OUTLINE
This Diploma program focuses on counseling that is aimed to help clients with psychological problems and difficulties, that is, psychotherapy.
The course begins with an examination of Freud’s psychoanalysis, the original form of
Psychotherapy, because, it is argued, the other major forms of psychotherapy are all elaborations on, or reactions against, psychoanalysis, and they cannot be understood without a familiarity with psychoanalysis. Then the three major forms of individual psychotherapy at use today are studied: person-centered therapy (originally developed by Carl Rogers), cognitive therapy (originally developed by Aaron Beck), and contemporary psychodynamic therapy. Throughout the examination of these forms of therapy, attention is paid to research on the therapeutic effectiveness of the different forms of therapy.
Finally, three other types of therapy are studied: group therapy, marital therapy, and therapy for drug abuse and alcoholism.
There will be three tests spaced during the quarter, each test covering about one-third of the material. Doing well on the tests requires mastery of portions of the readings and the information from the lectures. There are also three mini-assignments related to the different forms of therapy, for example, one assignment involves completing and commenting upon a Qsortb test (a method of research much used in the person-centered tradition). These three assignments are graded pass-fail; your grade will be affected if an assignment is not completed.
The Administrator will check to see that they are handed in, but will not return them. Please submit hard copies of these assignments.
The goal of the course is for the students to learn about the major approaches to Psychotherapy, the theories on which they are based, the processes and techniques used in practicing these psychotherapies, and the research on their effectiveness.
Grading
Your grade will be an average of your grades on the three tests.
The tests fulfill the necessary role of providing the Institute with an objective means of evaluating your performance in the course. It is also seen as an integral part of the learning process because the tests encourage you to master the basics of the methods of counseling that we are studying.
We try to make a point of keeping the reading assignments moderate so that we can expect you to study the reading carefully. Through the reading, plus the lectures, you should be able to learn each of the methods of therapy that we are studying. The tests will be straight-forward and fair, covering the information from the readings and lectures. Since the tests rely a great deal on the lectures, make sure you borrow someone else’s lecture notes if you have to miss a class or contact your instructor at email: dellis@caribinfinity.net.
(Note: We do not grade on a curve; you will not hurt your grade by helping someone out through lending your notes.)
The questions on the tests will be short-answer questions.
Introduction to the Course
Defining the Subject
Ancient Foundations, Greek Philosophers and Physicians
Minds Possessed, Witchery and the Search for Explanations
The Emergence of Modern Science, Locke’s ‘Newtonian’ Theory of Mind
Three Enduring ‘isms’- Empiricism, Rationalism, Materialism
Sensation and Perception
The Visual Process
Perceptual Constancies and Illusions
Freudian Psychoanalysis
Freud’s Life and Work
Freud’s Debt to Darwin
Freud, Breuer, and the Theory of Repression
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
Critiques of Freudian Theory
Freud’s Psycho-Analytic Procedure
Freud’s Debt to Darwin
Freud, Breuer, and the Theory of Repression
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
Critiques of Freudian Theory
Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies
What Is Personality?
Obedience and Conformity
Altruism
Prejudice and Self-Deception
Person-Centered Therapy
Perceptual Constancies and Illusions
Learning and Memory, Associationism, Aristotle to Ebbinghaus
Pavlov and the Conditioned Reflex
Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies.
Psychology and Social development
Watson and American Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner and Modern Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner and the Engineering of Society
Language
The Integration of Experience
Perception and Attention
Cognitive ‘Maps,’ ‘Insight,’ and Animal Minds
Memory Revisited, Mnemonics and Context
The Development of Moral Reasoning
Knowledge, Thinking, and Understanding
Comprehending the World of Experience, Cognition Summarized
Psychobiology, Nineteenth-Century Foundations
Language and the Brain
Rationality, Problem-Solving, and Brain Function
The ‘Emotional’ Brain, The Limbic System
Violence and the Brain
Psychopathology, The Medical Model
Artificial Intelligence and the Neuro-cognitive Revolution
Is Artificial Intelligence ‘Intelligent’
What Makes an Event ‘Social’
Socialization, Darwin and the ‘Natural History’ Method