Understanding mental health and its disorders: a transdiagnostic approach - PSY00119M
- Department: Psychology
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
-
Academic year of delivery: 2025-26
- See module specification for other years: 2024-25
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2025-26 |
Module aims
Are all mental health disorders a reflection of similar underlying problems? This module explores the emerging and growing consensus that transdiagnostic approaches (i.e., focusing on commonalities across different mental health diagnoses, rather than differences between them) are necessary to improve understanding, classification and treatment of psychiatric conditions. Students will learn about the factors shared across people with different mental health diagnoses (e.g., memory problems, sleep disturbances, risk genes) and how these contribute to the development, persistence and resolution of various psychiatric conditions, including major depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The module content will draw on neurobiology, cognitive psychology and psychiatry to provide students with an extensive, interdisciplinary understanding of the relevant theoretical perspectives. Alongside this theoretical knowledge, students will learn how transdiagnostic approaches feed into evidence-based treatments and clinical practice. The module will be delivered through a combination of formal lectures, small group-based activities (with presentations focused on the critical evaluation of scientific papers) and debates focused on emergent issues in transdiagnostic mental health research.
Module learning outcomes
- To demonstrate a critical understanding of the limitations of current diagnostic systems for characterising mental health conditions, and explain how transdiagnostic approaches can overcome some of these limitations.
- To critically evaluate the latest studies providing evidence for neurobiological and cognitive vulnerabilities that cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries, and relate these findings to theoretical models of mental health development and maintenance.
- To appraise how both genetic and environmental factors can contribute to mental health problems, and gauge the role of sociocultural factors in mental health.
- To assess the ways in which a transdiagnostic approach to mental health can be incorporated in psychological therapies and clinical practice, and the mechanisms leading to improved patient outcome.
Module content
- Transdiagnostic approaches: what are they and why do we need them?
- Emotion regulation and mental health
- Disordered memory, disordered mind
- The mental health function of sleep
- Risk genes to clinical presentation
- Social and environmental determinants of mental health
- Psychological therapy and clinical practice
- Digital technologies and interventions
- Precision and personalised medicine
- Revision session
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
The marks on all assessed work will be provided on e-vision.
Indicative reading
Caspi & Moffitt (2018). All for one and one for all: Mental disorders in one dimension. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 175 (9), 831-844
Barsch (2020) What Does It Mean to Be Transdiagnostic and How Would We Know? The American Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 370-372
Cludius et al (2020) Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic process. Emotion, 20, 37-42.
Scott et al (2021) Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 101556.