Spring 2027

Critical Issues in Child Psychopathology

An in-depth course on common mental disorders of childhood and adolescence that uses a scientific lens to explore controversial issues like ADHD diagnosis trends and adolescent antidepressant safety.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · James Li

Exams were described as tough, but the course was manageable if students completed the required readings and attended lectures regularly.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and explore how cultural factors affect our conceptualization of mental disorders, while learning about individual differences in mental disorders by exploring how they are influenced by the interplay between both biology and environments.

  • Refine critical thinking skills and question how conclusions are drawn from the data and to make connections between scientific studies and their applications to the real world.

  • Apply research as a tool for affecting change for all people, and not just for selective populations. Explore the tension between science and clinical practice in the field and develop the foundations and skills for bridging this gap (as opposed to widening it by only focusing on one aspect).

  • Integrate an array of material from within the psychological sciences (clinical psychology, developmental psychology) as well as from disciplines outside of psychology, including in anthropology, sociology, public health, epidemiology, neuroscience, and genetics.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

PSYCH 405, 460, or 462

PSYCH 510

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JAMES LI is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · James Li

Students found the lectures engaging because they applied textbook concepts to real-life scenarios, making the material feel relevant and interesting.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2018: 3.24 GPA, 57.6% A/AB (n=125 letter grades); Fall 2020: 3.25 GPA, 60.8% A/AB (n=153 letter grades); Fall 2022: 3.16 GPA, 52.3% A/AB (n=151 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · James Li

Exams were described as tough, but the course was manageable if students completed the required readings and attended lectures regularly.

Past student reviews · James Li

While some found the pacing fast, students appreciated how new topics were introduced in a way that made them easy to understand.

Topics

  • Common mental disorders of childhood and adolescence.
  • Factors leading to the rise in ADHD diagnosis globally.
  • Barriers to widespread use of evidence-based treatments in mental health settings.
  • Safety and efficacy of antidepressants for adolescents.
  • Cultural factors affecting conceptualization of mental disorders and the interplay between biology and environment.

Skills

  • Critical thinking and questioning conclusions drawn from data.
  • Applying research to affect change and bridging the gap between science and clinical practice.
  • Integrating material from psychological sciences and interdisciplinary fields such as anthropology, sociology, public health, epidemiology, neuroscience, and genetics.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2022— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2022

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2022 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1213 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "eee308d86589c633f83fcd8447ab5ab8e20353cae434aa8c4bceddb2523a2e47",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}