Stress and Stress Responses

Today in class we'll be taking a look at "Psychological Factors Affecting Other Medical Conditions," otherwise known as Psychophysiological Disorders. There are a couple of pieces of research that your text introduced that are worth revisiting here.

The first is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale developed by Holmes and Rahe. This attempts to measure the number of stressors one has encountered in a particular period of time. Each item on the scale is assigned a number of "Life Change Units," and this Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (designed for college students) gives you a sense of how it is scored.

You'll also encounter the work of Friedman and Rosenman, whose work established a link between personality style and risk of heart attack. This (brief) Type A/Type B Indicator will give you a sense of the different personality styles addressed in the model.

Practice: Clinical Observations

Today in class we will be doing an exercise to practice our clinical observation skills. At some point, your instructor will ask you to complete this form, which will help us determine if our observations are consistent.

Podcast Recommendation: The Problem with the Solution

When discussing the history of abnormality and treatment, several of my podcast-savvy students recommended this episode of Invisibilia to me: The Problem with the Solution.

Despite being a regular listener of Invisibilia, I had somehow missed this episode. For anyone interested in community-based mental health and helping the severely mentally ill, I highly recommend it.

You can listen here:

You could even listen while coloring this accompanying coloring page!

Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders

Here's the link to descriptions of the diagnoses associated with the case examples you explored in class.

Clinical Observations Lab

During today's class, you will be exploring the basics of clinical assessment, including the use of clinical observations. After viewing the video and recording your initial impressions on the paper form provided to you, please take a moment to respond to these questions.

MOCA Assessment Featured on Daily Show

If you're a fan of the Daily Show, you may have spotted this reference to a neuropsychological assessment used (apparently) to assess the President. In this course, we'll take a look at what tests like this mean and what they are used for.

Tonight at 11/10c, Trump aces a cognitive exam that asks him to identify pictures of animals and name words that start with the letter “F.” pic.twitter.com/YgCgSqhHl4

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 18, 2018

New Study Resource Added

Today's snow day allowed me to compile flashcard sets and refine them for End-of-Semester Review. Here's one with Specific Disorders and Category names. We'll be using these during review activities.

Videos: Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Today in class you'll be comparing the neurodevelopmental disorders. These videos may help refresh your memory of key ideas from your text about ADHD and ASD.

ADHD:


Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):


Intellectual Disability due to Down Syndrome:
(Note: As your text points out, Down Syndrome is only one of many potential causes of Intellectual Disability)

Big Five Personality Inventory

Today in class we will discuss alternatives to the current DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing personality disorders. One of those models involves use of the Big Five Personality Trait Model.

If you would like to take a Big Five, you may do so here.

Substance Use Disorders - Addictive Substances

Today in class we'll be looking at the various substances that have been associated with Substance Use Disorder. As part of your exploration, you may choose to investigate links from this website.

Stress and Stress Responses

Today in class we'll be taking a look at "Psychological Factors Affecting Other Medical Conditions," otherwise known as Psychophysiological Disorders. There are a couple of pieces of research that your text introduced that are worth revisiting here.

The first is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale developed by Holmes and Rahe. This attempts to measure the number of stressors one has encountered in a particular period of time. Each item on the scale is assigned a number of "Life Change Units," and this Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (designed for college students) gives you a sense of how it is scored.

You'll also encounter the work of Friedman and Rosenman, whose work established a link between personality style and risk of heart attack. This (brief) Type A/Type B Indicator will give you a sense of the different personality styles addressed in the model.

PTSD Treatments

Today in class you will be completing a Jigsaw on treatment approaches for PTSD. After reading your case example and discussing with others in your "expert group," add your description to this shared document to help others understand the treatment approach you explored.

Lab: Clinical Observations

Today in class we'll be exploring methods of Clinical Assessment, including clinical observations of patients.

When your instructor directs you to, please complete this form. We will be using the data from this lab to explore issues related to assessment.

Link to Clinical Assessments Grid Google Doc

Today in class we'll be exploring various strategies for Clinical Assessment. You may choose to make use of this Google Doc to organize the information you've found. Alternatively, you may use the paper handout.

Winner, Winner!

What can I say? The people love Freud. Today's vote on t-shirt designs gave Mr. Freud a clear victory over his competition.

 If you'd like to be the proud owner of this year's Freud-friendly Psych Club t-shirt, sign up in rm 136 and pay your $12 to Mrs. Welle by September 26.

(Note: if paying by check, please make the check to Chippewa Falls Senior HS)

Enter Your Textbook Number

Today in class you will receive your copy of the course text, Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology, 8e by Ronald Comer.

You will notice right away that this is a fairly fragile textbook. It's a paperback, and the pages are thin. This is in part because it's a college text, which students normally purchase for themselves and use for a single semester. I would HIGHLY recommend finding a safe spot to keep your book (e.g., if you are doing all your reading at home, keep it there) and not carrying it around in your backpack. If you need to use a copy during Prime Time, I have extras in my room.

Please enter your book number next to your name in this spreadsheet.

Exciting Arrivals

One exciting thing about planning for our first offering of Abnormal Psychology is (ordering and) getting resources in the mail on a regular basis. It's like Christmas.

Milestone Reached: Quizlets are Up!

As we near the start of the 2017-18 school year, I've finally completed a major long-term project in preparation for this course.

While I continue work on building the assessments and activities we'll use this year, I'm happy to announce that all of the Quizlet flashcard links for the 16 chapters and 5 units are now complete!

The Learning Objectives for each unit have also been posted.

Detailed lesson plans are in the works, and I hope to get those finished and posted in the week to come.

Very excited to explore this content with you!

Blog Under Construction!

Greetings, Visitors!

I'm happy to be launching a course in Abnormal Psychology for Chi-Hi students in the fall of 2017, so I'll be compiling links and course information here. For some time, this blog will be "under construction," so I appreciate your patience with the process.