| Critical Thinking Exercise – Instructions and Rubric |
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| Evaluation Elements: |
Points |
Heading 1: Developmental Stage
- Identify pertinent socially constructed expectations tied to your client’s developmental stage (e.g., early adulthood, middle adulthood).
- Discuss how meeting or not meeting developmental stage expectations might impact your client’s current challenges.
- Discuss how your client’s current challenges might impact their development moving forward.
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5 |
Heading 2: Risk and Protective Factors
- Identify your client’s individual and interpersonal-level risk and protective factors (2-3 risk factors and 2-3 protective factors).
- Identify your client’s system-level risk and protective factors, such as community, culture, sociopolitical climate, and historical time (2-3 risk factors and 2-3 protective factors, total).
- For example, how do system-level factors intersect with your client’s cultural beliefs, experiences of oppression, and/or health disparities?
It’s not uncommon for a protective factor to also be a risk factor. Please explain any duality in your risk and protective factors, if applicable.
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10 |
| Heading 3: DSM Diagnosis and Impacts
I know many folks haven’t used the DSM before this class. I’m not expecting you to be expert diagnosticians!
- (3 points) DSM 5 diagnosis exploration
- Which DSM 5 diagnosis do you think best aligns with your client’s presenting symptoms?
- How do your client’s symptoms map onto DSM 5 diagnostic criteria?
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- For example, “Alex met the criteria for autism spectrum disorder in the following ways: First, he showed persistent deficits in social communication by struggling to understand others’ nonverbal communications and emotions; Second, …”).
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- If it was hard to decide between two diagnoses, why (briefly answer in 2-3 sentences)?
- (5 points) Identify 2-3 ways your client’s DSM diagnosis may impact their adult development (e.g., normalize symptoms, receive appropriate treatment, stigmatization, the impact of misdiagnosis, bias within diagnoses, the effect of the diagnosis being on electronic health records, etc.)
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8 |
Heading 4: Professional Reflection
- What are important considerations for a social worker who encounters this individual?
- Discuss two ways that Caste or Critical Theory (e.g., Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, Critical Disability Theory) help you understand your client’s development.
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5 |
| The document is well-written, uses nonjudgmental language, and demonstrates primary mastery of sentence structure, with few grammatical or typing errors. |
2 |
- Length: 5-7 pages, double spaced with 1-inch margins
- You’ll find the case study in the Case Study folder.
- Purpose of the CTP assignment based on a case study:
- Critically examine the socially constructed expectations tied to developmental stages.
- Critically examine how individual, interpersonal, and system-level risk and protective factors contribute to development.
- Identify your client’s presenting symptoms, how those symptoms intersect with a DSM diagnosis and the developmental implications of a DSM diagnosis.
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