Ap Psychology - Mrs. B Case Study

¬PART 1

Case Study 1:

Neurobiological- As Mrs. B ages, certain chemical production processes begin to slow down in her body, which leads to her change in behavior that differs from how she acted 12 years prior. Her lessons are less creative because of a drop of energy in her attitude due to these chemical changes. Her eyes see this change reflected in her students, who no longer see her as a “cool, young, and energetic” teacher. Her eyes relay this information back to her brain, which interprets this bad news and causes Mrs. B to lose faith in her ability to motivate students. Her personal life events, including the death of her father and the departure of her only child, increase stress levels in her body and lead to shock. This also causes her to feel overwhelmed. In addition, she now has fewer family members to speak to and take care of at home, so this decrease in stimulus for her brain may have led to her loneliness.

Psychodynamic- The drastic changes in Mrs. B’s life, including her father’s death and the departure of her child, created an unconscious conflict. This conflict in her mind led to worry, stress, anger, and sadness. These combined feelings are what caused her lessons to deteriorate in quality. Additionally, a traumatic childhood event may have resurfaced in her memory and also aided in invoking her feelings of loneliness and being overwhelmed.

Humanistic- Mrs. B has always wanted to be a teacher, and that is why she has always planned “interesting and creative lessons” for her students. For the past 12 years, she was working on self-actualization and fulfilling this dream. However, the sudden disappearance of two close family members (her father and only child) has caused her to feel overwhelmed with sorrow and loneliness. This tragic event led to a decrease in quality of her lesson plans. When she thinks that the students find her “boring” and the principal comments that her classes were “poorly organized”, Mrs. B’s self-esteem drops, which leads to more negative feelings and a setback in her self-actualization.

Behavioral- The negative life changes in Mrs. B’s life acted as stimuli that caused her equally negative response: feelings of being overwhelmed and loneliness as well as a decrease in the quality of her work. The deterioration of her classes’ quality caused the principal to call them “poorly organized”, and the new environment made the students find her lessons less appealing. In this case, the stimulus is Mrs. B’s change in attitude and the response is the principal’s comment and the students’ new thoughts about their teacher. All this stress causes Mrs. B to confide to her friend in an attempt to share her thoughts and find help.

Cognitive- The passing of Mrs. B’s father and departure of her only child is processed in the teacher’s mind as very negative information. Because of the extremity of these two events, they are stored in Mrs. B’s memory for a very long time and have a profound impact on her daily activities, including her work. She begins to think about her dad and her child all the time because of her emotions, sadness and loneliness. Her thoughts become preoccupied with longing for her dad and child. As a result of her distracted mind, she pays less attention to creating interesting lessons for her students. Her students process this change as something negative as well, compare it to their memory of their teacher as a fun person, and conclude that Mrs. B is now “boring”. A similar process happens with the principal, who sees this change in Mrs. B’s work and tries to solve the problem by pointing out that her classes seem disorganized.

¬Case Study 2:

Neurobiological- As a 45 year-old who has never married, Barry may have lower than average levels of chemicals that make him want to socialize with others or find a significant other. These abnormally low chemical levels may be due to genetics, and he may have inherited an introvert trait from his mother. His genetics and body chemistry combine to influence his personality to prefer indirect interaction with his friends, such as through the Internet and online chat rooms. When Barry forgets to go to the blind date his friend set up, certain chemical processes in his brain speed up to produce feelings of shame and guilt. These increased chemicals cause stress and distraction, which results in him missing his project date.

Psychodynamic- Barry’s status as an unmarried older man may stem from a childhood conflict, such as rejection from a girl he liked. This event would explain why he is not married and needs a friend to set up a blind date for him. He may have been bullied and consoled only by his mother, which would explain his tendencies to avoid direct human interaction by only talking on the Internet