Modifying my presentation

I had a meeting with Mrs Bowen today to discuss my presentation tomorrow. To make it more interesting, Mrs Bowen suggested that I use examples of case studies of OCD.

I have decided to include three of them to highlight the differences between OCD and other mental illnesses and also to help explain what is and isn't a symptom of OCD.

Presentation!

My presentation for my EPQ is going to be on Friday this week at lunchtime. For the presentation I am going to make a power point presentation and I will also be giving hand-outs to my audience to help show how the different factors are linked.

A brief outline of my presentation:

• How I chose and refined my question
• What is OCD?
• The biological factors thought to contribute to the development of OCD
• The psychological factors
• The environmental factors
• A conclusion
• Reflecting on my project - what went well and what I could have improved on

My audience will mainly consists of year 13 students.

I now need to discuss this presentation with Mrs Bowen (my supervisor) to ask for her advice so that I can make any additions or changes that I need to make.

Finishing the Bibliography

A few months ago, I talked about a table which I created in order to organise my sources. Using this table I have finally managed to complete the bibliography for my EPQ.

Also, I have completed my report, and so I will be looking to filling in the End of Project Review form, as well as Presentation Record A after discussing my report and presentation with my supervisor.

Conclusion of the Report

I am currently writing the final aspect of the report, the conclusion. In the conclusion I will be answering my question 'To what extent are biological factors responsible for the development of obsessive compulsive disorder in children.'

In more detail, the plan for my conclusion is as follows:

• The extent of my findings - biological factors are very responsible, in particular serotonin, however, psychological factors are also important.
• The weaknesses and limitations of the methodology - there are very few studies looking at OCD in children in particular, moreover, the majority of studies had small sample sizes.
• The recommendations for the future - there are very few sources which looked at environmental factors in particular, this has the potential to be further researched.
• Reflections - what went well in the project, what I have learnt and how I could improve if I were to complete another project.

Evaluating the Significance of Psychological Factors

At the moment, in my report I am evaluating the significance of psychological factors, by looking at the psychodynamic model, the behavioural model and the cognitive model.

Psychotherapy revolves around the psychodynamic model. Due to the failure of psychotherapy in alleviating OCD symptoms,  OCD was actually considered untreatable in the 1960s because there were no alternative treatments. This means that today, it is widely agreed that this theory is out dated and incorrect in terms of explaining a cause of OCD.

In addition to this, I am also writing up my bibliography at the same time. While doing my research, I was very organised and created a table in which I recorded all my sources, therefore, now I just have to transfer this data to another word document to create my bibliography.



An extract from my sources table

Progress Update!

At the moment, I am more than half way through my report. Currently I am evaluating the theory that glutamate is important in the cause of OCD. I am doing this by comparing different studies done by scientists and then evaluating them in order to conclude whether the results from the study are reliable or unreliable, and therefore whether they support the theory.

Source

This is the structure of Riluzole, a drug which I am evaluating in order to make a conclusion on the significance of glutamate in OCD.





A basic overview of my plan for the report:
I have also realised I have only included a very brief outline of the plan for my project, so I have included it here with more detail.

Introduction

• What is the main aim of the project?
• What is paediatric OCD?
• Why have I chosen this question for my EPQ? (The importance of discovering the cause of an illness)

Overview of the theories

• Biological: Brain activity, Serotonin, Glutamate, PANDAS and Genetics
• Psychological: Psychodynamic, Behavioural and Cognitive models
• Environmental: Stress and Parenting Style

Evaluation, Findings and Discussion

• Outline the findings of my research - studies and investigations consulted
• Evaluate each of the different theories' importance in the cause of OCD by discussing results from studies, evaluating the reliability of sources and comparing sources

Conclusion

• Look at the extent of the findings
• Identify any weaknesses or limitations in the project
• Make recommendations for the future
• Reflect on what went well, what was learnt, how to improve in the future

Environmental Theories: Parenting Style

In my report, one of the final theories I discuss is that the style of parenting can affect whether a child develops OCD. This theory explains that the method parents used to bring up their child can affect their personality. If a parent continuously repeats a certain action, their child may 'copy' it and develop OCD.

Environmental factors, although important, are not considered the most important factor by scientists since the majority of patients don't develop OCD as a result of stress, another possible factor, or parenting style. It is more likely that environmental factors can trigger the onset of the disorder in children genetically predisposed to it.