Term Paper on "Autism Spectrum Disorders Wang, K, Zhang"

Quoted Instructions for "Autism Spectrum Disorders Wang, K, Zhang" Assignment:

I am sending you the instruction and sample paper that my teacher gave me, please follow exacly that it says. I need this paper for tomorrow, please don*****'t be late because after tomorrow will be too late and I won*****'t need the paper.

This paper is for Abnormal Psychology.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS PAPER

THE DUE DATE IS THE 10TH WEEK OF THE SEMESTER AND WE WILL RETURN YOUR PAPER DURING THE 15th WEEK.

1. Summarize two research articles on one disorder. The two summaries comprise ONE paper. Staple the two summaries together and attach xerox copies of the two articles you summarize.

2. Do not use case studies, epidemiology studies, or articles that only summarize a body of research. A case study is a psychological narrative of one or more clients. An epidemiology study presents data about the percentage of people who suffer from some specific disorder. I will be glad to look at your articles before you begin writing if you are not sure if they are appropriate. When looking for an article, a good way to know if you have the right ones is to see if there are sections labeled Methods, Results, Discussion.

3. The format of the paper should follow the sample papers posted on Blackboard and found at the end of this document.

4. Double space your paper. The total length of each summary should be about 3-5 pages.

5. Use spell check. If you are not a good ***** visit the Writing Center!

6. The following example is just that, an example. Your article might not describe an experimental manipulation so your summary would not look like mine. But the general format should be an introduction, a description of the research participants, how data were collected, including any questionnaires, the results of the study, and a summary taken from the discussion section of the article. Direct quotes must be bracketed by quotation marks. If you use references from the article (e.g., Freud & Skinner, 1937), you must provide a reference page at the end of your summary. You do not need to reference the article you are summarizing.

In my experience, students have a tendency to wait until the last minute to choose articles. Consequently, they end up grabbing any two articles on the topic, with no consideration for the articles***** level of difficulty. Since they have no idea what the articles are talking about, they are forced to import large sections of the articles into their paper. You will lose points this way. Since you have complete control over which articles you will summarize, be sure to choose those that you understand. Also, I am amazed and appalled at the number of papers that do not use quotation marks when exact text is reproduced. This is called plagiarism!

6. Be sure to provide a cover page that has the title of the DISORDER and your NAME. Each summary of an article should begin with the reference for the article, as shown below. INCLUDE THE ARTICLES WITH YOUR PAPER!

7. Here are three scientific journals that you might want to look at first to find articles.

Journal of Abnormal Psychology (best one)

American Journal of Psychiatry

Psychological Reports (contains the easiest articles to summarize)

Some students are finding research articles on the Net. That is fine, as long as they are copies from a scientific journal. Don*****t use magazines, like Psychology Today, or websites that provide information on the disorder and may have an article written by the webmaster.

8. Again, do not summarize chapters from book or articles that review a whole body of research on a disorder. You must use articles from journals, not magazines or newspapers.

9. Since you do not receive extra credit for picking a difficult article, keep it simple. You should not summarize an article that you cannot understand, not counting the statistical an*****s.

10. However, don*****t worry about the fact that you will find the statistical an*****s in the Results section hard, or impossible to understand. Consult the example provided below for how to summarize statistical findings in common words.

11. Some students choose articles that have lots and lots of an*****s. You don*****t have to summarize every result. It is sufficient to summarize the main an*****s and results.

12. What do we look for in evaluating your paper? We should be able to understand why the study was done (the Introduction), how it was done (Methods), what was found (Results), and what is the meaning and implications of the findings (Discussion), without us reading the original articles. We also make a judgment about whether you understand what you are writing. Excessive use of quotations usually means that you don*****t know how to explain things and so you rely on the authors to explain it for you. Finally, did you follow the correct format in writing your article?

13. How to choose a disorder. The best place to begin is the required textbook. The book is primarily organized by disorders and you can skim chapters that have not been covered before you choose a topic. You can pick a disorder that is not the subject of a class lecture.

14. Finally, you will want to define the disorder in the first summary but you do not need to define it again in your second summary.

15. I will not accept a late paper. Here are the three most common reasons for students wanting me to accept a late paper: 1) I went to print-out my paper and the disk was corrupted; 2) my computer crashed and I lost my paper, and 3) my printer broke. These events are only problems when you wait until the last day to print your paper. Also, please do not send me your paper as an attachment to an email.

THE COVER PAGE IS A SEPARATE PAGE AND INCLUDES YOUR TITLE (THE DISORDER), NAME, AND THE REFERENCES FOR THE TWO ARTICLES. I DON*****T DISPLAY A COVER PAGE IN MY EXAMPLE. ALSO, YOUR SUMMARY WILL BE DOUBLE SPACED.

Rapee, R., Mattick, R., & Murrell, E. (1986) Cognitive mediation in the affective component of spontaneous panic attacks. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 17, 4, 245-253.

The Introduction begins on a separate page.

INTRODUCTION

Panic attacks are characterized by numerous physical symptoms--including increased respiration and heart rate, muscle tension, dizziness, hyperventilation--as well as psychological symptoms, such as thoughts of physical disability or social humiliation. In contrast to patients with panic attacks, those who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have been noted to suffer their anxiety without undue concern for the consequences of high anxiety. The authors of this article point out that, *****"It could be hypothesized that this ideational difference between the two disorders highlights a factor of potential etiological importance for panic disorder; namely, that the tendency to interpret somatic sensations as indicative of a serious mental or physical disorder is at least partly responsible for the affective distress experienced during a panic attack*****" (pg. 245).

The importance of psychological factors in panic is further highlighted by research that manipulates patients*****' attributions of their physical symptoms. An attribution is a belief about the causal relation between two variables, in this instance, the physical symptoms of panic and the factors causing the panic. For example, Orwin (1973) has noted that physical exercise produces many of the physical sensations of anxiety, yet many agoraphobics do not panic when exercising because they have a rational explanation for their bodily sensations.

The purpose of the present study was to see if the symptoms of panic could be manipulated by offering different explanations (attributions) to subjects regarding the cause of their symptoms. Moreover, the authors also wanted to know if patients with a history of panic attacks would respond differently than social phobics to the experimental manipulation.

METHOD

Subjects

Subjects who met DSM-III criteria for panic disorder, agoraphobia with panic, or social phobia were included in the study. However, patients taking medication were excluded. The final sample included 16 subjects with a history of panic and 16 subjects diagnosed as social phobics.

Measures

[Some articles will discuss the assessment methods (i.e., psychological tests) and you can have a separate heading for this. You need only list the measures or assessment instruments used. You don*****t have to provide information on the validity or reliability of the instruments.]

Procedure

In order to produce unusual physical sensations, all subjects were required to breathe a mixture of CO2/O2 and hold their breath for as long as possible.

Panic and social phobic subjects were randomly assigned to the following experimental conditions.

No Explanation Condition

(This subheading comes from the article being summarized)

Before breathing the gas mixture, subjects in this condition were told that the gas may or may not affect their heart rate. (Note: I am always amazed when students use No Explanation and Explanation as subheadings in their reports. These subheadings are only relevant to the study I am summarizing here.)

Explanation Condition

These subjects were given a more complete explanation of the effects of the gas mixture. They were told that they may experience a number of physical symptoms such as chest tightness, breathlessness, dizziness, blurred vision, hot flushes, and tingling. They were told that these symptoms are often associated with panic attacks but in this instance the symptoms are not caused by an adverse reaction by the body but rather are the normal consequence of the gas mixture.

After the experimental manipulation and gas inhalation, a questionnaire was administered that assessed symptoms of anxiety and subjects*****' thoughts during the gas inhalation.

RESULTS

The results showed that the two diagnostic groups did not differ on the number of symptoms experienced. However, the panic subjects reported significantly more intense physical symptoms in comparison to the social phobics. With respect to the experimental manipulation, panic subjects in the No Explanation condition were significantly more anxious than panic subjects in the Explanation condition. However, among social phobics, there was no difference in anxiety between the two experimental conditions. An analysis of subjects*****' thoughts during the gas inhalation revealed that panic subjects experienced significantly more catastrophic thoughts in the No Explanation condition compared to the Explanation condition. Examples of catastrophic thoughts were, *****"I am going to die; Something is wrong; or I need help.*****" Among Social phobics, there was no difference between experimental conditions in the occurrence of these types of thoughts. Indeed, social phobics tended to have mostly noncatastrophic thoughts during the procedure (e.g., *****"This is rather unpleasant*****" or *****"there is nothing to worry about*****").

DISCUSSION

The results of this study show that panic subjects were prone to experience unusual physical symptoms as frightening, especially when they are not given a rational explanation for the symptoms. Moreover, panic subjects were much more likely to experience catastrophic thoughts when not given an explanation of their symptoms. In contrast, social phobics were not influenced by the *****"explanation manipulation.*****" That is, they tended not to become more upset in the absence of an explanation of their symptoms, and they tended to experience noncatastrophic thoughts.

The authors suggested that panic attacks involve a physiological discharge of bodily sensations for which the person has no explanation. These sensations trigger catastrophic thoughts that, in turn, heighten the experience of anxiety.

One implication of this study has to do with the treatment of panic. Patients may benefit by the provision of accurate information about unexpected physical symptoms and reassurance that these symptoms will not lead to their worst fears.

REFERENCES

(Here you would type the references of all studies that you included in the summary. You would literally type verbatim the relevant reference(s) as it appears in the Reference section at the end of the original article. It is not required that you use any references, however. In addition, do not include the reference of the study you are summarizing; that goes at the beginning. I have observed that several students put in their reference section every article referenced in the articles they are summarizing. Don*****t do this.)