Mary Jane is a 13-year-old female who attends St. Andrew High School for girls. Her stepmother, accompanied by her mother, took Mary to the Child and Family Protective Services Agency after she was caught by soldiers having sex with two boys in an abandoned building during school hours. The stepmother describes Mary Janes' transport to the agency as the last straw. Mary is described as physically hurting her siblings, persistently stealing items such as cell phones and books from her classmates almost every day, and lying compulsively, even when not trying to get something in return. She ran away from home on multiple occasions and was absent from school for many days despite her parents sending her away. According to her stepmother, she also received reports from the school that Mary Jane forced other girls to have sexual relations with herself or other boys. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Mary originally lived with her mother, father, and an unknown number of siblings. Her mother and father are separated and Mary now lives with her stepmother and father, but occasionally visits her mother. Upon arriving at the agency, Mary's uniform was not well-dressed, her eyes were red and swollen, and she was extremely quiet during the interview. He kept his head down and avoided eye contact. On the few occasions he spoke, he did so in a low voice and seemed unconcerned by his presence, as was his mother. Her stepmother, on the other hand, was very animated, frustrated, and gave detailed accounts of everything she could remember. Mary Jane was diagnosed with severe conduct disorder with adolescent onset, code 312.81, with limited prosocial emotions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). She was diagnosed with conduct disorder because she met six of the 15 necessary requirements which included; being physically cruel towards people, forcing people into sexual activity, lying to obtain goods or favors, stealing items of non-trivial value without confronting the victim, skipping school before the age of 13, and ran away from home at least twice while living with his parents. The diagnosis is serious because he shows more than the minimum of three conduct problems required to make a diagnosis and these conduct problems cause considerable harm to others, such as physical cruelty towards his siblings and forced sex. She was given the specification of “with limited prosocial emotions” because she exhibited three of the required characteristics described by her stepmother. She was described as showing no remorse or guilt when she did something wrong, only when she was caught. She has also been described as callous, specifically, cold, uncaring, and indifferent to the feelings of others. On one occasion, he had hurt his sister and went on with his day, watching her cry. He also does not care about his academic performance and does not strive to do well. Jane exhibited these limited prosocial behaviors for more than the 12 months required by the DSM. On Axis One of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-4., Text Revision; Washington DC, 2000), Mary Jane was also diagnosed with severe conduct disorder code 312.81 with adolescent onset with limited prosocial emotions. The requirements for a conduct disorder diagnosis are the same in Mary's case, as mentioned in DSM V above. Mary does not exhibit any personality disorders or mental retardation required for axis two andhas no general medical conditions for an axis three diagnosis. On axis four, the main psychosocial and environmental problem is problems with her primary support group due to the subsequent separation of her parents in Mary having to transition from living with her mother to living with her stepmother. On axis five, she was given a global functioning rating of 61-70 because, despite her conduct problems, she functions well and has meaningful interpersonal relationships. To understand conduct disorder it is necessary to use multiple modalities and theoretical perspectives. Coordination between the school, parents and therapists is necessary to reduce or eliminate as many identified problems as possible. To understand Mary's case, a behavioral approach can be used. Prochaska and Norcross have divided behavioral therapy into three Cs, but in treating Mary, the focus will be on managing contingencies and modifying cognitive behavior. The basic idea behind contingency management is that behavioral patterns are learned through exposure to rewards and consequences and, therefore, inappropriate behaviors can be unlearned and replaced by more appropriate prosocial behaviors through the manipulation of rewards and consequences that promote prosocial behavior and discourage antisocial behavior. According to Frick (2001), a major reason for using contingency management is that children with conduct disorder come from families that do not provide a consistent, contingency environment in which misdeeds are punished and good deeds rewarded. This is evident in Mary's mother as she seemed compliant with most of her daughter's actions. Another rationale is that children with conduct disorder are often overly concerned about the positive consequences of an action, such as Mary getting a phone, but are not as concerned about the negative consequences of getting in trouble for stealing the telephone. One form of contingency management that would be used is a behavioral contract. In this contract, an agreement would be made between Maria and her parents, which would explicitly state that behavior, such as theft, should be eliminated. She would be searched daily once she arrived home and at the end of the week she would be rewarded if she didn't steal anything and punished if she didn't follow the contract. According to Barkoukis, Reiss, and Dombeck (2008), it is as important to address children's thoughts as it is to address their actual problem behaviors. If children have a faulty, overgeneralized, or otherwise exaggerated understanding of a situation, this can make them more likely to misbehave. Cognitive-behavioral approaches to therapy teach children and parents to both identify and address the misbeliefs that make conflicts more likely and to help dismantle those beliefs. In dismantling these beliefs, Prochaska and Norcross pointed to Donald Meichenbaum's self-study training that can be used to help children with conduct disorders. During this training, Mary will be taught how to reduce negative self-statements that produce negative emotions and at the same time work to develop positive self-statements that facilitate adaptive self-control. The therapist would perform a task such as doing a homework assignment while speaking aloud to himself. Mary would then perform that task while receiving instructions from the therapist. She then performed the task by saying the instructions aloud, then whispered the instructions to herself until they became covert self-instructions. The purpose of this is.
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