Assignment Paper

Outline for final paper, PIA 482

1. Summarize the plot of the movie (1-2 pages)
2. Identify the disorder that is portrayed in the movie (2-3 paragraphs)
3. a. Is the character described as suffering from a mental disorder by others or by the person themselves? If yes, what is the disorder? If not, how is that character described?
b. What symptoms does the person display?
c. How do these symptoms compare to the symptoms described in the DSM V from your text? Are there symptoms missing or displayed in addition to those listed in DSM V?
d. How do significant people in the person’s life react to his her/their problematic functioning?
e. Does the person recognize that he/she/they have a mental disorder and attempt to get help? If so, what type of help? If not, what does he/she/they do to cope? How well do any of these efforts work?
(2-4 pages total for question 3)
4. What is the effect of the disorder on the person’s functioning and relationships over the course of the movie? (1-2 pages)
5. What is your opinion about how well this disorder is portrayed in terms of accuracy? (1-2 paragraphs)
6. In your opinion, does this movie have a positive or negative effect on general understanding of mental illness? Is this film likely to lessen or increase stigma about mental illness among those who see it? Support your opinions with specific references to the movie, to conversations you may have had with others about the movie, and if you wish, to reviews of you movie you may have read or viewed. (1-2 pages)

This paper should be emailed to me at gold@adelphi.edu by 9:00AM, Thursday, August 6.
Papers should be sent in WORD (doc or doc.x) or PDF format only.

Any other format will be sent back and the paper will lose 5 points in grade.