Part 1 Psychology - a general introduction: a brief exploration of the methodologies - what is a psychologist, psychology as a science; an introduction to the disciplines of psychology - the neurobiological approach, the behavioural and cognitive approaches, the psychoanalytic and humananistic approaches. Part 2 Development psychology: the human being in development; the antenatal phase - the period up to birth; the postnatal phase - the period up to six weeks; the first year of life; the young child - age one to four; the infant - age four to six; the schoolchild - age six to twelve; the adolescent - age 12 to 22; the young adult - age 22 to 40; the mature adult - age 40 to 55; the ageing years - 65 plus. Part 3 Social psychology and sociology: man as a social being - relationships and interaction, norms and values, socialisation and social perception; man and his environment - the group and individual roles, power and leadership, working together; health as a social concept - the terms health and illness, social processes as the causes of illnesses, the conflict, consensus and interaction theories. Part 4 The psychology of health: medical psychology - stress and stress reactions, being ill as a stress factor; psychiatric psychology; learning difficultes; stress symptoms and functional systems - the psychology of the body, the SORC diagram; the clinical-psychological examination - undesirable behaviour, the symptoms as a line of approach, the psychological anamnesis, reliabilty, validity and standardization, the nurse and the assessment of behaviour; psychological treatments and counselling - psycho-education. Part 5 Social skills in the carer-patient relationship: the aim of the carer-patient relationship - communication and communication problems, types of questions; aspects of having a conversation - how to observe and how to react, how to reproduce what was observed, how to structure, the anamnesis talk, discussing a problem, giving advice and giving bad news, the short supportive talk; consultation - the aim of contact, skills and pitfalls during a consultation; functions and objectives of working is groups - pitfalls of working in groups; chairing a meeting - the aims and skills of chairing a meeting; the skills needed in negotiation; dealing with group conflicts - pitfalls of group conflicts, the skills needed during group conflicts.
