Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopathology

Catalog description

This course provides the foundation for the sequence of courses on psychopathological conditions in children, adolescents, adults, and older people. The course reviews the definitions of psychological abnormality that underlie diagnoses of psychopathological conditions. It also reviews the significant approaches to the classification of abnormal behavior, methodological issues in psychopathology, the concepts of dual and differential diagnosis, and the influence of genetics and culture on psychopathology. The student will learn the meaning of symptoms, signs, and syndromes as these relate to normal and abnormal dynamics of both organic and psychological nature. The course includes an overview of the major categories of psychopathological behavior covered by the current edition of the DSM, as well as an introduction to the principal methods used by clinical psychologists to assess and diagnose psychopathology, with particular attention to mental status examination.