Mental Health Current Event Written Assignment In general, this assignment requires students to (1) identify, examine, and analyze a current event that can be associated with mental health using psychological perspectives that have been discussed in class; and (2) outline at least one way to increase the public’s knowledge of mental health issues.

PART 1: elect a current issue or event that is related to a mental health issue. This event has to have occurred (or been in the media) within the last year. Students can focus on a particular mental health issue or approach it more generally. In other words, this current event may stand on its own or stem from social, political, religious, environmental, or other concerns. Choose two perspectives that have been discussed over the course of the semester (e.g., biological, cognitive, social, developmental, behavioral, psychodynamic, etc). Using these two perspectives, compare and contrast them regarding the selected current event. In other words, students must analyze and pros and cons of each perspective as they apply to the issues. This portion of the paper should: Discuss how these perspectives explain what is occurring with regard to this mental health issue. (How can the concepts/theories selected be used to explain the current event/issue? How well do they explain the event?) Organize arguments to reveal differences and similarities in the views; include insights and information from relevant sources. Use sources to support ideas and back up factual claims. Your psychology textbook is an appropriate source. Be mainly analytical. Although a portion of the paper will be devoted to describing the current event/issue, as well as to a general discussion of the psychological perspectives, the vast majority of the paper should consist of the student’s analysis. Discuss which perspective best explains the current mental health issue, based on the student’s analysis. Each student must critically analyze and explain why the chosen perspective is a better choice than the other. PART 2: Describe a way to increase the public’s knowledge of mental health issues. This strategy must be based on the perspective that was argued in Part 1 as the best explanation of the current event. Refer to relevant psychological research that supports this proposed strategy. Your psychology textbook is an acceptable source of research. Discuss possible limitations of the proposed strategy.