Nov 21, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2024-2025 
    
Academic Catalog 2024-2025
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PSY-708 Psychopathology

4 semester credits
This course examines approaches to the systematic description of psychological disorders: historical, sociopolitical, ethno-racial, gender, age, SES, medical, behavioral, and epidemiological. Topics include the nosological system (DSM-5), the differential diagnoses among its subcategories, etiology, possible alternatives to the existing system, and research in this field.
Delivery Method: Distance/Electronically Mediated
Grading Default: Letter Only
Note: Certificate students with a graduate level clinical psychology course in psychopathology within the last 5 years may have this course waived, although they will be expected to complete a half-day workshop on DSM-5 if their prior course did not cover DSM-5. 
Learning Outcome(s):  

  1. Describe the historical evolution of definitions of psychopathology.
  2. Define the various nosological systems (including DSM-5).
  3. Compare the strengths and weaknesses of current and past nosological systems based on research findings and on major theories of psychopathology.
  4. Summarize the prevalence, course, and differential diagnostic and prognostic considerations of the major psychological disorders.
  5. Describe how cultural variables, gender, ethno-racial, SES, and age influence the etiology and manifestation of mental illness, including, but not limited to, culture-specific diagnoses.



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