Intro. to Psychological Disorders 3

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

There are two components to this subject. Students learn about those disorders that are considered largely functional in nature ( Psychopathology), and those that are considered essentially organic ( Human Neuropsychology).

Psychopathology: provides students with an overview of the field of abnormal behaviour and psychological disorder, focusing on discussion of concepts of 'mental disorder', 'dysfunction' and 'disability', and critiques of these constructs. This unit will examine epidemiological studies of mental disorders and critically evaluate their contribution to our understanding of psychopathology. It will also cover the history behind some of our concepts of diagnostic categories and how these have changed over time. Each major group of disorders will be discussed, ie. psychoses, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, substance abuse disorders, and organic problems. Students will learn the signs and symptoms of the various major disorders. They will learn about how experimental laboratory approaches and social psychological science inform our understanding of the aetiology and maintenance of disorders. The unit will also cover the concepts of 'stress', 'risk' and 'resilience' and their relationship to causation and maintenance of disorders. Finally, the unit will briefly describe evidence-based psychological treatments for mental disorders .

Human Neuropsychology: provides students with knowledge of the theory underlying the study of neuropsychology. This unit covers faculties that are loosely referred to as the higher mental functions. In the process of discussing these functions, the common neuropsychological syndromes are described, eg. dementias, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and alcohol-related brain injury. There is also discussion of the psychopathology and emotional disorders often associated with these disorders.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Upon completion of the subject, students will be able to: describe factors that distinguish normality and abnormality; describe major approaches to diagnosis, and their limitations; identify the major mental disorders and neuropsychological disorders and their related etiological theories and be able to critique the constructs and our current understanding of those etiological factors; be able to describe onset, course and prognosis of disorders; understand the relationship between theory and clinical expression of various clinical neuropsychological syndromes; understand issues related to common neuropsychological disorders or memory, attention, preception, emotion, language, movement, and executive function; gain some understanding of the treatment of specific disorders.

Students enrolled in the BSc (pre-2008), BASc or a combined BSc course may receive science credit for the completion of this subject. Students undertaking psychology subjects can receive credit toward either the science or arts requirement of the BASc or BA/BSc course. Credit for psychology cannot be split between the two components. Students should advise the Faculty of Science if they would like psychology to count toward the science requirement of their BASc or BA/BSc course.