PSY6472 - Psychology, Mental Health and Distress

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Understand the historical, social and cultural contexts underpinning the development of ideas of mental health and distress and its treatments.
Critically challenge and debate the terminology used in regard to mental health and distress
Understand the key differences between psychiatric diagnosis/the medical model and psychological formulations/psychological models in relation to mental health and distress.
Understand and critically evaluate both psychiatric and psychological explanations of a range of mental health conditions.
Understand and critically evaluate a range of interventions for mental health and distress, including their efficacy and limitations.
Develop an awareness and understanding of the role of the different service user movements in offering alternative forms of support to individuals.

Content:

Critique of core concepts of mental health and distress; historical, social and cultural conceptions of distress and its treatments; psychiatric classificatory systems, diagnostic procedures, medical aetiology and interventions; psychological formulations of distress and interventions; overview of depression and anxiety, schizophrenia and personality disorders from both psychiatric and psychological perspectives; introduction to the service user movement and service user led research.

Learning and Teaching Information:

This module will be taught using a mixture of interactive lectures and seminars, some of which will be student-led. Students will be expected to prepare for the sessions by reading set texts and completion of tasks set in class or via the VLE and will be expected to take part in a wide range of learning activities.

Students may be required to prepare and present brief presentations as the basis for discussion in the interactive lectures or seminars.

Lectures
Hours: 15 (1.5hrs) x 10
Intended Group size: Cohort

Workshops/Seminars
Hours: 15 (1.5hr) x 10
Intended Group size: 50

Assessment Clinic
Hours: 1 (0.5hrs) x 2
Intended Group size: 1

Guided independent study
Hours: 169

Further details relating to assessment
This assessment consists of two related parts, but the division of the word count is not prescribed. Each part requires the student to write for a different audience; a lay person for the information leaflet, followed by a critical consideration of the academic evidence supporting the information leaflet in the exposition.

Assessment:

001 Information leaflet & exposition; 4,000 words; end of semester 1 100%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Alison Torn
Level - 6
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 6S1

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