Study Psychology and Counselling to learn more about psychological conditions, abnormal psychology, stress and counselling.

This course will develop your ability to analyse psychological conditions, and apply that knowledge in counselling, or advisory situations.

In the course, you will cover a range of topics, including - 

Lesson Structure

There are 7 lessons in this course:

1. Stress
   • Introduction
   • The mind to body connection
   • How to recognise stress
   • What happens to the body when you experience stress
   • The physiological response
   • Chronic and acute stress
   • Erikson's psycho social stages
   • Oral sensory stage
   • Anal muscular stage
   • Genital locomotor stage
   • Latency stage
   • Adolescence
   • Young adulthood
   • Middle adulthood
   • Late adulthood
   • Social adjustment
   • Relationship between stress and heart disease
   • What are the basic sources of stress
   • Why some people suffer more
   • How to deal with stress
   • Defence mechanisms
2. Abnormal Behaviour
   • Definition of abnormality
   • Deviation from statistical norms
   • Deviation from social norm
   • Maladaptiveness in behaviour
   • Personal distress
   • Disability
   • Wakefield's harmful dysfunction concept
   • Psychologically healthy individuals
   • Deviation in character
   • Classification of mental disorders
   • Anxiety disorders
   • Mood disorders
   • Prevalence of depression
   • Treatment of depression
   • Schizophrenia
   • Substance related disorder
   • Disorders diagnosed in childhood
   • Delirium, Dementia, Amnestic and Cognitive disorders
   • Problems with classification
3. Individual Behaviour
   • Pro social or Altruistic behaviour
   • When do children first exhibit pro social behaviour
   • Socialisation
   • Conformity
   • Family influence
   • Disciplinary measures
   • Sibling influence
   • Influence of family structure
   • Influence of school
   • Praise
   • Influence of peers
   • Heider's Balance theory
   • Dissonance theory
   • Cognitive dissonance
4. Group Behaviour
   • Social considerations
   • Temporary group
   • Organised group
   • Organisational groups
   • The influence of groups
   • Industrial groups
5. Methods of Dealing with Abnormalities
   • Professionals in counselling and psychology
   • Therapist techniques
   • Transference
   • Directiveness and non directiveness
   • Systematic Desensitisation
   • Behaviour therapies
   • Psychoanalytical approach
   • Psychoanalytic techniques
   • Humanistic therapy
   • Eclectic approach
6. Conflict Resolution
   • Introduction
   • Conflict handling techniques
   • Anger
   • Negotiation
   • Joint problem solving
   • Problems with negotiation
   • Mediation
   • Procedure
   • Running a mediation process in a conflict situation
   • Agreements or contracts
   • Suggested timetable for a mediation session
7. Interpersonal Communication Skills
   • Introduction
   • Communication channels
   • Effective communication
   • Awareness
   • Communication skills
   • Hearing verbal messages
   • Perceiving non verbal messages
   • Responding
   • Verbal and non verbal communication
   • Body language
   • Communication barriers
   • Self awareness
   • Self esteem
   • Specific skills: listening, paraphrasing, reflective responses, etc
   • Conversation development
   • Professional relationship building

Aims

• Identify the nature of conflict and stress and why this issue affects so many people today.
• Identify and examine behaviours that are characterised as abnormal and compare and contrast these with behaviours characterised as healthy.
• Explain social influence on individual behaviour.
• Explain social influence on group behaviour.
• Describe alternative methods of dealing with psychological problems
• Develop skills for resolving conflict.
• Develop communication skills for counselling individuals.

What You Will Do

• Find someone you know who you suspect has a type A personality.
  • Talk to them to try to confirm if your suspicion is correct.
  • Note (write down) the ways in which they appear to be a type A personality.
• Talk with someone who is suffering, or has suffered stress. This might be a friend, relative, work mate, or anyone else you are able to find. Discuss their stress with them (current or past). Don’t push them, but try to discern from what they are happy to tell you, whether their stress was (or is) chronic or acute.
• Consider conflict which occurs in either a workplace or recreation situation you are familiar with.
  • This might be a place where you work, or a workplace you visit frequently (eg. A shop or office);or perhaps a sporting club, gymnasium or social group which you regularly attend. Make up a list of disputes or conflicts which you remember to have occurred in the past.
• Consider an individual in your life, or else a character in a film or book, who you regard as abnormal.
  • Consider why they are abnormal.
  • Write down a list of reasons you are able to identify.
  • Which method or defining abnormality was influencing your judgement of this character
• Find a teenager who you can interview.
  • This might be a person you know (a relative, work colleague, member of an organisation you belong to etc), or perhaps you might contact and visit a youth club or organisation that deals with teenagers and arrange to interview someone.
  • The person needs to be someone who exhibits some type of deviant behaviour, even if not extreme. Most teenagers will at some stage exhibit behaviour that is a deviance from social norms (even if the behaviour is not a deviance from age or peer group norms).
• Interview this teenager for at least 15 minutes. Make notes of your conversation, their responses (verbal and non-verbal).