Department of Psychology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PSYC 538, FALL 2013
Part of the Introductory Course Sequence in Clinical/Community Psychology
Psychology room 708, Friday 12:30-2:30 p.m.
Wendy Heller
715 Psychology (office), 365 Psychology (Lab)
Office Hours: drop-in or by appointment
Best way to contact:
Welcome to 538, Intro to Clin-Comm Psych I. Our program’s Introductory Sequence for first-year clinical/community PhD students is taught in several sections. Psych 538 covers fundamental issues that frame our understanding of psychopathology, including classification, etiology, assessment, and diagnosis. The readings this semester include a series of autobiographical accounts that will be accompanied by readings from the DSM-V and a set of scientific articles that address a disorder or problem in living, along with important theoretical issues associated with this disorder or problem. The readings are designed to educate you more deeply about the nature of various disorders or problems in living, and to highlight crucial issues in the field, including classification issues, biological issues, philosophical or historical issues, developmental issues, or other perspectives. Race, culture, ethnicity, gender, and other diversity issues will be woven throughout our readings and discussions.
Before we start, please put away your iPhone and close your laptop computers. The ability to articulate your ideas and engage in scholarly dialog is a very important skill in our profession. The discussions in this class are designed to promote that style of engagement and to help you develop your ability to participate in such conversations effectively. I’d like to minimize potential distractions as well as encourage all of you to stay tuned in and keep the conversation going. I understand some of you take notes on your computers. That’s OK only if you can do this unobtrusively without disengaging in any way from the conversation.
The goal of the course is to deepen your understanding not only of the nature of psychopathologies but of the way in which we think about them. Since the way we think about them determines how we will then approach research and intervention, it is critical to understand the phenotypical and experiential manifestation of the condition or problem as much as possible, and in addition, to appreciate the historical and epistemological factors that frame our understanding of it. My hope is that the readings will integrate many viewpoints and raise many issues that provide rich material for discussion. Most of the time there will not be right answers; just good questions and reasonable arguments.
You’ll be reading the scientific literature as well as personal narratives of mental illness. These will provide you with the richness of experience which you will eventually encounter in your contacts with clients and patients. I’ve chosen the autobiographical material on the basis of the intelligence and competence of the authors to describe the complexity of their mental, emotional, and physical conditions; the voices of these authors are for the most part convincing and authentic. In addition, they provide clear challenges to simple explanations regarding the nature and causes of psychopathology, and vividly illustrate knotty problems in classification, diagnosis, and assessment, as well as in intervention and recovery (although these are not the focus of this course; more on that in 539). I have also chosen books that describe conditions of current interest and/or research focus in the field, and that provide material regarding the complexity of the biopsychosocial factors that contribute to the development of psychopathology and its manifestations.
The course has a website https://compass2g.illinois.edu. I’m in the process of building this and have uploaded the readings for the next few weeks. If you have any problems with Compass 2g you can email CITES Academic Technology Services at , or call at 244-7000. However, the site is fairly user-friendly, so you should find it easy to navigate.
Course objectives –
Through the readings, discussions, presentations, literature reviews, and other activities, you will:
1) Develop critical thinking and accurate judgment regarding the strengths and weaknesses of ideas and data.
2) Integrate information across a variety of sources, including different types of data (e.g., quantitative and qualitative), and different disciplines/areas of research (e.g., cognitive psychology and neurobiology).
3) Learn how applied experience and research enrich and inform each other, and practice integrating these in a seamless manner.
4) Achieve a compassionate and nuanced understanding of psychopathology and problems in living.
5) Understand and evaluate various definitions of abnormal or problematic behavior and understand issues of differential diagnosis.
6) Understand the current psychiatric perspective embodied in DSM-V and its principles of diagnostic assessment.
7) Understand the issues involved in categorical vs. dimensional approaches to classification.
8) Develop an understanding of the biological factors that contribute to psychopathology, including cognitive neuroscience approaches (brain structure and function in psychopathology and concomitant cognitive, physical, and emotional factors) and genetics.
9) Develop an understanding of the developmental factors that contribute to psychopathology.
10) Develop an understanding of the social factors that contribute to psychopathology.
11) Appreciate the complexity of the interplay among 10, 11, and 12.
12) Be exposed to and practice approaches to learning (via reading, writing about, presenting, and discussing the literature) and to assessment of competence (via literature review, presentation, and writing assignments – including essay questions on the final) that you will encounter throughout your graduate career and in subsequent work in the field.
Requirements – Each week you will read between 2-4 scientific articles. You will also read sections of the DSM and 6 memoirs during the course of the semester (approximately one every 2 weeks). In addition to the readings, you will have an assignment every week with the exception of the first week, the day of the midterm, and Thanksgiving break. On weeks that we’re having a debate, you will sign up for teams to argue one side of an issue. For the other weeks, you may sign up to present (using PowerPoint) one of the required articles, or you will write a thought paper of approximately 1 page in length integrating information across the required readings. In total you should be doing 5 presentations and 5 thought papers (1/week), plus 2 debates.
1) THOUGHT PAPERS engage some issue raised by the readings. Your papers may include questions and interesting points about the topics covered, integration of various readings, relation of the readings to topics in other courses, clinical implications or limitations of the studies, or any other original thoughts you might have. It’s fine to include methodological or substantive critiques of the studies, but every study has flaws, so this should not be the focus of your paper (unless you detect a fatal flaw, which would be interesting). You could include suggestions for additional or improved studies that would address gaps in knowledge. Pay attention to integrating the autobiographical material with the scientific material. Does one perspective inform the other and if so how? Did you learn anything from one that you could not learn from the other and vice versa? How did reading both provide insights into the disorder or condition under discussion? Think about whether and how these two kinds of data (the narrative material and the research) intersect to provide you with insights into the manifestation and etiology of psychopathology.
The papers should one page, typed, single-spaced, or two pages double-spaced. They should focus on the readings from the previous two-week period, although it’s fine to bring in other material. Papers should be sent to me and to the rest of the group by noon the day before class (, ) so that we all have time to read them. Papers will be graded on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being “good”, 3 being “satisfactory”, and 1 being “unsatisfactory”. Papers considered to be good are those that integrate information across sources (e.g., basic theory, experimental findings, and the experience of psychopathology). A good/satisfactory paper will be in on time, will show a thoughtful engagement with the material, and will be well-written and proofread.
Writing is one of the basic activities of our profession as academics and psychologists in both research and applied settings. The primary goal of writing thought papers is to encourage you to integrate the material and to foster broader and more informed conceptualizations of the issues involved. In addition, these assignments give you practice in professional and scholarly writing, exposure to the discourse conventions in the field, and the opportunity to receive constructive feedback. You will often be called upon to produce, in a short amount of time, written material that must be persuasive, logical, and authoritative (i.e., uses citations effectively). The more comfortable you can become with this type of writing the easier you will find it to negotiate the demands of both graduate school and the various professional roles in which you may find yourself. Finally, these papers will provide us with material for class discussion.
2) PRESENTATIONS should be brief using between 3-6 power point slides. You will choose an article from the “required” list on your syllabus. Each student should choose and present a different article (I will circulate a sign up handout.) After reading the article, you should prepare a few power point slides in which you display either a graphic that you think encapsulates one or more crucial points made in the paper, or a few short statements, or both. You will receive feedback on the effectiveness of your slides from the instructor (me) as well as from other members of the class. Presentations will be graded on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being “good”, 3 being “satisfactory”, and 1 being “unsatisfactory”.
Teaching classes, and presenting your own research or that of others, is a fundamental aspect of the profession. The goal of these assignments is to give you practice in preparing an effective short presentation using visual aids such as power point slides. It gives you an opportunity to learn the technology better, get familiar with different ways of organizing information for the consumption of others, practice speaking and articulating ideas, and get comfortable receiving constructive feedback on your performance.
Both the thought paper and presentation assignments are designed to prepare you for the midterm and final exams. In turn, the midterm and final are designed to prepare you for the professional activities that are typical of our field (e.g., presenting and writing).
Exams – There will be a midterm and a final.
MIDTERM: The midterm will be an in-class exam. Questions will be in essay format and will require synthesizing information across the first half of the semester.
FINAL: The final exam will be scheduled according to student preferences because there is no official exam time for a class that meets only one day of the week. The final exam will include questions that are similar to the questions you will encounter on your qualifying exams; i.e., they will be integrative essay questions. The exam will be cumulative. You will write one of the questions yourself which I will edit and include on the exam. The purpose of including this question is to build upon your experience of writing thought papers by giving you practice in creating and responding to a question in an area that interests you and in which you would like to develop more expertise. The procedure for this question is modeled after our procedure for the specialty question on your qualifying exam. In addition, the experience of writing the question gives you further experience in developing and articulating research questions, in scholarly research, in writing exam questions, and in professional and scholarly writing.
Grading – Contributing to the final grade will be the following:
1) Class participation and debates (18%; 2 debates graded 1-3 points, 1 point for participating every week for at least 12 weeks, counting debates so one week “grace” period)
2) Presentations (15%; 5 worth 1-3 points)
3) Thought papers (15%; 5 worth 1-3 points)
4) Midterm (20%)
5) Final exam (32%)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) –
The ADA requires that all qualified persons have equal opportunity and access to education regardless of the presence of any disabling conditions as long as they are disclosed in advance. If you require special provisions, please notify me so I may try to accommodate any special needs you may have. This information will remain confidential.
Diversity Statement and Ground Rules for Discussions –
During the course of the semester, students and instructor will discuss opinions and feelings related to course materials and issues of diversity. Diversity is not limited to race, ethnicity and culture, but also includes regionalism, religious, economic, political, educational, and sexual orientation. An essential requirement of this course is that all students are treated with respect for their opinions during class discussions. One important ground rule for presentations, debates, and class discussion: NO PERSONAL ATTACKS.
Academic Honor Code –
All students in the course are expected to abide by the academic honor code, as specified by the university’s academic integrity clause. The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense. This includes cheating or misrepresenting the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work to get undeserved credit.It is the instructor’s policy that cheating or plagiarism will result in receiving a failing grade for the course. Please see instructor or go to http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/article_1/a1_1-402.html for a description of what constitutes a violation of the academic honor code.
Building Emergency Action Plan –
Students that will require assistance in the event of an emergency should identify themselves to the instructor. Your instructor will make arrangements to assist you in moving to a Safe Area during an emergency. Safe Areas are located on each floor of the Psychology Building next to the freight elevator in the southwest corner, and they are marked on the emergency wayfaring maps found throughout the building.
Required Texts
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-V).
Frey, James. (2003). A million little pieces. Anchor Books.