address whether an integrative model is useful for this disorder).
8) Reference List (not included in word count).
9) Appendix: A print out showing at least one relevant search attempt using EBSCO Host or other scholarly search engine (not included in word count).
HPS308 Psychopathology Literature Review Assignment-Deakin University Australia.
A Whole Bunch of FAQs!
1.Why did you pick these films? These films are terrible!
The point of this assignment is not necessarily about picking the best films (we are psychologists, not movie critics), but rather films that are suitable for the assignment (although, we are not deliberately trying to pick awful ones!) Specifically, the films must depict mental illness in some way and have some information regarding the origin of that illness. Additionally, many mainstream movies have been extensively analysed online and so
are not suitable (e.g., Girl Interrupted, The Cable Guy; Adaptation), or alternatively are just not available to us (e.g., many Warner Brother’s films are hard to license for streaming, so we can let you all watch them without purchasing!) That said, we hope that this is more interesting and more useful assignment than would be e.g., a lab report, which you get in other units. If you have any ideas for films for the future, let us know on discussion board and and we’ll see whether we can source them for future
trimesters. If you have any ideas for films for the future, let us know on the discussion board and we’ll see whether we can source them for future trimesters.
2) Should I mention the film in the literature review?
No, you shouldn’t! Only discuss the film in the second assignment.
3) Can I use headings?
Yes, please do use headings (e.g., biological, psychological, social, conclusion) to clearly structure the sections.
HPS308 Psychopathology Literature Review Assignment-Deakin University Australia.
4)But there are so many possible factors?
Choose one for each dimension that is prominent in the literature (e.g., genetics, stress, etc.).
5) Is it like a laboratory report introduction?
Think macro not micro. A literature review is different from a laboratory report as it seeks to give “the big picture” to the reader. Therefore, the focus of the literature review should not be walking the reader through 1-2 papers in a lot of depth, but synthesising information from a wide variety
of sources.
6) What is a “critical” literature review?
The purpose of a critical literature review is to carefully evaluate the literature and not present it as though it is fact. To do this, you can discuss limitations, gaps in the literature, controversies, differing opinions etc. You are not expected to discuss these for individual studies, but for areas as a
whole (as the limitations of one study are often accounted for by another in the area).For example, if you focused on domestic violence as a factor that contributes to the maintenance of Major Depressive Disorder then you might be critical of this area by alerting the reader to a gap in the literature concerning same-sex relationships, the literature being predominantly based on Western cultures, etc.
7) Referencing questions (type, number, date)?
We will not specify a minimum number of references as this varies widely based on the factors you choose, the disorder, and the type of argument you choose to make. While we encourage you to use the textbook and review papers (e.g., literature reviews and meta-analyses) as a starting point, you will not receive more than a pass grade if you do not go beyond this to the original literature. You should be citing peer-reviewed and not be using
non-scholarly web-pages to source information (i.e., don’t copy Wikipedia!). Age of references should be within last 10 years (unless it is a landmark paper in the area -e.g., still being cited as the most credible paper or the only paper on the issue).
8) Will we get some help with this assignment?
Of course! Week 3 of the seminars will go through how to find literature (using EBSCOHost) and write a review. There is also a library resource on the Cloud site. There will be a discussion in a narrated power point, and there will also be example HD assignments.
9) Help – What type of factor is this?
We get asked frequently if a factor is biological,psychological or social.
Some factors are clearly within one factor; for biological this might be genetics, neuro chemistry (neurotransmitters), the endocrine system, brain structure and brain functioning. For psychological, this might be beliefs, schemas, thinking styles (also called cognitive distortions), coping beliefs, appraisals, threat biases, memory, locus of control, etc. For social, this might be the social support one actually receives,trauma, SES, living situation, culture, gender roles, etc. However, some factors are not so clear. For example, social support can be psychological (i.e., perception of the availability of support) or social (actual support one receives). Gender might be referring to a biological difference (i.e., biological sex; differences in hormones) or a cultural/social societal role (social), or internalised
beliefs related to this (psychological).Other examples might be from one factor but lead to changes across all three: e.g., childhood trauma is social (occurred outside the person in the environment) but leads to biological responses (fight or flight, neuro chemical changes) and psychological
changes (changes in attachment and self/world beliefs).
When a factor is questionable, you will need to more clearly justify it (i.e., why are you arguing that perceived social support is psychological).
Most importantly, when considering which heading to place any of your factors under (biological, psychological or social) determine how you will be explaining the link to the disorder.
10) Do we need to define terms?
You may think of your audience (i.e., marker) as well educated, but not specifically in the area of psychopathology (e.g., you would need to define quite-specific terms like “oxidative stress”). If in doubt, always best to define.
11) How do we conceptualise a factor?
Be sure to conceptualise the link between your factor and the aetiology and/or maintenance of the disorder. Often, assignments will strongly evidence a link between a factor and the condition, but you are also expected to explain how/why there is a link between the two. For example, stating there is a link between domestic violence and Major Depressive Disorder shows the link, but you would then need an explanation for how/why it contributes to the aetiology/maintenance of the disorder (such as domestic violence might lead to isolation of individuals from their family and support networks meaning they are unable to seek help or emotional support). Without the conceptualisation, the literature review will not be answering the assignment question.
12) I want to discuss treatment?
Treatment is relevant only to the extent that it informs causative factors. DO NOT spend a section in the first, lit review assignment, e.g., just
discussing which medications or treatments are good for the disorder. However, if e.g., an SSRI is useful for depression, then to some extent that implies that serotonin is involved in its causation or maintenance (although it is not direct evidence, and this reasoning can be critiqued; e.g., search for “paracetamol deficiency” depression, in google). Regardless, you would need to (briefly) explicitly say how treatment informs identification of aetiological/maintaining factors though, as your marker won’t assume this is your aim.
13) I want to discuss two factors for each domain (biological, psychological, social)?
The assignment guide states 1 biological, 1 social, and 1 psychological factor. This is mainly due to the limited word count.If you find it difficult to focus on just 1 factor, or if you believe not discussing 2 factors will weaken the overall explanation/argument, then you may choose to mention both. However doing so will inevitably lead to not having enough words to discuss both in depth. Therefore, you may not lose marks directly from discussing 2 factors, but from not being able to discuss the factors
in sufficient depth. If you find 2 factors that are always studied together and find it difficult to focus on only one of those, you can perhaps focus your explanation on one of those 2 factors, and mention the other briefly to strengthen the argument.
14) There are mistakes/errors in the example assignments?
They are very well written papers, however they are not perfect, and they may not have been given HD on every criterion. In fact, there is no single paper that is perfect whether it is written by a student or a professional researcher. Every paper will have some sort of mistakes or some parts that could be improved. Therefore, it is natural that you may find some errors or mistakes in the HD example papers. Rather than focusing on small detail in
the HD example papers (e.g., number of citations, formatting, etc), you may want to compare those to the rubric focusing on the main criteria. These example papers have been chosen as examples as they did a great job on the main tasks of this assignment such as providing theoretical explanations on the link between factors and specific symptoms of a disorder, providing critical evaluation of the literature, using the
evidence to argue whether the integrated approach is better than uni-dimensional approach very well, etc.
15) What do you mean by a print-out of a search?
Week 3 of the seminars will discuss how to use EBSCO Host. We expect you to print out one of your searches showing relevant search terms you have used. There is an example on the cloud. It doesn’t particularly matter which scholarly search engine you use if you already have a preference (e.g., EBSCO Host vs Google Scholar) as long as you use one (and not just
plain old normal google)!
16) What if I want to pick another film or a disorder outside of the ones specified? I really want to talk about my favourite film!
You cannot choose another disorder outside of the two specified, or another film. If you do so you will receive a marks penalty for doing so, of 20% of the overall possible mark (amongst other problems, this is because otherwise we would have to get our markers to watch potentially hundreds of different movies before they can fairly grade your work, which is outside of our capacity!)Please note – if you cannot watch both of the chosen films for some reason (e.g., they both are personally triggering) please contact me and I can arrange an alternative.
17) Can I ignore the in-text references in the word count? What is included in the word count?
Word count is 1,500 words (plus the 10% leeway you can go up to
1,650). There is no penalty for being under, but if you are well below this, you would be concerned you have not met the requirements of the task. Reference lists at the end of the document, running page headers/page numbers and your title page are not included in the word count, but ALL other text is (including in-text citations, headings and subheadings, tables if you choose to use them). At 1,650 words, we will stop reading. No words beyond this point will be considered when marking.Basically, everything from the start of your main essay to the last word before the reference list!
18) What file types for submission:
Most types are OK – but please avoid .pages files(Mac users!) as they don’t work within the mark-up software (we can’t give feedback!).
HPS308 Psychopathology Literature Review Assignment-Deakin University Australia.
19) What are the late penalties?
will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five days; where work is submitted more than five days after the due date, the task will not be marked and the student will receive 0% for the task Note, as per the unit guide, from Monday 22 June 2020, Deakin has a universal
assessment submission time of 8 pm AEST. A late penalty will apply to assessments submitted after 11.59pm Melbourne time. Please note, penalties are from the overall possible mark (i.e., 5 of 100%) and per 24 hour period (e.g., so an assignment given a mark of 75%, that is submitted 30 hours late, is “2 days”, so a 65% mark).
20) How do I get an extension?
There’s a form on the cloud site (Tools Extension Application). These are dealt with centrally (not by the unit chair).
21) How do I reference the DSM?
In brief: American Psychiatric Association. (2013).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
22) What are the submission requirements?
You receive marks for conforming to APA This includes:
a. being double spaced;
b. including 2.54 cm margins (1-inch) on all sides;
c. being in a 12-point font size (Times New Roman is preferred, or Arial);
d. if using subheadings, still need to have “topic sentences” in your paragraphs (a useful check here – if you were to remove the subheading, would the paragraph still make sense?);
HPS308 Psychopathology Literature Review Assignment-Deakin University Australia.