PSY 352: Seminar in Advanced Clinical Psychology
Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders
Spring 2007
Time:
Location:
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
E-Mail:
Office Hrs.:
Mondays 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Bass 204
Patricia M. DiBartolo, Ph.D.
Bass 303
x3913
pdibarto@smith.edu
Tuesdays 1:30-2:30 p.m.; Thursdays 10-11 a.m.; or by appointment
Purpose
This class will examine the empirical and theoretical research relevant to
anxiety disorders and their associated features in youth. Using a developmental
perspective, we will focus on risk factors, theoretical models, and methods of
assessment and intervention for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.
The primary purpose of the class is to teach students to appreciate fully the
scientific bases of the study of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. An
essential goal of this seminar is to learn how to evaluate available child clinical
research critically and, consequently, to develop a clearer conceptual
understanding of the existing data in the area. In order to achieve this goal, we
will carefully evaluate and discuss a variety of empirical research articles and the
theoretical ideas embedded within them.
Course Requirements
Weekly Discussion Questions
You are required to frame questions for discussion based upon your
reading of the literature assigned for the week. You must post a minimum of
three questions on Moodle by 12 noon on the Sunday before each class during
Weeks 3 (February 12th) to 10 (April 2nd). Note that you are exempt from this
assignment on the week that you are presenting, thus you will be completing a
total of 6 sets of discussion questions. These assignments are worth 12% of your
final grade.
Discussion Commentaries
In addition to generating discussion questions prior to several of our
seminar meetings, you are required to respond to the discussion questions of
your classmates. In particular, during Weeks 3 (February 12th) to 10 (April 2nd),
you must post commentary on Moodle before the start of seminar during three
of these weeks in response to a classmate’s question(s). These commentaries are
worth 3% of your final grade.
Mini-Lecture Presentations
You are required to provide a mini-lecture to the class once during Weeks
3 (February 12th) to 10 (April 2nd). That is, you will present a theoretical model
that will help your classmates to organize the material assigned for that week.
You will choose your model in consultation with me.
Your responsibility during class will be to describe your theoretical model
and to guide class discussion relevant to your topic. You need to coordinate
your presentation with your co-presenter(s) for the week. Each presentation
should be approximately 15 minutes long. This assignment will be worth 15% of
your final grade.
Final Written Project
Over the course of the semester, you will work toward completion of a
written final project that you present orally to class during one of our last
meetings. You have two options to consider for your final project. One option is
to complete an empirically-based case formulation for a child or adolescent with
an anxiety disorder. An alternative is to submit a 15 to 20 page research proposal
that describes your plan for conducting an empirical investigation in the area of
childhood anxiety. All work submitted must be typed and written in APAformat. Your final project will be constructed through a series of stages that are
as follows:
Stage 1:
Project Outline (5% of total grade)
(2/19)
Brief Presentation of Project Status
Submit a project outline with a list of empirical references
relevant to your topic.
Stage 2:
Expanded Outline with Article Synopsis (10% of total grade)
(3/12)
Brief Presentation of Project Status
Expand your outline to incorporate an article synopsis for
one of your empirical sources. Describe your empirical
article and integrate it into your paper as a whole.
Stage 3:
Final Draft (25% of total grade)
(4/30)
Along with your final draft, you are required to submit your
expanded outline. You must also submit two copies of your
reference section.
I will distribute separate handouts later with more explicit details of each stage.
Final Project Oral Presentations
You are required to present your final project to the class at some point
during Weeks 11 (April 9th) to 14 (April 30th). Each student will present her
project and field questions from the class. Each presentation should be
approximately 30 minutes. This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade.
Participation
There are a number of smaller required participation assignments
completed during the semester, including two brief presentations about the
status of your final project, listener responses to our presenters, and exercises to
prepare for your presentations.
In addition, I fully expect that all members of the class will participate in
regular discussion during our seminar meetings. The quality of this class is
largely determined by the willingness of each member to contribute her
thoughts. As such, you are assigned a participation grade at the end of the
semester that reflects the quality (and frequency) of the thoughts that you share
as well as the completion of the participation assignments described above.
If you miss more than one seminar meeting, I will penalize your
participation grade (two percentage points for each additional class missed).
You can make an appointment with me at any point in the semester to receive
my feedback on your participation level. Participation is worth 10% of your
final grade.
Calculation of Final Grade
Weekly Discussion Questions
Discussion Commentaries
Mini-Lecture Presentation
Paper Outline/References
Expanded Outline with Article Synopses
Final Project Oral Presentation
Final Written Project
Participation
12%
3%
15%
5%
10%
20%
25%
10%
Grade Equivalents
100.0-95.0
90.0-94.9
87.0-89.9
83.0-86.9
80.0-82.9
A
AB+
B
B-
77.0-79.9
73.0-76.9
70.0-72.9
67.0-69.9
63.0-66.9
60.0-62.9
Below 60.0
C+
C
CD+
D
DE
Honor Code
You are required to abide by the Honor Code established by the college.
You must be sure not to plagiarize and to provide appropriate citations for the
sources you consult. Any infractions will be reported to the Academic Honor
Board.
Extensions
Only on extremely rare occasions will extensions be granted. You must
make me aware of your inability to meet your requirement deadlines prior to the
date that the work is due, even if you receive an extension from your Class
Dean. At that time, we will arrange a new mutually acceptable deadline for the
submission of your work. If you miss a course requirement (i.e., an exam or term
paper deadline) without the permission of myself or your Class Dean, you will
earn none of the total points allocated for that requirement.
Course Outline
January 29th: Introduction
Vasey, M.W., & Dadds, M.R. (2001). An introduction to the developmental
psychopathology of anxiety. In M.W. Vasey & M.R. Dadds (Eds.), The
developmental psychopathology of anxiety (pp. 3-26). New York: Oxford
University Press.
February 3rd: Assessment of Anxiety in Children
Cole, D.A., Hoffman, K., Tram, J.M., & Maxwell, S.E. (2000). Structural
differences in parent and child reports of children’s symptoms of
depression and anxiety. Psychological Assessment, 12, 174-185.
Comer, J.S., & Kendall, P.C. (2004). A symptom-level examination of parentchild agreement in the diagnosis of anxious youths. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43, 878-886.
Frick, P.J., Silverthorn, P., & Evans, C. (1994). Assessment of childhood anxiety
using structured interviews: Patterns of agreement among informants
and association with maternal anxiety. Psychological Assessment, 6, 372379.
February 12th: Family Influences on Anxious Children
Hudson, J.L. & Rapee, R.M. (2001). Parent-child interactions and anxiety
disorders: An observational study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39,
1411-1427.
Hudson, J.L. & Rapee, R.M. (2002). Parent-child interactions in clinically anxious
children and their siblings. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent
Psychology, 31, 548-555.
Whaley, S.E., Pinto, A., & Sigman, M. (1999). Characterizing interactions
between anxious mothers and their children. Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 67, 826-836.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 2/11 by noon
February 19th: Cognitive Styles of Anxious Children
Bell-Dolan, D.J. (1995). Social cue interpretation of anxious children. Journal of
Clinical Child Psychology, 24, 1-10.
Creswell, C., Schniering, C.A., & Rapee, R.M. (2005). Threat interpretation in
anxious children and their mothers: Comparison with nonclinical children
and the effects of treatment. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1375-1381.
Varela, R.E., Vernberg, E.M., Sanchez-Sosa, J.J., Riveros, A., Mitchell, M., &
Mashunkashey, J. (2004). Anxiety reporting and culturally associated
interpretation biases and cognitive schemas: A comparison of Mexican,
Mexican American and European American families. Jouranl of Clinical
Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 237-247.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 2/18 by noon
2. Paper Outline/References due 2/19 in class
3. Brief Presentation of Project Status done in class 10/3
February 26th: Behavioral Models of the Development of Anxiety
Lawson, J., Banerjee, R., & Field, A.P. (2007). The effects of verbal information on
children’s fear beliefs about social situations. Behaviour Research and
Therapy, 45, 21-37.
Liberman, L.C., Lipp, O.V., Spence, S.H., & March, S. (2006). Evidence for
retarded extinction of aversive learning in anxious children. Behaviour
Research and Therapy, 44, 1491-1502.
Muris, P., Bodden, D., Merckelbach, H., Ollendick, T.H., & King, N. (2003). Fear
of the beast: A prospective study on the effects of negative information on
childhood fear. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 195-208.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 2/25 by noon
March 5th: Social Anxiety and Competence
Boegels, S.M., vanOosten, A., Muris, P., & Smulders, D. (2001). Familial correlates
of social anxiety in children and adolescents. Behaviour Research and
Therapy, 39, 273-287.
Beiderman, J., Hirshfeld-Becker, D.R., Rosenbaum, J.F., Herot, C., Friedman, D.,
Snidman, N., Kagan, J., & Faraone, S.V. (2001). Further evidence of
association between behavioral inhibition and social anxiety in children.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1673-1679.
Cartwright-Hatton, S., Tschernitz, N., & Gomersall, H. (2005). Social anxiety in
children: Social skills deficit, or cognitive distortion? Behaviour Research
and Therapy, 43, 131-141.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 3/4 by noon
March 12th: Chronic Worry
Gosselin, P., Langlois, F., Freeston, M.H., Ladouceur, R., Laberge, M., & Lemay,
D. (2007). Cognitive variables related to worry among adolescents:
Avoidance strategies and faulty beliefs about worry. Behaviour Research
and Therapy, 45, 225-233.
Suarez, L., & Bell-Dolan, D. (2001). The relationship of child worry to cognitive
biases: Threat interpretation and likelihood of event occurrence. Behavior
Therapy, 32, 425-442.
Vasey, M.W., Crnic, K.A., & Carter, W.G. (1994). Worry in childhood: A
developmental perspective. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 18, 529-549.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 3/11 by noon
2. Expanded Outline with Article Synopses due 3/12 in class
3. Brief Presentation on Project Status in class on 3/12
March 19th: SPRING BREAK--NO CLASS
March 26th: Separation Anxiety Disorder
Foley, D., Rutter, M., Pickles, A., Angold, A., Maes, H., Silberg, J., & Eaves, L.
(2004). Information disagreement for separation anxiety disorder. Journal
of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43, 452-460.
Kearney, C.A., Sims, K.E., Pursell, C.R., & Tillotson, C.A. (2003). Separation
anxiety disorder in young children: A longitudinal and family analysis.
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 593-598.
Poulton, R., Milne, B.J., Craske, M.G., & Menzies, R.G. (2001). A longitudinal
study of the etiology of separation anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy,
39, 1395-1410.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 3/25 by noon
April 2nd: Empirically Validated Treatments
Readings:
Cobham, V.E., Dadds, M.R., & Spence, S.H. (1998). The role of parental anxiety
in the treatment of childhood anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 66, 893-905.
Kendall, P.C., & Southam-Gerow, M.A. (1996). Long-term follow-up of a
cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety-disordered youth. Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 724-730.
Southam-Gerow, M.A., Kendall, P.C., & Weersing, V.R. (2001). Examining
outcome variability: Correlates of treatment response in a child and
adolescent anxiety clinic. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30, 422-436.
Requirements:
1. Weekly Discussion Questions due 4/1 by noon
April 9th – April 30th : Final Project Presentations
Requirements:
1. Final Project Presentations
2. Final Written Projects due 4/30 in class
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
DATE
19th
February
March 12th
April 9th – April 30th
April 30th
REQUIREMENT
Paper Outline/References due
Expanded Outline due
Final Project Presentations
Final Projects due
REMEMBER ALSO THAT YOU MUST PROVIDE A COMMENTARY IN
RESPONSE TO A CLASSMATE’S QUESTION(S)
FOR THREE WEEKS DURING WEEKS 4 THOUGH 11.
Name: _____________________________
FIRST PRESENTATION: MINI-LECTURE PRESENTATION
Please rank the order of your presentation choices with 1 being most preferred.
Rank
Date
FEBRUARY 12TH
Topic
FAMILY INFLUENCES
FEBRUARY 19TH
COGNITIVE FACTORS
FEBRUARY 26TH
BEHAVIORAL MODELS
MARCH 5TH
SOCIAL ANXIETY/PHOBIA
MARCH 12TH
CHRONIC WORRY
MARCH 26TH
SEPARATION ANXIETY
DISORDER
EMPIRICALLY VALIDATED
TREATMENTS
APRIL 2ND
SECOND PRESENTATION: FINAL PROJECT
_____ April 9th
_____ April 16th
_____ April 23rd
_____ April 30th