Episode 1 - Course Introduction

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 Yeah, this class will be probably 10 or 11.

spk_0 So this is your introduction to abnormal psychology.

spk_0 Psych 239.

spk_0 The course numbers here, the 100 level courses are typically not university transfer, the 200 level courses are 201A, 202A is generally the progression to get to 239.

spk_0 But you don't need both of those.

spk_0 I think there's a few requisite for just one of them.

spk_0 My name is Dana Layton for those of you who don't know me.

spk_0 Three of you do already.

spk_0 You've already been in my classes four.

spk_0 Now you haven't been in my class before.

spk_0 And so if you get particularly anxious after we talk about the requirements for the course, go talk to one of the people who's been in my course before and maybe they can talk you down a little bit.

spk_0 But it's not actually all that intense of a course.

spk_0 So that's the good news.

spk_0 So what I generally like to do is to find out a little bit about who you are.

spk_0 And that's what I was talking about, these index cards.

spk_0 That's kind of how I find out a little bit about you.

spk_0 So here's some information that I would like to get about you.

spk_0 You're welcome.

spk_0 Cheers.

spk_0 Your name, obviously.

spk_0 That's a good way for me to know how to refer to you.

spk_0 If you have a nickname or a preferred name, let me know that.

spk_0 Thanks.

spk_0 And what program you're taking here?

spk_0 That is, are you university transfer, associate's degree?

spk_0 Maybe you're taking substance abuse certificate, which this is a requirement for that certificate, I think.

spk_0 Or maybe you're in a dental or nursing program or whatever.

spk_0 This would be a good course to take for nursing, by the way.

spk_0 I've had more than a few students who've taken abnormal psych and have gone into psychiatric nursing after we're in the same class.

spk_0 I have more than a few students who've taken these kinds of drug use certificates.

spk_0 What you do in your spare time, do you have any hobbies or past times?

spk_0 And I'd like to know why you're taking this course.

spk_0 For some of you, it may be a required course.

spk_0 For some of you, you're filling a social science requirement or a general education requirement.

spk_0 For some of you, it might be that you're just curious.

spk_0 And some of you might be interested in maybe even being psychologists.

spk_0 While you're doing that, I'll tell you a little bit about who I am.

spk_0 As I said, I'm Dana Layton.

spk_0 I've been teaching here at PCC.

spk_0 This is my second year.

spk_0 I came here last year from a community college in South Carolina, small rural college.

spk_0 And I had been teaching there for two years.

spk_0 And before that, in 2004, I received my master's degree at the University of British Columbia.

spk_0 When I was there, I was studying social psychology, which has mostly to do with the interaction,

spk_0 the individual's response to interactions with self-others and groups.

spk_0 So it's a little different than abnormal.

spk_0 But it has some crossovers.

spk_0 Some of what we'll be talking about in here have to do with social interactions and how social interactions affect mental illness.

spk_0 And before that, in 2001, I received my bachelor's degree in psychology at a very small college in a place that the New York Times called one of the most remote places in the country,

spk_0 a little town called Walla Walla, Washington, about four hours east of here.

spk_0 And it's basically four or five hours from civilization in pretty much any direction.

spk_0 Seattle is four and a half hours, boys, these like five, Portland's like four.

spk_0 Spokane is three hours, but as I'm fond of saying, whether Spokane is civilization or not is questionable.

spk_0 Are you from Spokane?

spk_0 No.

spk_0 Oh, okay, good.

spk_0 Oh, you have.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Yeah, it's a really wonderful college, Whitman College.

spk_0 It's full of really bright students.

spk_0 So one of the nice things is in class, your challenge not only by the instructor, but your fellow students are on the ball enough to,

spk_0 you know, to propose really interesting, complex ideas.

spk_0 And it's a very supportive and nurturing environment.

spk_0 And the faculty are very attentive.

spk_0 It's a small college with a very small student to faculty ratio.

spk_0 So it wouldn't be uncommon, for example, to have a class size like this there, which is uncommon at a college like this.

spk_0 There's seven of us in the room right now, seven students in the room right now.

spk_0 We'll see if we get another couple who wander in in the next few minutes.

spk_0 What else?

spk_0 Oh, before Whitman, I did my transfer work at Community College in California.

spk_0 I graduated with an associate from Sierra College, which is in the Sacramento area.

spk_0 And I went to about three different community colleges in the Sacramento area too.

spk_0 And so I'm familiar with the Community College and the pressures that Community College students have with trying to balance work and school and maybe home obligations, family obligations.

spk_0 So what else?

spk_0 So those of you who are good at math, maybe you're figuring out, gee, let's see.

spk_0 Bachelor's degree in 2001, that would have been six years ago.

spk_0 And he certainly doesn't look like, let's say, 22 plus 6, 28 years old.

spk_0 And that's true. I actually started at the Community College when I was 30.

spk_0 This is my second career. My first career was software development.

spk_0 I did computer programming and systems design for businesses to run their order entry, order processing, inventory accounting systems.

spk_0 For me, it got boring after about 15 years.

spk_0 And I decided that people are probably more interesting than computers.

spk_0 So here I am. Studying people.

spk_0 What else? What else to tell you?

spk_0 Well, I'll tell you that I have personal experience with mental illness.

spk_0 I have family members who have suffered from mental illness and one who actually committed suicide last March as a result of his mental illness.

spk_0 So it suddenly took on more than sort of an academic interest to me at that point.

spk_0 It suddenly became very personal.

spk_0 And I didn't really understand just the idea that mental illness is a chronic disease.

spk_0 It's almost like cancer or any other sort of chronic disease that has an often fatal consequence.

spk_0 So it's serious stuff we're studying, but hopefully we'll make it somewhat fun.

spk_0 Some of the abnormal behaviors that we're going to study are actually fairly amusing.

spk_0 And so I don't want us to sort of take it too seriously in the aspect that we lose sight of.

spk_0 That it is actually interesting and sometimes funny.

spk_0 Although people do suffer as a result of mental illness too.

spk_0 So we'll kind of look at both sides.

spk_0 One of the focuses of this course will be getting a good perspective of the personal dimension of these disorders.

spk_0 We'll be studying the symptoms, we'll be studying the etiology, where these disorders come from.

spk_0 We'll be studying the treatments.

spk_0 We'll be trying to get an academic understanding of how these things work.

spk_0 But also I've structured the course so that you get a fair amount of personal that people sort of testify personally to what it's like to have these disorders.

spk_0 And what it's like to be in a body that has these disorders.

spk_0 That's a bit of a dualistic way to put it.

spk_0 But it oftentimes feels that way to people who have mental illness that they're at odds with their mind.

spk_0 They have their rational mind and then the illness.

spk_0 I'm not going to ask you that question.

spk_0 Okay, so let's talk about the course and how it's going to run.

spk_0 I'll give you the syllabus.

spk_0 Okay, cheers.

spk_0 So here's our structure of the syllabus.

spk_0 The first part has...

spk_0 Oh, whoops!

spk_0 No, you can't.

spk_0 The first part has basically what's in the catalog about this course.

spk_0 The recommended and prerequisites.

spk_0 Then I have the required textbooks.

spk_0 There's two.

spk_0 The Sioux Sioux book and then the Jamison book.

spk_0 There's an optional study guide for the Sioux Sioux book.

spk_0 Then I have how to contact me.

spk_0 You can physically find me in the social science building.

spk_0 It's the...

spk_0 Let's see.

spk_0 One, two buildings over from this one.

spk_0 If you go straight down that way.

spk_0 And it's two-fifteen, so it's on the second floor.

spk_0 It's the social science division office.

spk_0 Talk to the receptionist and she'll tell you how to get there.

spk_0 I have my office hours listed there.

spk_0 I placed some office hours after this class at 130.

spk_0 I'll probably want to get some lunch between 1 and 130.

spk_0 But if you want to meet with me after class, I'm happy to do that.

spk_0 My email address, webpage information, and chat client information.

spk_0 If you use like the instant messaging programs and you see me online,

spk_0 feel free to get in touch with me there.

spk_0 I say the best time to get in touch with me is during office hours.

spk_0 But I'm open to making an appointment with you at some time outside of that.

spk_0 And I actually give you a link to look at my calendar and see when I have time available.

spk_0 Second page has an overview of the course.

spk_0 I'll let you read that at your leisure.

spk_0 I do give you a warning that this course has a fair,

spk_0 fairly heavy reading load.

spk_0 So I recommend that you'll set aside somewhere between probably eight and 12 hours a week

spk_0 for the reading for this course.

spk_0 Depending on how fast you read and depending on your particular learning style,

spk_0 that may be more or less than that.

spk_0 So some course goals.

spk_0 Learning how psychologist study abnormal behavior.

spk_0 Talking about the diagnostic criteria we use for determining if someone has a disorder.

spk_0 Reviewing the research on etiology causes.

spk_0 But also to, I say, completely, more completely appreciate the complexity of experiences

spk_0 had by people with psychological disorders.

spk_0 And so we'll be doing that through an autobiography, a memoir of living with a disorder,

spk_0 the Jameson memoir.

spk_0 And also, I've got a bunch of video clips that will help you get an appreciation of that.

spk_0 We'll be learning a little bit about local resources.

spk_0 And I say, last but not least, have some fun while we do this.

spk_0 How we're going to accomplish those goals is on page three.

spk_0 The readings that's straightforward.

spk_0 The project.

spk_0 Okay. This class, I have integrated with this class what's called a service learning curriculum component.

spk_0 What is service learning?

spk_0 Service learning is an opportunity for you to engage with the subject matter in the course

spk_0 in such a way that it actually reaches out beyond the classroom into the community.

spk_0 And so we'll be running a service learning project,

spk_0 which will basically involve an awareness and education event about a psychological disorder.

spk_0 We'll sort of talk about what we want to do a little bit later in more detail.

spk_0 The one that I have picked out that I would recommend for you,

spk_0 but we can choose something different as a class, is eating disorders.

spk_0 And what I would recommend the easiest way to do this project is to run a information awareness

spk_0 and screening program here on campus to actually work with your fellow students about educating them about eating disorders,

spk_0 giving them an opportunity to take a self-assessment and see whether they're at risk for an eating disorder and stuff like that.

spk_0 There's a couple of other ways we can do this.

spk_0 One other idea that I have is that we can do it in the context of going out more into the community.

spk_0 So for example, going out to a high school and doing it at the high school level because eating disorders start quite early for women,

spk_0 but also for men, it's a problem.

spk_0 And so we did this in my section in the fall.

spk_0 We ran a national depression screening day event here where we educated people about depression.

spk_0 We gave them an opportunity to take a self-assessment for various mood disorders and anxiety disorders.

spk_0 And one of the things that came out of that was out of the 50 or so people that the counselors saw as part of the screening,

spk_0 about a third had attempted suicide once in their life, usually most of them said when they were about 16.

spk_0 So high school is a real fragile time for people with disorders.

spk_0 It may be a worthwhile thing to think about, but we'll talk more about that project later.

spk_0 I'm going over page three on the syllabus.

spk_0 Assignments.

spk_0 As part of the service learning project, you'll be writing a self-reflective kind of journal.

spk_0 Basically, just your experiences with being part of the project and reflecting on the disorders and how that affects you and how what you've learned from the process of working with other people and that kind of thing.

spk_0 We have very long classes, four hour classes.

spk_0 These are exhausting for me and I can imagine they're also exhausting for you.

spk_0 So I take relatively frequent breaks in this class.

spk_0 I try to break at least once an hour for about 10 minutes.

spk_0 Sometimes I have to go a little longer, sometimes I can go a little shorter.

spk_0 And I think I will take a little bit longer break at around 11 or a little bit after to give you a chance to get a bite to eat because I imagine if you've had breakfast this morning.

spk_0 It was quite early.

spk_0 Like I did at seven o'clock.

spk_0 But as I say also, I break it up with the use of multimedia and stuff like that.

spk_0 So it's not just me yacking at you.

spk_0 We're going to have, hopefully, quite active discussions about what we're learning here.

spk_0 Grading and assignments.

spk_0 Okay, so here's how I break out the final grade in this course in terms of the different components.

spk_0 Exams are 60 percent.

spk_0 Writing is 15 percent.

spk_0 The project that you're engaging in will be worth 20 percent.

spk_0 And class participation is a mere 5 percent.

spk_0 The reason the class participation is so low, I typically make it 10 to 15 percent.

spk_0 But partly the participation is folded into the project score, the service learning project.

spk_0 There will be two exams.

spk_0 A midterm exam and a final exam.

spk_0 Neither of them is cumulative.

spk_0 So they only cover the material that you're learning either from the beginning of the course or since the midterm respectively.

spk_0 So each one is worth 30 percent.

spk_0 That's a significant piece of your grade.

spk_0 So it'll be worthwhile doing well on this.

spk_0 I typically use a combination of multiple choice, fill in the blank and short answer essay questions on the exams.

spk_0 I always give you a study guide prior to the exam, which will list the parts of the chapters that I'm taking questions from.

spk_0 And that'll help guide your studying in the week prior to the exam.

spk_0 I release that usually about a week before the exam.

spk_0 Absences from the exam.

spk_0 Please let me know if you'd like to take an exam early.

spk_0 If you know you're going to be absent on an exam day, let me know.

spk_0 And I can arrange to have you take it maybe with another class if I'm taking exams with another class that week or just privately with me or in the division office.

spk_0 So that's not a problem.

spk_0 If for some reason you can't let me know that you were absent and you have an emergency and you can't be there.

spk_0 You can make up the exams.

spk_0 But I'll ask you to do that before the next scheduled class period.

spk_0 Writing.

spk_0 There will be one short response paper.

spk_0 It'll be probably two to four pages generally.

spk_0 Relatively short.

spk_0 And it'll probably be a reflection on the memoir that we're reading an unquiet mind by K. Redfield Jameson.

spk_0 Has anybody read that already?

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 So you're step ahead of the game.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Well, it'll be, I'm sure you'll enjoy rereading it.

spk_0 I've reread it a couple times.

spk_0 I always find something new in it when I reread it.

spk_0 So how did you find it when you read it?

spk_0 Did you find it engaging at all?

spk_0 Good.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 My student's last term responded real well to it.

spk_0 It occurred to me that if we're going to do an eating disorders project that I should have picked a memoir of someone with eating disorders, but it's too late now.

spk_0 Late papers will be accepted, but there's a significant penalty 50%.

spk_0 So I would advise getting them in that time.

spk_0 I'm happy to give you an extension on the due date if you know in advance that your for some reason not going to be able to get it done.

spk_0 You know, you might have three or four papers scheduled that week.

spk_0 Just let me know ahead of time and I'll help you out with an extension.

spk_0 Plagiarism.

spk_0 Do not go to the internet to find a paper about K. Redfield, Jameson's, an unquiet mind.

spk_0 First of all, the assignment that I'm going to give you for the papers is probably one that is not easily obtainable on the internet.

spk_0 But if you feel tempted to do that, be advised that I have had students fail this course as a result of plagiarism.

spk_0 So don't do it.

spk_0 Don't cheat on exams.

spk_0 Don't, you know, straighten, straighten narrow.

spk_0 I don't have too much tolerance for that.

spk_0 So then I talk a little bit more in depth about the service learning project on page four, page five.

spk_0 Oh, I talk about how I score that project.

spk_0 Basically your journal accounts for one third of the score in the project.

spk_0 So just completing and submitting the journal alone, I don't actually grade the journal.

spk_0 I can't grade your, you know, subjective experience.

spk_0 Right? So it really just is the process of completing it.

spk_0 So that's an easy third of the credit.

spk_0 The other two thirds will be based on your evaluation of your performance and your evaluation of each other's performance.

spk_0 And I have a, like a survey form that I give you about how you did on each part of the project.

spk_0 Everybody else didn't. Then I take all that data and come up with a grade.

spk_0 Class participation. This is a small class.

spk_0 So your presence and your attendance here is going to be crucial because your voice is going to be a big part of the experience of being in this class.

spk_0 I can't stand up here and talk at you for four hours.

spk_0 So you're going to be part of learning, but you're also going to be part of teaching each other.

spk_0 So please contribute to the learning community we have here.

spk_0 I don't keep track of like how many questions you ask or how many you answer and come up with some formula to figure out participation.

spk_0 It's really a subjective evaluation of your experience here.

spk_0 I say about attendance. Please come every day that you can.

spk_0 If you have to miss a class, get notes from a classmate or catch up using.

spk_0 I record the lectures and I make them available as a download podcast.

spk_0 So if you have to be absent, at least you can catch up with the lecture and the discussion that we have here.

spk_0 Being late, if you have to be late, please do so quietly.

spk_0 Try to be like a little tiny mouse.

spk_0 If you have to leave class early, please let me know before class starts.

spk_0 And here's why. Just like everybody else, I'm subject to my own neuroses and insecurities.

spk_0 And if I'm in the middle of talking about something and someone packs up their stuff and gets up and walks out, then that starts my little neurotic brain going,

spk_0 gee, I wonder what I said wrong. How could I be such an insensitive teacher? Why did I take on this job?

spk_0 Why do I think I should be doing this job? Teachers should be understanding and always be available for their students and never insult them.

spk_0 And what a loser I am, right? And then my lecture deteriorates and then I go home and solve for a couple of days.

spk_0 I exaggerate, obviously, but I do go through a little bit of that process.

spk_0 So please let me know if you do have to leave early and I won't do that so much.

spk_0 Cell phones and technology basically turn off your cell phones in class.

spk_0 I understand that some of you may need to have the ability to receive a call during class.

spk_0 And if that's the case, just let me know and that's fine. If you want to use laptops, that's fine.

spk_0 But you limit it to a class work rather than something other than a class work.

spk_0 Questions?

spk_0 I'll let you read this at your leisure and ask me more about it as we go along.

spk_0 So, oh, let me give you one of these. Could you do me a favor on here? Put your name.

spk_0 What program you're taking, like if you're a university transfer or substance abuse counseling or whatever.

spk_0 What you do in your spare time like your hobbies or past times and why you're taking this course.

spk_0 Thanks. Okay, so next up is the calendar for this course.

spk_0 And you're welcome. This is a listing of all of the assignments for the course.

spk_0 When the readings are due, papers, exams, stuff like that. You're welcome.

spk_0 We have 11 weeks together, including the final. So, we're going to be moving right along on this stuff.

spk_0 Typically, you'll be reading two chapters per week.

spk_0 So, you'll need to, you know, sort of keep up on the reading and not fall behind because if you fall behind one week, you're then reading, excuse me, four weeks.

spk_0 Plus, you're typically going to be reading a fair amount of the Jameson books. So, it would be hard to fall behind.

spk_0 I list the topics that we'll talk about in class that week.

spk_0 The reading assignments that are due for that class session. So, for week two, we're going to do some planning for the service learning project.

spk_0 We're also going to be talking about contemporary views of abnormality and perspectives on abnormal behavior.

spk_0 And so, you'll want to read Su-Su and Su chapters one and two before we meet next Friday.

spk_0 And in class exercises is things that I schedule to be doing sort of in class time.

spk_0 So, we'll actually, there's a couple things I have in here, group work things that we'll be doing, but we'll be doing more than that.

spk_0 We start talking about the Jameson memoir in week three. So, in addition to the chapters three and ten and Su-Su and Su, you'll also be reading the prologue in part one of Jameson.

spk_0 I think you'll find the reading for, you know, when you read the Jameson book, you don't have to read it intently for content.

spk_0 It's not like reading the textbook where you have to read that relatively intently to get the content.

spk_0 The Jameson book will be more of a, almost like a pleasure read, but I do want you to kind of just be aware of the themes.

spk_0 But we'll have a discussion on week three. We'll discuss the prologue in part one in class and see if we can draw out some themes and similarities that you find.

spk_0 The fifth week has your midterm, which will include five chapters, one through four, eight and ten.

spk_0 And then the service learning project I've tentatively put in in week eight.

spk_0 That is national eating disorders awareness week. So, if we do the eating disorders project, that would be the logical week to do it and we don't have to do it that week either.

spk_0 The service learning journals will be due the week after that. There's a paper for the inquiate mind, which will be due just before the final. And then we have the final.

spk_0 Please be advised this calendar is subject to change.

spk_0 Things happen. I could say something else, but I'm in the podcast. So I won't say the swear word.

spk_0 Things happen and I may need to adjust the calendar. If so, I'll notify you in class and by email that I've had to change the calendar.

spk_0 The smallest number of revisions I've ever had for one of my course calendars I think is two and the largest is seven.

spk_0 So they seem to be getting fewer as I as I teach more and more each term I teach I seem to be getting a little better at figuring out the scheduling.

spk_0 Won't change too much. Yes, I have an answer.

spk_0 Good question. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, the exam itself will probably take you only about an hour to an hour and a half.

spk_0 And I don't have anything else scheduled for that class period. That gives me a little bit of flexibility in case I need to throw something in after the exam.

spk_0 Like we may want to do some service learning project planning after the exam or something like that.

spk_0 But I'll try not to have you read material for lecture that it's going to come after the exam.

spk_0 Those of you who have taken intro psych in memory, what's it called when later learning interferes with your memory for prior learning?

spk_0 Do you remember? What's that?

spk_0 It's a form of interference. Proactive interference. Yeah. And so I try not to create a situation where I'm creating proactive interference.

spk_0 That's why I try not to do any lecture after exams if I can avoid it.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Yes, please. Yeah. This class is not easy.

spk_0 On the other hand, this class isn't really, really hard either. For one thing, those of you who have taken me in intro psych know that I talk about this.

spk_0 The idea that many people will come into an intro psych course, especially thinking, oh, it's just all common sense. But then they find out, gee, I have to learn a real vocabulary and stuff like that.

spk_0 We're going to be learning another set of vocabulary, but your experience in intro psych will really help you out in terms of being able to understand the vocabulary that we're learning when we talk about psychological disorders and mental illness.

spk_0 So the psych department here has pretty high expectations. You're not just, you know, thought we just don't want you to memorize material but to actually do some critical thinking too.

spk_0 I have relatively high personal expectations of you and of myself, but as I said, I've been in your shoes before and so I know that sometimes life gets in the way of learning.

spk_0 So I'm really quite flexible in understanding.

spk_0 And in that regard, you are lucky in some ways to be taking this course at community college where you have a lot more access to the faculty than you would at a large university.

spk_0 So take advantage of that. I'm available to help you in this course. That's really my main job here.

spk_0 And so office hours make appointments with me. You may want to form a study group before the exam, stuff like that.

spk_0 Let me talk about the textbook. The required textbook for this course is su su and su essentials of understanding abnormal behavior.

spk_0 This is what's known as a brief version of the textbook. Su su and su have a larger version called, I just think just called, understanding abnormal behavior.

spk_0 And this is sort of a condensed version of that larger textbook. Does anybody have a copy here by any chance? Can you pull it out for me? Thanks.

spk_0 So when I reviewed the textbooks for this course, this stood out mostly because I think that the writing is actually quite good.

spk_0 It reads quite well. It has all of the essential information that you need to know about these disorders.

spk_0 But what it doesn't have that the more advanced, that the thicker version of this book has are some like tables and boxes with personal anecdotes and stuff like that.

spk_0 But I'm supplementing that with class discussion and lecture and videos.

spk_0 The one weakness this does have is it doesn't do a lot with DSM for criteria and diagnosis and diagnostic stuff.

spk_0 So I'm going to be supplementing that with photo copies for you.

spk_0 Each chapter is relatively short because it isn't a sensuals book.

spk_0 So let's see how big, for example, chapter one and two combined is about 60 pages.

spk_0 So hopefully that won't be too bad for one week's worth of reading.

spk_0 And each set of two chapters is right around that same amount.

spk_0 I'd like your, you know, as we go along, I'd like your feedback on the textbook too.

spk_0 How you find it in terms of reading, how you find it in terms of coverage of the material.

spk_0 I think it's quite good. Also, it's a lot less expensive.

spk_0 Typically the book that I would use instead of this is a book by Ultramans.

spk_0 And that book, I think, would cost you about $130.

spk_0 I think this one is 80 or 90 at the bookstore.

spk_0 So I think it's a lot more affordable.

spk_0 So that's one other reason that I chose it.

spk_0 You can get a study guide which gives you like practice tests, fill in the blank kinds of testing questions.

spk_0 I advise it.

spk_0 The reason that I do that is what we know from research on learning and memory is that the best memory performance gains come not from the first two chapters.

spk_0 Continually studying and re-studying material, but rather studying and testing yourself.

spk_0 That process of finding out what you don't know through the self-testing actually results in learning gains that don't come from just continually studying.

spk_0 So I will recommend that you think about picking that up.

spk_0 Any questions on the text?

spk_0 Supplemental reading.

spk_0 We're going to read...

spk_0 I'm sorry.

spk_0 Jameson's Anunquiet Mind.

spk_0 Oh yeah, I do.

spk_0 I made a change to this slide, but I forgot.

spk_0 So Anunquiet Mind is a small trade paperback book.

spk_0 You should be able to find both of these books at the bookstore used.

spk_0 Or you can get it new if you want to through the bookstore, through another source.

spk_0 And as I said, that's going to be a memoir of K. Redfield Jameson.

spk_0 She is a psychiatrist and psychologist.

spk_0 And she developed bipolar disorder while she was...

spk_0 Well, it fully developed while she was undergraduate in college and in graduate school.

spk_0 And it's about her experience of living with bipolar disorder, but also living with the family of a bipolar disorder.

spk_0 And her experience of social support and her social networks and how that affects her disorder.

spk_0 So it's really quite a good read.

spk_0 And I read through it pretty quickly and I don't read very fast, so it should go easily for you.

spk_0 Service learning.

spk_0 As I said, the service learning project is a way for you to be of service, having learned what you've learned about eating disorders.

spk_0 And to provide screening, referrals, education, and what's really important in abnormal psych and in mental illness is reducing the stigma that's associated with mental illness.

spk_0 It's a real problem in our society.

spk_0 Having a psychological disorder is very stigmatizing.

spk_0 And it's partly because people don't really understand psychological disorders very well.

spk_0 Oftentimes they'll think of a psychological disorder or a mental illness as a weakness of will.

spk_0 Something weak about the person if they're depressed or something.

spk_0 Why don't you just, you know, in this culture, it's like why don't you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, right?

spk_0 This is very individualistic kind of culture.

spk_0 And so one of the things that this does is it brings the disorders out into the public and says, hey, look, this thing's not really as scary as you think it is.

spk_0 And it's, you know, something that's treatable, that's something that people live with every day.

spk_0 So it also, if we do the screening, will also be part of a national data collection effort looking at prevalence of eating disorders on college campuses nationwide.

spk_0 So not only are you serving the community here, you're serving also the greater knowledge base.

spk_0 And my students generally find that it's fun.

spk_0 You've got a lot of latitude with how you do it.

spk_0 You can make it as fun as you want or you can make it as very, you know, serious and academic as you want.

spk_0 So, as I said, you've got two ways, well, I'll use two ways of assessing your success and performance, the journals, and then these peer evaluations.

spk_0 I have, I'm trying to think of what the grades have been for the service learning project.

spk_0 I've never had someone get less than I think a B grade on the service learning project.

spk_0 Generally people respond to this really well.

spk_0 And as a result, I think it gives them a good evaluation for it.

spk_0 Any questions on that service learning stuff? Yeah.

spk_0 Sure. Well, we haven't, you know, I haven't quite settled on exactly what we're going to do.

spk_0 But basically, you will be planning, organizing, and running an event to raise awareness of these disorders.

spk_0 So, there's an organization called Screening for Mental Health.

spk_0 And they provide, they provide a kit of materials that will help you to actually plan, organize, and put on this event, which includes publicity materials,

spk_0 it includes educational materials, like a DVD or videotape that you can play information about how to run these events.

spk_0 And, you know, basically it's your project and you can really do it any way you want.

spk_0 I'm going to approach it any way you want. What do you want to know specifically?

spk_0 Yes. A little bit of both.

spk_0 I will recommend that you do it in the campus center because that's where there's more traffic of people.

spk_0 And also, I will recommend that you do it near the counseling center because we'll have the, we'll be coordinating with the counseling center and the counselors

spk_0 to, if we do the screening part, which is optional, but I think we should.

spk_0 If we do the screening part, the participants, people will walk up to the table and you'll say, you know, would you like to take a screening for risk disorders for eating disorders and they go, yeah.

spk_0 And so, they fill out a screening form.

spk_0 And if they score high enough, then the counselors will help them find a referral to a service agency that can help them get treatment for the eating disorder.

spk_0 What we also have done in the past and what I recommend is you'll also, the best thing for you to do would be to go out to local merchants or maybe businesses that you know of and solicit prize donations and have a prize drawing.

spk_0 And that way it kind of gives someone a reason to come up to the table and sign up for the prize drawing.

spk_0 Oh, but while you're doing the prize drawing, do you want to fill out the screening form, right?

spk_0 And so last time we gave away one of the, we gave away two spa treatments at some hot springs, Bonneville hot springs.

spk_0 We gave away two free massages. One of my students is a massage therapist and he brought his massage chair and gave chair massages while people were hanging out.

spk_0 And so you can make it this real kind of, and that's a really good thing to do.

spk_0 Make it a festive event. Don't make it like, oh god, you know, do you have an eating disorder that must be terrible.

spk_0 You know, we're not draw people in using the excitement of the event, right?

spk_0 So, and you have a lot of latitude in how you do it. It's your project, it's not mine.

spk_0 So the success of the project depends on you and your energy and your creativity really.

spk_0 Yep, everybody will be participating. If this were a bigger class, I could break it up into two or three groups and we could have two or three projects.

spk_0 But in a class size like this, we ran it last time with seven or eight people.

spk_0 So it shouldn't be a problem in this class. It's not really that much work.

spk_0 And it's more fun than it is work really.

spk_0 I will be your liaison partly for working with the administration and getting the resources you need.

spk_0 Just let me know what you need. And I've got some ideas and suggestions.

spk_0 And I can actually show you some videotape of what the project looked like last term.

spk_0 I haven't edited it yet, but I can show you the unedited version.

spk_0 Other questions? Anything, any other questions are concerned?

spk_0 I think you'll find that my students in the past have really responded well to it.

spk_0 One of the things we did, this was in South Carolina when I ran the eating disorders event there.

spk_0 I'm a thrift store junkie.

spk_0 I was out of the thrift store and I saw this, one of these professional kind of bathroom scales with the big dial on it that has your weight.

spk_0 And so I modified it where I took the numbers off the dial and I put things like fabulous and smart and gorgeous and stuff like that instead of numbers for weights.

spk_0 So it's a way to kind of change your, you know, it's like, hey, come and check out your weight.

spk_0 And then I go like, no, you can find out if you're fabulous.

spk_0 So yeah, okay. So as I said, the journals are basically going to be reflective. It's not like a research paper.

spk_0 It's your experience and that's what I want to read about what your experience with this event was.

spk_0 I may give you specific questions to respond to.

spk_0 And you can do it pretty much any way you want. You want to do it handwritten. You want to go on a computer.

spk_0 Do you want to make it a blog? If you know how to do blogs or do it in like a mailing list or do it as a public forum with everybody contributing altogether,

spk_0 we can talk about different ways we want to handle that.

spk_0 But it's important that you're writing be confidential and anonymous.

spk_0 So these get a little bit dicey when you start talking about confidentiality and anonymity.

spk_0 So here's some things that you will need for this class.

spk_0 You'll need two scantrons for the midterm and the final.

spk_0 And the ones you need are like a half page format. And it's 882E is the form number.

spk_0 And it has 50 questions on each side. There's another one that's like a half page format.

spk_0 But it has 25 questions on each side and that's the incorrect one.

spk_0 But even if you get to the midterm or the final and you don't have the right scantron, there's plenty of time to run over to the bookstore and get one anyway.

spk_0 And then you need number two pencils for the scantrons.

spk_0 And you might have a journal lying around that you can use or maybe you want to pick one up.

spk_0 So that's really all you're going to need for the class.

spk_0 Besides your brains and your creativity.

spk_0 Any questions?

spk_0 Yes. You've been turning it into me. I will read it and return it to you.

spk_0 Or shred it if you don't take it back.

spk_0 Okay. Let's take a break now.

Episode 1 - Course Introduction

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