Individual Differences

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: Dr Michael Mallaghan
• Assessment: a one-hour in-class test (40%) and 1500-word take-home essay (60%)

This module covers topics such as: approaches to personality and intelligence, medical models and the biology of disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety and depression, gender differences in psychopathology, and an introduction to systemic, cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic approaches to psychopathology.

It aims to:

• provide an introduction to different theoretical and practical approaches to individual differences and psychological disorder
• illustrate the practice of therapy for psychological disorders through lectures from practitioners
• contribute to your detailed knowledge of models of psychological disorder
• provide a detailed understanding of approaches to personality
• consider issues in relation to the measurement and understanding of intelligence.

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• understand principles underlying different approaches to defining and explaining individual differences and psychological disorders
• describe and explain different treatment strategies for psychological disorder
• evaluate the rationale behind different approaches, including considerations of treatment outcome
• understand some of the practical aspects of therapeutic intervention
• understand different approaches to conceptualising individual differences and personality
• understand critical issues in the conceptualisation and measurement of intelligence and personality.