Comprehensive Study Notes: Academic Support Services, Psychological Assessment, and Diagnostic Criteria

Academic Support and University Resources

• Academic Success Center (ASC):

  • Serves as the primary university hub for student learning, academic growth, and holistic skill development at Georgia Southern University.

  • Academic Success Coaching:

  • Provides personalized, one-on-one academic skill support delivered by trained university employees and success coaches.

  • Focuses on helping students recover from academic struggles, maintain structural accountability, navigate academic probation, establish goal planning, and prepare for graduate school admissions.

  • Coaching Access: Students placed on academic probation are automatically assigned a success coach accessible via Georgia Southern Connect. Students seeking voluntary coaching can submit a request via a Google Form on the ASC website or schedule an appointment directly through Georgia Southern Connect.

  • Course-Specific Mastery Services:

  • Peer Tutoring: Offers individual one-on-one study sessions with upperclassmen students who have previously completed the target course with high grades and demonstrated comfort teaching the material. Accessible via walk-in hours or advance scheduling through the Penji app.

  • Supplemental Instruction (SI): Peer-led, interactive group study sessions designed specifically for high-enrollment, analytical introductory courses (e.g., introductory mathematics and introductory chemistry). SI availability is announced by course professors and listed on Folio.

  • Digital Platforms and Online Support:

  • Penji App & GSU One: Mobile and web platform accessed via standard Georgia Southern credentials to schedule peer tutoring and SI appointments.

  • Tutor.com: A free, 24/7 online tutoring platform integrated into the Penji app. Provides round-the-clock academic assistance, live virtual tutoring, and online essay/paper reviews at any hour (e.g., 3:00 AM).

  • Campus Locations and Operating Hours:

  • Statesboro Campus:

    • Main ASC Office: Henderson Library, 1st Floor (located immediately to the right upon entering the main doors, before reaching the stairs). General office hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

    • Tutoring Center: Located behind the glass wall on the 1st Floor of Henderson Library. Operating hours: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (includes live virtual tutoring via Zoom).

    • After-Hours Tutoring: Kennedy Clubhouse. Operating hours: Monday through Friday, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM (in-person tutoring only).

  • Armstrong Campus:

    • Located in the Student Success Complex. Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (tutoring services end earlier on Fridays).

  • Swainsboro Campus:

    • Located in the Gamble Building. Main office hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Tutoring hours: Monday through Thursday, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM.

  • Testing Services:

  • Administers specialized, professional, and course examinations including Nursing entrance exams and CLEP examinations.

  • Campus Locations:

    • Armstrong and Swainsboro Campuses: Located in the primary ASC office suite.

    • Statesboro Campus: Located in Cone Hall, 2nd Floor.

  • Special Academic Initiatives:

  • Keep Hope Alive Scholarship Initiative: A specialized intervention program designed to assist students at risk of losing their HOPE Scholarship eligibility in regaining their scholarship status.

  • First-Generation College Student Support: Offers dedicated networking opportunities, honor societies, specialized events, and peer support initiatives for first-generation students whose parents did not complete a college degree.

  • Student Success Locker: Provides free essential physical school supplies (e.g., paper, pens, pencils, notebooks) to all enrolled students. Located within the ASC offices on the Statesboro, Armstrong, and Liberty campuses.

  • ASC Employment Opportunities:

  • Positions available for student hire: Peer Tutors, Desk Assistants, and Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leaders.

  • Compensation for peer tutors: Starts at $12.50$ per hour, increasing up to $14.00$ per hour after one year of employment.

  • Benefits include flexible scheduling around university classes, extra income, and practical teaching/tutoring experience for graduate school applications.

• Course Administrative Announcements:

  • Examination Supplies:

  • Scantron answer sheets are fully restocked at the university bookstore.

  • Location: Main bookstore entrance closest to the Student Union, adjacent to the primary checkout area in a large tower display.

  • Specifications: Half-sheet, long, thin, brown Scantron forms.

  • Recommendation: Purchase all $5$ required Scantrons at the start of the semester to avoid exam-day shortages.

Intelligence Assessment and Achievement Testing

• Quantitative Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Calculation:

  • The historical ratio formula for determining an individual's Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score relies on the mathematical relationship between mental age and chronological age:     $\text{IQ} = \left( \frac{\text{Mental Age}}{\text{Chronological Age}} \right) \times 100$

  • Mental Age: A quantitative measure of cognitive performance expressed as the age level at which an individual performs based on the number of correct and incorrect responses on standardized tasks.

  • Chronological Age: An individual's actual physical age in years computed directly from their date of birth.

  • Standardized Baseline: An IQ score of $100$ represents the exact population average where mental age equals chronological age.

  • Mathematical Calculation Examples:

  • Example 1: A $10$-year-old child demonstrating cognitive performance equivalent to an average $15$-year-old:       $\text{IQ} = \left( \frac{15}{10} \right) \times 100 = 150$       (An IQ score of $150$ is significantly greater than $100$, indicating superior/above-average intelligence).

  • Example 2: A $15$-year-old individual performing exactly at the level of an average $15$-year-old:       $\text{IQ} = \left( \frac{15}{15} \right) \times 100 = 100$       (An IQ score of $100$ represents average performance).

  • Example 3: A $20$-year-old individual demonstrating cognitive performance equivalent to an average $15$-year-old:       $\text{IQ} = \left( \frac{15}{20} \right) \times 100 = 75$       (An IQ score of $75$ is below $100$, indicating below-average performance).

• Wechsler Intelligence Scales:

  • Recognized as the gold standard individual clinical intelligence assessments.

  • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC): Standardized clinical tool for assessing intelligence in children.

  • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): Standardized clinical tool for assessing intelligence in adults.

• Structure and Domains of Wechsler Intelligence Testing:

  • Wechsler assessments measure general intellectual ability ($g$) divided into two main clinical arms: Verbal and Performance.

  • Verbal Arm: Evaluates auditory processing, language expression, and reliance on stored cultural/educational knowledge.

  • Verbal Comprehension Index: Assesses long-term memory retrieval, stored vocabulary knowledge, and formal language comprehension.

    • Vocabulary: Explaining explicit definitions and meanings of target words.

    • Similarities: Measuring abstract verbal conceptualization by identifying how two distinct objects or concepts are alike (e.g., "How are 2 and 7 alike?" Answer: "They are both numbers." "How are an apple and an orange alike?" Answer: "They are both fruits.").

    • Information (Trivia): Assessing general factual knowledge acquired through American culture and education systems (e.g., "Who was the president during the Civil War?" Answer: "Abraham Lincoln.").

    • Comprehension: Evaluating practical social judgment, abstract reasoning, and understanding of standard social rules and practical concepts based on past learning.

  • Working Memory Index: Measures immediate conscious attention, short-term maintenance, and active manipulation of presented verbal stimuli.

    • Arithmetic: Solving complex word math problems mentally without scratch paper or calculators.

    • Digit Span: Reciting sequences of spoken numbers across three specific sub-conditions: forward (exact spoken order), backward (reverse spoken order), and sequenced (ascending numerical order).

    • Letter-Number Sequencing: Orally reorganizing mixed auditory sequences of numbers and letters into specified order (e.g., numbers first in ascending numerical order, followed by letters in alphabetical order).

    • Diagnostic Utility: Individuals diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) typically display marked deficits on Working Memory subtests alongside preserved strengths on Verbal Comprehension subtests.

  • Performance Arm: Evaluates non-verbal visual-spatial processing, fluid reasoning, and physical interaction with visual stimuli.

  • Perceptual Organization Index: Evaluates visual perception, fluid non-verbal logic, and non-verbal pattern recognition.

    • Block Design: Physically manipulating red and white two-toned plastic blocks within strict time limits to match two-dimensional visual patterns shown on stimulus cards.

    • Matrix Reasoning: Identifying visual patterns across abstract matrix arrays and selecting the correct missing piece from options.

  • Processing Speed Index: Measures visual scanning speed, mental efficiency, hand-eye coordination, and rapid execution of visual-motor tasks.

    • Digit Symbol Coding: Rapidly transcribing visual symbols corresponding to matched numbers using an explicitly provided reference key.

    • Symbol Search: Visually scanning arrays of abstract visual target symbols within a specified time window to mark their presence or absence.

• Population Distribution of Intelligence:

  • Standardized IQ scores are distributed along a classical normal curve (Gaussian Bell Curve).

  • Statistical Parameters:

  • Population Mean (Average) IQ: $\mu = 100$.

  • Standard Deviation: $\sigma = 15$ points.

  • Average Range: Defined as falling within one standard deviation of the mean, between $85$ ($100 - 15$) and $115$ ($100 + 15$).

  • Tail Distributions: Scores falling substantially below $85$ indicate intellectual challenges/disabilities; scores falling substantially above $115$ indicate intellectual giftedness.

• Academic Achievement Testing:

  • Standardized assessments that measure acquired academic skills and knowledge in specific subjects (e.g., reading comprehension, spelling ability, mathematical calculation).

  • Clinical Application: Administered in combination with comprehensive IQ assessments to diagnose specific learning disorders. For example, an individual with an IQ score of $110$ (high average potential) who displays pronounced deficits on standardized math achievement tests demonstrates a pattern consistent with a math learning disorder.

Neuropsychological, Neuroimaging, Psychophysiological, and Strength-Based Assessment

• Neuropsychological Assessment:

  • Evaluates underlying brain dysfunction or neurological damage by observing behavioral effects and functional performance in daily life.

  • Core cognitive domains evaluated: expressive and receptive communication, sustained attention, concentration, immediate/delayed memory recall, and abstract learning.

  • Clinical Battery Requirement: Ethical clinical standards require administering a comprehensive multi-test battery ($4$ to $5$ complementary assessments) to prevent false positives and false negatives.

  • Visual-Motor Screening Tools:

  • Common screening tests involve handing a client a blank sheet of paper and instructing them to accurately copy a presented stimulus drawing (e.g., overlapping geometric figures such as a touching circle and square).

  • Marked visual-spatial distortion, tremor, or structural dissociation between the original stimulus and the client's drawing signals potential neurological dysfunction, justifying immediate referral to a neurologist.

• Neuroimaging Procedures:

  • Medical procedures designed to capture detailed visual images of neurological structure and physiological functioning.

  • Structural Neuroimaging:

  • Visualizes physical brain anatomy to detect structural abnormalities, brain bleeds, hemorrhages, lesions, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), or tumors.

  • Modalities: Computed Axial Tomography (CAT / CT scan), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and X-rays (broad structural overview).

  • Functional Neuroimaging:

  • Evaluates real-time cellular and metabolic functional activity ("hotspots") across brain regions during specific stimuli or resting states.

  • Invasive requirement: Involves intravenous injections of radioactive tracers, contrast dyes, or labeled glucose to highlight regional neural activation.

  • Modalities: Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

• Psychophysiological Assessment:

  • Measures changes across the central and autonomic nervous systems to assess physiological stress and emotional arousal.

  • Electroencephalogram (EEG):

  • Measures brain wave electrical activity via multiple scalp electrodes.

  • Standard measurement tool in clinical sleep study facilities to assess brain wave changes across stages of sleep.

  • Galvanic Skin Response (GSR):

  • Measures sweat gland activity and skin conductance.

  • Serves as a direct indicator of sympathetic nervous system arousal triggered by acute psychological stress.

  • Biofeedback:

  • Real-time monitoring of biological processes (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance, breathing) delivered via specialized monitoring devices or wearable consumer technology (e.g., smartwatch heart rate alerts during sedentary periods).

  • Enables individuals to consciously apply somatic self-regulation strategies (e.g., deep breathing exercises) to reduce physiological stress responses.

• Strength-Based Assessment Frameworks:

  • Focuses on identifying individual character strengths, values, and psychological assets rather than focusing exclusively on psychopathology and functional deficits.

  • Values in Action (VIA) Inventory of Strengths:

  • Free, research-validated online assessment available at viacharacter.org requiring approximately $10$ to $15$ minutes to complete.

  • Diagnostic Output: Ranks an individual's top $24$ character strengths.

  • Psychological Interpretation:

    • Top-ranked strengths represent natural tendencies that individuals access effortlessly (e.g., kindness, humor, love of learning).

    • Lower-ranked strengths do not represent absolute functional deficits; rather, they reflect qualities that require greater conscious intentionality and cognitive effort to utilize.

  • VIA Inventory Extra Credit Assignment:

  • Requirement: Complete the VIA Inventory on viacharacter.org.

  • Submission format: Upload a Word document to the Folio Extra Credit Dropbox containing proof of completion (a screenshot displaying the user's name) along with a reflection paper evaluating top strengths, low strengths, middle strengths, and actionable plans to intentionally use those strengths (e.g., engaging in intentional appreciation of beauty during daily campus walks).

  • Deadline: Due by the time of the examination next week.

Psychiatric Diagnosis and the DSM-5-TR Framework

• Clinical Diagnosis Definition:

  • Diagnosis is the systematic clinical process of determining whether an individual's psychological symptoms meet the formal diagnostic criteria for a recognized mental disorder.

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR):

  • Current official manual published by the American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR).

  • Revision cycle: Major numbered editions are published approximately every $20$ years; text revisions are published approximately every $10$ years.

  • Scope: Contains clinical criteria for over $300$ distinct mental health diagnoses alongside future research directions.

• Functions and Clinical Utility of Diagnosis:

  • Guides the formulation of targeted, evidence-based treatment plans.

  • Establishes clinical prognosis (predicting the expected course of a disorder, whether symptoms resolve spontaneously, persist chronically, or deteriorate).

  • Informs relapse prevention strategies (essential in substance use disorder treatment).

  • Satisfies mandatory institutional requirements for third-party health insurance reimbursement, workplace/educational accommodations, and access to specific therapeutic interventions (e.g., Applied Behavior Analysis [ABA] therapy historically requiring a formal Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis).

• Models of Classification:

  • Categorical Approach:

  • Binary classification model: A disorder is either strictly present or strictly absent (Yes/No determination).

  • Advantage: Efficient and rapid for fast-paced acute clinical settings (e.g., emergency room triage).

  • Disadvantage: Highly reductive; risks missing subclinical, mild, or atypical symptom presentations.

  • Dimensional Approach:

  • Evaluates symptoms along a continuous spectrum of severity (e.g., mild, moderate, or severe depressive episodes).

  • Advantage: Provides nuanced clinical detail regarding functional impact.

  • Disadvantage: Introduces inter-rater variability and subjective inconsistencies between different clinical providers.

  • Prototypical Approach:

  • Combines categorical minimum threshold requirements with dimensional severity specifiers.

  • Establishes core mandatory symptoms while allowing flexible combinations of secondary symptoms (polythetic criteria set).

• Prototypical Criteria Example: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD):

  • Criterion A Symptom Quota: A client must meet at least $5$ out of $9$ total recognized depressive symptoms.

  • Core Symptom Requirement: At least one of the required $5$ symptoms MUST be either:

  1. Depressed mood most of the day.

  2. Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities (anhedonia).

  • Practical Application: If a client displays $7$ distinct secondary depressive symptoms (e.g., fatigue, sleep disturbance, feelings of worthlessness, psychomotor agitation, cognitive dysfunction, appetite changes, suicidal ideation) but denies both depressed mood (Symptom 1) and anhedonia (Symptom 2), they CANNOT receive a formal diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder under prototypical DSM rules.

  • Dimensional Specifiers: MDD diagnoses require specifying severity (mild, moderate, severe) and specific descriptive features (e.g., with psychotic features, with anxious distress, with melancholic features, with atypical features).

• Diagnostic Comorbidity:

  • Definition: The simultaneous presence of two or more distinct psychiatric or medical diagnoses in a single individual.

  • Common Clinical Comorbidities:

  • Anxiety Disorders and Major Depressive Disorder (e.g., severe depressive episodes causing academic decline, triggering secondary acute anxiety).

  • Substance Use Disorders and Mood Disorders (e.g., Bipolar Disorder or MDD co-occurring with addiction).

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) co-occurring with Depressive Disorders or Substance Use Disorders.

  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) co-occurring with Anxiety Disorders.

  • Diagnostic Challenge of Symptom Overlap:

  • Identical non-specific symptoms (e.g., concentration difficulties, memory recall problems, physical restlessness, agitation, excess energy) span multiple distinct diagnoses including ADHD, Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorders, PTSD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, traumatic head injuries, and acute substance intoxication.

• Systemic Critiques and Limitations of Psychiatric Diagnosing:

  • Over-Diagnosis and Diagnostic Inflation: Excessive diagnostic labeling of normative human distress.

  • Institutional and Setting-Based Inconsistencies:

  • Emergency Rooms / Psychiatric Triage: Brief $15$-minute evaluations focusing primarily on immediate safety and categorical decisions.

  • Outpatient Therapy / Psychology Clinics: Extended $60$ to $90$-minute intake evaluations allowing for deep diagnostic nuance.

  • Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospitals vs. College Counseling Centers vs. Private Fee-for-Service Practices: Differing administrative mandates drive significant variation in the number of assigned diagnoses.

  • Stigma and Externalization:

  • Diagnostic labels can cause internal self-stigma and societal prejudice.

  • Adoption of Person-First Language: Professional movement toward phrases such as "a person with depression" or "an individual with schizophrenia" rather than "a depressed person" or "a schizophrenic" to externalize the diagnosis from the person's identity, while honoring individual client language preferences.