ADMH 5001 - Reflective Assignment #1

Due Sept 20 5:00pm

The purpose of this assignment is for each student to reflect on their own understandings, beliefs, and/or assumptions about mental health and
addiction, and where some of these may come from. Students will answer the following two reflective questions in paragraph form. As this is a
personal reflection, responses should be written in the first person; no research nor references are required.

Please respond to the following questions:

1. What are the ways mental health and addictions are talked about in your own family and social circles? Identify any bias, stereotypes,
preconceptions and/or assumptions (be they ‘positive’ or ‘negative’). What are the strengths and difficulties of these narratives?

2. What are your own understandings of mental health and addictions? What informs these understandings (in other words, where do your own
understandings and beliefs come from)?

Assignments should be written double-spaced, and submitted in .doc, .docx or .pdf form. Please note submissions made using cloud-based formats
(eg: google docs) will not be accepted. Assignments should be submitted via Blackboard by 5pm on Monday Sept 20 th. Responses should be
approximately 750 words in length.

Grading Rubric

Excellent (9-10) Good (7-8) Fair (5-6) Needs Improvement (0-4)

 Response demonstrates a
succinct exploration of the
two reflective questions.
 Student clearly identifies
biases, stereotypes,
preconceptions, and/or
assumptions
 Response demonstrates
personal self-awareness
 Response is written in a
personal tone.
 Response is reflective of
independent and original
thought.
 Response demonstrates a good
exploration of the two reflective
questions, although lacking in
some detail.
 Biases, stereotypes,
preconceptions, and/or
assumptions are identified, but
not clearly articulated or
explained.
 Response demonstrates
developing self-awareness
 Response is mostly
demonstrating independent and
original thought, however
 Response demonstrates
somewhat of an exploration of
the two reflective questions
 Student struggles to identify
biases, stereotypes,
preconceptions, and/or
assumptions
 Response requires greater self-
awareness
 Response is somewhat
impersonal, does not
demonstrate originality of
thought
 Response is not clearly tied
to the two assignment
questions
 Response does not include
identification of biases,
stereotypes,
preconceptions, and/or
assumptions
 Response does not
demonstrate sufficient
self-awareness - is
impersonal, and does not
reflect any personal
experience or reflection
 Reflection is free from
spelling and grammatical
errors, paragraphs are well-
structured.
 Word count is within 10% of
500 words
includes some jargon, and/or  Reflection includes some  Reflection contains
uses idioms and popular mantras spelling and/or grammatical numerous spelling and/or
rather than own personal errors that distract the reader grammatical errors; is
language  Reflection is somewhat difficult to understand
 Reflection has minimal unorganized and difficult to  Reflection is unorganized
spelling/grammatical errors; follow and difficult to follow
writing is mostly well-structured  Assignment is significantly too  Assignment is significantly
and easy to follow. long or is lacking in detail. too long or too short.
 Word count exceeds limit