Year 1

Person, Culture and Medicine, 2009
Disciplines of Psychiatry and Anatomical Sciences
University of Adelaide

Summary

In 2009 PCM will be offered in Semester 1 only.  There are no prerequisites for this course.  PCM 1 is an interdisciplinary course that combines theoretical perspectives from psychology, physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, and applies these to the complex human processes of eating, intimate relationships, pain and death and dying.  The course requires attendance at two-hour seminar/tutorial blocks.  Assessment will be by way of one essay, an annotated bibliography and two tutorial papers, student participation and attendance. 

PCM considers the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of psychology, cultural anthropology and encourages a critical perspective when drawing upon the knowledge generated from psychological and anthropological research.

Course aims and objectives

The primary aim of this course is to foster an appreciation that complex human functions and behaviours pertinent to Medicine and the wider Health Professions are best understood through the integration of cross-disciplinary knowledge and methodologies from psychology and physical and social anthropology.  Furthermore, the course aims:

• To provide a broad understanding of psychology, cultural anthropology and physical anthropology.
• To appreciate that anthropology and psychology can be complementary disciplines, and see that they often intersect.
• To develop an understanding of contemporary views of culture and its role in mediating human interaction.
• To encourage an understanding of the complexity of and variation in human responses to major life events.
• To apply these principles in developing an understanding of contemporary human social formations.

Further aims of the course are to provide an interdisciplinary learning environment that includes students from medicine, psychology, and the health sciences, with an emphasis on open discussion that generates critical thought, and fosters a sense of enjoyment in learning.

Teaching Staff

• Micah Peters, who is the course co-ordinator, from the Discipline of Psychiatry and Higher Degree candidate in the Discipline of Anthropology.  He will teach the psychological components of the course.
• Dr Kirrilly Thompson, who is a cultural anthropologist and Research Fellow in the Centre for Behavioural Science at the University of South Australia.
• Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, Professor of Human Ecology, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, from the University of Oxford, will deliver a guest lecture.
• Mel Baak, who completed PCM in 2000, its inaugural year, will deliver a guest session.

For most queries you should speak with Micah Peters in the first instance.  He can be contacted at:  micah.peters@adelaide.edu.au and on (08) 83037346.  if you cannot reach him you might try Ann Francis, the Discipline of Psychiatry Secreatry, on 82225141 - however she will still have to refer you to Micah.

Timetable

Thursdays from 12pm to 3pm over Semester 1.  The course will take place in Badger Laboratories, LG17, Badger Seminar Room.

Assessment

• Will be by way of an essay, an annotated bibliography and two tutorial papers, student participation and attendance
• Students will be required to write a referenced essay, contributing 50% to the overall grade
• The essay will be up to 1,500 words in length, and require an interdisciplinary approach
• The annotated bibliography will contribute 25% of the overall grade
• The tutorial papers will contribute 24% of the overall grade
• Participation and attendance will be required for satisfactory completion of the course
• Due dates for assignments are as follows: 
•         Essay:                               Friday May 08/05/09  by 5pm - 1,500 words
•         Annotated Bibliography:   Friday 05/06/09,  by 5pm - 1,500 words
•         Tutorial paper 1:               Friday of the week of the proposed topic -  500 words
•         Tutorial paper 2:               Friday of the week of the proposed topic -  500 words
  
• Essay Topic:  "Choose one (1) of the topic foci of the course (food, sex, pain OR death) and discuss, using an interdisciplinary approach and references, how this topic is understood and approached."  You may choose to tackle the topic as a broad theme or focus on a particular aspect.  We will discuss the expectations of the essay in class and it is expected that you will notify me of your topic choice for appraisal prior to beginning.  The topic chosen must NOT be the same topic as chosen for the annotated bibliography.
  
• Select one (1) of the topic foci of the course (food, sex, pain OR death) and complete an annotated bibliography containing five (5) interdisciplinary references.  You may choose to tackle the topic as a broad theme or focus on a particular aspect.  We will discuss the expectations of the annotated bibliography in class and it is expected that you will notify me of your topic choice for appraisal prior to beginning.
  
• Tutorial papers are your chance to personally reflect upon the week's topic.  It is expected that you will utilise knowledge gained through the week's lecture, tutorial and discussions to consider the topic and your thoughts and understandings on the matters raised.

 Other details

• All assignments are to be submitted to the Discipline Secretary of the Department of Psychiatry, Eleanor Harrald Building, Level 4.
  
• Students will be expected to attend all seminars and tutorials.  Attendance will be taken for tutorials.  A medical certificate will be required for non-attendance.  After missing more than two tutorials without a medical certificate, the student will be deemed to have failed the requirements of the course.
  
• Late work will be penalised at the rate of 5% per day, where a medical certificate or certification from a counsellor is not produced.
  
• To pass the course, students must achieve a minimum standard of 50% in all of the assignments. 
   

 The Rob Barrett Memorial Prize

The student with the most outstanding results across PCM will be awarded this prize, which is given in honour of Professor Robert Barrett, a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist, who conceived PCM and was a teacher in it.

Introductory Readings

The following texts are not compulsory reading.  However, if students wish to gain a preliminary grounding in the three disciplines represented in the course, the following are recommended.

Psychology:  Any recent introductory text in psychology is suitable.  There are a number of such texts in multiple copies, in the Barr Smith Library.

Social anthropology:   
Agar, M.H. (1980)  The Professional Stranger : An Informal Introduction to Ethnography.  New York, Academic Press.
Barrett, S.R.  (1998)  Anthropology: A student's guide to theory and method.  Canada, University of Toronto Press Inc
Bernard, H.R. (1995)  Research Methods in Anthropology:  qualitative and Quantitative Approaches.  USA.  AltaMira Press
Spradley, J. (1979)  The Ethnographic Interview.  New York, Hold, Rinehart & Winston.
Spradley, J. (1980)  Participation Oberservation.  Florida, Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, Inc.
 

Reserve Readings

A number of texts have been placed in the Reserve Collection of the Barr Smith Library to help you in the writing of your essays.  These are to be used in conjunction with references that you find on your own.

To find the references placed on Reserve, check the Barr Smith Library catalogue. 

Sources to search for literature

• The first place to look for references is the Barr Smith Library catalogue.
• In particular, use the electronic data bases.  This is essential and expected from tertiary level students.  In particular you should use:
• Psycinfo
• PubMed
• Sociofile
• Anthropology Plus
• Current contents
• Cinahl
• Sociological abstracts
• The Annual Review of Anthropology is online and is useful for cultural and physical anthropology.
• The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences, an electronic reference
• Ask the lecturers to help you find references.  In the first instance ask me (Anna), I can refer you to appropriate people or places.
• Maureen Bell, Psychiatry Librarian in the Barr Smith Library, is willing to help you locate references.  However, she should be your last port of call, not your first.
• Use your own initiative.  Assessors in these courses will be impressed by students who have made efforts to go the extra distance and visit other libraries, make contact with other experts in the field in question etc.

Other details regarding the essays

• Word limits must be adhered to.
• Use Times 12 font and double spacing.  This means there will be roughly 300 words per page. 
• No fancy fonts etc should be used on title pages.
• Handwritten essays will not be accepted.
• Work that is late, without medical certification, will be penalised at 5% per day.

Referencing

• Essays must be referenced.
• This means that whenever you use a source to contribute to your essay, you must indicate it.
• Sources include books, journal articles, magazines, newspapers, lectures, tutorials and personal communications (discussions or letters where someone else gave you the idea).
• Where you do not reference your work, it may be considered plagiarism.
• Plagiarism includes writing material (from a sentence to a paragraph) from sources “word-for-word”.  If you take another’s idea, theory, data or opinion and present it in your own words, as if it were your own thought, and do not acknowledge your original source, this is also considered plagiarism.
• Plagiarism also includes copying from other students’ work, either a past or current students’ work. (Please be aware that I photocopy all essays for my records).
• The university takes a very serious view of plagiarism: at the very least the essay will be graded as “fail”.  However, consequences can be far more serious, including dismissal from the course.
• PCM and ECM use the Harvard (Author, date) system of referencing.
• Footnotes are not used in PCM or ECM.

Harvard referencing: the reference list

• The reference list should include all references used in the text of the essay.  If the reference was not used in the essay, it does not appear in the reference list.
• The reference list is attached at the end of the essay.
• The references are listed in alphabetical order by authors’ surnames.
• Only primary references are listed (see below).
• If a book, the author(s) name goes first, then the date of publication, then the title (underlined), then the place of publication, then the publisher.  Eg: Johnson, T.M. & Sargent, C.F. (Eds) (1990) Medical Anthropology. Contemporary Theory and Method.  Praeger Publishers, New York.
• If an article, the author(s) name goes first, then the date of publication, then the title of the article, then the name of the journal (in italics), then the volume number (in bold) and finally the page numbers of the article.  Eg. Bolman, W.M.  (1995) The place of behavioural science in medical education and practice.  Academic Medicine, 70, 873-878.
• If a lecture or tutorial, give the lecturer’s name, the date of the session, the topic of the session and the course, the department and the institution.  Eg Chur-Hansen, A. (5/3/2002) Lecture, Introduction to psychological science. Person, Culture and Medicine.  Departments of Psychiatry and Anatomical Sciences, University of Adelaide.

Harvard referencing: the body of the essay

• Author(s)’ surname(s) and date of publication are given when an idea is paraphrased.  Eg “Long (1999) argued that  ….” or “It has been argued (Long, 1999) …..”
• If direct quotes are used, then in addition to the name and date, the page numbers must be provided.  Eg Potter (1998) says that “a large proportion of 20th century clinical therapeutic practice was based on qualitative methods” (p 2) or “A large proportion of 20th century clinical therapeutic practice was based on qualitative methods” (Potter, 1998, p 2).
• If you have read about something written by the person who thought of it, that is a primary reference.  So, if you have read Freud’s original papers, they are primary sources.  Often though, we read accounts of original work – you are more likely in Years 1 and 2 to read descriptions of Freud’s ideas, rather than his own work.  These are called secondary references.  Secondary sources should be indicated thus:           Eg  Freud (1927, in Beackon, 2000).  Only the primary source is listed on the reference list - in this example, Beackon, 2000 would appear but not Freud, 1917. 
• If several sources say the same thing, they can all be listed alphabetically, separated by semicolons.  Eg This has been described by many authors (Jacquier, 1984; Kennedy, 1975; Koopowitz, 2001).