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