A Case-Conference Exercise to Facilitate Understanding of Paradigms in Abnormal Psychology.

In this article we describe an in-class case-conference exercise designed to enhance the teaching of paradigms in abnormal psychology courses. The primary pedagogical goals are to increase awareness of how paradigms are applied in real-life settings; better distinguish between paradigms; and recognize how paradigms influence understanding of etiology, assessment, and treatment. A pretest-posttest evaluation of paradigm-related knowledge and student ratings of the exercise from 2 classes support the effectiveness of the exercise. The exercise makes it possible for instructors to more effectively use paradigms as heuristic themes throughout the course.