The Media and technology have expanded learning content delivery, but tools like PowerPoint and videos offer only passive experiences. While in-class discussions and study teams are participatory, direct experiences — like law enforcement students doing ride-alongs or nursing students assisting in clinical settings — provide much more active engagement and lasting knowledge. Psychology students learn about diagnostic and assessment tools, along with theoretical approaches to psychotherapy, but beyond viewing videos that depict individuals suffering from some dramatically active condition or another, undergraduate students seldom interact with, or directly observe, psychiatric clients exhibiting symptoms of mental or behavioral disorders, and so animportant element of their training is missing. I strive to incorporate an experiential approach in the classroom whenever possible. This presentation will demonstrate an example of how to take such an approach. The Schizophrenia Demonstration is designed to portray the inner experiences of individuals with this condition. Unlike videos or descriptions from the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), this demonstration provides a more immersive understanding of what may be going on inside the mind of someone with schizophrenia. The demonstration begins with the instructor reading aloud a 3-minute narrative depicting the disorganized, incoherent ramblings of a young man sitting in a clinical holding area, brought there by authorities after numerous calls from concerned customers at a department store upset by his loud outbursts and aberrant behavior. After the first reading, the instructor replays the narrative, now accompanied by a simultaneous audio track which depicts the unsettling experiences within the young man’s thoughts, bringing to life a real sense of what schizophrenia is actually like. The soundtrack is based upon my experiences working with such clients. This presentation offers a realistic representation that can help students and psychology professionals just starting their careers to gain a more realistic sense of the actual characteristics of schizophrenia.

Speaker: Gene Ira Katz

Published in: World Congress on Education (2024)

• Date of Conference: 26-28 August, 2024
• DOI: 10.20533/WCE.2024.0005
• Electronic ISBN: 978-1-913572-71-6
• Conference Location: Churchill College, Cambridge, UK