So after I discovered that high level mathematics was not my cup of tea, I found myself being drawn into the bizarre world of social science, and in particular Psychology and Sociology, and now I'm working on a dual-major BS in both. I've found that studying the human mind from a purely academic point of view has radically changed the way that I view myself and Autism/Aspergers. I guess you could say that I view myself far more objectively, and that I've morphed into a rather extreme Existentialist.
But all of these personal transformations aside, I'm now at kind of a roadblock, and I'm wondering whether any of you might have some advice with overcoming it. In my abnormal Psych class, I am now working on an assignment involving writing up a case study; my instructor has provided us with a brief, one-paragraph, overview of someone who is suffering from X symptoms and stress. From this we are to write up an analysis on what we feel the subject is likely suffering from, what further questions we would like to ask them, and what treatments we would recommend. The problem that I have encountered upon first reading through the assignment is that, while I am as up to par in psychological knowledge as everyone else in my class, I am having some difficulty translating what I know into practice with analyzing the behavior of the subject I am assigned to. I don't think it will affect my ability to get the assignment finished, since several of my friends have been helping me with the specifics and my instructor knows that I have AS and has been providing me with all the necessary assistance. I think the issue is that I am just having a lot of anxiety with how to interpret this person's behavior, much as I do in common everyday situations, though obviously this is a much much much different matter.
What I am really wondering is this: have any of you with a background in Social Science(s) encountered similar problems with interpreting the people you are studying, and if so how did you go about working around them? Also do you continue to have an issues with this, or has experience eased the anxiety?