A Psychology programme offered at the American College of Higher Education
American College of Higher education is a one- stop educational institute where the young to matured are catered to their needs. The courses offered by American College of Higher education spans from the foundation English courses to Degree level in multiple disciplines.
Psychology has become one of the focussed and popular courses in last few years at American college of Higher Education. The Psychology courses are offered to students at Degree, Diploma and certificate levels.
Abnormal Psychology is the branch of Psychology that deals with unusual patterns of human behaviour, emotion and thought.
The mere fact that it’s something outside of the norm makes it all the more a unique study experience for the students. The contents of this module arouse the curiosity and/or interest of the students. On the other hand what is learnt in this module is not altogether alien to the student. He or she may have experienced such unusual emotions, entertained such unusual thoughts or may have even witnessed such behaviour during his or her life time.
The alleged abnormal behaviour could very well be happening either in their own private life or to someone who is near and dear to them. Such situations lead to open discussions, interactions among the students and sharing of experience within the peer group during the lectures. Such open discussions in turn would develop their interpersonal skills and also be therapeutic.
The students who currently pursue the Diploma in psychology, may not have all of the anticipated job options readily available to them but certainly this module is an eye opener and a vital stepping stone to a variety of careers in the field of counselling, mental care, social service and rehabilitation. Reason being that proper understanding of the human mind and behavior makes any student a good candidate for jobs that require strong interpersonal and communication skills.
In addition this module enlightens the students of the social stigma (in the form of social distancing) that is observed, when people are unwilling to associate with those with mental illnesses. They tend to become aware that image of madness is always strongly associated with danger which is not really true and that stigmatization is a major social problem. They eventually learn to empathise and accept such people in a non-judgemental way.
The students also come to realise that most people find psychothera- py to be extremely helpful. This is a golden opportunity available to those who wish to pursue a carrier in counselling.
The component ‘Insanity and the law’ under this module is very interesting. How ‘insanity’ serves as an affirmative defence in a court of law and its historical aspect is indeed a novel experience to the students of psychology.
No doubt the students derive practical benefits by learning about stress management which is a part of this module. Stress being an integral part of daily life could always interfere with studies.