commentaires for reading, developmental psychology

Psychology 103—Examples of commentaries and how they would be graded

The following are examples of commentaries for an article by Ingfei Chen (2010)“When the Character Crumbles,” about frontotemporal dementia, in which large portions of the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain degenerate. This particular dementia does not affect memory, but rather, social skills and practices, emotions, empathy, and personality. The first signs can be changes in the ways people relate to others—they can go from being very likeable, kind, and good friends and partners to being rude, cold, inappropriate, sarcastic, aggressive, and unable to take the perspective of others. They also loose control of their temper or their finances and can go bankrupt. It is the most common form of dementia in people younger than 60, and affects 15 out of every 100K people.

Your commentary should be about 4-5 (6 is fine, not more) sentences. Imagine that you would read your commentary during a discussion (or paraphrase it) and that it would stimulate discussion. Stimulating discussion, thinking and reflecting upon the materials, and showing us that you can critically think about content are the goals.

Grading Rubric:

0 points: Student did not write a commentary by the deadline or from that the student wrote, it appears that they did not read the article.

1 point: Student only summarizes the article, does not provide any of their own thoughts or questions. Commentaries that are very long and disorganized also receive one point as long as it is clear the writer read the article.

2 points: Student mostly summarizes the article, only the last sentence raises a question or provides an own thought or conclusion.

3 points: Clearly, student read the article and has thought about it, providing a critical, coherent, evaluation. Examples:

What interested me most about this article was the point that FTD is often misdiagnosed by the person’s loved ones and doctors because they think that the person is having a midlife or marital crisis, and that is what explains their rudeness and overspending. By the time they figure it out, FTD has advanced and ruined the person’s life and relationships. I wonder if there is a way of educating the public and doctors about this type of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease gets the most attention, but it is important to know that there are other kinds of dementia and that they can start early. If we caught them at the start, we might be able to help people with FTD and do research that finds out what causes it and maybe develop treatments for it.

In the article, it says that William W. Seely and his colleagues did an autopsy of a patient who had FTD and found that at the early stages, the disease kills neurons called von Economo neurons that only exist in the frontal cortex and help us with emotions and social interactions. How did they know this person was in the early stages of the disease? From an autopsy, one can’t really know how advanced the disease was and whether it is the cause or the consequence of FTD. I wish the author had provided more information about why Seeley and his colleagues decided this may be the cause of FTD. Have other researchers also found that the deterioration of these neurons are what causes FTD?

I found it interesting that people with FTD do not recognize basic emotions, like happiness, fear, and anger and have an especially hard time recognizing complex emotions such as guilt, pride, and embarrassment. I remember learning in my developmental psych class that babies and preschoolers spend a long time learning these emotions and that they are very important for social interaction and relationships. So I wonder if loosing these abilities makes FTD people really hard to be around, and how one takes care of a person with advanced FTD. Do they become violent? Can they still live at home? In the article it says that there are medications psychiatrists can prescribe to help manage their emotions, but it made me wonder if we are just overmedicating people to keep them under control and if the person with FTD has the ability to consent to this treatment or knows what is happening to their life.