Prospectus

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Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

Course
2024-2025

Entry requirements

All 60 ec of the first-year in Psychology obtained.

Description

In this specialisation course we will study the development of emotional competence, social functioning and its links with psychopathology in youth. A central question during this course is, what happens when the process of emotion socialization goes awry, what are the consequences for children and adolescents? And, how do different intra-, interpersonal and environmental factors affect this development?

The course consists of 7 lectures. In these lecturesIn, the functionality of emotions and the process of emotion socialization are central themes. What do children need to learn to become emotionally competent, how do they learn this, what is the role of the (social) environment in this process, what is the influence of puberty, and how are these factors important during adolescence? Special attention will be given to groups with communicative impairments, i.e. youth with autism or hearing loss. Studying emotion socialization in these groups as compared to normally developing peers can increase our understanding of the necessity for learning about all aspects of emotions in a social context. The lectures will consider how deficits in emotional competence contribute to psychopathology, both internalizing and externalizing problems. Furthermore, individual factors including how sex and gender may influence the development of the psychopathology will be addressed.

Course objectives

  • Students will be able to critically read and discuss the recent developmental literature based on scientific articles. These articles cover 1. current emotion theories, especially those which focus on development during infancy, childhood and adolescence; 2. the influence of various interpersonal and intrapersonal factors on emotion-socialisation( e.g., different groups with communicative impairments); 3. developmental psychopathology in relation to emotional competence deficits. This provides students with tools to keep up to date with the newest insights in their field once they’ve entered the workplace.

  • Students will be able to explore and analyse a given topic in-depth and critically think about the operationalization of the topics discussed into an assessment tool. This prepares the students for conducting research in the workplace.

  • Students will gain relevant experience for the workplace through conducting assessments, analysis, preparation and presentation of these results in a professional manner during the workgroup sessions, and in collaboration with their group members.

Timetable

For the timetable of this course please refer to MyTimetable

This course is offered twice a year. Students follow the course in one block (Block 1 or 3)

Registration

Education

Students must register themselves for all course components (lectures, tutorials and practicals) they wish to follow. You can register up to 5 days prior to the start of the course.

Exams

You must register for each exam in My Studymap at least 10 days before the exam date. Don’t forget! For more information, see the enrolment procedure.
You cannot take an exam without a valid registration in My Studymap.

Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.

Students who take this course as part of a LDE minor or a premaster programme, exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure.

Mode of instruction

The course comprises 7 lectures and 7 work group sessions. Lectures are given in English. Workgroup sessions are offered in English and Dutch.

Attendance at the work group sessions is mandatory. See Brightspace for more information.

For the work group sessions students will be asked to explore a topic from the lectures in more detail, to consider how youth with different forms of psychopathology might differ from typically developing youth in their development of emotional competence, and to formulate predictions based on emotional theories and literature review. Students will be also asked to design a coding scheme for an assessment tool aiming to measure a specific aspect of emotional competence in children and adolescents.

Lectures and work group sessions will take up to a total of 84 hours, including the research and preparation of the assignments. In addition, students are expected to spend 196 hours preparing for the examination.

Weblectures will be available.

Assessment method

The final grade for CCAP will be based on:
1. Grade for the exam (60%). The exam consists of open-ended essay questions. Exam questions are in English. Answers can be written in English or Dutch. Assigned articles, lectures, and lectures slides are included as exam material.

  1. Grade for assignments (40%) during working groups (active participation during group discussion; coding and analysing behavioural indicators; final presentation of assignment).

The Institute of Psychology uses fixed rules for grade calculation. It also follows the policy of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to systematically check student papers for plagiarism with the help of software. All students are required to take and pass the Scientific Integrity Test with a score of 100% in order to learn about the practice of integrity in scientific writing. Students are given access to the quiz via a module on Brightspace. Disciplinary measures will be taken when fraud is detected. Students are expected to be familiar with and understand the implications of these two policies.

Reading list

The following reading list is provisional and subject to change according to the most recent and relevant literature. The final reading list will be presented in Brightspace:

Lecture 1: Emotion Theories and Emotion Socialization (Carolien Rieffe)

  • Scherer, K.R. (2000). Emotion. In M. Hewstone & W. Stroebe (Eds.). Introduction to Social Psychology: A European perspective (3rd. ed., pp. 151-191). Oxford: Blackwell

Lecture 2: Emotion Communication, Regulation, and Culture (Carolien Rieffe)

  • Buss, K.A., & Kiel, E.J. (2004). Comparison of sadness, anger, and fear facial expressions when toddlers look at their mothers. Child development, 75, 1761-1773.

Lecture 3: Externalizing disorders in childhood (Lara Wierenga)

  • tba

Lecture 4: Moral emotions in context (Carolien Rieffe)

  • Vossen, H. G., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). empathy? A longitudinal study. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 118-124.

  • Broekhof, E., Bos, M. G. N., & Rieffe, C. (2021). The roles of shame and guilt in the development of aggression in adolescents with and without hearing loss. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 49, 891-904. doi: 10.1007/s10802-021-00769-1.

Lecture 5: Internalizing disorders in adolescence (Lara Wierenga)

  • Sheeber, L. B. et al. (2009). Dynamics of affective experience and behavior in depressed adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 1419-1427.

  • Du Pont, A., et al. (2018). Rumination and psychopathology: Are anger and depressive
    rumination differentially associated with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology? Clinical Psychological Science, 6, 18-31.

Lecture 6: Sex and gender effects (Lara Wierenga)

  • Wierenga L.M., Ruigrok A., Aksnes E.R., Barth C., Beck D., Burke S., et al. (2024). Recommendations for a better understanding of sex and gender in the neuroscience of mental health. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. 4100283

Lecture 7: Equity in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology; the case of autism (Carolien Rieffe)

  • Krieger, Piškur, B., Schulze, C., Jakobs, U., Beurskens, A., & Moser, A. (2018). Supporting and hindering environments for participation of adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review. PloS One, 13(8), e0202071–e0202071.

Contact information

Prof. Dr. Carolien Rieffe crieffe@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Lara Wierenga l.m.wierenga@fsw.leidenuniv.nl