Diagnosing Cartman

Abstract

Recent changes to the diagnosis of child antisocial behavior provide different methods of conceptualizing it (e.g., traditional symptom-based diagnoses and alternative trait-based methods). However, there is little research on how psychology students might use these different methods and what kind of instructional formats might be amenable to teaching students about them. In this study, we examined how students in an advanced psychopathology course used symptom-based and trait-based methods to conceptualize child antisocial behavior in a case study format. Results indicated that students perceived symptom-based and trait-based methods as providing complementary information that students found useful for diagnosis. Implications and future directions are also discussed.