Abnormal Psychology contains 14 modules—roughly one module per week for a typical semester. This course is designed to be flexible, and can easily be rearranged or adapted within the LMS to meet your preferred instructional format.

The first three modules are introductory modules that introduce the field of abnormal psychology and provide broad information about defining, classifying, treating, and researching information related to mental disorders. The rest of the modules cover specific disorders, as classified in the DSM-5.

Each disorder-specific module is organized so that the first section or sections introduce and explain the diagnoses for the disorders, then the final section in the module takes a big-picture look at the psychological approaches and treatment methods related to that category of mental disorders. Though numbered here, the modules are not numbered when they are pulled inside of the LMS so they can easily be reordered. The modules are designed to be similar in length, though “larger” modules are Modules 3, 5, 8, 13, and 14. If you have extra time, we recommend slowing down in Module 3. Modules 2, 6, and 11 are the “shorter” modules.

• Module 1: Understanding Abnormal Behavior
• Module 2: Research and Ethics in Abnormal Psychology
• Module 3: Psychological Approaches and Treatment of Abnormal Behavior
• Module 4: Anxiety Disorders
• Module 5: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Stressor-Related Disorders
• Module 6: Somatic Symptom Disorders and Dissociative Disorders
• Module 7: Mood Disorders
• Module 8: Eating and Sleep Disorders
• Module 9: Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders
• Module 10: Sexual Deviations and Dysfunctions
• Module 11: Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders
• Module 12: Personality Disorders
• Module 13: Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence
• Module 14: Neurocognitive Disorders

As shown below, the course covers every major disorder category from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). The text was updated in Summer 2022 to include any pertinent updates in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5-TR), though this did not alter the table of contents.

Moving Tiles

Not only can modules be moved or rearranged, tiles, or sections, can also be deleted or moved from one module to another. If you move a tile, the corresponding quiz questions move along with it.

For example, if you do not cover research methods but want to include the content about ethics, you could delete the research tile and then move the tile “Introduction to Ethics in Abnormal Psychology” into the first module. Some people prefer to teach about evaluating and assessing mental disorders with the content about the psychological models, so you could move the section “Introduction to Evaluating and Assessing Mental Disorders” to the third module.

Module 1: Understanding Abnormal Behavior

• Introduction to Mental Disorders
• Introduction to Classifying Mental Disorders
• Introduction to Evaluating and Assessing Mental Disorders

Module 2: Research and Ethics in Abnormal Psychology

• Introduction to Research
• Introduction to Ethics in Abnormal Psychology