ENROLL

Ken B Abrams, Michael T Hemesath, Debby R Walser-Kuntz

Vaccines are often touted as one of humankind’s greatest biomedical achievements. They have undoubtedly prevented hundreds of millions of deaths from infectious diseases since their discovery. Yet, there remain many obstacles that prevent their wider development and dissemination. Among these are the technological challenges associated with vaccine development, the well funded anti-vaccination movements that often thrive on and spread misinformation, and economic hurdles that affect the production and equitable distribution of vaccines. Through an interdisciplinary lens that incorporates material from biology, psychology, and economics, this course will allow students to reach an integrated understanding of vaccines.  

Ken B Abrams

This course will focus on causal factors and clinical presentations of mental disorders, such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, dissociative disorders, and psychotic disorders, among others. We will use an integrative approach that incorporates psychological, biological, interpersonal, and sociocultural perspectives. Methods of assessment and treatment will also at times be discussed.

Prerequisite: Psychology 110 or instructor permission.

Ken B Abrams

Students independently revise and extend the fall term paper, integrating the feedback from their faculty advisor.  Based on this work, students submit a final comps paper (approx. 20 pages) that makes original contributions to the field of psychology through critiquing existing psychology primary sources, applying empirically-supported psychological theories to new questions, generating potential applied guidelines, and/or proposing new theories or empirical studies based on published theories and empirical research.

Prerequisite: Psychology 399