In this course we will focus on how to think critically about the major issues in clinical psychology. This course is NOT designed to teach you details about how to treat specific mental disorders or what assessment instruments/methods to use when conducting a psychological assessment. Rather, it is a course focused on how to think critically about issues in clinical psychology, including scientific foundations of, and evidence-bases for, various approaches to conceptualizing, assessing, and treating mental disorders. Many of these issues involve long-standing controversies that remain thorny problems for clinical psychology to this day. Other issues involve recent developments in the field. These topics will be dealt with through interactive readings, videos, lectures, class discussions and various activities. Many of the topics and controversies that we'll consider involve the influence of an uncritical perspective, flawed reasoning, and/or flawed evidence.

In short, this course is about why it is important to take a scientific approach to clinical psychology and about learning the mindset, skills, and knowledge needed to do so. My goal is to hone your ability to critically evaluate the quality of the claims made by scientists, professionals, the media, and self-appointed "experts" on issues relevant to clinical psychology and other mental health professions (e.g., social work, counseling psychology, clinical counseling, and psychiatry). Together, we will critically evaluate the quality of the evidence and reasoning behind these claims. Although we will apply this approach to clinical psychology and related disciplines in this class, the skills and perspective emphasized in this course are applicable far beyond such fields. I hope you will find them useful in your study of psychology and in your life in general.
Prereq: A grade of C- or above in 2220 and 2300; and a grade of C- or above in 2367.02 or 3331.