Reference no: EM133196289

Writing Assignment #1 prompt: Use Jay Belsky's Differential Susceptibility Model to argue why some individuals with predisposition to particular mental illnesses never go on to developing a disorder. For your arguments, draw upon literature focusing on resiliency, protective,or buffering factors within a person's life that may protect against mental illness (ex. support system, positive parenting, early intervention, therapy, community, etc.). You may choose to speak generally about mental illnesses or focus on a particular disorder, such as Depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc.

Directions: Your paper should be 2pages, double spaced and Times New Roman font.You will be graded based on the following: The quality of your ideas, the Organization & Coherence of your paper, your ability to support your argument, the style of your writing, your mechanics, as well as proper APA formatting (See the Writing Assignment rubric for more details). If you use additional resources, please be sure to cite them at the end of the paper using APA formatting.

Introduction: Provide an overview of your topic

• Research substantiates that early life adversity and maltreatment are one of the most powerful prognostic features in developing depression later in life. However, according to Jay Belsky's differential susceptibility model, some people are more vulnerable than others to the negative effects of adversity, and thus protective factors in their life may buffer against the effects of adversity. One environmental factor that may moderate the association between exposure to childhood adversity and depression is the quality of social relationships, particularly those formed in early life.
• The goal of this paper is to ...

Paragraph 2:

• The social buffering theorysuggests that close others can protect individuals in the face of stress by preventing elevated and prolonged stress responses, which has been in both animal and human research.
• Evidence:
  • Rats that receive less sensitive maternal care develop hyper-responsive HPA reactivity than rats that receive more sensitive maternal care; however, the effects are reversed when rats are cross-fostered to more sensitive mothers (John & Smith, 2018)
  • Similarly, in humans, manipulating maternal sensitivity in the context of parenting interventions results in normative patterns of diurnal cortisol production in children.

Paragraph 3:

• Further, evidence suggest that early interventions in children exposed to early life stress have decreased rates of depression compared to individuals with adversity who did not received early intervention.
• Evidence:
  • John et al (2018)
  • Smith and colleagues (2017, 2015)

Paragraph 4: Conclusion

• Summarize the goal of the paper and the evidence that you found to support your argument.