Psychology 2042B 001 FW24
Exceptional Children: Behavioural Disorders
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
WESTERN UNIVERSITY
LONDON CANADA
Department of Psychology
2024 - 2025
Psychology 2042B Section 001
Exceptional Children: Behavioural Disorders
- CALENDAR DESCRIPTION (DRAFT version dated July 2024)
This half course will cover theory and treatment related to major psychological disorders of childhood, including depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, conduct problems, and the impact of child maltreatment.
Antirequisites: Psychology 2041, 2320A/B, 3320F/G, 3434E
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. If you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
Prerequisite: Not applicable https://www.registrar.uwo.ca/academics/timetables.html
January – April 2025, 3 lecture hours on campus,; Course Weight 0.5
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Jeff St. Pierre
Contact: jstpierr@uwo.ca (please use Psych2042B in the subject line).
All general questions should be posted to the course to the Psych2042B course website Forum rather than e-mailing Dr. St. Pierre, so all students can benefit from the Q&A. Dr. St. Pierre typically checks the OWL Forum each morning. For courses that include an online component, students must have a reliable internet connection and computer that is compatible with online learning system requirements.
Time and Location of Classes: see Student Centre for timetable
Delivery Method: In person, main campus.
Office Hours: I will be in class before and after each lecture.
Virtual online office hours may be offered occasionally - times tba.
Teaching Assistant: tba
Office Hours:
TA Email:
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Custom E-Textbook – Mandatory reading.
University of Western Ontario*Custom eBook: Abnormal Child Psychology, PSYC 2042B, (365 Days/One Year Access) ($46.00 last year). Link tba.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES & LEARNING OUTCOMES
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the study of psychopathology in children and adolescence. An overview will be provided of several major behavioural and emotional disorders of childhood and adolescence, including their prevalence, characteristics, causes, and current approaches to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
|
Learning Outcome |
Learning Activity |
Assessment |
|
Depth and Breadth of Knowledge. Define terminology in social science and clinical psychology. Recognize the main symptoms of a range of psychological disorders and state the prevalence of these disorders. Explain current approaches for the assessment, prevention and treatment of psychological problems amongst children and youth. |
Study assigned readings. Study lectures. |
Measured through multiple choice or short answer tests. |
|
Knowledge of Methodologies. Differentiate evidence-based assessment and treatment strategies from unproven methods. |
Study assigned readings. Study lectures. |
Measured through multiple choice or short answer tests. |
|
Application of Knowledge. Apply DSM-5 criteria to provide the most plausible diagnosis for a set of psychological symptoms. Identify and contrast current scientific theories (e.g. biological, psychological) on the etiology and treatment of psychological disorders. Apply the theories of child development to case examples of normal versus abnormal coping and interpersonal functioning. |
Study assigned readings. Study lectures. |
Measured through multiple choice or short answer tests. |
|
Awareness of Limits of Knowledge. |
OWL assignment. |
Participation as outlined in lecture. |
5.0 EVALUATION
Exam 1: 31% of grade. 75 questions - multiple choice with a few short answers.
Exam 2: 31% of grade. 75 questions - multiple choice with a few short answers.
Exam 3: 31% of grade. 75 questions - multiple choice with a few short answers.
In class Participation: 7% of grade. Assignments submitted on the course website. Content and submission deadlines are announced in lectures (to reinforce class attendance). You will have more than 7 chances to earn the 7 marks.
The evaluation and testing formats for this course were created to assess the learning objectives as listed in section 4.0 and are considered necessary for meeting these learning objectives. Student evaluation will be based on three in-person exams with equal weighting, along with small assignment marks. Each exam is focused on one third of the course, with 75 multiple choice/short answers, 2 hours to complete. Exams 1 and 2 are during class, the Final Exam is scheduled by the University. Each exam will focus on new material from that course section, but some cumulative knowledge will be assessed, for example, the basic concepts of child development you learn in section 1 will be applied in the next 2 sections. The first month of the course is the most demanding (four textbook chapters), especially for students with no psychology course background. Questions on each exam will be based on information contained in the textbook and any supplementary readings, oral lecture material, and assigned audio-visual presentations. Power Point lecture slides used in class are posted on the course website Resources tab prior to the Thursday lecture each week, no additional Professor lecture notes are available.
Because each brief participation mark allows one week for completion, is worth only 1 or 2% of your final grade in the course and you have multiple opportunities to achieve these marks, extensions will not be accepted, and accommodations will not be offered for missed participation marks. You will receive a score of 0 for any missing assignment. The maximum participation grade is 7. Once you achieve seven marks, other participation assignments you submit will not be graded (no bonus marks). These participation marks are meant as incentive to keep up with weekly readings and lectures and not cram for exams. Hint – students who do poorly in this course typically skip class, skip these easy participation marks, and fail to do weekly textbook readings, choosing instead to cram for exams.
5.1 POLICY ON MISSING COURSEWORK
Make-up exams may be permitted only with approval from your Academic Counsellor (as per Section 10 below). Please use the OWL Forum to ask a classmate for notes if you miss a lecture. If you require longer-term accommodation for a health or wellness concern lasting more than a week, please seek official accommodation by submitting your documentation to the academic counseling office in your home faculty.
The expectation for course grades within the Psychology Department is that they will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level to 2099-level courses
72% 2100-2999-level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows Western’s grading guidelines, which are as follows (see: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf)
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
Note that if course grades are significantly higher or lower than these averages, instructors may be required to adjust course grades.
Policy on Grade Rounding: Please note that although course grades within the Psychology Department are rounded to the nearest whole number, no further grade rounding will be done. No additional assignments will be offered to enhance a final grade; nor will requests to change a grade because it is needed for a future program be considered. To maximize your grade, do your best on each and every assessment within the course.
6.0 ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE
Most students finish the 75 MC/short answer questions well before the two-hour time limit. Students on special Accommodation (e.g., extra test time) must arrange well in advance their own proctoring through Accessible Education Services, for exams or makeup exams, so AES can obtain the exam from Professor St. Pierre. Students who miss an exam should contact the Academic Counselling Office of their Faculty and Dr. St. Pierre as soon as possible. An in-person group makeup exam will be scheduled by the course TA outside of class hours as soon as possible; given the course size and diverse faculties represented in our course enrolment, we cannot accommodate individual scheduling conflicts to book multiple makeup exam options.
February 6: Exam I. In class MC110 3:00 to 5:00 pm. (study content details below).
March 13: Exam II. In class MC110 3:00 to 5:00 pm (study content details below)
Date TBA: Exam III. Time and location set by registrar April 7 – April 30, 2025 Same format, two hours, focused on the last third of the course.
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE 2025
Ten weeks of lectures, 30 hours total, in class MC110 Thursdays. Check OWL course online Resources each week for PowerPoint, readings, or links.
January 9: Lecture 1, Course Overview; Read Textbook Chp 1 Introduction to Psychopathology
January 16: Lecture 2, Read Chp Theories and Causes. Assessment of Normal and Abnormal Child Development.
January 23: Lecture 3, Read Chp Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
January 30: Lecture 4, Read Chp Conduct Problems
February 6: Exam I in class 3:00 to 5:00pm, focused on the science and theory of typical and atypical child development, ADHD and Behaviour Disorders. First four Chapters from textbook + lectures. If you miss this exam, follow the procedures in Section 10 below immediately to be eligible for the makeup exam and to be informed of the date and location.
February 13: Lecture 5, Read Chp Depressive and Bipolar Disorders.
February 20 No class (Feb 17-21 WINTER READING WEEK)
February 27: Lecture 6, Read Chp Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders.
March 6: Lecture 7, Anxiety and Mood Disorders, evidence-based treatment, clinical case examples, assigned video and OWL reading. No new textbook reading.
March 13: Exam II in class 3:00 to 5:00pm, focused on two text Chapters on Mood and Anxiety Disorders + three lectures. If you miss this exam, follow the procedures in Section 10 below immediately to be eligible for the makeup exam and to be informed of the date and location.
March 20: Lecture 8, Child Maltreatment and Attachment Disturbance.
March 27: Lecture 9, Read Chp Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders, PTSD.
April 3: Lecture 10, Risk and Protective Factors in Developmental Psychopathology; wrap-up.
April final Exam date and place: TBA 2-hour final set by the Registrar April 7-30, focused on the last third of the course, last chapter of the text, trauma readings and videos + three lectures. Similar exam format as previous two exams. If you miss this exam, follow the procedures in Section 10 below immediately to be eligible for the makeup exam and be informed of the date and location.
8.0 Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that Western University is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Attawandaron peoples, on lands connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum.
With this, we respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land, as they are the original caretakers. We acknowledge historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous Peoples (e.g. First Nations, Métis and Inuit) endure in Canada, and we accept responsibility as a public institution to contribute toward revealing and correcting miseducation, as well as renewing respectful relationships with Indigenous communities through our teaching, research and community service.
9.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism (“The act or an instance of copying or stealing another’s words or ideas and attributing them as one’s own”) and other scholastic offences. The use of any source, including websites that generate answers such as ChatGPT, without proper attribution of that source, is plagiarism. Plagiarism and cheating are considered serious offences because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offence are described at the following link: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
The Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offences: All multiple-choice exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records (Nominal Roll) will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. Written assignments may be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database to detect plagiarism of papers later submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com).
Penalties for a scholastic offence include failure of the assignment/exam, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
10.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR ILLNESS OR OTHER ABSENCES
Western’s new (2024) policy on Academic Consideration for students in this course can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
All requests for academic consideration must be made ASAP after a missed test to the Academic Advising office of the student’s Faculty of Registration, followed immediately by a request to the course Professor to write the makeup exam. https://www.registrar.uwo.ca/faculty_academic_counselling.html
Requests to your Faculty Advisor for academic consideration must include the following components:
- a) Self-attestation signed by the student
- b) Indication of the course(s) and assessment(s) affected by the request
- c) Supporting documentation as relevant
If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:
- For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner to be eligible for Academic Consideration;
- For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.
- Students seeking accommodation for religious purposes are advised to contact Academic Counselling at least three weeks prior to the religious event and as soon as possible after the start of the term.
- Requests without supporting documentation are limited to one per term per course and cannot include the final exam. If you use an undocumented absence self-attestation for Midterm 1 or Midterm 2, however are also unable to write the makeup exam at the scheduled time, you must then obtain an approved absence from your faculty with supporting documentation for further rescheduling of the makeup exam.
Students seeking academic consideration:
- are advised to carefully consider the implications of postponing midterm exams; the makeup exam is offered as soon as possible in a group format at a time chosen by the course TA – due to the size of the course, individual schedules cannot be accommodated for the test makeup. As each exam is on new material essential to the learning outcomes of this course, missed exams will receive a grade of 0 (no reweighting).
- must communicate with Professor St. Pierre ASAP to ensure their attendance at a makeup exam. Failure to do so may result in a grade of 0.
11.0 Contingency Plan for Return to Lockdown: IN-Person classes
In the event of a COVID-19 resurgence or any other event that necessitates the course delivery moving away from face-to-face interaction, all remaining course content will be delivered entirely online, requiring a reliable internet connection either synchronously (i.e., at the times indicated in the timetable) or asynchronously (e.g., posted on OWL for students to view at their convenience). The grading scheme will not change. Any remaining assessments will also be conducted online, as determined by the course instructor.
This course is in-person, as are all tests, proctored by Professor St. Pierre and graduate students. However, tests and examinations for online courses are conducted using a remote proctoring service. By taking this course (and if it must pivot online), you are consenting to the use of this software and acknowledge that you will be required to provide personal information (including some biometric data) and the session will be recorded. Completion of this course will require you to have a reliable internet connection and a device that meets the technical requirements for this service. More information about this remote proctoring service, including technical requirements, is available on Western’s Remote Proctoring website at: https://remoteproctoring.uwo.ca.
If in-person exams are unexpectedly canceled, you may only be given notice of the use of a proctoring service a brief time in advance.
12.0 STATEMENTS CONCERNING ONLINE ETIQUETTE
In courses involving online interactions, the Psychology Department expects students to honour the following rules of etiquette:
- please “arrive” to class on time
- please use your computer and/or laptop if possible (as opposed to a cell phone or tablet)
- please ensure that you are in a private location to protect the confidentiality of discussions if a class discussion deals with sensitive or personal material
- to minimize background noise, kindly mute your microphone for the entire class until you are invited to speak, unless directed otherwise
- In classes larger than 30 participants please turn off your video camera for the entire class unless you are invited to speak
- In classes of 30 students or fewer, where video chat procedures are being used, please be prepared to turn your video camera off at the instructor’s request if the internet connection becomes unstable
- Unless invited by your instructor, do not share your screen in the meeting
The course instructor will act as moderator for the class and will deal with any questions from participants. To participate please consider the following:
- If you wish to speak, use the “raise hand” function and wait for the instructor to acknowledge you before beginning your comment or question.
- Please remember to unmute your microphone and turn on your video camera before speaking. Self-identify when speaking.
General considerations of “netiquette”:
- Keep in mind the diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the students in the course.
- Be courteous toward the instructor, your colleagues, and authors whose work you are discussing. Be respectful of the diversity of viewpoints that you will encounter in the class and in your readings. The exchange of diverse ideas and opinions is part of the scholarly environment. “Flaming” is never appropriate.
- Be professional and scholarly in all online postings. Use proper grammar and spelling. Cite the ideas of others appropriately.
Note that disruptive behaviour of any type during online classes, including inappropriate use of the chat function, is unacceptable. Students found guilty of Zoom-bombing a class or of other serious online offenses may be subject to disciplinary measures under the Code of Student Conduct.
13.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Student Wellness: https://www.uwo.ca/health/
Academic Support: http://academicsupport.uwo.ca/
Office of the Registrar: https://registrar.uwo.ca
Psychology Undergraduate Program: https://www.psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/index.html
If you wish to appeal a grade, please read the policy documentation at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/appealsundergrad.pdf
Please first contact the course instructor. If your issue is not resolved, you may make your appeal to the Undergraduate Chair in Psychology (psyugrd@uwo.ca).
Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, videos and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute any course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.
Policy on the Recording of Synchronous Sessions: If remote learning sessions for this course must occur, they may be recorded. The data captured during these recordings may include your image, voice recordings, chat logs and personal identifiers (name displayed on the screen). The recordings will be used for educational purposes related to this course, including evaluations. The recordings may be disclosed to other individuals participating in the course for their private or group study purposes. Please contact the instructor if you have any concerns related to session recordings. Participants in this course are not permitted to privately record the sessions, except where recording is an approved accommodation, or the student has the prior written permission of the instructor.
