Fall 2008 Psychology 360

Fall 2008 Psychology 360

Dr. Norcross 3 credits

Clinical Psychology

Catalog Description: (Prerequisites: Psyc 110; a grade of C or higher in Psyc 225) An overview of contemporary clinical psychology focusing on its practices, contributions, and directions. Topics include clinical research, psychological assessment, psychotherapy systems, community applications, and emerging specialties, such as health and forensic psychology. Fall only. (W -- designated as a Writing Intensive course.)

Faculty Information:

Professor: John C. Norcross, PhD, ABPP, Professor of Psychology

Contact numbers: 941-7638 (office); (e-mail); 585-5726 (home)

Web page: academic.scranton.edu/faculty/norcross/

Office hours: Mon 8:15 – 10:00, Tue 1:15 – 2:30, and by appointment

Office location: 224 Alumni Memorial Hall

Teaching assistant: Ms. Rebecca Guenther (; 908-399-9927)

Required Texts:

Trull, T. J. (2005). Clinical psychology (7th edition). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.

VandenBos, G. R., McNeil, J., Norcross, J. C., & Freedheim, D. K. (1995). The anatomy of psychotherapy: Viewer's guide to the APA Psychotherapy Videotape Series. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Evaluation Process: Your grade in this course will be determined by your performance on weekly quizzes, a final examination, and three papers. In cases of “borderline” grades, your attendance and class participation will also be considered.

There will be twelve weekly quizzes (12 points apiece) and one final examination (25 points). The weekly quizzes will be given for 10 minutes at the beginning of the Tuesday class; these quizzes will cover lecture material, reading assignments, film presentations, class handouts, and related classroom information. Make-up quizzes are not available. The final examination will assess your knowledge of material covered in the last two weeks of class.

Three papers, accorded 25 points apiece, are also required. Detailed instructions for preparing the papers are attached. You have three options for each of the papers.

Paper 1: Biofeedback; Research Synopsis; Autobiography of Mental Health Patient

Paper 2: Biofeedback; Behavior Therapy Simulations; APA Psychotherapy Videotape

Paper 3: Biofeedback; Gratitude Letter; APA Psychotherapy Videotape

Putting it all together:

Best 10 of 12 quizzes 120

Final examination 25

Three papers (25 each) 75

Total 220 possible points

Course Policies: Regular class attendance is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. You are responsible for all announcements made in class. If absent from a lecture, you are responsible for the material covered. If absent from a class in which a videotape is shown, you may be able to obtain and watch it in the Media Resources Center in the library.

Please refer to the University’s Academic Code of Honesty (revised May 1998). Plagiarism or dishonest quiz behavior on your part will result in a grade of F for the course. As stated in the Student Handbook: Failures in the area of academic honesty strike at the heart of what is essential to the University community – the pursuit of truth.

Any student who, because of a disability, may require some special arrangements in order to meet the course requirements, should contact me privately as soon as possible so that I may consider and then make appropriate accommodations.

You are encouraged to participate fully and civilly in class. At the same time, we will not tolerate disruptive or offensive behavior that is antithetical to our university ideals or that is contrary to a conducive learning environment. Civility is a fragile construct that each of must cherish and protect.

Please turn off your cell phone or pager while in class. Violation of this policy will demand punishment – though one that does not infringe on your eighth amendment rights.

Our class time will involve lectures, discussions, videotapes, and demonstrations. The primary function of the lectures is to supplement, not to repeat, the textbooks. The lectures will, therefore, contain information not found in the readings, and you will be tested on this material. You are free to decline participation in any discussions or activities.

Course Calendar and Assignments:

Dates Topics Reading Assignment

Aug 26 Welcome; Definitions T1, T3

Aug 28 Clinical Training

Sep 2 Historical Perspectives T2 Quiz #1

Sep 4 Clinical Research

Sep 9 Psychological Assessment T4, T6 Quiz #2

Sep 11 Psychological Assessment

Sep 16 Behavioral Assessment T9, T10 Quiz #3

Sep 18 Actuarial and Clinical Judgment Paper #1

Sep 23 Psychotherapy and Behavior Change T11, VIntro Quiz #4

Sep 25 Psychotherapy and Behavior Change

Sep 30 Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies T12, V3 Quiz #5

Oct 2 Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies

Oct 7 Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies T14, V11 Quiz #6

Oct 9 Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

Oct 14 Fall Break; no class

Oct 16 Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

Oct 21 Humanistic and Existential Therapies T13, V5 Quiz #7

Oct 23 Humanistic and Existential Therapies Paper #2

Oct 28 Group Therapies T15 Quiz #8

Oct 30 Couples & Family Therapy

Nov 4 Psychotherapy Research Articles Quiz #9

Nov 6 Psychotherapy Integration

Nov 11 Community Intervention T16 Quiz #10

Nov 13 Community & Positive Psychology article

Nov 18 Health Psychology T17, T18 Quiz #11

Nov 20 Clinical Neuropsychology Paper #3

Nov 25 Forensic Psychology; Pediatric & Geropsych T19, T20 Quiz #12

Nov 27 Thanksgiving Break; no class

Dec 2 Prescription Privileges; International; Prospects Fox Article

Dec 4 Clinical Jeopardy

Final exam

Films for Clinical Psychology:

Oct 2 Short-Term Dynamic Therapy (APA Psychotherapy Videotape)

Oct 9 Harry: Behavioral Treatment of Self-Abuse

Oct 16 Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (APA Psychotherapy Videotape)

Oct 21 Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (Ellis and Rogers tapes)

Oct 23 Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (Ellis, Rogers, and Perls tapes)

Oct 28 Process Experiential Therapy (APA Psychotherapy Videotape)

Nov 13 An Ounce of Prevention (World of Abnormal Psychology Videotape)

Nov 25 Commitment Evaluation

Clinical Psychology

Dr. John Norcross

GUIDELINES FOR THE PAPERS

All three papers must be typed double-spaced with conventional fonts and one-inch margins. The target word count is between 1,250 and 1,500. For the sake of my sanity and your grade, please proofread and spell check your papers. Avoid cover sheets and extra blank pages (save trees!). Please record your word count at the end of each paper and place your name on the back of the last page.

The Research Synopsis

The purpose is not to abstract the article nor to repeat its contents. Rather, the assignment is intended to review the study's principal purposes, methodologies, and findings in a concise and practical manner. The central question to keep in mind is, "What are the specific implications of this research for the practice of clinical psychology?"

Think of yourself as a clinical psychologist practicing in a private office or a clinic or a hospital. You turn to the empirical literature through an electronic database search to address an interesting and practical question with which you are confronted in your clinical work. How might you think, relate, or behave differently as a result of this research study?

Select one or two topics of enormous interest to you and of direct relevance to clinical psychology. Then conduct an electronic search for journal articles on that topic published in the last year. Remember: the selected article should have employed an empirical methodology (broadly defined), been published in the past two years, and be of direct relevance to clinical psychology. You may not knowingly review an article that another current (or former) student has chosen to review. Save the printout of your database search to attach to your paper. Print out the article electronically or go to the journal collection and make a Xerox copy of the article. The article will also be attached to your paper.

Please remember that the synopsis is to be typed (doublespaced) and is not to exceed 1,500 words. Attach a copy of the journal article to your synopsis. Below are the outline and the required headings for your synopsis.

Article: Cite the author, article, and journal in APA format.

Central Purpose: Review the author's main objectives for conducting the study.

Method: Summarize the general design, sample characteristics, and measures/instruments.

Major Findings: Describe briefly the major findings. Check that the findings you describe directly relate to the central purpose of the study.

Practice Implications: Highlight the practice implications for clinical psychology. Demonstrate how this research study can influence clinical work. Avoid general conclusions, such as "Psychologists can help people more" and "Research is valuable," in favor of concrete and specific implications for practice based on this particular study.

Impressions: Mention the reasons you selected this article/topic and the study’s most important flaws.

Our library carries electronic subscriptions to many journals you can use to locate a recent empirical study. Recommended journals include:

American Journal of Psychiatry

Archives of General Psychiatry

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Modification

Clinical Psychology Review

Health Psychology

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology

Journal of Clinical Child Psychology

Journal of Clinical Psychology

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Journal of Counseling Psychology

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases

Journal of Personality Assessment

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

Journal of Studies on Alcohol

Professional Psychology: Research & Practice

Psychotherapy

Autobiography of a Mental Health Patient

People adore personal, compelling stories of self-transformation. Autobiographies provide an inside view of psychological disorders, drawing on the human capacity for self-description and self-analysis. Memoirs complement scientific research and case studies performed from the outside looking in. Written in the person’s own words, an autobiography emphasizes issues that the writer, as distinct from a therapist or researcher, considers important. Autobiographies describe disorders in family and environmental context, provide interesting narratives with strong story lines, and in the end, typically reveal a successful outcome.

For this assignment, you read an autobiography written by a mental health client (which you have not previously read) and complete an Autobiographical Review form (which will be distributed in class). A list of 30 approved autobiographies follows.

Letting Go by Morrie Schwartz (terminal illness & dying)

Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating by Geneen Roth (compulsive eating)

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis (grieving)

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (aging and death)

Elegy for Iris by John Bayley (a spouse’s Alzheimer’s)

Night Falls Fast by Kay Jamison (suicide)

Death be Not Proud by John Gunther (a parent’s loss of an adolescent)

A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer (childhood abuse)

The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer (childhood abuse)

Broken Cord by Michael Dorris (fetal alcohol syndrome)

An Unquiet Mind by Kay R. Jamison (bipolar disorder)

Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou (women’s issues)

The Wheel of Life by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & Todd Gold (death & dying)

Darkness Visible by William Styron (depression)

Motherless Daughter by Hope Edelman (loss of a parent)

Feeding the Hungry Heart by Geneen Roth (weight management)

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg (schizophrenia)

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon (depression)

After the Death of a Child by Ann Finkbeiner (grieving the death of a child)

Out of the Depths by Anton Boisen (schizophrenia)

The Panic Attack Recovery Book by Shirley Swede & Seymour Jaffe (anxiety disorder)

The Virtues of Aging by Jimmy Carter (aging)

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (borderline personality disorder)

ADHD Handbook for Families by Paul Weingartner (ADHD)

Too Much Anger, Too Many Tears by Janet Gotkin & Paul Gotkin (schizophrenia)

Nobody nowhere: The extraordinary autobiography of an autistic by D. Williams (autism)

Undercurrents: A therapist's reckoning with her own depression by M. Manning (depression)

Getting better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous by N. Robertson (alcoholism)

Am I still visible? A woman's triumph over anorexia nervosa by S. Heater (anorexia)

A drinking life: A memoir by P. Hamill (alcoholism)

Behavior Therapy Simulations

For this paper you will write a summary of your experiences with the Behavior Therapy Case Simulations. These simulations were designed by Dr. Matthew Lambert of Texas Tech University to give hands-on experience with diverse clinical problems from a behavioral perspective. Throughout the simulation you will be presented with a series of menus from which you may choose assessment and treatment strategies. You should make choices from the menus based on the information already presented. There is, however, no optimal decision pattern to guarantee complete problem resolution. Indeed, a combination of treatments may be required.

Locate an open workstation in the Psychology Department Computer Lab (AMH 202). Anticipate spending two hours in the computer lab to complete the project. Click on Start and then click on Psych Tools. Then click on Abnormal Clinical Labs. Use your mouse to move the arrow to one of the four cases, titled BTCase1, BTCase2, BTCase3, and BTCase4. Click on one of the cases and you are into the program. Read the instructions carefully.

Experiment with BTCase1 to learn the format and options of the exercise. The first simulation will serve as a practice case. Follow the on-screen instructions for printing a summary of the simulation. Exit the program and then print the summary on the printer. You need to exit the program before it will allow you to print.

When you exit, you will most likely get an error message that looks like this:

open error in following lines

k:SSI$!!AGE!!SEX!!Q(1)...

Just ignore it and hit Enter

You will probably then receive another message that looks like this:

open error in following lines:

k:SEQ$Ignore this error message and hit Enter

You are now back on track. Simply follow the instructions on the screen to receive your printed copy. Please be patient; it may take a minute to process and print.

Then complete the remaining three case simulations. Like a behavior therapist in practice, you are expected to review intake information, conduct assessments, provide treatment, and follow-up with the patient. The entire process will consume two hours of your time on average; you are encouraged to break up the cases into two days.

Here are some helpful hints provided by students who have previously completed the assignment.

♦ If you are unfamiliar with a particular assessment device or treatment method, then you can access information on them before deciding whether to proceed.

♦ If the program only gives you an option to quit but no option to continue, press the space bar or enter key until it returns you to where you left off.