A. Theoretical Perspectives
1. The two key questions: etiology and treatment
2. The biomedical perspective
   a. The medical model revisited
   b. Psychopharmacology
3. The intrapsychic perspective
   a. Freud, psychoanalysis, and the concept of the unconscious
   b. Rogers, humanistic psychology, and the role of the self
   c. The nature of psychotherapy
4. The behavioral perspective
   a. Behaviorism and theories of learning
   b. Cognitive psychology
   c. Cognitive-behavioral therapies
5. The socio-cultural perspective

B. Understanding Causation
1. Systems theory
   a. Holism vs. reductionism ("a cause is not the cause")
   b. Levels of analysis and mutliple factors: the biopsychosocial approach
   c. Diathesis-stress as an example
   d. The principle of equifinality
   e. Reciprocal causality and cybernetics
2. When is a cause not a cause: the common errors
   a. The role of coincidence
   b. Correlation does not prove causation
   c. What follows something was not necessarily caused by that something
   d. The treatment-etiology fallacy
3. Risk and resiliency
   a. The concept of risk factors
   b. The concept of protective factors

C. Sources of Influence
1. Biological
   a. The central nervous system: neuroanatomy and neurophysiology
   b. The role of neurotransmitters
   c. The brain
   d. The autonomic nervous system and psychophysiology
   e. Behavior genetics
      (1) Methods of research
      (2) The array of possibilities of gene-behavior relationships (dominant vs. recessive, single gene vs. polygenetic)
      (3) Genetics and psychopathology
2. Psychological
   a. Motivation, emotion and temperament
      (1) Motives and needs: frustration and conflict
      (2) Emotions and emotional arousal
      (3) Personality and temperament
   b. Learning
      (1) Classical conditioning
      (2) Operant conditioning
      (3) Observational learning (modeling)
   c. Cognition
      (1) Attributions
      (2) Cognitive errors and cognitive biases
   d. Development
      (1) Developmental norms
      (2) "Pre-morbid" history
   e. The self
      (1) Self-control and self-regulation
      (2) Identity and self-esteem
3. Environmental
   a. Social relationships
   b. Demographics (age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, etc.)
   c. Societal influences (education, the economy, social change, etc.)
   d. Cultural influences (values, beliefs, customs, etc.)
 

Copyright ©1998 Beverly J. Volicer and Steven F. Tello, UMass Lowell.  You may freely edit these pages  for use in a non-profit, educational setting.  Please include this copyright notice on all pages.