Abnormal Psychology: PS 371 A1

Course Description: This course will provide a thorough review of psychopathology and related clinical issues. We will cover the etiology, clinical characteristics, assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. We will cover all major categories of adult psychopathology. We will recognize the importance of life span developmental factors to the manifestation and treatment of psychopathology by taking a developmental psychopathology perspective throughout the course. We will emphasize learning about the signs and symptoms of each disorder, theories and empirical data addressing the etiology of mental disorders, and we will also discuss current treatments. Throughout the course, we will utilize creative learning tools to bring psychological disorders to “life” through the use of clinical case descriptions, videos, and interactive classroom activities. Course Objectives: To gain a conceptual understanding of what abnormal psychology is, to obtain an understanding of the uniform diagnostic system for classifying psychopathology, to familiarize students with a range of psychological disorders and