PSYC 3303: Clinical Psychology: Psychological Disorders
Examines etiological, theoretical, clinical, diagnostic and experimental perspectives of major mental health disorders with an emphasis on the main symptoms and diagnostic criteria associated with these disorders.
Learning Objectives
- Critically evaluate the way that we build divisions between normal and abnormal in society;
- Apply the adage “all models are false, some models are useful” to the development of criteria for mental health disorders;
- Explain how the DSM diagnostic criteria for psychopathology are organized and how they are used to promote well-being;
- Discriminate between the three aspects of the biopsychosocial model (biological, psychological and social) and explain how each contributes to modern approaches to understanding psychopathology etiology.
In this course, you will
Learn about the symptoms and treatment of mental health conditions;
Be encouraged to critically evaluate how we understand and model human behavior broadly;
Engage with brief video lectures and thoughtful discussions with your classmates that motivate you to think differently about what we consider normal and abnormal;
Use this exploration to create a project where you will be tasked with studying, modeling and treating a fictitious global mass hysteria event.
M.C. Flux
Dr. M. C. Flux is a researcher, educator and artist with a multidisciplinary background. He holds a BS in Biotechnology from Thomas Jefferson University, spending his early career working in the biotech field at DuPont. He holds an MS in Neuroscience from NYU, where he focused on psychophysics and the primate visual system. He earned a joint PhD in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022, researching novel therapeutics and psychoneuroimmunology. His clinical training focused on severe and persistent mental illness and indigenous populations. His research spans psychedelics, the microbiome, floatation-REST and the human affectome. As an artist, Flux has been a nightlife performer in NYC, a makeup artist, body painter, visual/graphic artist and dabbled in video production. He now combines his passion for science, education and creative expression to build engaging content and courses aimed to motivate deeper thinking about the world.