Abnormal Psychology 3375

Abnormal Psychology (Psychology 3375)

Summer I, 2017

Instructor: D. Erik Everhart, Ph.D.

Office: 238 Rawl

Phone: 328-4138

Email: everhartd@ecu.edu

Office Hours: If you need to speak with me, send me an email with your telephone number and times it would be good for me to call you. Most of the time you will be able to communicate with me most effectively through BlackBoard and email. I am never far from my computer, and I typically check email several times a day. There are a few occasions where I may be away from email for a day or so…but relax! I will get back to you. Sometimes students email questions that are readily answered by reading the syllabus. If your instructor responds to a question with the following statement “check your syllabus,” it is because the answer is readily found in your syllabus. So, please do not be offended by this response.

Design of the Course -- This course will be taught using online methods, primarily BlackBoard and Tegrity (which is accessed through Blackboard). You have elected to take an online class. By registering for an online class, you have indicated that you are computer literate and that you have good access to a well-functioning computer with Internet access. Accordingly, lack of competence or access will not constitute acceptable excuses for missing assignments or examinations, excepting emergencies that can be documented. You are expected to check your ECU email every day and to log in to BlackBoard every day. As indicated above, lectures will be delivered through use of Tegrity. Tegrity will be accessed through the Blackboard website for this course. Instructions and more information about Tegrity are located here: Tegrity Info. From time to time, the course instructor may call a live meeting via the use of Saba Meeting. Such meetings will provide the opportunity to chat and discuss any particular course content materials that may be difficult to understand. These meetings are also recorded and will be posted for review for those who may not be able to attend the meeting.

Warning -- Some of the features of this course may not work well with use of whatever “I-gadget” or Android device you have. So, use of laptop or desktop with high speed internet is recommended. Likewise, do NOT attempt to take any online tests or quizzes with Androids or I-gadgets because the software is not really designed for that…you may get locked out and your grade will suffer! Here is the official statement from the ECU BlackBoard Team: Avoid it by not using a mobile device to take a quiz or exam. Here is a recent official statement, from the ECU BlackBoard Team, regarding mobile devices: “Some course content as presented in Blackboard Learn is not fully supported on mobile devices at this time. While mobile devices provide convenient access to check in and read information about your courses, they should not be used to perform work such as taking tests, quizzes, completing assignments, or submitting substantive discussion posts." Of course, I think the technology has improved since this statement was made....but I would still NOT trust a mobile device for taking a test or completing an assignment.

Computer Assistance -- If you are having problems with your computer, and live close to ECU, you can take it to the computer support center in Rawl 108. They will help you set it up properly and resolve any problems you are having with it.

Questions About Course Content and Policies

Such questions should be posted to the Discussion Board in BlackBoard, not emailed to Dr. Everhart. In this way, the response can be seen by all, and others may also contribute to answering the questions. Questions of a personal nature (for example, about your grade) should be emailed to Dr. Everhart rather than posted in the discussion board. If you send email, please be sure to provide a subject line that starts out with "PSYC 3375:" followed by a phrase which describes the nature of the communication. For example, "Subject: PSYC 3375: My dog ate my computer." Failure to provide such a subject line could result in your email being discarded without being opened.

Email to Professor Everhart:

Professor Everhart has programmed Outlook to sort incoming mail into different folders. You should include in the subject line of your email the phrase "PSYC 3375:" -- if you do, it will be properly sorted and your instructors will find it. If you do not, your email will end up in the JUNK folder, where it is unlikely to get much attention. I cannot over emphasize this! I receive too many emails in a day and I don't want to miss yours...so please make certain you follow this instruction!

Planning for Disaster

Your Computer: Bad things happen to good computers. If your computer fails or your internet service goes out, you should have available an alternate way to connect to the course -- a friend with an adequate computer, a library computer, etc. You should download all your coursework to the hard drive of your PC and also to an independent storage device, such as an external hard drive, a flash drive, or a backup service in the cloud. You would be very distressed were your hard drive to crash and you had not backed up your work.

BlackBoard: Were BlackBoard to go down for an extended period of time, we should be able to continue class through email. Additionally, I should be able to make available my lessons from the university core server if need be.

Contact Information: If things go bad, it can help to get into contact with other persons in the class, both professor, teaching assistants, and other students. Contact information for these people is available in BlackBoard. I recommend that you download that information and keep it on your PC and backup medium.

Assorted Notes

· Cheating is penalized by a grade of 'F' for the course and may lead to further disciplinary action. Plagiarism is considered cheating. See

Academic Integrity -- policy revised in 2011
Power Point Presentation

· East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a disability must be registered with the Department for Disability Support Services located in Slay 138 (252) 737-1016 (Voice/TTY).

Required Texts:

Note that you can purchase the book with Connect Plus access or you can purchase Connect Plus on its own, which includes an ebook for the course. You must register for Connect Plus using your ECU email address.

Abnormal Psychology, 7^th Edition by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema. Bundle (w/connect access card ISBN 9781260029161).

Abnormal Psychology, 7^th Edition by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema. Connect Plus W/ Learnsmart Access Card ISBN 9781259765599

Connect Plus: Connect Plus is an online learning module where you will complete reading quizzes for each chapter of the text. You can find your section on Connect Plus at this website:

http://connect.mheducation.com/class/e-everhart-summer-i-2017-section-1

You must register with your ECU email address in order to receive credit for completing the reading quizzes. More on registering is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgcI4Rg5Uq8

To access the reading quiz, click on the assignment (chapter) that you want to work on. It opens the Smartbook automatically where you can read the text. To go to the assignment, click on the icon at the top right of the screen that looks like 3 horizontal lines and click “go to Learnsmart”. Click “not now” on the popup window and the reading quiz questions will load. An alternate way to access the reading quizzes is to click “practice” in the top left of the screen when you are reading the online ebook. This alternate method doesn’t have as good of a progress bar, in my opinion.

Course Description and Purpose: Psychology 3375, Abnormal Psychology, is an undergraduate level, introductory, class that covers abnormal psychology, including theories of deviance and abnormality, in addition to the nature and treatment of emotional and behavioral problems.

Course Objectives:

· Understand the nature of abnormality and how it has been conceptualized across time, including the present day.

· Gain exposure to the personal stories of individuals with mental illnesses to develop empathy and understanding for these individuals.

· Describe and distinguish between the various categories of mental and behavioral disorders covered in the textbook.

· Describe the etiology, diagnosis, and modern treatment of mental and behavioral disorders.

Conduct of the Course: This course follows a lecture format, which will be posted online through Tegrity. Some test questions will come from material that is only covered in the lectures. The instructor will also post his powerpoint presentations to Blackboard. However, these presentations are only outlines of the material covered in lectures.

Student Obligations:

Read all assigned chapter in a timely fashion.

· Complete adaptive reading quiz on the Connect Plus website for each chapter. Reading quizzes will only be available for a designated period of time after each relevant chapter is covered. After this time, you will no longer be able to complete the reading quiz for that chapter.

Put aside preconceptions and be open to receiving new knowledge.
Treat the instructor and other students with respect.

Course Requirements and Expectations:

Reading Quizzes: Listed on the Connect Plus Website, there will be a reading quiz for each chapter. After a chapter is covered in lecture, you will have two days to complete the reading quiz (with the exception of the last chapter covered, where you will have only one day). I suggest completing the reading quizzes right after you read the chapter. All reading quizzes will be available at the start of the course so that you can work ahead if you wish to. Reading quizzes are worth 5 points each and you will receive full credit if you complete them.

The Connect Plus website will continue to give you questions until you demonstrate that you have learned the material by correctly answering a certain number of items. This way, you can use the Connect Plus website as a learning tool to see how much you recall from the readings without worrying about missing questions. There are 16 reading quizzes, but you will only be graded for 15 of them. If you complete all 16 reading quizzes you will receive 5 points of extra credit. I have done this to account for situations where students miss a reading quiz, and thus no make-ups of reading quizzes will be allowed under any circumstances.

Exams: There will be 4 exams in this course, and each will have 4 book chapters worth of content. Three exams will take place during regular session and the fourth will be during the final exam period. Exams will be a mix of multiple choice and short answer questions based on material covered in the book, reading quizzes, and in lecture. Extra credit questions may be included on the exams at the instructor’s discretion.
These exams will be taken online via Blackboard and each exam is worth 100 points. You will receive email notice (and you can also check Blackboard) for then the exam becomes available. You will have a specific time period during which the exam must be completed (typically 48 hours). Once you begin the examination you will have 75 minutes to complete it. No make-up examinations are given without a valid, University approved excuse.

If you go over the time limit, the exam will stop. If for some reason the exam does not stop and BlackBoard allows you to complete the exam, I shall have to grade your exam manually. In this case I shall deduct one point from your score for each two minutes you went overtime.

When taking examinations you are permitted to use any resource other than another person. Do not, however, expect to be able to complete the examination on time if you have not studied the material -- in that case it would just take you too long to look up the answers to all the questions. I recommend that you prepare a document in which you have summarized, in your own words, all of the important points made in the book, my lecture notes, and my PowerPoint slides. Making such a document will help you learn the material and having it available during the examination should reduce your anxiety about the examination.

Course Assignment Summary Table

Assignment	Frequency	Point Value
Reading Quizzes	16	75 (5x15)
Exams	4	400 (100x4)
		Total = 475 pts

Grading

Letter Grade	Percentage	Points	Letter Grade	Percentage	Points
A	90-100%	> 426	C-	70-72%	331-344
B+	87-89%	412-425	D+	67-69%	316-330
B	83-86%	393-411	D	63-66%	297-315
B-	80-82%	378-392	D-	60-62%	283-296
C+	77-79%	364-377	F	< 59	< 282
C	73-76%	345-365

These grade cutoffs are absolute -- for example, a 377 is a C+, not a B-. When transforming total scores to letter grades, "close" does not count.

Discussing Sensitive Information: This is a course in abnormal psychology and thus you may have questions about the topics we cover as they pertain to you or someone close to you. Please do not disclose personal information in such as “I have panic attacks and Xanax doesn’t seem to be working for me anymore, what else can I do?” However, please feel free to ask general questions that do not directly pertain to you or someone you know such as “I hear that sometimes Xanax stops working in people with panic attacks and I was wondering why?” The reason I ask you to do this is that each person’s situation/biology/behavior/genetic code is different and I can’t offer any specific advice because I am not your therapist. Also, please do not take the information that I give in response to your general questions to pertain directly to you. This policy applies to any one-on-one discussions as well, such as during office hours.

If you would like to discuss your mental health with a counselor/therapist, I highly recommend the ECU Center for Counseling (http://www.ecu.edu/counselingcenter). It is FREE to enrolled students. There is also the ECU Psychology department’s PASS clinic

A few words from your instructor: Yes, my expectations for all of you are high. This course is not easy. Abnormal Psychology represents an extremely important area. I will make every attempt to ensure that you are adequately prepared for the quizzes, the examinations, and for the final. Should you experience difficulty in understanding the lecture and/or book material, please do not hesitate to contact me.

From time to time, I may assign a topic (from your textbook) for you to learn on your own. This is to prepare you for lectures. Learning this material will assist you with your understanding of course material. As the student is expected to read assigned chapters anyway, this should represent no difficult additional challenges.

Other notes:

My online lecture documents and slide-shows will be on the same topics covered in the text book, but will include additional material upon which you will be examined.
I hope you will learn by reading the textbook as well as my lecture notes and slide-shows.
You are expected to check your ECU email every day and to log in to Blackboard every day.
The online slideshows are outlines of the lecture material. Reading them alone will not properly prepare you for the examinations. You should also listen to the lectures.

Your grade in this class will be determined solely by your performance on the examinations and assignments. How much effort you think you put into the course is not a factor in the assignment of grades. For example: 1.) If you manage to achieve an 'A' average without putting much effort into the course, I am not going to lower your grade to a 'B' just because it was easy for you, and 2.) If you are only able to earn a 'D' with what you think is great effort, I am not going to raise your grade to a 'C' because of effort.

Please see the University Catalog for definitions of letter grades. Do note that the grade of 'C' is defined as "adequately meets basic course expectations," in other words, "average." Please do not embarrass yourself and me by for extra credit after final grades have been awarded. Final grades are, well, final. Also, please remember that I grade your performance, not your personal worth. I shall not respond to begging emails, and may block email coming from repeat beggars.

Schedule (subject to change): Textbook Chapter

May 15	Introduction and Looking at Abnormality	1
May 16	Theories and Treatment of Abnormality	2
May 17	Theories and Treatment of Abnormality	2
May 18	Assessing and Diagnosing Abnormality	3
May 19	Assessing and Diagnosing Abnormality	3
May 22	The Research Endeavor	4
May 23	The Research Endeavor	4
May 24	EXAMINATION I
May 25	Trauma, Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive....	5
May 26	Somatic Symptoms and Dissociative Disorders	6
May 29	State Holiday. Take the day off!!
May 30	Mood Disorders and Suicide	7
May 31	Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders	8
June 1	Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders	8
June 2	EXAMINATION II
June 5	Personality Disorders	9
June 6	Neurodevelopmental and Neurocognitive Disorders	10
June 7	Neurodevelopmental and Neurocognitive Disorders	10
June 8	Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders	11
June 9	Eating Disorders	12
June 12	EXAMINATION III
June 13	Sexual Disorders	13
June 14	Substance Use and Gambling Disorders	14
June 15	Health Psychology	15
June 16	Mental Health and the Law	16
June 19	Miscellaneous / special topic / or TBA
June 20	Final Examination

A few comments about the course schedule: Sometimes it is necessary to alter the course schedule given unforeseeable events. The instructor reserves the right to alter the schedule as necessary. However, if alterations must be made, the student will be notified in advance and given sufficient time to prepare for any changes.

East Carolina University seeks to fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to Disability Support Services, located in Slay 138, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number is 252-737-1016.