Teaching Advanced Psychopathology: A Method That Promotes Basic Undergraduate Clinical and Research Experience

Abstract

Students in advanced psychopathology courses can learn key concepts by administering semistructured interviews designed to identify specific mental disorders. Such an active learning approach potentially can help students gain fundamental knowledge about psychopathology and begin to develop clinical and research skills. To explore the value of this technique as a tool for teaching about personality disorders, 7 students participated in an applied 2-semester course that focused on diagnostic interviewing. As part of the course, students learned to identify specific forms of personality pathology reliably in participants they interviewed (average K =.95, SD = .09), developed valuable clinical and research skills, and examined important conceptual issues.