I find it - despite the fact that I should be desensitzed to it by now - profoundly discouraging that people still enroll in our intro psych course thinking the the vast majority of time will be spent on psychopathology. I keep assuming that word has gotten out over the past decade that psychology is an enormously diverse foundation course that can be applied to most majors, not just a course for future clinicians.
In introductory psychology I focus on 1) educating my students about the actual statistics and process of the insanity defense (because of the enormous amount of ignorance and distortion around this topic) and 2) a skeptical look at the DSM and an overview of its structure and use. Indirectly related to this, I gave up (at least for now) teaching abnormal at my main school - because we DON'T require intro psych as a prerequisite, which substantially increases enrollment by substantially increasing the number of folks who enroll because they are looking to be diagnosed or to diagnose someone they know. And having little to no knowledge of fundamental neuroscience and the effects of stress on health, they are completely lost and overtly annoyed for most of the term. Nancy Melucci Long Beach City College Long Beach CA -----Original Message----- From: Joan Warmbold <jwarm...@oakton.edu> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> Sent: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 1:24 pm Subject: Re: [tips] Interesting podcast/transcript - DSM Nancy, I think eliminating that topic is an excellent idea and will proceed to do so also EXCEPT to encourage skepticism on that entire topic. To me, covering abnormal pyschology in an introductory course is a classic example of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." I've always been somewhat baffled at the significant number of psychology instructors who like to give their students exercises on identifying disorders. Come one--experts make errors there and it's a very subjective proposition. Why would we want to be encouraging our relatively novice students to be diagnosing disorders when we all also complain about their lack of critical thinking? I mean, to me that's asking for students to begin seeing mental disorders all around them--in themselves and their family and friends. Joan Joan Warmbold jwarm...@oakton.edu > Hi, > > I think this examination of the problems with the latest re-write of the > DSM > is worth a listen or a read for all us psych teachers. Given the limited > time I have to cover material in intro, I tend to focus on this > controversy > rather than teach the disorders and how they are classified. > > _http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/12/26/05_ > (http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/12/26/05) > > As an experienced introductory psych teacher I actually have started to > believe that abnormal can be skipped entirely and saved for an elective > course. > The course is still rich and interesting without it. But that's a > discussion > for another time. Enjoy. > > Happy New Year > > Nancy Melucci > Long Beach City College > Long Beach CA > Make a Small Loan, Make a Big Difference - Check out Kiva.org to Learn > How! > **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, > Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. > (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025) > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
