| Course | PS 360 Psychopathology |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Anxiety disorders case |
| Length | About 1,020 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Psychology |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PS 360 Unit 3
Eight Months of Worry About Everything: A Composite Teaching Case Worked Against the Anxiety Disorders Chapter, With a Differential in the Literature's Terms and the Point Where Evidence Stops
Student Name
Psychology, Herzing University
PS 360: Psychopathology
Instructor Name
January 26, 2026
Eight Months of Worry About Everything: A Composite Teaching Case Worked Against the Anxiety Disorders Chapter, With a Differential in the Literature's Terms and the Point Where Evidence Stops
The Case Is a Composite
The person described here does not exist. This composite was written for teaching, from features commonly described in the literature, and no detail comes from a real person. The paper works the presentation against the anxiety disorders chapter of the assigned classification system (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022), sets out a differential in the literature's own terms and reports where the evidence stops. It does not reproduce diagnostic criteria, and nothing in it can be used to assess a real person.
The Presentation
Jordan is thirty-one and works as an accountant. Over about eight months Jordan has worried most days about a wide range of things: deadlines, money, whether a parent's minor health problem will worsen, whether the car will break down. Jordan describes the worry as hard to switch off and says that as soon as one concern is settled another takes its place. Jordan reports feeling tense and tired and sleeping poorly, and says work has become slower. Jordan avoids volunteering to present in team meetings, but says this is because of worry about making mistakes in the figures rather than about being watched. Jordan reports no sudden episodes of intense fear. Jordan drinks five or six cups of coffee a day and began a new medication for a thyroid condition about a year ago.
The Chapter and Its Organizing Idea
The anxiety disorders chapter groups conditions characterized by excessive fear or anxiety and related behavioral disturbances. Craske et al. (2017), reviewing the anxiety disorders, describe the conditions as sharing features of fear and anxiety while differing in what the fear is focused on, how it is triggered and how it is expressed. That organizing idea, the focus of the anxiety, is the main tool for working through a differential.
The Differential
A generalized pattern of worry
The most prominent feature is persistent, wide-ranging worry that is hard to control, accompanied by tension, fatigue, poor sleep and difficulty concentrating, lasting many months. The literature describes generalized anxiety in these terms: worry that is diffuse rather than focused on one object or situation (Craske et al., 2017). This possibility fits the description most closely.
Social anxiety
Jordan avoids presenting, which raises social anxiety, in which the central fear is of scrutiny and negative evaluation by others. But Jordan locates the concern in making errors in the figures, not in being watched or judged as a person. The focus of the fear points away from social anxiety, though only a clinician exploring this in detail could be confident.
Panic
Panic involves recurrent, unexpected episodes of intense fear with strong physical symptoms, followed by worry about further episodes. Jordan reports no such episodes, which makes panic an unlikely fit.
Anxiety due to a medical condition or a substance
The classification requires that anxiety not be better explained by a medical condition or the effects of a substance (APA, 2022). Two details in the case are relevant: high caffeine intake and a thyroid condition under treatment, since thyroid problems and stimulants can both produce anxiety-like symptoms. These cannot be ruled out from a description; they require medical evaluation, and the literature treats this step as essential before any anxiety disorder is considered.
Where the Evidence Stops
The description is most consistent with a generalized pattern of worry. That is as far as the evidence in a written case can go. Whether Jordan has any disorder depends on information a paper cannot contain: a clinical interview, the results of a medical evaluation of the thyroid treatment, an account of caffeine's role, and Jordan's own history. A differential is a structured list of possibilities and the features that bear on each, not a conclusion. Writing it this way also models the humility the field expects: the possibilities are ranked by how well the described features fit, and each ranking could change with a single new fact, such as a test result showing the thyroid medication needs adjusting.
What the Case Teaches About Classification
Working through the case shows how the anxiety chapter actually functions. The categories are not separate boxes that a set of symptoms drops into; they overlap in their physical features, such as tension and poor sleep, and differ mainly in what the person is anxious about and how the anxiety arises. That is why the differential spends its effort on the focus of Jordan's worry rather than on counting symptoms. The case also shows why classification depends on information outside psychology. Two of the most important possibilities, a thyroid effect and a stimulant effect, are medical questions, and the classification system requires them to be considered because anxiety produced by a body's chemistry calls for a different response from anxiety that arises from patterns of thinking. Finally, the case shows how much a diagnosis depends on time and context. Eight months of worry is a long period, but whether it is excessive depends on what was happening in Jordan's life during those months, which the composite deliberately leaves incomplete. A real assessment would ask about those circumstances first.
How Common These Conditions Are
For context, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication estimated lifetime prevalence among U.S. adults at about 5.7 percent for generalized anxiety disorder, 12.1 percent for social anxiety disorder and 4.7 percent for panic disorder, based on structured interviews in the early 2000s using the fourth edition's definitions (Kessler et al., 2005). These figures describe a population, not the likelihood that any person has a condition. They also predate the current edition, so they should be cited with their date and definitions.
How Many Alternatives, and Does the Paper Conclude?
Three to five alternatives, including medical and substance explanations, are usually enough to show the reasoning. The paper should conclude which possibility the described features fit best and why, while stating plainly that a written composite cannot support a diagnosis. Stories from friends with similar experiences are not appropriate material; they are someone else's private health information.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
Craske, M. G., Stein, M. B., Eley, T. C., Milad, M. R., Holmes, A., Rapee, R. M., & Wittchen, H.-U. (2017). Anxiety disorders. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 3, Article 17024. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2017.24
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593-602. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593
PS 360 Unit 3 instructions, in plain terms
The third PS 360 unit asks students to analyze a composite anxiety presentation against the classification system. Expect to summarize the case accurately, explain how the anxiety disorders chapter is organized, and build a differential that names several possibilities and the information that would separate them. Medical conditions and substances belong in every differential and should be listed as matters for clinicians. The analysis should stop where the case's information stops; it is fine to conclude that more information is needed. Criteria should be cited, not reproduced. Statements about how common conditions are need a source and a date. Label the case clearly as constructed for teaching, and no real person should be analyzed.
Inside the PS 360 Unit 3 example
The paper opens by labeling the case as a composite and presenting Jordan's worry, its duration and its effects on sleep and work. A section explains the chapter's organizing idea and how conditions within it differ mainly in what the fear is about. The differential works through four possibilities under run-in headings, a generalized pattern of worry, social anxiety, panic and a medical or substance cause, each with what would favor or weaken it. A section explains where the evidence stops. Further sections cover what the case shows about classification, how common these conditions are in survey data, and how many alternatives a paper should include and whether it concludes.
Reading the PS 360 Unit 3 rubric
Herzing's rubric for the anxiety case usually rewards an accurate case summary, a correct account of the chapter, a reasoned differential, appropriate limits on conclusions and APA writing. The summary earns credit when duration and effect on functioning are reported precisely. The chapter account scores when its organizing idea is explained rather than its list. The differential is typically the heaviest criterion, rewarding alternatives that each come with distinguishing evidence. Limits earn points when the paper states what the case cannot establish and defers medical questions. Writing is credited for cited prevalence figures with dates and for consistent person-first language, which shows care with a subject that concerns real people beyond the classroom.
PS 360 Unit 3 help before you submit
Anxiety case papers lose points when they announce a diagnosis in the first paragraph and spend the rest confirming it. Another frequent weakness is a differential with only one alternative, or alternatives listed without evidence that would separate them. Students often leave out medical and substance causes entirely. Some reproduce the criteria list and tick each item against the case. Others give prevalence figures without a source or a year. Writing about the case as if Jordan were real, or bringing in someone the writer knows, blurs the line between a teaching case and a person. Concluding with certainty where the case gives too little information is also marked down, since restraint is part of the skill.
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PS 360 Unit 3 questions, answered
How many alternatives should the differential consider?
Enough that a reader can see you weighed the case rather than matched it. Most instructions expect two or three serious alternatives, each examined for what in the presentation supports and argues against it. Include medical and substance explanations where the literature treats them as prior questions. A differential of one is the most common way this section loses points.
Does the paper have to reach a conclusion?
Follow your instructions. Many sections want a reasoned judgment with its uncertainty stated, and some want the reasoning only. Either way the conclusion is about an exercise, not about a person, and saying so protects you. Writing that the case as given does not contain enough information to decide is a legitimate finding when you show which information is missing.
A friend describes something very like this. Can I use their story?
No, and it would not help the paper. What a friend told you was told in confidence, they have no way to withdraw it once it is submitted, and a constructed vignette serves the analysis better because you control what it contains. Write the case yourself. If your friend is struggling, that belongs with a clinician rather than with an assignment.
Where can I find a free PS 360 Unit 3 sample paper?
The complete PS 360 Unit 3 anxiety case analysis is free here, covering Jordan's presentation, a four-way differential and margin notes. Assigned another teaching case? Paste it in and we write a full analysis for you free.
Should the PS 360 Unit 3 paper reach a diagnosis?
No. The sample builds a differential and states what information would separate the possibilities, which is what a classroom analysis can responsibly do with a written case.