Psychological Difficulties Paper
Select a psychosocial difficulty that may be experienced by an individual at some point during childhood or adolescence (e.g., diagnosis with a learning disability, the experience of physical abuse, separation from a caregiver, onset of mental illness, etc.).
Explore the impact, and projected impact, of that event.
Specifically:
1. Offer a brief description of the difficulty, using at least three (3) scholarly citations to summarize what is generally known about the difficulty and its impact. Include any relevant sociocultural factors associated with the onset or maintenance of the difficulty. (1 – 2 pages)
2. Briefly describe, including age, an individual who has experienced this psychosocial difficulty, using an acquaintance (use pseudonyms instead of actual names) or fictional character. (less than a page)
3. Describe normative development (physical, cognitive, moral, emotional, social) during the period in which the psychosocial event occurred. Use course readings to support this. (1 – 2 pages)
4. Discuss how development was interrupted or altered by the experience of the psychosocial difficulty for the individual you described in #2. Also, consider how a subsequent stage of development may be affected by the experience of the psychosocial difficulty at the first stage (e.g., if you considered the impact of sexual abuse on a 10-year old, how might that same individual’s development be different at age 25 as a result of having been abused at age 10?) (2 – 3 pages)
Format: This paper should be a minimum of 4 pages, not including the cover page nor the reference page(s). It should be well written with no errors in grammar, mechanics, or spelling. The paper should be written in APA format and have a minimum of three current, and scholarly, empirical references cited within the paper and on the reference page.
