Curricula in Psychology and Societal Needs John B. Nezlek, PhD Department of Psychology College of...
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Transcript of Curricula in Psychology and Societal Needs John B. Nezlek, PhD Department of Psychology College of...
![Page 1: Curricula in Psychology and Societal Needs John B. Nezlek, PhD Department of Psychology College of William & Mary.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062407/56649d3e5503460f94a16780/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Curricula in Psychology and Societal Needs
John B. Nezlek, PhD
Department of Psychology
College of William & Mary
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In what context should the undergraduate psychology curriculum be evaluated?
• As part of a liberal arts or general undergraduate education
• As the terminal degree with the expectation of employment/citizenship
• As preparation for post graduate school
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Context, post-graduate
• Career focused MA degree
• Career focused doctoral degree
• Research focused doctoral degree
• Within any of these contexts, meeting societal needs can be considered
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Societal needs
• Two broad, general needs
1. Maintain existing structure and institutions
2. Prepare for and cope with change
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Maintenance function
• Socialization -- education, instilling norms
• Promoting health and well-being and preventing distress (public health model)
• Treating distress and reducing poor health
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Change function
• Measure and evaluate changes
• Anticipate or guide change
• Help to cope with change
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Socialization
• Education is part of the socialization process -- how people are taught to members of society
• Define right and wrong, good and bad
• Psychology can play a special role in this process because of its emphasis on interpersonal behavior and well-being
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Promote health and well-being
• Public health model
• Empower people and organize societies to minimize the likelihood people will experience problems -- reduce risk
• Emphasis on competencies and strengths rather than deficits and weaknesses
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Treat distress
• Inevitably, people will experience distress, sometimes severe and disabling
• Train diagnosticians and service providers
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Measure and evaluate change
• Train students in the technology of measurement
• Use of existing instruments
• Develop new instruments
• Train students to interpret and evaluate information
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Anticipate or guide change
• Research on emerging trends and their implications
• Determine an agenda for change -- What should happen vs. what will happen?
• Train students to recognize change and to think about what changes should occur
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Coping with change
• Change is inevitable
• Stress is inevitable
• Learning to cope effectively with both is important
• Training and education for service providers, researchers, and citizens
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Context of culture and values
• Both the maintenance and change functions need to be understood within a cultural context
• Both functions need to be understood within the values and value systems of societies
• Nothing is value free - not even science
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Value context
• What should be taught, studied, encouraged, and discouraged?
• Selection of research topics and methods dictated by values
• What is worth studying and how should it be studied?
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Tension between change and stability
• How much should we help people to accept the existing structure and their roles in that structure?
• How much should help people to change the structure (and themselves) and adopt new roles?
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For example...
• To what extent should an education in psychology prepare women to succeed within the existing structure
• To what extent should an education in psychology empower women to make, accept, and prepare for change, particularly in terms of roles that have traditionally been defined in terms of gender
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Tension...
• Between the short and the long term
• Accepting the status quo may be good in the short term (mother and father are happy)
• But, not good in the long term -- limited career and life opportunities
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Tension between...
• Socialization/maintenance function, which tends to be conservative
• and
• Change function, which by its nature is concerned with creating differences
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Tension among…
• Different, complementary roles
• For example, gender roles are mutually defined. Changing women’s rights obligations, and responsibilities necessarily changes men’s
• Similar relationships for faculty and student roles
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Possible special considerations for Greece
• EU membership may create certain pressures and add certain expectations, even if these are not explicit
• When designing curricula, need to anticipate students going to other countries for work or study more so than in the past
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Possible special considerations for Greece
• Lack of independent psychology departments in many universities
• Lack of support for using psychology curricula as agents of change
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Practical questions
• Should new courses/lessons be created?
• Should existing courses/lessons be revised?
• Should requirements be changed?– Increased to ensure uniformity – or – Decreased to allow for more freedom and
diversity
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Potential problems
• Creating change invariably creates resistance
• To the extent possible or practical, involve as many people as possible in the decision
• Distinguish proximal (immediate) and distal (long-term) outcomes
• Be realistic
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