Prospectus | 08/09 - Psychology and Neuroscience - Maastricht ...

Chapter 5 - Specialization Psychopathology
• Adaptation to stress: normal psychological and biological processes, allostasis;
• Experimental paradigms;
• Does stress cause psychiatric / psychosomatic disorders? Evidence and possible
pathways;
• Long-term effects of adverse early experience: what can we learn from animal models
and epidemiological studies?;
• Why are some individuals more vulnerable (or more resilient) to stress than others?
Genes and environment;
• Post-traumatic stress disorder: controversies concerning the concept of trauma,
epidemiology, biological and psychological processes, treatment and prevention.
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Instructional Approach
The seminar consists of interactive meetings, including lectures, group discussions, and
student presentations.
Form of Assessment
Participation, editorial review, presentation, and research proposal.
| 474PP Developmental Psychopathology – 3 credits
Instructor: Kathleen Restifo, Clinical Psychological Science (FPN), Phone 38 81733,
50 Universiteitssingel, Room 1.354, E-mail: k.restifo@dmkep.unimaas.nl
Description of the Course
The aim of this seminar is to introduce students to the field of developmental
psychopathology, an interdisciplinary field which employs the framework of normal
development to understand psychopathology as it unfolds throughout the lifespan.
Developmental psychopathology draws on research from developmental and clinical
psychology, behavioural genetics, neurology, neuropsychology, and psychiatry among
other fields, and attempts to integrate concepts, methods and findings from these
fields into models which attempt to explain how psychopathology develops, including
etiological factors and causal pathways. The research methods employed can include
cross-sectional or longitudinal designs; normal, high risk or clinical samples, prevention
and treatment studies, neurodevelopmental studies, and behavioural genetic studies,
to name a few.
The focus of this seminar will be to examine child psychopathology through the lens of
developmental psychopathology. It is not possible to systematically cover all aspects of
developmental child psychopathology in one seminar. Rather, the aims are as follows:
1) Introduce the major theories and research methods, and the variety of disciplines
involved.
2) Critically analyse recent and/or influential research studies in four broad areas
of psychopathology: 1) anxiety, 2) depression, 3) conduct disorders and 4) autism.
Treatment approaches will be discussed in the last class.
3) Critically examine competing models of the interaction between etiological factors