Abnormal Psychology


ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 213: Abnormal and psychopathological behavior patterns, mental deficiencies, anxiety, thought disorder, personality disorders are reviewed in this course.
Spring 2006

Course overview and objectives

PY 213 is a basic introduction class to abnormal psychology. The instructor will emphasize the problems of distinguishing clearly between normal and abnormal behavior within the context of the DSM, social policy and the law. A biopsychosocial perspective will be used to help understand the influences that cause a human to experience a mental disorder. By the end of this course you should be able to :

1-Write a five axis diagnosis
2-Understand the components of a mental status examination
3-Define mental disorder vs. character disorder
4-Understand the differences in mental health treatment
5-Generally describe the mental disorders found in DSM-IV
6-Define insanity
7-Define sexual disorders
8-Define psychosis
9-Define delusion
10-Define hallucination
11-Understand the components of a mental status examination

Textbook and Additional Sources

Any Abnormal Psychology textbook as long as DSM-IV criteria are used in the explanation of abnormal behavior. ie. (Barlow,Cramer, Halguin)
Assigned web topics by instructor ( At the end of this page you will see a link to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Please start reading in this journal. I would like you to bring your new information to the class discussion.

Resources on reserve in library: DSM-IV



Quizzes and Exams

The instructor reserves the right to exam the student’s knowledge during any and all class sessions. If a student is able to answer verbal questions in class which are taken from the textbook and study guide, a student should be able to pass exams.
There will be three exams during the semester. The exams will measure content knowledge, application questions and critical thinking questions. The third a final exam will be comprehensive and must be taken. After you complete any exam, you may ask to have it counted twice.

Order of Reading

Understanding Abnormality
Theoretical Persprctives
Classification and Treatment Plans
Ethical and Legal Issues
Assessment

Test 1


Axis II Personality Disorders
Anxiety and Mood Disorders
Sexual Disorders

Mid-Term

Schizophrenia
Cognitive Disorders

Comprehensive Final



ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Spring 2006 STUDY OUTLINE FOR THE FIRST EXAMINATION

As we are working in class formulate you answers to the following questions.

What is the biopsysocial understanding of abnormal behavior?
What is the law, psychology, public policy understanding of abnormal behavior?
What are the behaviors an individual can look for in self to identify abnormal behavior?


What are the roles and responsibilities of clinicians?
How is the insanity defense established for a client?
What does it mean to be competent in the eyes of the court?
What is the basic formulation of risk assessment?


What are the reasons a clinician would use a diagnosis?
Understand the design of DSM_IV
What are the different types of mental health treatments?



What are the reasons for a clinician to conduct an assessment?
What are the reasons behind conducting a structured and unstructured interview?
What are the different types of psychological testing?

Know the key diagnostic features of each DSM diagnosis for
Personality Disorders, Anxiety Disorders and Somatoform Disorders.

How do Axis I and Axis II diagnosis differ and what problems to treatment dose this difference pose?

What are the Theoretical Perspectives in Abnormal Psychology and why are they needed?

There has been some concern about the quality of my study guide. In fact, it was stated that the guide did not represent the questions on the examinations. I never intended the guide to be used as a practice test. Rather then looking at a topic on the study guide and answering it as a short answer question, write everything you know about the topic area. You can then use this material as a study outline.








 
 
   
 
 

JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

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