Mar 28, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2016-2017 
    
Academic Catalog 2016-2017 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Add to Catalog (opens a new window)

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
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. This course can only be taken by post-bacc certificate students or Clinical PhD students.
Grading Default: Letter
Learning Objective(s):  

1. Be familiar with the historical evolution of definitions of psychopathology.

2. Be familiar with the various nosological systems (including DSM-IV and general proposals for the DSM-5 revision).

3. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the present and past nosological systems based on research findings.

4. Understand diverse viewpoints of psychopathology from the perspective of major theoretical orientations.

5. Be able to formulate cases representing major diagnostic categories from different theoretical orientations.

6. Know the prevalence, course, and differential diagnostic and prognostic issues of the major psychological disorders.

7. Know 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.



Add to Catalog (opens a new window)