After introducing the Psychological Disorders & Therapy Unit, Yosup and I had a long debrief. By way of lead-in to this reflection, I liked what he said when we finally walked out of our classroom: “This is when I wish I was a Math teacher.” He’s right – this is a stressful topic.
Our general principle as Psych teachers is “Do no harm,” which might seem like a pretty low bar – but given some of the topics we cover, it’s a very real concern for us. When we were on Disordered Eating, we found research that indicates showing videos of anorexia and bulimia actually increases the incidence of eating disorders because the videos reinforce the behavior as a valid option and serve as a How-to for students. This is cause for concern now, as we head into suicide and cutting.
Both issues are present in our student population, sadly. We want to cover the topics because we feel a responsibility to educate some students about their own behavior, and prepare students to deal with friends who are struggling. But, we need to not inadvertently increase te likelihood of either behavior.
Yesterday, when my own classes discussed suicide (and these Seniors have lost two classmates to suicide), I felt good about how that lesson went – and so that general plan will inform how we approach cutting.
When we transition from Psychological Disorders to Therapy at the end of this week, we’ll begin the Therapy lecture with a heart-to-heart about unhealthy coping mechanisms: namely, cutting, drugs, alcohol, and sex. We’ll discuss why those are often used as coping mechanisms, how they are perceived to work, and what they actually do psychologically to an individual. From discussing what not to do, we’ll transition to what to do.
We have an organizing question for Psychology, that we use to sort of guide our curriculum and instruction for the students: How can I use psychology to improve myself, my friends and family, and my part of the world? Keeping this in mind really helps us navigate these areas of the discipline that are thorny given our particular student population.