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Abnormal Psychology- Diagnostic Paper

Abnormal Psychology- Diagnostic Paper

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Abnormal Psychology- Diagnostic Paper

The primary role of the film Horse Girl, Sarah, has been identified as having paranoid schizophrenia. Sarah’s primary occupation was working as a saleslady at a craft store. She had a family history of mental illnesses, with her mother and grandmother diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia. Her mother committed suicide after being diagnosed with depression. In the film, Sarah is introverted and has very few friends. However, things change after her birthday. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) criteria have been used in this paper alongside examples used to diagnose Sarah of the disorder. The report also includes a journal that has a possible treatment for Sarah. Since the journal with the treatment options is recent, it will have better treatment solutions that could have helped care for Sarah.

Diagnostic Criteria According to DSM-5 about the Movie

Schizophrenia can significantly negatively influence a person’s physical and mental health. This is because it obstructs your subconscious natural processes, making it difficult for you to think, reason, and effectively use your senses, amongst many other factors. Schizophrenia often destroys interpersonal, professional, and personal relationships (Davidson, 2019). Furthermore, it may be challenging for an individual to order his or her thoughts, and they might take actions that raise their risk of getting into fatalities or contracting severe illnesses. Schizophrenia occurs in three stages. The first stage, known as the onset, involves some changes, which include withdrawal, anxiety, lack of motivation, and poor hygiene. The next stage is the active stage, where the changes take full effect. The main visible signs include delusions, hallucinations, unusual movement, and incoherent speech. People need to be portraying at least two signs to consider the diagnosis. The last stage is residual, where a person has signs and symptoms that do not appear severe (Viher et al., 2016). At some point, the person may seem healed entirely. However, after some time, the person returns to the active stage.

Schizophrenia cannot be spread from one person to another. According to DSM-5, for a diagnosis to be made, the person being diagnosed should meet several requirements. One of the requirements is two of the five main symptoms (Davidson, 2019). The symptoms need to have lasted for one month, and their effects need to be evident after six months. The condition should have also affected their professional and social lives. The diagnosis requires several tests. One of the tests includes imaging tests of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerized Tomography (CT) scans. These tests rule out brain tumors, stroke, and brain injuries (Viher et al., 2016). Blood and urine sample tests are done to see if the changes are explanatory hence ruling out infections or poisoning. The mind’s electrical activity can be found and recorded using an electroencephalogram (EEG).

Instances where Sarah Portrayed Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia

There are several incidences where Sarah portrayed the disorder. The first instance is when her roommate’s boyfriend, Brian, finds her in the kitchen, standing very still. Brian was also the first to point out that Sarah sleepwalks (Baena, 2020, 00:21:42). Another time is during her birthday, her roommate, Nikki, invited her boyfriend and his roommate. The four spent the night drinking and smoking until Sarah started nose bleeding. That night she started a relationship with Darren. She later dreamt about being in white surroundings lying next to a man and a woman (Baena, 2020, 00:24:16). She was, however, not aware of her surroundings. This dream takes place many times in the film. Every time she had a dream, she would wake up in a place she could not recognize.

In one instance, Nikki found Sarah sleeping on many pillows on the living room floor with scratches on the wall. Sarah also saw the man from her dream immediately after experiencing another nosebleed at work. She once lost her car, only to find it later at a tow station. The state in which she found the car suggested she was the one who had left it but could not remember where and when (Baena, 2020, 00:37:05). She also found herself on a sidewalk after sleepwalking but can not explain the time lapse that took place. All these occurrences convince Sarah that aliens are abducting her because she is her grandmother’s clone. Her friend at work advises her to visit the family doctor due to her known history of mental illness.

Later in the movie, Sarah tries to convince her boyfriend to dig up her mother’s grave so that she can take her DNA and find out she is her grandmother’s clone. Darren gets confused and does not agree to the plan making Sarah accuse him of plotting against her (Baena, 2020, 01:05:35). Sarah is admitted to a psychiatric hospital after stripping naked at work. She continues to sleepwalk at the hospital while having dreams about aliens. She meets the woman in her dream in the hospital. Sarah is later discharged from the psychiatric hospital, considering that her social worker could notice no improvement.

Schizophrenia Treatment and Management: Article Summary

Although schizophrenia cannot be cured, it is frequently treatable. Sometimes people with schizophrenia are capable of completely recovering from it. This does not constitute a solution because it is impossible to anticipate who will encounter a recurrence of this condition and who will not. Medical practitioners, therefore, presume that those who recuperate from this ailment are in remission (Davidson, 2019). Schizophrenia is frequently treated using a combination of medications, therapy, and unconscious techniques. Although therapy can successfully cure most mental health issues, medications are often required to manage schizophrenia. Early identification and action are essential because they raise the chances of a good outcome. Two classes of medications are used to treat schizophrenia: standard antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics (Davidson, 2019). Typical antipsychotics, also known as 1st generation antipsychotics, restrict dopamine, a neurotransmitter the brain processes for cell-to-cell interaction. Drugs known as atypical antipsychotics work in different ways from antipsychotics of the first generation. As 2nd generation antipsychotics, they are indeed recognized. Both dopamine and serotonin, which are crucial for transmission, are inhibited by these.

A doctor may also recommend other drugs to address symptoms that develop concurrently with or as a result of schizophrenia symptoms. Additionally, they may recommend drugs to aid with antipsychotic side effects, including tremors (Davidson, 2019). The medical care practitioner is the ideal person to discuss potential prescription drugs with. They can provide more detailed information about a particular issue, such as individual opinions, living conditions, and past health records. One psychotherapy method that can help people with schizophrenia manage and sustain their disease is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) (Davidson, 2019). Lengthy therapy may be beneficial for schizophrenia treatment and linked issues like substance misuse, depression, and anxiety. If particular medications are tried, a person’s schizophrenia does not improve, and they are at risk of harming themselves or others, medical practitioners may recommend getting Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). When medication alone takes too long to act, this procedure can deliver immediate relief.

Application of the Treatment in the Article

Different people in the movie acknowledged that Sarah had a mental illness. Her family history of mental illness also demonstrates that Sarah had a mental illness. From the article, early diagnosis is likely to have better results than when the patient is diagnosed late (Davidson, 2019). Due to Sarah’s family history, she should have taken tests to determine if she was at risk of carrying a mental illness gene. It is most likely for the gene to be passed on. For example, in the film, Sarah’s grandmother had paranoid schizophrenia. Her signs and symptoms were noticed in Sarah by other people and even by Sarah herself. The people did not have a broad knowledge of what happened to Sarah or her grandmother. They said that they were crazy.

As much as Sarah had signs and symptoms of schizophrenia, no tests were done on her. She was once admitted to the psychiatric hospital for stripping at work. This is because everyone assumed she was crazy. The necessary tests would have confirmed a positive schizophrenia diagnosis, and the doctors would have taken her to a medical facility which would have provided better help for Sarah. The social worker was no help to Sarah since he just spoke to her on the first and last day of her admission to the psychiatric hospital (Baena, 2020, 01:13:59). Sarah needed a doctor who would prescribe medications and work through the recovery journey with her. She would have especially gained assistance with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It is observable that Sarah left the psychiatric hospital worse than when she arrived due to the decisions she took after.

As per the article, a sound support system would have helped Sarah recover better. Her roommate focused more on her boyfriend to observe that Sarah needed help. Her boyfriend Darren was confused and did not know how to help Sarah (Baena, 2020, 01:05:35). As for her ex-stepfather, all he seemed possible to offer was money. Her only possible support system was Joan, a workmate. Joan knew about Sarah’s family history and tried to help Sarah where she could. The people in Sarah’s life, such as her roommate and boyfriend, should have also gotten counseling on how to help Sarah get better.

References

Baena, J. (Director). (2020). Horse Girl [Film]. Douglas Brothers Production. Netflix.

Davidson, M. (2019). Cognitive impairment as a diagnostic criteria and treatment target in schizophrenia. World Psychiatry, 18(2), 171. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6502436/Viher, P. V., Stegmayer, K., Giezendanner, S., Federspiel, A., Bohlhalter, S., Vanbellingen, T., … & Walther, S. (2016). Cerebral white matter structure is associated with DSM-5 schizophrenia symptom dimensions. NeuroImage: Clinical, 12, 93-99. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158216301115

Brief Background of the Slide

Brief Background of the Slide

The slide (appendix 1 below) presents case facts for IT system issues for Derbyshire County. The slide presents an overview of the issues that continue to face Derbyshire County workers who are owed thousands in wages due to a problem in the council’s IT systems. The slide further highlights the data that the IT system at the council is supposed to store, manage, and process. The system stores the details of the staff at Derbyshire County, it manages the data on the hours employees work in the council, it processes data on the payment of the employees and staff, and manages data on wages vis-à-vis individual workers. Further, there are problems that have emerged in the council due to a lack of training. The problems with the IT systems have led to poor performance because 1500 received the wrong pay, increased work-related issues, for example, 2500 employees have not got the right wage. Other consequences include the fact that there are many unhappy employees (for instance one of the employees is owed £ 500) and there is an organization-wide time wastage, for instance, the council says they are still dealing with problems of previous months. The consequence is that there is a short-term bottleneck where process delays are leading to other inadvertent consequences such as delayed payments, unhappy staff members, and other system delays that may reflect back to the entire organization.

Reflection and Discussion

It is important to note that in the business world, competition for a bigger share of the market is being fueled by the use of digital technologies by both commercial and public sector rivals. However, the same efficiency that is experienced in the business world is now expected for every governmental institution and organization. Derbyshire County has hed some issues with technology that may be solved using proper management of information systems. When confronted with difficult IT-related circumstances, some managers find it difficult to communicate or manage IT business requirements. These predicaments are the result of a lack of understanding of Information Systems and the potential of technological innovation (Chanias, Myers, & Hess, 2019). In order to do this, information systems must first establish performance standards and then notify corporate owners when those requirements are not being fulfilled.

An effective management information system is capable of locating and collecting all of a company’s critical indicators. For example, the management information system (MIS) can offer information on sales, customer profitability, and market penetration. Furthermore, it has the capability of keeping track of items such as employee pay and benefits. A management information system is beneficial in increasing competitiveness (Sanchez & Terlizzi, 2017). Especially when it comes to creating reports and diagnosing issues, this application performs admirably. The information contained in these reports may be used by business owners to improve the performance of their company and the productivity of their personnel.

In the future, organizations such as Derbyshire County will be established on technological foundations. Everything, from end-user encounters to every internal operation, will be strongly reliant on the computer systems that operate everything. For a majority of the processes today, IT already has a strong role and foundation in establishing control and efficiency. The MIS that are used in today’s organizations are comprised of a diverse variety of technologies and the people who administer them. In addition, there are various other issues that are comparable, such as a lack of strategic planning, a lack of organizational expectations, a shortage of skilled employees, and a lack of technology integration.

In the organizations today, managers are increasingly reliant on a wide range of computer-based information technologies in order to make and implement choices in their organizations. In order to achieve specific aims, most of these systems were designed from scratch (Sanchez & Terlizzi, 2017). As a result, they differ greatly from ordinary electronic data processing systems in terms of functionality. MIS includes transaction processing systems, management support system, and office automation systems, all of which are components of a larger information system and IT integration (Chanias, Myers, & Hess, 2019). The transaction processing system is responsible for gathering and organizing information about a company’s actions. Management decision support systems are systems that are designed to assist managers in making better decisions.

Derbyshire County can use MIS to manage its human resource in order to streamline employee issues that seem to have an impact on its direction and overall wellbeing. A dynamic environment where bright new ideas and quicker time-to-market can be implemented quickly and simply is required for organizations and services that change on a regular basis. The importance of HRM in today’s competitive climate has increased in recent years, as operation models need the development of innovative approaches to employee. It has been necessary to develop new logics in order to deal with these issues, and most HRM practitioners have had to let go of old habits and ways of doing things. When it comes to human capital development, on the other hand, they should be a valuable asset to businesses, assisting them in formulating strategies and putting plans into action. HRM has been more efficient as a result of improvements in recruitment procedures, corporate communication, employee involvement, and the competencies of HR managers, among other things (Konstantinopoulou & Lazakidou, 2021). It is therefore up to human resource management departments to link human capital efforts to the most appropriate technological solutions. This approach includes HR initiatives that are driven by information technology (IT) and that are focused on connecting people with corporate strategy in order to promote fast adaptation to changing needs. As a result of these overlapping requirements, an IS/IT-driven human resources program is becoming increasingly necessary.

Everything that goes into creating and maintaining Derbyshire County information system is included in this umbrella term. The organization can solve its wages issues by simply using an accounting information system (AIS) in line with its already present IT infrastructure. AIS are used by accountants, business analysts, managers, chief financial officers (CFOs), regulators, and tax authorities to store, analyze, retrieve, and report financial data acquired by a company. The AIS at Derbyshire will be used to primarily detect and notify management of emerging issues on salaries, wages, benefits, and all pay-related issues including provision of recommendations and solutions in order to ensure that the organization remains within legal and ethical business processes. AIS are also known as financial data warehouses.

In the government-related sectors such as Derbyshire County Council, AIS training ensures that financial transactions and records are as accurate as possible while also safeguarding the integrity and security of the data. Keeping track of a company’s accounting and commercial activities is accomplished through the usage of an accounting information system. AIS are comprised of the people, data, internal controls, software, procedures and instructions, and information technology infrastructure (Sanchez & Terlizzi, 2017). Personnel, procedures and instructions, data, software, information technology infrastructure, and internal controls are the six major components of accounting information systems. These can be used to solve the issues at Derbyshire County through automating the financial section of the organization, aligned to the IT requirements.

An AIS often contains information on income, expenses, customer information, staff information, and tax information, however the exact contents vary depending on the industry and the size of the firm. The accounting cycle would be incomplete if it were not for the several components that make up an AIS to support the council in streamlining its IT structure to solve issues relating to employee pay and noting issues. The detailed data in sales orders and analysis reports, purchase requisitions, bills of sale and check registers, as well as inventory and payroll, are all examples of detailed information. Data must be stored in a database structure in order for an accounting information system to function properly. Table and data manipulation are possible in this database structure as a result of the query language that was used to create it during its creation. In an AIS, there are a number of places where information can be entered and edited. Accounting information systems, on the other hand, are often protected against viruses, hackers, and other intruders that seek to steal data (Ibrahim et al., 2020). As more organizations keep their data on the internet, the need of cybersecurity is becoming increasingly apparent (Silva & Lima, 2018). Accounting information system outputs demonstrate how a system can alter data in a variety of ways, depending on the system. Accounts receivable aging reports, fixed asset depreciation schedules, and financial reporting trial balances are some of the reports produced by AIS. Client lists, tax computations, and inventory levels are all options that can be printed as additional options. Due to the fact that they are not directly related to financial reporting or bookkeeping, correspondence, memos, and presentations are not included in the archive.

It would be virtually impossible for Derbyshire County to miss out on issues relating to its IT system problems. Having an effective AIS system will notify the entire system and the management will have a larger response window to rectify the issues. The expected benefits include internal control, interfacing departments, and overall reduction of pay-related issues. The goal of an accounting information system is to facilitate communication with other departments (Al Shobaki et al., 2017). The sales department may utilize the system to upload their sales budget, which will be available to everyone. This information is used by the inventory management team to conduct inventory counts and to acquire items (Chanias, Myers, & Hess, 2019). When an item is purchased, the system may send a notification to the accounts payable department informing them of the purchase. Additionally, the production, shipping, and customer service divisions may all be alerted of a new order through the use of an AIS. Internal controls are a key component of accounting data systems, and they cannot be overlooked. Controlling access to information may be accomplished by the use of physical access approvals, login requirements, access logs, authorizations, and work division, among other methods. As a consequence, policies and procedures for the system may be designed to guarantee that sensitive information about customers, vendors, and businesses is kept safe and protected.

Conclusion

The aim of this report was to show that the management of information systems can be used to put an end to IT-related problems at Derbyshire County and eliminate losses in the long run. The slide in Appendix 1 provides evidence that the problems with the IT systems have led to poor performance because 1500 received the wrong pay, increased work-related issues, for example, 2500 employees have not got the right wage. Other consequences include the fact that there are many unhappy employees (for instance one of the employees is owed £ 500) and there is an organization-wide time wastage, for instance, the council says they are still dealing with problems of previous months. In the end, proper management of information systems saves organizations from such issues. the discussion above shows the need for more IS/IT integration into the organization. An effective management information system is capable of locating and collecting all of a company’s critical indicators. An AIS is recommended for Derbyshire County due to its benefits that include internal control, interfacing departments, and overall reduction of fraud. In order to do this, IS must first establish performance standards and then notify corporate owners when those requirements are not being fulfilled.

References

Al Shobaki, M. M., Naser, S. S. A., Amuna, Y. M. A., & El Talla, S. A. (2017). The Efficiency of Information Technology and its Role of e-HRM in the Palestinian Universities. International Journal of Engineering and Information Systems, 1(5), 36-55.

Chanias, S., Myers, M. D., & Hess, T. (2019). Digital transformation strategy making in pre-digital organizations: The case of a financial services provider. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(1), 17-33.

Ibrahim, F., Ali, D. N. H., & Besar, N. S. A. (2020). Accounting information systems (AIS) in SMEs: Towards an integrated framework. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management (IJABIM), 11(2), 51-67.

Konstantinopoulou, A., & Lazakidou, A. (2021). Developing the ELENXIS Information System for Financial Inspections of Food and Beverage Enterprises and Health-Related Businesses. Journal of US-China Public Administration, 18(2), 93-96.

Sanchez, O. P., & Terlizzi, M. A. (2017). Cost and time project management success factors for information systems development projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1608-1626.

Silva, M. S. A. E., & Lima, C. G. D. S. (2018). The role of information systems in human resource management. Management of Information Systems, 16, 113-126.

Appendix 1: Chosen Slide

Abnormal Memory Disorders

Student’s Name:

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Abnormal Memory Disorders

PART A. Two Environmentally Influenced Abnormal Memory Disorders

Dementia is an abnormal memory disorder caused by environmental factors. The disease is caused by damage to the brain, which leads to progressive loss of the thinking ability due to brain damage. The condition leads to deterioration of the thinking capacity, impaired reasoning, and personality changes. The syndrome is most common in aging persons and may be challenging to diagnose since there are no tests that have ever been done for its diagnoses. However, the consciousness of dementia affected people usually is not affected, although it can cause disability (Henderson).

Another environmentally influenced memory disorder is the Wernicke- Korsakoff Syndrome, which is mostly caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. The disease is also a result of the lack of vitamin B1 available in thiamine. The main features of the syndrome include brain dysfunction, an altered mental state as well as other brain abnormalities. The symptoms of this disorder include short term memory, increased confusion, and amnesia. Victims of the condition are mostly reported to have abused alcohol in their past or present. They are most likely unable to process new information or activities. Victims also develop inattentiveness and agitation, while most of them appear to be apathetic (Kuhn et al.).

PART A. Two Genetically Predisposed Abnormal Memory Disorders

One of the genetically predisposed memory disorder is Huntington’s disease (HD). The condition is characterized by mood changes and loss in mental abilities, especially for the old. Other symptoms include unsteady movement and a general lack of coordination in humans. The disease is caused by a huntingtin gene mutation in humans and passed on to generations of the infected people. The condition can be diagnosed through genetic testing to the pre-exposed victims prior to the symptoms showing off. However, there is no cure for HD, and full-time care is required for patients at their late stages of the disease. Study shows that the disease affects both men and women equally, and most of them develop other conditions such as pneumonia and heart diseases due to the movement disorder (Labadorf et al.).

Another memory disorder caused by genetic factors includes Parkinson’s disease (PD). The condition is mostly associated with a movement disorder, such as being slow, impaired balance, fatigue and muscles being rigid. Further symptoms may appear as the disease progress, such as sexual problems and difficulty in swallowing food. PD is closely related to aging since most of the symptoms shown by its patients are available in aging people. Also, PD causes memory dysfunction similar to that in aging due to the destruction of the frontal lobe. Parkinson’s disease is mostly associated with cognitive impairment and difficulty in memory recognition (Lill and Christina).

Part B: Description of How the Aging Process Affects Memory, Intelligence, and Learning

As people grow older, they tend to be slower in digesting information in their brains than in their younger days. The reason is that most of there are changes in the nervous system where information inputs are translated into output. Also, the aging process minimizes the storage and retrieval capacity for information in the memory and, thus, older people will most often forget past details to process new information in their brain. Therefore, reaction time to a stimulus is faster in youths than in older adults, which means that the young will more likely respond to a surprise, unlike the elderly.

Intelligence is also affected by the aging process in that it is most common for older people to make decisions based on logic than the young. The topic is, however, debatable when based on factors such as the speed of response and verbal skills. The IQ of a person increases as they grow older, but only up to a maximum age where it starts reducing. Therefore younger adults can be said to be more intelligent than older adults. Also, learning deteriorates with the aging process. Older people take more time to understand and remember information than younger ones. The ability of the brain to process new information and hold on to it is lost as people grow older. I would, therefore, agree with the phrase that aging is inevitable, and so is memory loss and learning ability (Limbert et al.)

Part B: Techniques That Can Be Used To Improve Memory and To Continue Learning throughout a Lifetime.

People can boost and maintain their memory through healthy lifestyles. Some of the techniques that could be helping in keeping our mind intact include meditation, taking coffee, eating berries, physical exercise, and having enough sleep. Meditation helps in maintaining the short-term or working memory in that it allows people to concentrate on the short-tern information. Besides, taking coffee before an activity has been proven as a memory booster. Research that involved taking a caffeine pill after a learning task showed that remembering was boosted for 24 hours. In this study, participants were made to memorize images and later tested with different photos. The learners on caffeine would more clearly remember the pictures they had seen without confusion (Nicholson and Catherine).

Another essential technique is the visualization of information. Once the eyes have seen something, it will be easier for the brain to register the image, unlike when giving information about an unseen object. Thus, paying attention to objects, images, or pictures helps a lot in boosting and maintaining memory. Older people may draw objects from their imaginations of the information they receive to help them remember the information in the future. Finally, relating new information to something already known boosts our memory. For example, establishing relationships between the known and unknown during studying helps students understand and remember the issue (Nicholson and Catherine).

Works Cited

Henderson, Victor W. “Dementia with lewy bodies.” (2017).

Kuhn, James, Shweta Akhouri, and Edward J. Newton. “Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.” (2019).

Labadorf, Adam, Andrew G. Hoss, and Richard H. Myers. “Huntington’s Disease.” Neuroimmune Pharmacology. Springer, Cham, 2017. 503-516.

Lill, Christina M. “Genetics of Parkinson’s disease.” Molecular and Cellular Probes 30.6 (2016): 386-396.

Limbert, Megan J., Jennifer A. Coleman, and Angela Gutchess. “Effects of aging on general and specific memory for impressions.” Collabra: Psychology 4.1 (2018)..

Nicholson, Roscoe, and Catherine O’Brien. “Impact of the Educational Boost Your Brain and Memory Program among Senior Living Residents.” The International Journal of Aging and Human Development 85.4 (2017): 456-471.