User:Cdawnrutledge/sandbox

Wikipedia Assignment 1
Agoraphobia, Tom Hiddleston and Fenrir

One of the best and worst things about Wikipedia is that anyone can update it at any time. While Wikipedia is a great starting point, it is always important to check the legitimacy of all of the sources provided. When I first started to work on this assignment, I decided that I wanted to show the accuracy in different kinds of articles.

Medical articles tend to be the most accurate, from what I saw. I have an interest in phobias, so I started by looking through my own. I settled on agoraphobia because it wasn’t well known and it was easy to find very good comparison articles. The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders was found through encyclopedia.com. It is just as easy to find articles through encyclopedia.com, but I think that it is less well-known and therefore underappreciated.

I chose Tom Hiddleston’s Wikipedia page to show some of the negatives of Wikipedia. After Thor and The Avengers came out, Tom Hiddleston’s Wikipedia was edited quite a bit, adding parts of the roles to his biography. While harmless, Wikipedia seems to want to be seen as a credible source, and these edits make it look less credible than it actually is.

My last choice was Fenrir, a mythological creature from the Norse legends. I compared Myths and Legends of the World to the Wikipedia page and found that the information provided by Wikipedia was just as legitimate as that of the encyclopedia. Similar to medical articles, there is a certain accuracy applied to mythological articles.

All in all, I think that as long as someone is logical about what they read, and thinks critically, Wikipedia is a great source of information.

Wikipedia
Agoraphobia, as defined by Wikipedia, is a subset of panic disorder in which the sufferer feels anxiety in situations that could be perceived as difficult or impossible to escape. The article covers causes and factors that contribute as well as diagnosis and treatment. The article discusses gender differences as well, as twice as many women have agoraphobia than men, though no one sure exactly why. The possible causes are listed and cited, with one having a separate page of its own. Agoraphobia can be substance induced by chronic use of sleeping aids. Some also believe that the cause of agoraphobia is a temporary spatial problem. Evolutionary psychology puts forth the idea that primary agoraphobia is caused by the fact that not staying in open areas was a good thing when humans first evolved.

Diagnosis is a relatively small section, with two options put forwards. Either the agoraphobia is primary, which would mean that there is no history of panic disorder, or the agoraphobia is secondary to the panic disorder. The treatments for agoraphobia are slightly different because of the association with panic disorder. Exposure treatment and systematic desensitization are used to relieve the fear in situations where panic attacks would usually occur. Psychopharmacology is also used to treat agoraphobia. Lastly, a list of notable agoraphobes is included, with celebrities like Paula Deen, Woody Allen and Macaulay Culkin.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders (GEMD)
The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders (GEMD) defines agoraphobia as an anxiety disorder that stems from fear over being in situations one could consider difficult or embarrassing. The GEMD includes an in depth description of agoraphobia, followed by a list of causes of agoraphobia. The etymology of the word agoraphobia is included, which best illustrates what could exacerbate the phobia. The list of causes includes genetic, learned behavior, innate temperament and life events, as well as substance abuse.

Next, a list of symptoms is provided, followed by the demographics of the phobia in question. Symptoms include trembling, heart palpitations, nausea and a sense of impending doom. According to the GEMD, agoraphobia onsets most often between the ages of 15 and 35. Most of the information included in the diagnosis section is actually about phobias in general, but there is an admittance that there are no studies or tests to confirm the existence of agoraphobia. Doctors simply have to use their best judgment.

Treatments like psychotherapy and exposure treatment are described in detail, followed by a prognosis and prevention section. The psychotherapy section is far more detailed than it needs to be, but exposure treatment is explained a little bit better than the Wikipedia article. Exposure treatment is the recommended course of action in a case of agoraphobia, simply because it aims to make the problem go away rather than just control it. There is no way to prevent agoraphobia, but catching it early and starting treatment can reduce its effect on one’s life.

Comparative Analysis
The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders article is far more extensive, but the information in the Wikipedia article is not any different from that in the Gale Encyclopedia. Most of the information provided in the Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders was filler to make the article bulkier, but the filler was too general to apply specifically to those who are agoraphobic. The Gale Encyclopedia gave quite a bit of information on possible causes of agoraphobia, while the Wikipedia article was less informative and should be buffed up a bit.

Details about the outcomes of different treatments were included in the Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders that were not included in the Wikipedia article. For example, the outcome of a trial of brief psychodynamic psychotherapy on patients with secondary agoraphobia indicating that this treatment may be beneficial was included to show newer therapies. According to the article, 16 out of 21 patients experienced remission and no relapses occurred by the six-month check in.

There is not a lot content discrepancy in this article, despite the differences mentioned thus far. One could read the Wikipedia article and know what agoraphobia is, and probably successfully diagnosis it in themselves or a friend. The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders would be a great place to get even more information. The Wikipedia article would be the place I would go to answer a ready reference question about agoraphobia, while the Gale Encyclopedia is where I would go to build a foundation to answer a research question. When answering a research question, I would always include an encyclopedia page for quick sheet of all the basic information, and the article in the Gale Encyclopedia works perfectly in that role.

The difference that stuck out to me, and seemed most interesting, was the list of notable agoraphobes included at the end of the Wikipedia article but not the Gale Encyclopedia. I find this list interesting because it is unexpected but helpful. One who was looking for what agoraphobia is could look at that list and realize successful people have it, and read their stories to see the varying levels of severity. To me, it’s something that looks trivial until you need it.

References and Contributions
The contributors for Wikipedia are a little harder to assess, but after checking their other contributions, I noticed a few different kinds of contributors. Some are content based. They write articles and focus more on having the most legitimate content possible. There are also contributors who fact check and edit to make sure that the content contributors got everything right. Lastly, the copy editors correct spelling and grammar to ensure the easiest language and readability possible.

The Wikipedia article’s references were mostly academic journals, though the DCM-IV, the DCM-IV-TR and the ICD-10 were referenced many times throughout the article. The DCM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the ICD is the International Classification of Diseases. These are two very well known documents by the American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization. All of these are fairly current, and extremely relevant, including the academic journals.

Rebecca J. Frey, who also wrote the UXL Encyclopedia of Diseases and Disorders, wrote the Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. She is extremely credible, and has written for the Gale Group on other encyclopedias as well. Her references all checked out as great, fairly current academic journals, several of which I read. They all provided relevant information, and several would be great continued learning for research on agoraphobia, panic disorder or anxiety. Rebecca J. Frey has a Ph.D although I could not find out what her Ph.D is in. She is a prominent medical author.

Frey also cites the DCM-IV, DCM-IV-TR and the ICD-10 in her article, highlighting the importance of these documents. They would be great further reading in the case of a research question, as they are quite like encyclopedias themselves.

Assessment: Wikipedia vs. Encyclopedia
The Wikipedia article was, all in all, very well written. A lot of work went in to this article to make it a thorough but simple and readable description of agoraphobia. There weren’t any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, nor was the language used confusing. The article is easy to read and did not use language that isn’t accessible to the average person, which is a testament to the copy editing contributors. The unique and important thing about Wikipedia is that because there are so many contributors, it is a lot harder for there to be bias is one direction or the other. Luckily, in this field, there wasn’t any bias in either article.

The Gale Encyclopedia article was more thorough and used broader language, which I occasionally found would be confusing if my reading and comprehension levels weren’t as high as they are. I felt that if someone didn’t read the Wikipedia article first, its possible that some of the information in this article would not be understood.

For example, in the subheading ‘Innate Temperament’ there is a lot done to explain what is meant, but the language isn’t as accessible and I still felt like some people would not understand what ‘Innate Temperament’ referred to.

“INNATE TEMPERAMENT. A number of researchers have pointed to inborn temperament as a broad vulnerability factor in the development of anxiety and mood disorders. In other words, a person's natural disposition or temperament may become a factor in developing a number of mood or anxiety disorders. Some people seem more sensitive throughout their lives to events, but upbringing and life history are also important factors in determining who will develop these disorders. Children who manifest what is known as "behavioral inhibition" in early infancy are at increased risk for developing more than one anxiety disorder in adult life—particularly if the inhibition remains over time. (Behavioral inhibition refers to a group of behaviors that are displayed when the child is confronted with a new situation or unfamiliar people.) These behaviors include moving around, crying, and general irritability, followed by withdrawing, seeking comfort from a familiar person, and stopping what one is doing when one notices the new person or situation. Children of depressed or anxious parents are more likely to develop behavioral inhibition.”