You Have Been Trying to Encourage a Classmate to Enroll

question 68

Essay

You have been trying to encourage a classmate to enroll in the marriage and family course you are presently taking. Your friend states that he does not need to learn about families because he knows all he needs to know from his own "experience." Using scientific investigation, present an argument against personal experience as a means to adequately understand marriage and families.

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Definitions:

Antisocial Behaviors

Actions that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others; often associated with personality disorders.

Diagnostic Criteria

Diagnostic Criteria are standardized guidelines used in mental health and medicine to identify and classify diseases and disorders.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder

Disorder characterized by (a) several episodes of failure to resist aggressive impulses that result in serious assaultive acts or destruction of property, (b) a degree of aggressiveness grossly out of proportion to the situation, and (c) symptoms not better explained by another mental disorder (such as antisocial personality disorder), the effects of substances, or a medical condition (e.g., a head trauma).

Assault

An act of causing physical harm to someone or attempting or threatening to do so.