Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Value: 40% of final grade.
• Due:
o Part 1: Literature Review Proposal is due end of Sunday of Week 3.
 10% of Literature Review grade (4% of final course grade)
o Part 2: Literature Review (Final submission) is due end of Sunday of Week 5.
 90% of Literature Review grade (36% of final course grade)
• Note: Although, for time management purposes, it is strongly recommended students submit their assignments by end of Sunday in their local time zones, submissions will be accepted, without penalty, until 12:00 pm (noon) Atlantic Time, on the following day.
Description
The Literature Review represents the student's integration of the course material, as well as of a literature search of full text articles from scholarly peer reviewed journals.
Students will have a range of options in deciding how to focus their review:
• Option A: Review recent evidence concerning the diathesis/stress model of etiology in one of the following:
o Social anxiety disorder
o Generalized anxiety disorder
o Obsessive-compulsive disorder
o Major depressive disorder
o Posttraumatic stress disorder
• Option B: Review the recent evidence concerning the role of emotion regulation in the etiology one of the following:
o Social anxiety disorder
o Generalized anxiety disorder
o Obsessive-compulsive disorder
o Major depressive disorder
o Posttraumatic stress disorder
• Option C: Choose either eating disorders or alcohol use disorder. Focus on the role of culture in the etiology or the disorder chosen.
• Option D: Review the literature on the role of differential susceptibility in the aetiology of psychopathology. This is a very recent development and thus it may be difficult to focus on one specific disorder and also much of the research is on children and adolescents. Thus a broader focus is permitted as compared with Options A, B and C.
For this disorder, the student will conduct a search of scholarly journals focusing on the literature since 2010 concerning the relation to one personality diathesis or to one cognitive diathesis associated with the development and maintenance of the disorder chosen. Please keep in mind the paper must focus completely on etiology, not on treatment. The instructor will provide a handout that will explicate the expectations in more detail. Students are advised to contact the instructor prior to developing their proposals to ensure that they are on the right track.
NOTE: For options A, B, and C the focus is on the disorder in adults, not children or adolescents. Option D is that can focus on children or adolescents.
Part 1: Proposal for Literature Review
• 10 % of the mark will be based on a proposal due on Sunday of the third week.
Instructions for the Literature Review Proposal
General:
• APA - APA title page, paper double-spaced throughout - references and citations in accord with the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.)
• Section One (5 points) - Indicate the option you have chosen and in 100-150 words indicate your reasons for choosing this option.
• Section Two (15 points) - The key to a successful Literature Review is the development of a specific research question. A quality question is specific enough that it serves as the basis for an in-depth mastery of a significant literature. Too broad and you have a paper that loses focus and cohesion; too narrow and you might not find sufficient literature to support you're the paper.

Examples:
Too broad: What are the differences in the development of eating disorders worldwide? This would take a whole book!
Too narrow: Is differential susceptibility a contributing factor to the development of major depressive disorder in adults? There is just not a body of literature to support that at this time.
About right: How does on-campus sport culture lead to alcohol abuse in university students? There is enough literature to really dive in. Heim is one who has published in this area.
Hints
• Generally research questions evolve from very general to quite specific as you read more widely.
• It is advisable to start with a review article in the area of interest.

• Section Three (20 points) - Annotated list of four primary source articles from scholarly peer related journals dated from 2010 to the present. For each article provide a two to four sentence annotation indicating precisely how that article relates to your research question.
• Section Four (30 points) - Analysis and synthesis of the four articles in 400 to 500 words. In essence this is a synoptic version of the body of the final paper that you will be turning in. In the final paper the body is about 2300 to 2500 words. Here the canvas is smaller but the task is the same. You will demonstrate that you have mastered the four articles and can analyse, compare and contrast the articles and are able to synthesize your findings.
• Section Five (15 points) - Based on the above, craft a strong thesis statement that will serve as the "spine" of the body in the final version of your literature review. If you don't know what a strong thesis statement entails, please review this source carefully or Google: "strong thesis statement" and " writing center" - this will bring up many excellent sites. Comparing two or three is frequently helpful.
• Section Six (15 points) - Quality of your writing.
o APA requirements met
o There are no spelling or grammatical errors
o Sentence and paragraphs are well constructed in accord with stand principles of composition.
o Writing is clear, crisp and to the point.
o The organization is logical.
o The entire paper demonstrates care in proofreading.
Proposal for Literature Review - Evaluation
Criteria Points Comments
1 - Option and rationale /5
2 - The specific research question /15
3 - Four primary source articles for peer reviewed scholarly journals from 2010 that are relevant to the research question. /20
4 - Analysis and synthesis of the articles. /40
5 - A strong thesis statement based on your analysis and synthesis. /15
6. Quality of the writing. /15

Part 2 - Literature Review: Final Version.
• 90% of the mark for the Literature Review will be based on the final submission.
Instructions
• The Literature Review requires that you review the scholarly journal literature since 2010 in one of the four options identified in the Proposal instructions.
• The minimum length from the first word of the Introduction through the final word of the Conclusion is 3000.
• Unlike the Proposal, the Final Literature Review requires a minimum of eight primary source articles from peer reviewed scholarly journals. A maximum of an additional two secondary source articles are permitted. No other sources are permitted as references for the review- the exclusive basis is the scholarly journal literature since 2010.
• The sole focus of the review is etiology.
• Formatting is APA.
o An Abstract is optional.
o The Review will have an introduction, the body of the paper and a conclusion
o The body of the paper will have proper headings and subheadings to make the paper readable and the organization clear. Failure to use headings and sub-headings will result in the return of the paper to the student for revision with a loss of points for lateness