PSY 141, Fall 2016, Dr. Gurney

Psychology 141:

Fundamentals of Clinical &

Counseling Psychology

Tuesday & Thursday, 10:00 – 11:50, VL104

Contact Information

Andrea G. Gurney, Ph.D.
805-565-6057

/ Office Hours
Winter Hall 332
Tuesday 12:00 – 2:00,
Thursday 1:00-2:00, & by appointment

Course Goals & Objectives

The main objective of this course is to introduce students to the major theoretical approaches of clinical psychology. Focus will be on the theories and their founders, including an analysis of the structural components, historical background, and applied clinical methods for each theory. Theoretical applications in a clinical context will be emphasized, and ethical and legal considerations will be taken into account. The course will also explore characteristics of a skilled and effective counselor, as well as some of the basic principles to psychotherapy and counseling. Experiential activities will be utilized to assist students in understanding and implementing counseling approaches. Throughout this course, students will be expected to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of theories that constitute the field of clinical and counseling psychology & how these theories guide practice and research.
  • Integrate theoretical knowledge base with qualities and characteristics of effective counselors.
  • Develop an awareness of cultural components of counseling theory and practice.
  • Increase self-awareness regarding the impact of personal beliefs on the counseling relationship.
  • Understand and apply the humanistic principles discussed and practiced in class towards a therapeutic relationship.
  • Develop a working model of psychotherapy and Christianity.
  • Effectively utilize the APA format & style of writing in specified assignments.

Required Resources

  • American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.
  • Axline, V. M. (1964). Dibs: In search of self. New York: Ballantine Books.
  • Corey, G. (2013). Case approach to counseling and psychotherapy (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
  • Corey, G. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (9th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.

Grading criterion

Your grade in this course will be based on your performance on the following criteria:

Written examinations (2 @ .20 each = .40)

Case study & Videotape Critique (.25)

Self-exploration paper (.15)

DibsReaction Paper (.15)

Class/small group participation (.5)

Each assignment is scored on a scale of 0 to 100, and the final grade can be calculated by multiplying each score by its respective weighting factor from above and summing all of the weighted scores.Course grades will be assigned on the basis of this total score, using cut-point scores of 90, 80, 70 and 55 for grades of A, B, C and D, respectively (+ and – grades will be assigned at the professor’s discretion).

Course Projects

In addition to two exams, there are three required course projects –a self-exploration paper, a reaction paper and a case study/videotape critique. The following are required for successful completion of this course:

  1. Self-Exploration Paper

In this paper you are to be creative and have fun as you explore your own journey toward the field of psychology. Some of the questions you should address are: What led you to study counseling/clinical psychology? What are the relationships and experiences that have impacted your decision? How have these relationships and experiences affected your journey, your self-image, patterns you have developed, coping skills, etc.? What difference does your faith make, if any? In a sense, you are identifying and discussing various cultural and contextual influences that have impacted and shaped your personal development and led you to study psychology. Additionally, you are to identify and discuss your own strengths and weakness as a potential therapist. How might your strengths and weaknesses impact or interfere with your future work as a helping professional? The paper should be approximately 10-pages long.

  1. Dibs Reaction Paper

After reading Dibs: In search of self (Axline, 1964) submit a reaction paper detailing your specific observations and insights regarding Axline’s therapy with Dibs. Keep in mind your personal reactions, the helping process, and the therapeutic relationship. You can also explore how this book shapes your thinking about therapy with children and the way peoplechange and grow, including what gets in the way of change and what ingredients are necessary forgrowth. This paper should be approximately 8-pages long.

  1. Case Study & Video Critique

You will work in groups of three for this assignment. Each member of the triad will have the opportunity to act as a counselor, client, and observer. Each individual will submit a 10-minute video of her/himself in the role as counselor (with another member of the group acting as client, and the other as observer). The counselor should utilize basic helping communication skills: attending, reflecting, empathizing, paraphrasing, clarifying and summarizing. [Please make sure I able to see your facial expressions and hear the voices of both counselor and client.] Feel free to use either your recording equipment or those in the library or Clinical Lab (WH 217). If you would like to use the Clinical Lab, be sure to reserve the room with our Office Manager, Judy Williams ().

Each video should be accompanied by a verbatim written transcript of the session in which you were the counselor. Additionally, a 10-12-page critique should be included, utilizing the following structure:

Experience as Counselor

  1. Include a brief description of your client – presenting concern, general background, and description (e.g. Sally is a 20-year-old female of Asian-American descent who is graduating in June from a bachelor’s program in accounting. She is concerned about moving back to her parent’s home after graduation…).
  1. Critically analyze your experience as the counselor and critique your overall session. Among the issues you can discuss are your intentions, theoretical rationale, motivation, comfort level, times of most and least resistance, etc. You can include what you did well, and what you would change if you could.This might involve systematically comparing and contrasting segments of the session as you describe your communication style and listening skills used. You can also analyze the way you ended the session and assess the similarities and differences of your client’s response to your type of questions. When referring to your session, cite examples from transcript(e.g. page 2 line 20-25).

Experience as Client

  1. Discuss your thoughts, feelings, and general experience of being the client. Discuss your comfort level.
  2. Discuss your perceptions of the counselor and the overall process.
  3. Explain ways in which your experience as a client benefited your understanding as a future helping professional.

Experience as Observer

  1. Critically analyze the counselor-client relationship. Discuss your viewpoint as an objective third party (i.e. What was surprising? What impressed you? What would you have done differently if you were the counselor?).
  2. Discuss and analyze the types of questions the counselor asked as well as the client’s responses to these questions.
  3. Explain what was beneficial to your understanding as a future helper by being in the observer role.

It would be to your benefit to take notes on your roles (including observer) immediately following the session.

Note:This project is evaluated on the perceptiveness of your analysis of the sessions, in hopes of increasing self-awareness and critical thinking. Please do not make any attempt to diagnose; this is not part of the paper or course.

Course Policies

Class attendance and participation are expected, and you will be responsible for information gained by the readings as well as that supplied by the lecture. According to Westmont policy, students accruing more than four absences during the course of the semester may be dropped from the class with an F. You are responsible for making up any work missed by excused or unexcused absences.

Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Assignments turned in after this time will incur a 10% per day penalty. Exceptions will be considered if you turn in a written request 1 week prior to the due date.

Missed exams: A student who misses an examination without making prior arrangements with me receives a score of 0 for that exam. Make-up exams may be scheduled ahead of time only under extenuating circumstances.

Academic honesty: All students are expected to subscribe to the highest ideals of academic integrity. Any form of academic dishonesty will be dealt with as severely as allowed by the college, most likely a grade of F in the course and recommendation of dismissal from the college. “Academic dishonesty” includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism (see below), cheating, and falsification. Please refer to the College’s policy on Academic Honesty.

Plagiarism: Any student found cheating on class projects or exams will receive an F for that particular project with no opportunity to make up the project. Although sometimes unintentional, plagiarism is considered cheating and students should be aware of how to properly acknowledge sources of information in order to avoid plagiarism. The current plagiarism document can be found at: This document defines different levels of plagiarism and the penalties for each. It also contains very helpful information on strategies for avoiding plagiarism. It cannot be overemphasized that plagiarism is an insidious and disruptive form of academic dishonesty. It violates relationships with known classmates and professors, and it violates the legal rights of people you may never meet.

Writers’ Corner,the campus writing center, is an academic support service free for all Westmont students. Peer tutors are available forone-on-onetutorials in Voskuyl Library 215.Tutorials are typically offered after 4:00 p.m. on Monday-Thursday and after7:30 p.m. on Sunday. Appointments are encouraged in order to receive first priority (makean appointment online at Drop‐ins are also welcome (first come, first served). We look forward to helping yousucceed as a writer. For more information,visit the writing center website:

Disability Services: Students who have been diagnosed with a disability (learning, physical or psychological) are strongly encouraged to contact the Disability Services office as early as possible to discuss appropriate accommodations for this course. Formal accommodations will only be granted for students whose disabilities have been verified by the Disability Services office. These accommodations may be necessary to ensure your full participation and the successful completion of this course.

Laptop Computers: Laptops can be a great help in taking notes for this class. However, if you can’t resist the temptation to check your email, Facebook, IM, surf the web, etc., do not bring your laptop to class. It is difficult to take good notes while surfing the web and, additionally, laptops used for the purposes other than class can be a distraction to the students around you. Beyond that, I’ve noticed a trend regarding discussion time as “discretionary time” to check email and mentally check-out. This behavior has an immediate and negative effect on the quality of the discussion, and is disrespectful to all in the class. And while I am happy to go the extra mile and help you all master the material in this class, I have no sympathy and even less patience for the increasing number of students who ask for help because they have not been listening attentively during class. So I ask you be considerate of these things!

Take your Professor to Lunch: One of the things I value most is the opportunity to develop relationships with students. The classroom environment does not always allow for more personalized attention or one-on-one exchanges, but I am always open to getting together for coffee or lunch. You are welcome to take advantage of the Take Your Professor to Lunch passes that the Office of Campus Life makes available. I look forward to getting to know each one of you better!

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE FOR LECTURES, ASSIGNMENTS, AND EXAMS

Week

/

Date

/

Class Topics

/

Reading

/
EXAMS/PAPERS
1 / 8/30 / Class Introduction
9/1 / Introduction to Counseling / Corey 1
2 / 9/6 / The Person of the Therapist / Corey 2 / Paper Prep Due
9/8 / Ethical Issues / Corey 3
3 / 9/13 / Interview & Assessment / Case 1
9/15 / Practical Issues in the Room
4 / 9/20 / Psychoanalytic Theories: Freud / Corey 4, Case 2
9/22 / Jung, Erikson, Object Relations Theory
5 / 9/27 / Adlerian Therapy / Corey 5, Case 3
9/29 / Self-ExplorationPaper
6 / 10/4 / Existential Therapy / Corey 6, Case 4
10/6 / Person-Centered Therapy /
Corey 7, Case 5
7 / 10/11 / Fall Break!
10/13 / Exam 1 / Exam 1
8 / 10/18 / Gestalt / Corey 8, Case 6
10/20 / Behaviorism / Corey 9, Case 7
9 / 10/25 / Cognitive Behavior Therapy / Corey 10, Case 8
10/27
10 / 11/1 / Reality Therapy / Corey 11, Case 9
11/3 / Feminist Therapy / Corey 12, Case 10 / Dibs Paper
11 / 11/8 / Men in Therapy / Self-Exploration Paper
11/10 / Social Constructionism / Corey 13, Case 11
12 / 11/15 / Narrative Therapy / Corey 13, Case 11
11/17 / Solution-Focused Therapy / Corey 13, Case 11
13 / 11/22 / Family Systems / Corey 14, Case 12
11/24 /
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
14 / 11/29
12/1 / Integrative Approach / Corey 15, Case 13 / Video Critique
15 / 12/6 / Psychotherapy and Christianity / Case 14
12/8 / Review
Finals / 12/15 /
Exam 2 at 8:00 – 10:00 AM
/ Exam 2

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Learning Goals and Outcomes for PSY-141

The College and the Department each maintain separate but overlapping list of goals and outcomes for our students. Each psychology course is designed not only to develop the skills and knowledge appropriate to that course, but also to help students develop toward these goals.

Although most of our courses are designed to contribute to all of our goals, some courses focus more particularly on one or a few. PSY-141 focuses on the specific departmental goals checked in the list below:

✔Knowledge Base. Our students will be able to articulate both (a) the structure of the academic discipline of psychology and (b) the key elements of content within a wide variety of areas within psychology, integrating them with each other. Students will also be familiar with career/vocation options in psychology and psychology-related fields.

Scientific Research Methods and Skills. Our students will be able to recognize, describe, andimplement a variety of research methods and skills common to the psychological sciences.

✔Written and Oral Communication. Our students will be able to write and speak in genresappropriate to the academic discipline of psychology.

✔Values and Character. Our students will value, appreciate, and welcome, through understandingand demonstrative action,

  1. scientific methods. Students will see empirical, evidence-based methods as essential and as

complementary to other methods of knowing.

b.ethics. Students will be committed to high ethical standards, including professional,

discipline-specific domains and their own personal lives.

  1. faith. Students will be able to articulate the interactions between psychology and faith.
  2. openness to experience. Students will understand the importance and desirability of adiversity of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds (including ethnic, sociocultural, andgender diversity). They will embrace ambiguity, being comfortable without closure or black-and-white answers, and valuing questions as much as answers.

✔Applications. Our students will apply psychological principles, knowledge, and skills to their ownlives and to the transformation of their worlds. Domains to which these are applied include:

a. personal (personal development, relationships, personal experience, etc.)

b. community and societal/global concerns and issues

c. integration with other academic disciplines

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The psychology department has identified specific, assessable learning outcomes for each of thedepartmental goals (in parentheses below), and has associated each outcome with a college-wide goal(identified in bold below). Learning outcomes most pertinent to PSY-141 are checked in the list below:

✔Knowledge Base: Demonstrate the ability to identify, recognize, or otherwise articulate keyelements of content (e.g., core concepts, theories, and individuals) within a wide variety of areas inpsychology. (Goal: Knowledge Base)

✔Competence in Written and Oral Communication: Write efficiently, creatively, and competently using APA style in both theoretical/review and research report genres. (Goal: Writtenand Oral Communication)

✔Christian Understanding/Practices/Affections: Demonstrate ability to identify important contemporary areas of overlap between psychology and Christian theology and spirituality, andare both affectively positively disposed towards them and inclined towards practicing them. (Goal:Values and Character)

✔Critical and Interdisciplinary Thinking: Demonstrate ability to recognize good vs. bad experimental designs, theories, and arguments in psychology, and also reasoning linkingpsychology to other disciplines. (Goal: Scientific Thinking, Methods, & Skills)

✔Diversity and Global Awareness: Engage as active global citizens with an awareness of cultural

diversity, one’s own culture/s, and the responsibility of self towards others. (Goal: Values andCharacter)

✔Active Societal/ Intellectual Engagement: Engage as active agents in their local communities, bringing their intellectual and academic abilities and interests to bear on improving the lives ofthose around them. (Goal: Applications)

Creative Expression: Recognize the creative aspects of theory construction, experimental design, application and collaborative work in psychology, and demonstrate such creativity in their owndisciplinary work. (Goal: Scientific Thinking, Methods, & Skills).

We encourage students to visit the departmental web page and talk with their academic advisors for more

information about learning outcomes and goals, and about the structure of our curriculum.

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