Part 1:Please read the following vignette about a fictional character, and answer the questions that follow. (300 words)

Every June for 5 years, Carlos Hernandos, now 59, and his three sons came to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to pick cabbages. They returned to Laredo, Texas each October. During these summers, Mr. Hernandos missed his wife. When he was hired for a year-round factory job in Kenosha, the family moved.

Mr. Hernandos began drinking during his adolescent years. Like many of his compadres and relatives, he believed that after a hard day's work in the sun, alcohol was a just reward. Eventually, he was up to a six-pack daily; then he added tequila, and then pot. When he was drunk, he slept in the backyard on a cot so as not to disturb the family.

In 2014, Mr. Hernandos was arrested for driving while intoxicated. He was then hospitalized for detox. In the hospital, he was told that he had cirrhosis of the liver. Alcohol counseling had been ordered by the court, but he refused inpatient treatment because he had to support his family. The counseling fared no better. Mark, his counselor, was a white man who struck him as phony and uninterested.

Mr. Hernandos did not consider himself an alcoholic; nor did he see drinking as a disease connected to his ill health. He felt that the only thing wrong with his drinking was that it had caused an arrest and a fine. He was ashamed of getting caught. He hated the AA meetings where he had to say he would always be an "alcoholic" and must quit drinking altogether. He wouldn't go along with that. He prided himself on being a smart person, so he agreed with his counselor to fulfill the court's requirements and get it over with. He promised himself secretly that next time he would find a non-drinking, designated driver or walk home and not get into such a mess again. After the required sessions, Mark closed the case.

What is Mr. Hernandos's diagnosis? How did you come to this conclusion?

What do you see may be some cultural (ethnicity/race, gender, age, etc.) implications of Mr. Hernandos that should be considered in the clinician's case conceptualization of him?

 

Psychology Question

Part 1

Question 1

Mr. Hernandos requires a differential diagnosis. This is because he is suffering from liver cirrhosis, which resulted from his past behaviours. From the definition, differential diagnosis refers to possible conditions leading to one’s illness symptoms. Therefore, in Mr. Hernandos’s case, differential diagnosis merges with his situation as the symptoms of his liver cirrhosis are based on results from the laboratory and other medical histories. Additionally, the doctors had to carry out laboratory tests to uncover the potential effects of Hernandos’s alcoholism since he was not aware of his sickness.  

Question 2

To conceptualize Mr. Hernandos, clinicians should consider age, gender, and ability status. Notably, when clinicians enlighten Mr Hernandos on the effect of his alcoholism based on his age, gender, and age, he will understand some of the long-time implications of drunkenness. In their clinical case, they should evaluate the health effects of alcohol on people past the age of fifty years. As a result, the chances of encouraging him to change his alcohol perception and change his overall alcoholism behaviour are high.  Additionally, when the clinicians disclose the importance of gender roles and how their use of alcohol undermines them, they will conceptualize him to stop taking beer or start drinking responsibly. The ability status is the other cultural-based aspect impacted by the use of alcohol. Therefore, to conceptualize Mr. Hernandos, the clinician’s case should show how alcoholism lowers or degrades a person’s ability status. 

Question 3

If I were Hernandos’s clinician, I would explain his abnormal functioning as psychodynamic and behavioural. Notably, Hernandos is experiencing a psychological challenge as he underlies his human behaviours, emotions, and feelings. Also, he has embraced the use of alcohol as his day-to-day activity, making it difficult for him to abandon this behaviour.  I will treat him by first bringing it to his attention that it is essential to accept his situation. Afterward, I will offer therapy sessions aiming at helping him understand the undesirable implications of his behaviour, thus abandoning it.

Part 2

Question 1

Before watching this film, I thought that the usage of crystal meth is done in rural areas by male adults. However, after watching the video, it came to my attention that this hard drug is done in many urban areas by males and females, youngsters and the old, and even pregnant women. I also thought that the use of this drug is not addictive like other hard drugs. Watching the video and observing the people in it, I realized several side effects of the use of this drug. For instance, I observed many people using crystal meth have rotten teeth, which often tear off; poor judgment, uncontrolled nervousness, and high spin effects.  On the social level, crystal meth leads to increased crime and uncontrolled sexual activities.

Question 2

The video showed the life of people who are addicted to crystal meth, the effect of this drug on personal and social levels. From these aspects presented in the film, I learned that the use of drugs destroys the everyday living life of people due to its devastating impacts. Also, parent’s moral decays lead to children’s behavioural problems either consciously or unconsciously. Nonetheless, when observing the people in the video, I asked myself how the addicted parents live with their children and what they offer to society. For instance, in the crime scene presented in the video, a laughing woman is revealed showing poor judgment effect of crystal meth as she says that she does know what is funny.

Question 3

The therapy presented in the film is called family therapy. In this therapy process, family members are willing to take therapeutic sessions but cannot take treatment procedures due to physical limitations and disorders. These procedures are therapeutic because they help the participants recover from their drug addiction even though it does not fully work.

Outline

Title: Psychology Question

1. Part 1

1. Question 1 - Mr. Hernandos diagnosis – differential diagnosis.
2. Question 2 - Cultural implications considered in Mr. Hernandos clinical case.
3. Question 3 - Models – psychodynamic and behavioural.

2.  Part 2

1. Question 1 My thoughts and opinion about the usage of meth prior to watching the film
2. Question 2 - Take away from the film
3. Question 3 - Therapy used in the film.