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- Creators: Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn
- Creators: School of Human Evolution & Social Change
- Status: Published
The following creative project defends that, whether intentionally or not, mental illness and substance abuse are inevitably romanticized in young adult media and discusses the dangers of this romanticization. This project is divided into three parts. The first part consists of psychological evaluations of the main characters of two popular, contemporary forms of young adult media, Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger and Euphoria by Sam Levinson. These evaluations use textual evidence and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) to determine what symptoms of psychopathology the characters appear to display. The second part consists of a self-written short story that is meant to accurately depict the life of a young adult struggling with mental illness and substance abuse. This story contains various aesthetic techniques borrowed from the two young adult media forms. The final part consists of an aesthetic statement which discusses in depth the aesthetic techniques employed within the short story, Quicksand by Anisha Mehra.
Human communication has been dramatically altered by the emergence of the internet and other communication technologies. Technology facilitates communication in a way that offers both benefits and potential dangers. For example, for those experiencing domestic or intimate partner violence, technology may be used by the perpetrator to extend the psychological and emotional aspects of abuse. This is accomplished by harassment via information communication technology, monitoring of devices, and deprivation of technology by taking or breaking devices. Technology also makes it possible to find domestic violence services and resources online and to communicate with others. With technology offering potential benefits and dangers, this study was conducted to gain insight about the role of technology in help-seeking behaviors and its potential to serve those leaving abusive relationships.
Relationship Violence Intervention was funded primarily through Barrett, the Honors College, as a thesis and creative project. In addition, the project was awarded a grant through the Sexual Violence Prevention program at Arizona State University.
The authors of this thesis project are qualified to address these topics because of their extensive involvement in relationship and sexual violence. Both authors worked to implement a student organization, Team One Love at ASU, into the ASU community. Through this student organization, the authors were able to spend three years educating Arizona State University students about “red flags” in relationship behaviors through a guided-facilitation format. In addition, the authors collaborated with the Sexual Violence Prevention Education program at Arizona State University to put on large scale events for Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.