Final Project Directions

Abnormal Psychology in the Movies

For your final project you will be writing a paper in APA format. (See details below.) Your paper should be approximately 4-5 pages or 1200-1500 words. Your paper will focus on the main character of one of the movies listed below. Each character suffers from a particular mental illness (or illnesses) covered in this course.

• What About Bob?
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Rain Man
• Melancholia
• The Good Son
• Fight Club
• Boys Don’t Cry
• Leaving Las Vegas
• When a Man Loves a Woman
• A Beautiful Mind
• Girl, Interrupted
• Shutter Island
• The Hours
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• Requiem for a Dream
• 28 Days

It is your responsibility to find a way to watch one of those movies.

Please post your movie choice in the “Final Project Movie Selection” discussion forum before the end of week 1.

After watching your selected movie, it’s time to focus on the writing portion of this assignment. The goal of your paper is to analyze the main character and his or her abnormal psychology.

Please utilize the following headers within your paper:

1. Introduction: Introduce the character you are writing on and summarize the plot
2. Symptoms & Diagnosis: What specific symptoms did the character experience in the movie? What diagnosis would you give them?
3. Nature or Nurture: Was the character’s mental illness a result of biological or environmental influences? Explain.
4. Treatment: What type of treatment would you recommend for the character? Be specific.
5. Prognosis: Good or bad? Why?
6. Conclusion: Summarize your main points and reflect. Did you enjoy the movie you selected? Did the movie teach you anything you didn’t know already about mental illness? Was it a realistic portrayal of mental illness?

I would like you to reference at least three sources in this paper. The textbook may be one of your sources.

**Be sure to review the grading grid so that you will be aware of how your paper will be graded. This should also serve as a guide to help you remember to include all of the important elements in the paper. Most importantly, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE YOUR WORK!!! Write in your own words and when in doubt–CITE! 🙂 Plagiarized work will result in an instant zero for the paper. Do not go to a website, copy and then paste and expect it to count as your paper. Your paper will be scanned for plagiarism so do not make this error.

Grading Grid for Research Paper

Item Description	Percent
Uses scholarly and credible references (Minimum of 3 required) (One may be your textbook)	15%
Adequately covers the provided topics and using headings to organize paper (centered and bold). Body of paper is at least 1000 words.	55%
Content in introduction (including main points and thesis) and content in conclusion (5% each)	10%
Organization: Follow APA formatting and include a word count	10%
Spelling/Grammar	10%
Total: