Abnormal Psychology

You’ll develop a critical understanding of the main forms of mental illness from a psychological perspective. You will come to understand the key features of a variety of disorders and examine the contribution psychological approaches make to the theories, research, diagnosis and treatment of abnormal behaviour.

Areas covered may include:

• What is abnormal psychology? Defining ‘illness’, ‘health’  and ‘abnormality’; conceptual and historical issues in abnormal psychology; classification and diagnostic categories; and models of abnormality.
• The biology and psychology of psychological disorders: anxiety disorders, affective disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders, eating disorders, problems of ageing.
• Debates in abnormal psychology: gender, ethnicity and mental illness, the nature of abnormality, the anti-psychiatry movement, the effectiveness of interventions.