Ethical Viewpoints Assignment - Worksheet Research Question See Step 1: Find it! (The research question for your topic goes here.) Viewpoint 1 See Step 1: Find it! (The first viewpoint for your topic goes here.) Direct Quotations See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 1 article go here. Include quotation marks.) T.R.A.P. Evaluation See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to evaluate your article.) MLA Citation See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 1 article goes here.) Viewpoint 2 See Step 1: Find it! (The second viewpoint for your topic goes here.) Direct Quotations See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 2 article go here. Include quotation marks.) T.R.A.P. Evaluation See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to evaluate your article.) MLA Citation See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 2 article goes here.) Reflection See Step 5: Reflect on it! (Your assignment reflection goes here.) Ethical Viewpoints Assignment - EXAMPLE Research Question Is a college education worth the cost for all students? Viewpoint 1 Yes, a college education provides better career opportunities. Direct Quotations · “Education remains the chief American institution that promotes economic and social mobility for poor and disadvantaged citizens. It's not an evasion; it's the direct answer to the question of what the nation needs to improve its talent pool and improve economic opportunity and social equality.” · “Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz find that the growing difference in the earnings of college graduates and high-school graduates explains between 60% and 70% of the rise in wage inequality between 1980 and 2005.” · “MIT economist David Autor has an instructive thought experiment: The increase in wages for the top 1% between 1980 and 2005, if divided among the bottom 99%, would provide each household about $7,000 in additional income. But the wage gains of college graduates over the same period, divided among high-school graduates, would provide each household with $28,000 of additional income.” · “The premium attached to a college education -- the difference in wages between those with degrees and those with high-school diplomas -- increased even as the market was flooded with university graduates.” · “In 1980 only 16 million Americans, or 21% of those in their prime working years (ages 23 to 54), held a bachelor's degree or higher; by 2013, that figure was 38 million, or 37%. When supply increases, economists expect the price to fall. But instead the college-wage premium grew from 33% to 62% between 1980 and 2013.” T.R.A.P. Evaluation T: This article was published on April 10, 2015, which is within the past three years. R: Ongoing debates about the value of an education persist; however research findings from this article suggest that education is the key to closing the earnings gap in the job market. There are great economic divid.

1. Ethical Viewpoints Assignment - Worksheet
Research Question
See Step 1: Find it! (The research question for your topic goes
here.)
Viewpoint 1
See Step 1: Find it! (The first viewpoint for your topic goes
here.)
Direct Quotations
See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 1
article go here. Include quotation marks.)
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to
evaluate your article.)
MLA Citation
See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 1
article goes here.)
Viewpoint 2
See Step 1: Find it! (The second viewpoint for your topic goes
here.)
Direct Quotations
See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 2
article go here. Include quotation marks.)
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to
evaluate your article.)
MLA Citation
See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 2
article goes here.)
Reflection
See Step 5: Reflect on it! (Your assignment reflection goes
here.)
Ethical Viewpoints Assignment - EXAMPLE

2. Research Question
Is a college education worth the cost for all students?
Viewpoint 1
Yes, a college education provides better career opportunities.
Direct Quotations
· “Education remains the chief American institution that
promotes economic and social mobility for poor and
disadvantaged citizens. It's not an evasion; it's the direct answer
to the question of what the nation needs to improve its talent
pool and improve economic opportunity and social equality.”
· “Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz find
that the growing difference in the earnings of college graduates
and high-school graduates explains between 60% and 70% of
the rise in wage inequality between 1980 and 2005.”
· “MIT economist David Autor has an instructive thought
experiment: The increase in wages for the top 1% between 1980
and 2005, if divided among the bottom 99%, would provide
each household about $7,000 in additional income. But the wage
gains of college graduates over the same period, divided among
high-school graduates, would provide each household with
$28,000 of additional income.”
· “The premium attached to a college education -- the difference
in wages between those with degrees and those with high-school
diplomas -- increased even as the market was flooded with
university graduates.”
· “In 1980 only 16 million Americans, or 21% of those in their
prime working years (ages 23 to 54), held a bachelor's degree or
higher; by 2013, that figure was 38 million, or 37%. When
supply increases, economists expect the price to fall. But
instead the college-wage premium grew from 33% to 62%
between 1980 and 2013.”
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
T: This article was published on April 10, 2015, which is within

3. the past three years.
R: Ongoing debates about the value of an education persist;
however research findings from this article suggest that
education is the key to closing the earnings gap in the job
market. There are great economic divides between those who
attain a higher education degree and those who do not. It is
difficult to ignore the state of individuals who are economically
disadvantaged. While there are many ideas about how to help
them rise above the state they are in, this article focuses on the
impact of education beyond high school. Even during times
when it seemed like the job market was oversaturated with
college degrees, the possibility for career advancement over
time was still there, when compared to advancement for those
who only graduated from high school. For those wishing to
change the economic state of their lives and possibly the lives
of generations to come, higher education is still encouraged as
the right course of action.
A: The experts mentioned in this article include Dan Greenstein
from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jamie Merisotis
from the Lumina Foundation, Claudia Goldin and Lawrence
Katz from Harvard University, and David Autor from the
Massachusetts Institute for Technology.
P: Over a span of 25 years, research conducted on the earnings
of high school graduates versus college graduates reveals
education as the reason for the differences in household income.
The number of Bachelor’s degrees attained since 1980 has
increased. During this same time, the wages of college
graduates increased, as well, when compared to those who only
earned a high school diploma.
MLA Citation:
Greenstein, Dan, and Jamie Merisotis. "Education Does Reduce
Inequality." <I>Wall Street Journal</I>. 10 Apr. 2015: A.13.
<I>SIRS Issues Researcher.</I> Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
Viewpoint 2

4. No, a college education does not guarantee employment and
many college graduates are burdened by student loan debt.
Direct Quotations:
· “Last month President Obama announced the creation of a
"Student Aid Enforcement Unit" that could end up costing
taxpayers billions of dollars and reduce access to career training
in the U.S.”
· “Housed in the Education Department, this unit follows the
president's complaint last year that many schools -- especially
career-training, for-profit schools -- rely heavily on federally
funded loans yet do not reliably graduate students equipped for
jobs.”
· “Now that students are being encouraged to claim that they
were misled, a small industry has already taken root, with
online forms asking students if they feel they have been misled
and then detailing how they can file for relief from loan
repayment.”
· “Bankruptcies at the for-profit schools are the likely outcome,
which will decimate this form of career education that today
includes well over 10% of all postsecondary students.”
· “After finding last year that the for-profit Corinthian colleges
had misled students with false claims about job-placement rates,
the Education Department began to enforce the regulations on
behalf of tens of thousands of claimants.”
· “Using Education Department data, we estimate that at
Corinthian, roughly 8% of student loans have been forgiven,
and 10% are likely to be granted relief after all claims are
evaluated.”
· “Certainly, the federal government has a responsibility to
protect students from bad schools engaged in deceptive
practices, especially since the federal government provides over
$100 billion in loans each year to students enrolled in public,
private and proprietary college and universities.”
T.R.A.P. Evaluation

5. T: This article was published on March 4, 2016, which is within
the past three years.
R: President Obama is concerned that students are taking out
loans to pay for career training at colleges, but not finding
employment after graduation, putting them at-risk for not
repaying their loans. When students don’t repay their loans, it
places the higher education institution at risk for closing down.
Some of the students who receive career training with empty
promises of employment have fought and succeeded in having
their debt forgiven. This student loan debt adds to our national
debt and ends up being paid, ultimately, by the taxpayer.
Individuals who attend expensive colleges they really cannot
afford sometimes do not graduate and end up carrying debt they
cannot repay. Or, they graduate but end up unemployed or
underemployed so they are burdened, economically, from a
college education.
A: The experts mentioned in this article include Jorge Klor de
Alva from Nexus Research and Policy Center, Mark Schneider
from the American Institutes for Research in Washington, and
the U.S Department of Education.
P: A couple of Department of Education regulations were
initiated in the early 1990s to protect students from false claims
colleges were making about their ability to place students in
jobs after college graduation. The federal government loans
billions of dollars to institutions to provide education and
training, which should, but doesn’t always, lead to jobs.
Graduates who are unemployed or underemployed fall deeply
into debt, therefore making college a risky investment that may
not provide expected returns.
MLA Citation
Klor de Alva, Jorge, and Mark Schneider. "The Feds and
Students vs. Taxpayers." <I>Wall Street Journal</I>. 04 Mar.
2016: A.13. <I>SIRS Issues Researcher.</I> Web. 30 Nov.
2016.

6. Reflection
I am viewing this topic through the eyes of a life-long educator
who, for the past 18 years, has promoted higher education as the
way to increase career opportunities and leave a legacy of
education to the next generation. While I have strong feelings
about this topic, I will also attempt to speak to it from a point
of view different from my own. For this assignment, I was
tasked to research whether or not a college education is worth
the cost for all students. The articles I found did not provide a
strict black/white, yes/no view of my topic, which I fully
expected. With much of the current education research pointing
toward the benefit of post-secondary training, I would be hard-
pressed to find an article disputing these benefits; however, I
did find an article that focused on the economic hardship of
student loans on college graduates. Before writing about this
topic, I had an openness to discover what experts on the other
side of the issue were saying, but I have to admit that I was
skeptical about what I might find. I am a life-long learner who
fully understood the benefits of a college education, from
personal experience and from the point of view of my students,
whose lives have been transformed by a college education.
The opposing viewpoint for my topic brought to light what
happens when the journey of higher education ends with unmet
expectations and dashed dreams of gainful employment. While I
support higher education, I do not support for-profit institutions
that make promises that they cannot fulfil. This type of higher
education is too risky. I believe it is best for individuals to seek
out educational opportunities they can more safely afford (like
community college!) so that they can get the training they
desire for a discounted cost. If the result of a college education
is heavy debt that the individual cannot repay, then who really
benefits? I did not realize how much of unpaid student loan debt
ends up being a burden on the tax payer. New ideas need to be
generated to help students find meaningful work so that they
can pay their own student debt. (Ex. assisting students in

7. preparing for the world of work, helping them find careers that
fit their training, helping them to make better decisions about a
college major and which college to attend, etc.)
EDUC 1300 Aug 2018
Ethical Viewpoints Assignment
El Centro College
"Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to
discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the
facts from the fiction...The function of education, therefore, is
to teach one to think intensively and to think critically."Martin
Luther King, Jr., The Purpose of EducationWhat will you
learn?
· how to find credible, reliable sources of information using a
library database
· how to critically review scholarly articles to determine
suitability for supporting a viewpoint
· how to clarify and evaluate ethical viewpoints presented by
various authorities
· how to cite sources in MLA style
Assignment Format
The assignment worksheet on Page 7 is the required format for
this assignment. The worksheet can also be found on the Library
Guide Assignment Page for Learning Framework (Handout
Section). You will find an example of a completed assignment
at the end of this document.Step #1 FIND IT! (Select a Topic)
To start this assignment, go to El Centro’s home page and scroll
to the bottom of the screen to the Quick Links section. Click on
the Library link, and then Research Guides, which will take you

8. to a list of Library resources for each course discipline. Scroll
down the list and click on Learning Framework:
Library Guide to Learning Framework
From the Learning Framework Home Page, click on the link
toSIRS ISSUES RESEARCHER – this is one of our best
databases for offering different viewpoints on hot topics in the
news!
New Login Instructions!
You will need to access your DCCCD Online Services ID via
eConnect in order to log into the El Centro’s system (ie.
databases, eCampus, eConnect). Many students will also be
prompted to change their passwords through these steps. For
more information, visit Your Passwords Have Received an
Upgrade article on the DCCCD web site. After changing your
password with the new criteria, you will be directed to the
password verification process.
For assistance, contact a Library or Computer lab staff member
or call the eConnect/eCampus Technical Support 972.669.6402
Once you are inside the SIRS database, click View All Issues:
Explore the list of topics until you find an ethical topic you are
interested in researching. You might select a topic that relates
to you or someone you know personally. Your instructor will let
you know if your topic needs to be approved ahead of time.
Very Important! You may not use the topic example from this
handout (i.e. Should schools screen children and teenagers for
signs of mental illness and suicidal tendencies?).
For each topic in the SIRS Database, you will find a research
question near the top of the page. Below the research question

9. are two columns of articles. Each column offers different
answers – presented as different viewpoints - for the question.
Keep an open mind as you explore different viewpoints. Your
goal is to select one article from VIEWPOINT 1 and a different
article from VIEWPOINT 2. Choose articles that answer the
research question from two, distinctly different points of view.
While all of the SIRS articles are credible sources of
information, some articles are older or do not offer enough
proof to support an answer to the question. Step #2: QUOTE
IT!
For the quote section of the worksheet (page 7), you will
copy/paste direct quotations from your article that are directly
related to the viewpoint you have selected. These should be
specific, relevant statements from the article that help to
support the viewpoint. Find at least 4-8 direct quotes, and place
quotation marks around them.
While you should have several direct quotes from the article,
you should not copy/paste the entire article. Use the attached
worksheet to organize your DIRECT QUOTATIONS section.
Remember, before you finalize which articles to use, evaluate
the articles to make sure they are suitable. We will use what is
called the T.R.A.P. Evaluation.Step #3: EVALUATE IT! (Use
T.R.A.P.)
The T.R.A.P. evaluation will help you to determine if the
articles you found contain enough evidence to support your
viewpoint. DO NOT use an article that doesn't pass the T.R.A.P.
evaluation!Your T.R.A.P. results must be paraphrased. Check
yourself for unintentional plagiarism by using the SafeAssign
Plagiarism Checker in eCampus. See details in Step #6.
TIPS for Paraphrasing Effectively: When paraphrasing, you are
restating the author’s ideas in your own words. Read the article

10. in its entirety first. Immediately free-write your ideas about
what you remember. Talk about the article aloud with a friend.
You are much more likely to use your own words when
explaining the article verbally.
Answer the questions below, and record your results on a piece
of paper. Once you have decided on the two, best articles, you
will record the results in the T.R.A.P. EVALUATION section of
your assignment worksheet (for each article). You will find the
assignment worksheet on Page 7.
Time (T): When was the article written?
· Add a statement highlighting the date your article was written.
· Reminder: the article must be written within the past 3 years
Relevance (R): How is the information relevant to the question
– what is their answer to the question?
· Using the facts or statistics you put into the Direct Quotation
box, paraphrase (re-state) the information that answers your
research question - in your own words
· Write aminimum of 4 to 8 sentences
Authority (A): Who is responsible for the evidence - are they
credible organizations or individuals?
· List 1 - 2 credible experts or organizations - you can use the
author of your article as an expert IF there is credible
information about the author listed at the end of the article.
Proof! (P) Proof: What evidence is given to support the
viewpoint presented in the article?
· Find statements that include statistics, research studies,
surveys, legal decisions, etc. that provide evidence to support
the viewpoint. PARAPHRASE the information you find.
· If your article does not provide evidence, you will need to
select a different article.
· Write a minimum of 2 to 4 sentences.

11. Once you have found 2 articles (1 FOR, 1 AGAINST) that pass
the T.R.A.P. Evaluation, email the articles to yourself.
Step #4: CITE IT! (Give Credit to the Source)
Giving credit to your article source is a critical step in the
research process. We will use the MLA citation style to give
credit to your source. For each article, you will follow these
steps. Find your chosen article in the SIRS Database and open
it. Click on the “Cite” button from the menu.
Now, click the COPY button next to the MLA citation.
The MLA citation will appear here.
Open your assignment worksheet (at the end of this document)
and place your cursor in the citation section for your first
article. Right click your computer mouse and select PASTE
from the menu.
Now, repeat Steps 2-4 for your second article. Remember, you
will record your work on your Assignment Worksheet (page 7).
Step #5: REFLECT ON IT!
The last step in your Ethical Viewpoints Assignment is to write
a reflection on your topic. Remember, reflection is a key part
of critically thinking things through! On your worksheet,
complete the final Reflection Section.
Your reflection involves metacognition – that is, evaluating how
you are thinking about this topic. The purpose of this part of the
assignment is to allow you to reflect on the research you found.
Your reflection should be 200-500 words.

12. Use these questions to guide your writing as you discuss BOTH
sides of this ethical issue:
· What was your viewpoint before starting your research? Do
you still think about the issue in the same way you did when
you first selected your topic? How has your viewpoint
changed?
· What did you learn about yourself as you researched this
topic?
· How did you arrive at your opinion of this topic? (Your
research should drive your opinion!)
· Imagine having the perspective of the opposing side –
Consider why the issue has importance for those who feel
strongly about it. Give examples from the opposing side that
you think are valid or worth considering.
· What questions might generate deeper thinking about this
topic?
For an example of the entire, complete Ethical Viewpoints
assignment, go to the end of this document.Step #6 Submit
Assignment Worksheet to eCampus.
Log into your course in eCampus. Click on
ASSIGNMENTS>UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENTS>LESSON 6
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM.
Ultimately, you will submit two drafts of the assignment to
eCampus. The first draft will not be graded. It will be used as a
practice assignment to allow you to practice summarizing and
paraphrasing without penalty for accidental plagiarism. Your
instructor will expect you to paraphrase the T.R.A.P. (Step #3:
Evaluate it!) and Reflection (Step #5 Reflect on it!) sections of
the assignment. You will submit your first draft using this
assignment link in eCampus:
Safe Assign Plagiarism Checker
Please Note:Your instructor must activate the Safe Assign

13. plagiarism checker in eCampus before you can use it. When you
submit your assignment to eCampus, the SafeAssign plagiarism
checker will review your document to detect possible
plagiarism. After submitting the assignment, look for the Safe
Assign Originality Report, which will highlight all areas of your
assignment that were lifted too closely from the original source.
View the SAFE ASSIGN TUTORIAL for detailed instructions
on how to access and understand your Safe Assign Originality
Report.
If Safe Assign detects plagiarism in either your T.R.A.P. or
Reflection Sections, you must make corrections by paraphrasing
the author’s words into your own before resubmitting your final
draft to eCampus. The final draft will be graded. You will
submit your final draft to this assignment link in eCampus:
To prepare your assignment for submission to eCampus:
1. Make sure your Assignment Worksheet is saved as a
Microsoft Word document (.docx) or .pdf file on your computer.
You will upload your worksheet to eCampus by using the
assignment link.
2. Click on the assignment link and scroll to the Assignment
Submission box. Click Browse My Computer to find your saved
document.
3. Select the document you want to submit to eCampus with
your mouse and click OPEN. You should now see the attached
file in eCampus.
4. Lastly, find the SUBMIT button and click it. Now, your
instructor can see that you have turned in the assignment
correctly. Do not copy/paste your assignment into the
Comments Box. If you need additional help understanding how
to attach a file, view this video.
Ethical Viewpoints Assignment - Worksheet
Research Question
See Step 1: Find it! (The research question for your topic goes

14. here.)
Viewpoint 1
See Step 1: Find it! (The first viewpoint for your topic goes
here.)
Direct Quotations
See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 1
article go here. Include quotation marks.)
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to
evaluate your article.)
MLA Citation
See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 1
article goes here.)
Viewpoint 2
See Step 1: Find it! (The second viewpoint for your topic goes
here.)
Direct Quotations
See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 2
article go here. Include quotation marks.)
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to
evaluate your article.)
MLA Citation
See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 2
article goes here.)
Reflection
See Step 5: Reflect on it! (Your assignment reflection goes
here.)Ethical Viewpoints Assignment
Research Question
Should schools screen children and teenagers for signs of
mental illness and suicidal tendencies?
Viewpoint 1
Yes. Mental health screening can help professionals and parents

15. identify children at risk for depression and suicidal urges.
Direct Quotations
· “An estimated 11.4% of the U.S. adolescents, or about 2.8
million people, had at least one “major depressive episode” in a
12-month period, according to the 2014 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health.”
· “Worrisome symptoms may be attributed to normal stresses of
adolescence or “typical” teen mood swings, when in reality they
signify suffering that is neither normal nor typical. As a result,
many depressed teens struggle with suffering that can lead to
poorer physical health, school failure, social difficulties and,
for some, suicide.”
· “Opponents of screening are wary of over diagnosis and
overtreatment. We must carefully distinguish clinical depression
from normal sadness and avoid medicalizing and medicating the
turbulence of adolescence. Not all depressed teens need
medication. Parents and providers must be guided by the
specific experiences of each teen, not by media messages or
overly simplistic conceptualizations of sadness and stress.”
· “Adolescents often have difficulty articulating suffering,
particularly if it involves fear and stigmatization. Even in
clinical settings they may feel incapable of broaching the
subject themselves. It is up to clinicians to ask the right
questions, and routine screening can pave the way for these
crucial conversations.”
· “We have integrated medical and mental-health care more
closely and have moved away from the artificial segmentation
of emotional and physical health. Fewer teens suffer in silence,
and the care they receive is continually improving, all because
we started asking these important questions.”
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
T: This article was published on April 11, 2016 in the Wall
Street Journal, which is within the past three years.
R: There is a lot of stigma surrounding the issue of mental

16. health but in this article, the research presented encourages
universal screening for early signs of depression in order to
start treatment in adolescents that would greatly benefit from it.
The number of people who encounter impactful depressive
incidents is only increasing with time according to the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Within the number of adolescents who go through the effects of
depression, less than 50% are correctly diagnosed since most of
their symptoms are thought to be typical behavior for a moody
teen thus, it leads to some teenagers’ symptoms to progress and
sometimes even lead to suicide. There is the fear of over
diagnosing and over treatment, but it is believed that
differentiating clinical depression from typical sorrow will help
avoid resorting to medicalizing the anguish of these teens since
not all instances of depression require medication. Most
adolescents struggle with communicating their suffering
effectively and that is why asking the right questions and
establishing routine screening is up to the clinicians in order to
start having clear communication that leads to crucial
consultations. Less and less teens are suffering in solitary and
the care they receive is only going to continue to improve just
because people started asking these critical questions.
A: The experts in this article are Richard J. Chung, the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the American
Academy of Pediatrics
P: According to a 2014 survey, the number of teenagers who
experience major depressive incidents has been increasing in
these past years. There are two methods for screening that have
been proven effective in not over diagnosing and making sure to
catch overlooked symptoms as well as recognizing false alarms.
MLA Citation:
Chung, Richard J., and Allen Frances. "Should all Teens be
Screened for Depression?" Wall Street Journal, 11 Apr, 2016,
pp. R.5, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

17. com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org.
Viewpoint 2No: Misdiagnoses Are All Too Common--And All
Too Damaging
Direct Quotations:
· “For one thing, no screening method is discriminating enough
to distinguish between normal sadness, which is very common
in teens, and clinical depression, which is very rare”
· “Many (probably most) teens deemed depressed by general
screening will have normal sadness or transient and self-limited
mild depression, not requiring diagnosis or treatment”
· “Mislabeling a teen as mentally ill can carry huge
consequences. It changes the way he sees himself and how
others see him. An accurate diagnosis provides enough
treatment benefit to counterbalance the harms of stigma, but an
inaccurate one harms without helping.”
· “Routine screening also puts pressure on primary-care doctors,
who don't have the time or training to distinguish depression
from other possible diagnoses. As a result, they are quick to
overprescribe antidepressants”
· “Screening would worsen the already-existing cruel paradox
that we massively over treat people who are essentially well,
while we shamefully neglect the people who are really sick
(600,000 of whom are homeless or in jail for lack of adequate
community services).”
T.R.A.P. Evaluation
T: This article was published on April 11, 2016 in the Wall
Street Journal, which is within the past three years.
R: It is believed that in teens, clinical depression is harder to
tell apart from the normal sadness teenagers experience. Most
adolescents go through mild depression which does not require
a diagnosis or medical treatment. Teenagers symptoms differ
week to week which is why it is tough to accurately diagnose
them and misdiagnosing them can lead to scrutiny in how they

18. view themselves or how others view them. Having to regularly
screen so many adolescents may lead primary-care doctors to
over prescribe antidepressants since they don’t have the
extensive training in telling apart depression from other mental
health diagnosis.
A: The experts mentioned in this article include Allen Frances,
a professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry and
behavioral sciences of Duke School of Medicine.
P: According to this article, after an update of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which combined
two very different types of depression, the amount of people on
antidepressants have significantly increased. The amount of
Americans on antidepressants has increased which has been
influenced by the pharmaceutical companies exploiting the new
updated loose definition of what depression is.
MLA Citation:
Chung, R. J., & Frances, A. (2016, 11 Apr). Should all teens be
screened for depression? Wall Street Journal Retrieved
from https://sks-sirs-com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org
Reflection:
Having gone through many years of depression, I started out
agreeing with the topic that schools should help in the screening
of mental health tendencies in teenagers because I felt that I
could have been helped sooner in my journey. After completing
this assignment, my opinions have definitely shifted. I still
agree that teens who suffer with mental and emotional health
should be helped but screening all teenagers in school, who
moods change daily and adapt to situations, would lead to
tremendous amounts of misdiagnoses and would lead to further
stigma of being diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or other
mental health diagnosis. What I learned about myself through
this research is, although it sounded amazing to try to help
everyone, I didn’t stop to think about the negative repercussions
that may come about so I learned that sometimes it is best to

19. slow down and not just be driven by the “big picture”. I
completely understand the opposing side because I now
understand how misdiagnosing teenagers could have severe
consequences and that screening teenagers in school would only
make things worse since our mental health department is
already well under funded and would make screening less
affective. I agree with them that we should focus on bettering
the teenagers who have already been properly diagnosed and
their care before we can think about the big picture of helping
screen all teenagers. I think a question that would generate
deeper thinking about this subject would be, “Should parents be
screened before having children and take mental/emotional
health courses?” because I feel like it is unfair to leave it up to
teenagers to deal with repercussions of horrible communications
between parents. If parents were educated in mental and
emotional health, I feel that we could avoid a lot of the events
that lead to teenagers being depressed.
How can I get help with this assignment?
Email: Ask a Librarian
El Centro Library: 214-860-2174
You may also email your EDUC 1300 Instructor directly from
the course schedule. Or, look in the course syllabus for contact
information.
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