Because you are taking an introductory level course on abnormal psychology, it is likely that you are not currently credentialed and employed in a position where it is your responsibility to diagnose people. However, once you start reading descriptions of conditions or syndromes, it will be very tempting to look at the symptoms and think about people you know in real life or public figures and decide that they probably have a certain disorder.

One reason that you should not do so, of course, is that you don't have sufficient training to do so in accordance with professional standards in mental health care. But aside from the fact that you aren't in a setting where your diagnosis would "count," there are ethical reasons to avoid diagnosing people who are not seeking diagnoses from you.

Please reflect on what those reasons are, and then think about how you can tie those reasons to important values that you hold. One way to strengthen resolve when trying to shape your behavior is to link that behavior to values that are central to your identity, to who you want to be as a person.

Write 3 pages on the reasons you should not use the training in this class to diagnose people with mental illness and how your reasons relate to your personal values. As part of the paper, make sure you identify at least 3 separate reasons that it is ethically problematic to diagnose people from within this course.