Australia

We all prepare food, play cooperative games, romance each other etc. But how we do so depends on our cultural background–we are, by far, the world’s most ‘cultural animal’. So what was the “X-factor”, the magic ingredient of culture that took humans out of the general run of mammals and other highly social organisms? By emphasizing research in developmental psychology and integrating perspectives from comparative, social and evolutionary psychology this course explores contemporary answers to this question. We will be focusing on how an understanding of social and observational learning is critical to any answer, and to do so we will study the following populations: (a) typically developing infants and children; (b) children with autism; (c) adults; (d) non-human primates; and (e) other animals.

This course examines America's 'dream factory' as profit-oriented industry, mass entertainment, and cinematic art form. It covers key historical developments including the star system, Production Code censorship, New Hollywood, and the franchise film.

This course introduces the theoretical and practical aspects of sport and exercise coaching. Through active participation in lectures and movement laboratories, students develop a basic understanding of training and performance, with reference to a variety of groups. Students also learn how to evaluate and improve their own coaching performance by applying reflective and analytical skills. Topics examined in this course include coaching pedagogy, training principles, session planning, basic concepts of sports science, and ethical issues. 

This course examines various aspects of data processing including database management, representation and analysis of data, information retrieval, visualization and reporting, and cloud computing. 

In many projects, it is important for programmers to have fine control over low-level details of program execution, and to be able to assess the cost of a design decision on likely overall program performance. This course introduces students to a system programming language that gives programmers this kind of control, explores a range of standard data structures and algorithmic techniques, and shows how to apply them to frequently encountered problems.

This course examines the role and purpose of music for individuals and communities, and the ways people engage with music to regulate their mood and emotions in ways that reinforce their overall wellbeing.

This course examines the interactions between insects and humans worldwide and through a multidisciplinary lens. Insects can be harnessed for food, medicine, and construction material. They can inspire architecture and design and have prominent roles in myth and songs and shape language. Insects have inspirated films, performances, music, and visual arts where artists aim to challenge our emotional and aesthetic connection to insects. Insects are both biologically and socially complex, from which important parallels to human biology and societal organization can be drawn. Despite the importance of insects to humans, insects have been heavily impacted by human leading to enormous insect declines. 

This course examines the fundamentals of the methods used in science practice, how to construct and evaluate a scientific argument, and how processes of scientific investigation are applied across the diverse range of scientific disciplines. Students will also learn to communicate science effectively to different audiences, and how to evaluate reporting of science in the mainstream media. 

Retailing globally is in a state of rapid evolution – driven by technological advances, consumer trends, and global market dynamics. In this challenging and engaging environment, retail managers make complex decisions involving: retail strategy; complex retail channels; customer trends; retail locations; merchandise and service planning; training and motivating staff; the pricing, presentation and promotion of merchandise; and the impact of retail operations upon people, society and the environment. Agility and diverse capabilities are necessary to make these decisions efficiently and effectively, to create an edge in mature and crowded marketplaces. Omni-channel Retailing has a dual focus to: (1) introduce the fundamental concepts and principles of retail; and (2) explore the frontiers of retailing globally. This involves examining strategic and tactical retailing issues in complex retail environments—to enhance competitive advantage.