Tupac Amaru Shakur: Case Study

Psych 249000 Case Study                                                                            

This assignment is designed to help you show your knowledge and ability to apply different perspectives in personality psychology to either a case or to a subject of your choice. Make sure your topic has been approved by me before you begin.

Using either yourself, a person from history, or a fictional character as a case, please write a case using the guidelines. The page lengths in the parentheses are suggestions only. You may need more on some of these sections and less on others:

Per the syllabus, the final paper must be:

• Roughly 5-7 pages (Not including cover page and reference section)
• Double spaced, size 12 times new roman font, normal margins,
• Formatted in APA style and Properly Cited. (You do not need an abstract section, but make sure you have everything else)
• Divided into sections such as the ones below
• Have 3-4 scholarly sources MINIMUM that are not from the book. (you can use the book as well, but it will not count as one of your sources)
• Proper spelling and grammar
• Submitted through Blackboard in a Microsoft Word document or a PDF.

Here is a rubric: Total is 100 points

The rest of this document is an outline of what the case study can look like. If you have other ideas, feel free to consult with me.

Section 1: INTRODUCTION (1-2 paragraphs)

1)      Introduce the case in a 1 paragraph introduction. Give a brief outline of this person and why are they interesting? What lens or perspective may help us understand this person? Why? Give a thesis statement (1 paragraph):

1. Here is an example someone gave in the past:

“Kylie Jenner is an A list celebrity whose personality is greatly misunderstood and calculated tocater to her audience. By using Alfred Alder’s birth order and interpreting Kylie to be the youngest child, we can discover her rooted personality that is sometimes transparent through her behavior but mostly masked as protection to confide to her celebrity image. Then, through Karen Horney’s theory of search for glory and its repercussions, we can evaluate why Kylie’s personality was altered and how she came to achieve her ideal self, through moving towards people. During the way, we learn that getting to her current successful spot was not always so easy, as she had to learn to overcome her struggle with handling fame’s dark side and eventually accept her life.”

Section 2: Information about the case (2-3 pages)

2)      Introduce the person. who are they? What are they like? How would you describe them personality-wise?  What are their goals and values?-Flesh out the case. Make me understand who they are on a deep level.

3)      What is their relevant history? What parts of this person’s life story is important for the reader to know? You will be using the information here to support your claims later on.

Section 3: Information about the Theory (It is here you will likely need to find and apply your scholarly sources) (3-4 pages):

1. What is the perspective or lens you are using? What are the key points in understanding how personality is formed (biological, environmental, social events, etc)
   1. Example: When talking about attachment theory, discuss the importance of the caregiver and key interactions needed. How does attachment influence personality as an adult later. I might connect it with some literature I found talking about attachment styles and mental illness later on in life, self-esteem, job satisfaction, or other personality traits of interest. 

4)      THOROUGHLY apply the theory to your case. Go into detail and make sure you offer evidence for your applications by giving examples and evidence from what you have said about the person already.

                                                                          i.      Some Examples: Using Freud’s theory, how strong is their ego and superego in relationship to the Id? What Freudian stage are they in? What defenses do they use?

                                                                        ii.      Attachment: What style of attachment do they display? Support it using an Attachment scale

                                                                      iii.      Erikson’s theory, what stage of development are they in and why? What kind of ego development? Why?

                                                                      iv.      Where do they fall in the Five Factor Model?  What were their scores on the BFI?

                                                                        v.      Learning theory: What is their conditioned behavior in day-to day circumstances?

1. Support your claims above with at least one scale or measure that you can pretend your case filled out and supports the lens you are using. I have at the end of this document some scales/measures that may be helpful. Feel free to find others. Please make sure you spend some time describing what the test you used was, how it is structured, and what is the purpose of the test. Make sure you also clearly describe their results, what they mean, and most importantly, the Implications of these results for the person. (It may help to find a scholarly article that talks about the scale you are using)

                                                                          i.      Example (Note, yours won’t necessarily look like this. Some will be briefer, others will likely be lengthier. This is just a slapdash example I put together):

Another piece of supporting evidence that Michael suffers from an arrest in the anal stage of development comes from his scores on the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ). This scale has X items on the measure, designed to assess three different styles of defense mechanisms that individuals tend to use. The different defense styles are theorized to explain (Insert here), and the average scores individuals receive on each of these styles are (Insert here). The DSQ has been used in multiple populations and studies, such as (Insert here) (Cite some studies). And previous studies have found certain scores are correlated with (insert here and cite).

Michael’s scores of X, Y, and Z on the different styles on the DSQ suggests that he relies on defenses such as (insert here), ones commonly used by individuals in the anal stage of development. One can see examples of this defensive style in his own life when…

5)      Drawing upon the case’s history, the theory behind the lenses you are using, and other material explain why they are the way they are, i.e. what caused them to be this way? How would your perspective understand the cause of their traits, values, qualities, and other aspects of their personalities, or if you are trying to describe why a personality changed, how would this theory explain the change? (1-2ish pages).

1. Some Examples: If they are stuck in the latency stage of Freud’s theories, why do you think that is the case? How did they negotiated the Oedipus complex?
2. If using Adler, How did they overcome their basic anxiety or feelings of inferiority, or why didn’t they?
3. What environmental events or biological conditions are associated with changes in neuroticism or other scores on the big five?

PART 4: CONCLUSION (1-2 Paragraphs):

1)      Summarize the material and why you think this lens help us to understand this case. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the theory, limitations of this approach, and end with a snazzy concluding statement(1-2ish paragraph)

PART 5

-Works Cited Page.

-At the end, please also submit the scored (completed) test or measure that you took on behalf of your case. If you took an online test, please screenshot the results (You could also just save the webpage as a pdf and send that to me as well).

Other Things:

You should cite at least 3-4 references that are from scholarly articles to fully apply the theory to the case. At least one of these should be a scholarly source that discusses whichever scale you are using. You may need to cite more than just 3-4 if the sources you use don’t give a full picture of the individual.

If you wish to draw information from the book, go ahead. Please cite it still in the reference section, but it will not count towards your 3-4 references.

 Also, please show me in the paper how you used the sources. Make sure I understand how you

Remember, use the scholarly literature to help us understand your case’s personality, and use the case to help us better understand the perspective.

Scales:

Here are some scales that may be of help in supporting your cases. A quick search of any of these scales on google scholar will give you a bunch of information on them. There will be links/attachments to these scales on Blackboard. You may also find other scales of interest by going to the CCNY Library (Link here: https://library.ccny.cuny.edu/az.php?a=p) and going to PsycTests database. There you can search for other cool psychological tests. Feel free to use them so long as you feel confident in scoring them

Some of these will automatically score the tests for you, others you will have to score yourself. I have added details on how to score each of the scales on blackboard.