Project: Find support for the efficacy of antidepressant medications, and argue this position as part of a debate.
My Role: This project was for a class (Brains on Drugs), and the class was split into two camps arbitrarily by the professor: those supporting that antidepressant drugs do in fact improve the symptoms of depression and should continue to be used, and those supporting that antidepressant drugs have been found to be largely comprised of a placebo effect (and are therefore a waste of patients' money) and to offer alternate paths for treatment of depression. Each student had to locate 5 sources to formulate arguments to present during the debate, documenting a summary of each point and the source.
Skills Used: Research, Understanding alternate perspectives, Defending a point.
Results: This was not the first debate in this class, but certainly was one of great relevance to my internship. The debate was largely a team effort, involving supporting the arguments of teammates and pointing out flaws in the arguements of the opposing side. In order to argue effectively, I had to research both points of view and understand them. In fact, my true opinion lies somewhere in the middle. Most debated topics are much more complex than simple black-and-white, yes-or-no answers, and this exercise helped to illustrate this perfectly. The document below shows my own points in summary, but the debate itself was much richer and displayed the full spectrum of opinions on the subject.
My Role: This project was for a class (Brains on Drugs), and the class was split into two camps arbitrarily by the professor: those supporting that antidepressant drugs do in fact improve the symptoms of depression and should continue to be used, and those supporting that antidepressant drugs have been found to be largely comprised of a placebo effect (and are therefore a waste of patients' money) and to offer alternate paths for treatment of depression. Each student had to locate 5 sources to formulate arguments to present during the debate, documenting a summary of each point and the source.
Skills Used: Research, Understanding alternate perspectives, Defending a point.
Results: This was not the first debate in this class, but certainly was one of great relevance to my internship. The debate was largely a team effort, involving supporting the arguments of teammates and pointing out flaws in the arguements of the opposing side. In order to argue effectively, I had to research both points of view and understand them. In fact, my true opinion lies somewhere in the middle. Most debated topics are much more complex than simple black-and-white, yes-or-no answers, and this exercise helped to illustrate this perfectly. The document below shows my own points in summary, but the debate itself was much richer and displayed the full spectrum of opinions on the subject.