First Steps with TCI in a Class for Psychopathology: How Students, Topics and the Lecturer Gain from the Approach

Abstract

Teaching psychology is about personality development and construction of a new identity as psychology students and future psychologists. The Theme-Centered Interaction (TCI) approach offers me a meaningful and helpful way towards these goals. In this chapter, I describe how I started applying the TCI approach to my psychopathology lectures. The text is organised along the four factors of the TCI model, reflecting my own process as a university teacher: 1. Globe factors: some thoughts on features of the context in which the class takes place. 2. Individual aspects: how I encountered the TCI method and why did it make spontaneous sense to me. 3. Group factors: how did the group of students react to my proposal of an unfamiliar didactical setting? How did the social climate in class change during the term? 4. The It or topics: how the content “psychopathology” developed during the process of the class – with respect to the individuals, to groups and to the overall context.