Developmental Psychology

it is useless, another waste of time course designed to generate revenue for colleges....

I second that. I am in nursing school now and work as a tech in a psychiatric unit (both adult and pediatric units). It has helped me ZERO.

I also have a bachelors degree in psychology. Nursing school is a second attempt at a career for me :)

If you have a poor professor (common), or don't bother to assess the decisional processes of your patient population, psych is neither fun nor useful.

A primary responsibility of the nurse is patient education. We have NSG Dxs of, "readiness for education", "deficient knowledge", "enhanced readiness for education", etc., etc.. Assessing the pt's developmental status enhances one's ability to develop effective communication models, based on both anticipated and perceived patient perceptions r/caregivers, authority figures, maternal/paternal figures, and so forth.

Equally, assessing pro- and maladaptive behaviors, as developmental coping mechanisms allows greater insight in the motivations for your patient's behaviors, r/self-care, social interactions, family choices, and many other things.

Some things you won't be able to effect(drug use, sexual promiscuity/deviance, other highly gratifying behaviors) in the absence of crisis. When a person is honestly asking why they have the same patterns repeatedly, you have some basis for educating them regarding the coping process, and encouraging them in new behavior patterning.

In practical terms, it offers you insight into such things as medication non-comliance(financial, attention-seeking, depression, etc..), abusive relationships (seeking a "strong" mate personality, but unable to assess "strength" outside of a risk-taking or dictatorial model), educational needs(they may be a strongly tactile learner, and need someone to physically walk them through care processes, vs. talking to them on a 2nd grade level)

I'm not surprised to hear that since the class itself seems to be a joke, BUT it doesn't change the fact I need to write a paper .

Please someone give me something I can use and not tick off my professor. Please?

Laur, try reading some of the non-sociological criminal psych stuff by Stanton Samenow, economic psych (motivational/bias) by Dan Ariely, Dan Korem's personality assessments and some of the extreme sports/survivor psychology (Ben Sherwood, Lawrence Gonzales, Amanda Ripley).

Raw Erickson and Maslow (sans the political machinations of up and coming doctoral hopefuls)are very scientifically sound.

These are far more related to real world practice than the masturbatory practices and recommendations of responsibility denial, right of expression and tolerance(for maladaptive behaviors). They are also much more scientifically based (repeatable, verifiable and generalizable) than most of the current fodder that fosters dependence on a self-sustaining "therapy" model and political feel-good.

Sounds awesome Rob, however, very few nurses that I know have a great deal of time to teach patients anything...

Laur, try reading some of the non-sociological criminal psych stuff by Stanton Samenow, economic psych (motivational/bias) by Dan Ariely, Dan Korem's personality assessments and some of the extreme sports/survivor psychology (Ben Sherwood, Lawrence Gonzales, Amanda Ripley).

These are far more related to real world practice than the masturbatory practices and recommendations of responsibility denial, right of expression and tolerance(for maladaptive behaviors). They are also much more scientifically based (repeatable, verifiable and generalizable) than most of the current fodder that fosters dependence on a self-sustaining "therapy" model and political feel-good.

I ended up focusing my psychology degree in behavioral neuroscience and studied psychiatric disorders very indepth in undergrad. Most of my classes were combined with neuroscience graduate students. I found that rather fascinating. I understand why nursing students have to take developmental psychology, but I think it would be far more useful if nursing had their own course, instead of the general psychology course.

I'm not surprised to hear that since the class itself seems to be a joke, BUT it doesn't change the fact I need to write a paper .

Please someone give me something I can use and not tick off my professor. Please?

t.student, read over what I posted. I hope it will give you some direction. If I need to be more specific, or if you need anecdotes, LMK. I don't want to write the paper, however...

The thing with psych is this, as hard as it tries to fancy itself as a science, most of the research relies on anecdotal data, I will stop short of calling psychology bollocks, but it is close

As a science person knows, science considers anecdotal evidence as the weakest type of evidence

For example, my psych book says that many many many psych disorders are caused by some sort of neurotransmitter imbalance. So I asked my teacher...is there a way to measure neurotransmitter levels accurately to assess imbalance?

Short answer = no

I asked do we know the exact action of psych meds?

Short answer = no, we have no idea how they work we only know that they work.

Sounds awesome Rob, however, very few nurses that I know have a great deal of time to teach patients anything...

Psych based teaching is called "effective manipulation". As noted, many don't want to change, many aren't near a state of readiness to change, and with those groups one is simply more aware of the level of social risk they pose, and one is also able to triage.

For those tired of the current life scheme, one has opportunity.

I.e., for the crack-ho' who's in for her monthly rocephin shot, her gratification-motivational factor is too high- shoot her & boot her. For the DV victim, who's in the active process of leaving, you can do some constructive work. I'm using extremes, to illustrate the point, but the model is generally present.

On "The Dark Side", if you believe someone should be in jail, vs. occupying valuable space in your hospital, it is possible to create, escalate and control an outburst that achieves that end. Though not as fun, but more acceptable to Admin., used properly, it is highly efficacious in de-escalation. I've used both ways, with full legal justification. Psych is very practical, guys...

I respect you Rob, obviously you are highly educated and highly intelligent. But just like RN school, there is the text book on one hand and then reality on the other.......

I dislike that this is the case, but that does not diminish the fact that sadly, it is the case.....