Guidelines for Personal Observation Paper "Lurking" is an information technology term referring to passively observing others’ electronic comments.
Your assignment will be to search out and observe specific blogs and postings by persons who have mental
health-related diagnoses (you will choose ONE category of disorders to follow – i.e. depression, OCD,
Schizophrenia, etc). You will follow their comments and postings over the course of the semester, learning
about their specific disorders (i.e. mood, anxiety, psychotic, substance abuse, personality disorders, etc) and
how those disorders affect their emotions, relationships, academic/occupational performance, etc.
You will NOT identify yourselves to the people you observe, nor will you post your own comments to
these sites. At the end of your observation period you will write a 10-12 page paper documenting what you
learned about this particular disorder and the people who suffer from it. This is not a traditional research
paper per se, but you will need to do some research concerning the nature of the disorder you are following
and compare the symptoms described in the electronic posts to the diagnostic criteria and characteristics of
the disorder as described by clinical and research sources. Sources of these personal accounts of struggles
with mental health issues might include:
Personal blogs about an individual’s mental health issues
Discussion forums (designed to support people with particular disorders)
Official advocacy sites/groups supporting particular disorders that provide caregivers’ perspectives
Format for the Paper
The paper will be in narrative form and should cover the following content areas:
A summary of the sites/people you observed and the types of information they shared
Your impressions of the personal impact the disorder had on the individuals observed
An understanding of the symptoms and components of the disorder (how did this compare with DSM
and clinical criteria?)
How other people (family members, friends, strangers, caregivers, etc) responded to these persons
Assumptions you had made about people with these kinds of disorders and how those
assumptions/attitudes have changed over the semester
An overall evaluation of what you learned and how this experience could affect your future practice as
a psychologist. Evaluation Criteria
Summary of patient blogs/communications. Did the student identify
issues relevant to the specific disorder?
Personal Impact. Did the student identify the ways that the persons have
been impacted/affected by the disorder?
Diagnostic Criteria: Did the student accurately compare the patients’
symptoms with the DSM criteria for the chosen disorder?
Social Reactions: Did the student identify and discuss how other people
responded to the patients and their behaviors? Points
Assigned
25
20
28
20 Your
Score Assumptions and Evaluation: Did the student identify his/her own
personal assumptions and explain what he/she learned in this experience?
Mechanics: Did the student follow the assignment guidelines, and use
correct grammar, punctuation, etc and APA citation guidelines? 20
15
128 Total:
The paper should be written in Word or Rich Text format and you should follow all APA format
guidelines for citations, page setup and your References page. You do not have to have an Abstract for
this paper, but you will need a Title and References page.
The paper is due Monday December 12th by midnight. Submit the paper as an attachment to the
Accomplish folder in the Week 8 learning module.
