An Abnormal Psychology Syllabus

Abstract

Psychology is a new science, and the trend of abnormal psychology is one of change with each scientifici finding. There have been many books published on the subject, some adequate and some inadequate, and there seems to be a vital need for an outline whlch will pick out the relevant material, raise pertinent questions, and at the same time simplifying it so it will not be over the head of the beginner. Thus this study. . . . The central idea back of such a syllabus is the advantage of active over paasive learntng. The student instead of sitting with a text book assignment of a certain number of pages has a definite challenge in front of him with adequate sourcea of material in order to meet the challenge as well as tbe opportunity to take note of those points which may seem necessary. This plan should leave the class period open for intelligent discussion and the introduction of interesting supplementary material by instructor, instead of a mere lecture or "going over" of material that should have been prepared prior to class time. . . . It might also be interesting to note that the author has used the outline as given here in his Abnormal Psychology Class at Washington and Lee University, and that it was due to the success of the experiment that he decided to work it out more completely. [From Preface]