Topic outline

  • WELCOME TO BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE

    This course provides the student with the knowledge of behavioural sciences –behavioural skills, psychology, sociology and anthropology necessary for understanding their application in clinical practice. Health effects can be created or exacerbated by harmful behaviors (smoking, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption, and risky sexual behaviours). Similarly, psychological, social, biological, and behavioural factors have been shown to influence disease risk and illness recurrence. Such mind–body interactions and behavioural influences on health and disease are important concepts to which medical students should be exposed. Students should also graduate with an understanding of how their background and beliefs can affect patient care and their own well-being; how they can best interact with patients and their families; how cultural issues influence health care; and how social factors, such as health policy and economics, affect physicians' ability to provide optimal care for their patients.

    General Objectives:

    At the end of the course, students will be able to:

    1) Describe the basic principles and goals of psychology, medical sociology and social anthropology.

    2) Identify psychological disorders and factors that affect health in the community.

    3) Correlate the relationships between human behaviours, health and illness.

    4) Compare African traditional and western medicines in trying to deliver service on human health.

    5) Use relevant psychotherapy methods applied in managing psychological, psycho-social and behavioural problems.

    Summary

    The behavioural science is a 17 weeks, two-credit unit module prepared for Year one (1) semester one (1) students. The aim of this module is to provide the student with the knowledge of behavioural sciences –behavioural skills, psychology, sociology and anthropology necessary for understanding their application in clinical practice.

    • DISCUSSION FORUM

      This is where all peer to peer discussions will take place. 

      All students are expected to comply with the rules of engagement

      RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
      1. DO NOT USE FOUL WORDS NOR INSULT ANY PARTICIPANTS. BE POLITE AND RESPECTFULNESS 
      2. DO NOT SHARE VIOLENT GRAPHICS, IMAGES OR PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS
      3. RESPECT THE VIEWS OF OTHERS WITHOUT FIGHT NOR GRUDGE
      4. THIS PLATFORM IS FOR ACADEMIC DISCUSSIONS ONLY, DO NOT PROMOTE BUSINESS, INVOLVE IN POLITICS ETC.

  • MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE

    This module introduces students to psychology, behaviours and mental process. 

  • MODULE 2: BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE THEORIES

     under this topic ,we shall look at Behavioral change theories  and attempts to explain why behaviors' change. These theories cite environmental, personal, and behavioral characteristics as the major factors in behavioral determination.

  • MODULE 3: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY

    Personality theories provide a way of organizing the many facts you know about yourself and explain differences between individuals.

  • MODULE 4:PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

    Personality measures should be valid and reliable. Validity means that you actually measure what you intend to measure. Impersonality assessment means you measure the subject’s personality rather than temporally characteristics shown in the same results. Personality assessment includes interviews, observation and tests.

  • MODULE 5:PERCEPTION

    Perception according to Gregory and Ricky 1998, perception is defined as the set of processes by which the individual becomes aware of and interprets information about the environment. Perception is not a single process; it consists of several distinct processes including receiving information in many guises, from spoken word and visual.

    Image to movement and form. The perceptual process helps the perceiver to assimilate the variety types of incoming information for the purpose of interpreting. 

    Since perception is a process, it has a framework as illustrated below.


  • MODULE 6:MEMORY

    Memory is the act of preserving what has been acquired for later use. It is the retention of information beyond the present. The term memory also refers to the metal storage of information whether for a brief period or for many years.

  • MODULE 7: LEARNING

    Reflect for a moment on how much of your behavior is learned: telling time, getting dressed, and driving, reading, using money and so on. Beyond such skills, learning affects our emotional reactions, perceptions, and physiological responses. Through experience, we learn to think, act, and feel in ways that contribute richly to our individual identity.


  • MODULE 8: ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR/ PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS / PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

    When an individual is not able to adjust to daily life, he or she has an abnormal disorder. The milder types of abnormal behaviours are called anxiety disorders and the more severe abnormalities include depression and schizophrenia. Psychologists are trying to discover the causes of abnormal behaviours so they can effectively treat them.

  • MODULE 9: ANXIETY DISORDERS.

    These are disorders characterized by anxiety, feelings of apprehension and fear. The person may generally have no clear or the real cause of the anxiety. The anxious person may develop ritualistic behaviors that serve to reduce the anxiety temporarily. Originally Freud used the term ‘Neurosis’ to describe abnormal behaviour caused by anxiety disorders may include the following; Panic disorder with agoraphobia, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

  • MODULE 10: MOOD DISORDERS

    This module introduces the types of mood disorders whilst explaining the key ones

    https://www.onlinepsychiatrists.com/mood-disorders/
    Figure 1: Mood Disorders (https://www.onlinepsychiatrists.com/mood-disorders)

  • MODULE 11: PERSONALITY DISORDERS

    Personality problems are problems in the basic personality structure of the individual. Personality disorders often begin in adolescence and continue throughout a lifetime.

    https://psychcentral.com/disorders/personality-disorder-symptoms

    Figure 2: Signs of Personality Disorders (https://psychcentral.com/disorders/personality-disorder-symptoms)

    Personality disorders are a class of psychological conditions that are characterized by a pattern of long term behavior that deviates from societal expectations, and create serious problems in relationships and society. People with personality disorders tend to be inflexible, rigid and manipulative. Although most feel that their behaviors are justified and perfectly fine, they often have a tunnel-vision view of the world and have problems connecting with others in socially acceptable ways.

  • MODULE 12: SEXUAL DISORDERS

    This module introduces the types of sexual disorders.

    Some sexual disorders are quite serious while others are more common problems of adjustment. Praphilias (which are sexual deviations characterized by the need for un usual behaviour for sexual arousal which interfere with normal sexual activities.  Para means deviant and phillia means attractions.

  • MODULE 13: SCHIZOPHRENIA

    Schizophrenia is a serious disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. Someone with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary; may be unresponsive or withdrawn; and may have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations. Contrary to public perception, schizophrenia is not split personality or multiple personality. The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are not violent and do not pose a danger to others. Schizophrenia is not caused by childhood experiences, poor parenting or lack of willpower, nor are the symptoms identical for each person.

  • MODULE 14: DEPRESSION

    Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods. Depression is expressed differently according to one’s age, sex, and culture. For example, a teenager is unlikely to exhibit the same signs of Depression as an elderly person would. Because of the overwhelming variables associated with this illness, there is no set list of stages one can expect to experience; it is unique to each individual.

    Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts, that affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be wished away. People with a depressive disease cannot merely “pull themselves together” and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people with Depression. “Depression is an episodic illness. Episodes can last for weeks or months or years, and are interspersed with more or less symptom-free periods.

  • MODULE 15: PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS

    This refers to the problems that affect the psychological well being of people within a society. Such problems normally carry psychological implications and affect mental health in general. In particular we are assessing problems like Alcoholism, HIV/AIDS, crowding aggression, war and displacement, natural disaster and death. We are trying to discuss the available social support and how community interventions can be applied.

  • MODULE 16: FAMILY

    A family is a social unit or household consisting of one or two parents, children and close relatives compare to other species. It is a smallest unit in society and different families’ merge or come together to form a society. Human beings develop slowly and require years of support and instructions before they are ready to be independent, this gradual process to mutuality that humans undertake may explain why human beings organize themselves into families like social system, therefore, a human beings is born in need of social support and grows up not only to like it but also seeks and work for it.

    According to anthropologists, the ability to walk upright on two legs without arms enhanced the evolution of the human family as a social unit. Once human beings had their arms free, it become easier for them to co-operate and share especially caring and providing for the young.

    The family pattern in which a man and a woman assumed special responsibility for their children emerged as a social group. Male and female worked together to protect the young against starvation and other changes. As males and females supplemented the efforts of the other, the survival of the young was enhanced, during this early time the females were mainly gatherers and males were hunters, today the family still serves similar functions as it did when it originated.

  • MODULE 17: ATTITUDE

    It is influenced by values and is acquired from the same sources as values, friends, teachers, parents, and role models. Attitudes focus on specific people or objects, where as values have a more generic sense as to what people stable than attitudes. Attitude is used in a generic sense, as to what people perceive, feel and express their views about a situation, object or other people. Attitude cannot be seen but behavior can be seen as an expression of attitude.

    Attitude is the evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or events.