Psychological Disorders and Therapy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Psychological Disorders and Therapy - Essay Example PTSD symptoms can be clustered into intrusive symptoms – flashbacks reliving traumatic experiences, avoidant symptoms – withdrawal from possible triggers (place, event, people) of traumatic experiences, and hyperarousal – the feeling of being threatened always occurring as insomnia, irritability, extreme startle response. Nevertheless, PTSD is curable. Effective treatment to PTSD is a combination of psychoanalysis – a therapy that deals with the patient’s unconscious and repressed memories, and drug therapy. SSRIs are the first line of medication approved by the US FDA as it was proven effective to decrease anxiety, depression, and panic reducing aggression, impulsivity, and suicidal thoughts in patients. a. Features: PTSD is a complex disorder, classified as anxiety disorder (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder par.1) or emotional disorder (Dryden-Edwards 1). DSM-IV-TR described it a â€Å"normal reaction to abnormal events† (qtd. in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder par.1), wherein terribly threatening experiences like rape, military combat, torture, genocide, extreme disasters, etc. have disrupted the patient’s memory, emotional reactions, mental processes, and nervous system (PTSD par.1-2; Dryden-Edwards 1), making PTSD a unique psychiatric disorder, since its diagnosis depends on factor/s outside the victim – a deviance from psychiatry’s general emphasis on factors internal to individuals (PTSD par.2). b. Symptoms: DSM-IV-TR identified six criteria symptomatic of PTSD: (1) Traumatic stressor – patient’s exposure to life-threatening horrifying experiences; (2) Intrusive symptoms – flashbacks reliving traumatic experiences; (3) Avoidant symptoms – withdrawal from possible triggers (place, event, people) of traumatic experiences; (4) Hyperarousal – a threatened feeling always occurring as insomnia, irritability, extreme startle response; (5) Symptom duration – one month

Deploying military values in the classroom to promote the goals and Dissertation

Deploying military values in the classroom to promote the goals and fidelity of the TTT program - Dissertation Example The military personnel get stipends or bonuses and agree in return to teach for three years in public schools. Military personnel who have a college degree are eligible to begin the process of getting the teaching certification so as to become an academic subject teacher. The paper will look at how deploying military values in the classroom help in promoting the goals and fidelity of the TTT program. The teacher shortage has continued to grow and school districts are increasingly turning to TTT to overcome the shortage Bank, (2007). The realization is that School districts that hire one military veteran through TTT most of the time always come back looking for more similar TTT teachers The Military veterans working as the TTT teachers have established a reputation as excellent teachers and exemplary role models for today’s students.   The breadth of experience, dedication, leadership skills, maturity and commitment that former marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen bring to t he classroom are attributes sought by public school administrators and parents Bank, (2007). This has led the TTT teachers to build a very good reputation to both administrators and principals in schools where they serve. The TTT programme headquarters office sent out recently a survey to 1,000 principals regarding the teachers who have come from the program. There were more than 800 replies from the survey. 17 percent from the survey received an average for performance, and more than 75 percent scored above average and higher. This shows how the school systems are finding former military members to be very valuable assets. They bring leadership skills, something they practiced with their troops. Bringing a lot of leadership experience to the classroom which is helpful to the students. The cultural diversity experience the former military personnel bring to the class room is of great importance. It comes as an added bonus which the program is providing the students who also come fro m various backgrounds. What comes with this is a strong male presence which schools are looking for. This is particular important due to the fact most of the low income schools have students with no male presence in their lives. The TTT program provides a stronger presence of male and minority teachers at the elementary level. In a study carried out in Florida, 6,500 students took part in the study. Their reading and mathematics performance was checked after being taught by the TTT teachers. Results from the study indicated that students taught by the TTT teachers performed equally well in reading and also achieved a marginal significant advantage in mathematics. The study focused on the issues such as accountability and achievement which are key values in the military. Clodfelter, Ladd, Vigdor, and Diaz (2004) note that school based accountability has become a problematic problem in recent year. This in return has led to poor performing among students making it difficult to attract high quality teachers. The TTT program has now made that possible. The fact that the TTT teachers, demonstrate the willingness to work in those particular settings has ensured success of the programme. Teacher Quality and Student Achievement Educational research found out that there is a correlation between the quality of the classroom teacher affects the outcome of students learning. The study continues to say that the teacher quality is the most important school factor in predicting