Each student will select a celebrity of their own choosing who has had (or has) an addiction problemwhether a substance use disorder or another behavioral addiction such as gambling, technology, eating, dieting, shopping, sex, etc.

Students are to research the addiction of their celebrity and analyze the case from a biopsychosocial perspective. Questions to think about:

How as this persons biology impacted their addiction? (genes, brain chemistry, sex, etc.)
How has this persons psychology impacted their addiction (trauma, negative thought processes, etc.)
How has this persons social environment impacted their addiction (lifestyle, fame, parents, etc.)
BE SURE TO USE THE ACTUAL TERM “BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL” throughout the paper! You will lose points if the term is not mentioned!
In addition, students must provide a race, class and gender analysis of their case study. Questions to think about:

How as this persons race impacted their access to their addictive substance or behavior, as well as their access to treatment?
How has this persons socio-economic class impacted their access to their addictive substance or behavior, as well as their access to treatment?
How as this persons gender impacted their access to their addictive substance or behavior, as well as their access to treatment?
Finally, students should discuss addiction treatments/approaches that were undertaken or suggest possible strength-based treatments and harm reduction approaches that they could have taken. Questions to think about:

What types of strength-based strategies helped this person or WOULD HAVE helped this person?
What types of harm reduction practices helped this person or WOULD HAVE helped this person?
This should all be summarized in a 4 page, double-spaced paper.

Please select appropriate resources (at least 3 reliable articles, books, etc.) to analyze and discuss the celebritys addiction.

It is NOT acceptable and is CERTAINLY plagiarism if students download or cut and paste information from the Internet without properly citing it. Other forms of plagiarism include copying another students work and claiming it as ones own, or purchasing or stealing term papers from an outside source, or forgetting to cite all your facts properly.

There are numerous ways to reference (or cite) material.  Please use APA format.  The Berkeley College LibGuide on APA formatting can be found here:  https://berkeleycollege.libguides.com/Writing/APA (Links to an external site.)

DO NOT forget to attach a Works Cited (or References) page also in APA format.  Failure to do that is also a form of plagiarism. Just pasting the weblinks is NOT proper APA format.

The Celebrity Addiction Case Study Analysis is to be uploaded in Week 12. The discussion board for Week 14 is a discussion of the final paper where you must provide meaningful, constructive feedback to your peers. 

The rubric for the Celebrity Addiction Case Study can be found below.

RESOURCES TO START RESEARCHING:

Famous Actors and Actresses Who Have Battled Drug Addiction and Alcoholism

https://drugabuse.com/30-famous-actors-and-actresses-who-have-battled-drug-addiction-and-alcoholism/ (Links to an external site.)

Celebrity Overdoses – Deaths Highlight Prescription Drug Epidemic – HUFFPOST

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/celebrity-overdoses-deaths-prescription-drugs_n_1831731 (Links to an external site.)

Which Celebrities Have Battled with Addiction?

https://www.drugrehab.com/addiction/celebrities/ (Links to an external site.)

Celebrities Who Have Died from Addiction

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2016/06/02/celebrities-who-have-died-addiction/85314450/ (Links to an external site.)

Russell Brand – From Addiction to Recovery

Russell Brand From Addiction To Recover (Links to an external site.)
Russell Brand  From Addiction To Recovery

Amy Whinehouse – The Last Hour – documentary

Amy Winehouse (The Last Hour) documentary (Links to an external site.)
Amy Winehouse (The Last Hour) documentary

WHITNEY

Whitney (Links to an external site.)
Whitney

Review the grading rubric for more details about earning full credit for this paper:

PROFICIENT

(85-100)

COMPETENT

(60-84)

NOVICE

(25-59)

UNSUCCESSFUL

(0-24)

LENGTH (20%)

Responds thoughtfully in at least 4 pages.

Responds thoughtfully in 2-3 pages.

Less than 2 pages.

No participation and/or response is not related to topic.

QUALITY OF RESPONSE (50%)

Celebrity addiction case is discussed knowledgeably and in the students own words. Bio-psych-social aspects of addiction well-explained.

Celebrity addiction is discussed minimally and/or thesis is not well-explained. Bio-psych-social aspects of addiction minimally explained.

Celebrity addiction case is discussed minimally and thesis is not well-explained. Bio-psych-social aspects of addiction not explained.

No participation and/or response is not related to topic.

WRITING SKILLS (20%)

Paper is well-organized with a specific thesis and minimal grammatical errors.

Paper is poorly organized and/or does not have a thesis and/or has grammatical errors.

Paper is poorly organized, does not have a thesis, and has many grammatical errors.

No participation and/or response is not related to topic.

CITING REFERENCES (10%)

At least 3 resources are cited in APA format with in-text citations.

Less than 3 resources and/or no APA format and/or no APA in-text citations.

Less than 3 resources and no APA format and no APA in-text citations.

No participation and/or response is not related to topic.