University College Dublin

This course examines the overlap between theories and research within criminology and within psychology in order to examine the concept of crime from an inter-disciplinary perspective. Rather than being a course in forensic psychology, it offers a critique of the potential of such an approach. Gender disparities in offending, the efficacy of drug criminalization, and psychological aspects of the criminal justice system such as eyewitness testimony and jury decision-making are covered, as are sensitive topics, such as recidivism among child sex offenders and intervention with offenders.

This course provides a survey of the history of western art music from 1600 to 1750. The course offers a narrative overview of the period and discusses developments in their historical, social, and cultural contexts while examining compositional techniques, styles, and genres. Among the issues identified for discussion are the invention of Opera, the rise of instrumental music, and Baroque genres and style culminating in the vocal and instrumental music of Bach and Handel. The course focuses, in particular, on music in Italy, France, and Germany and the relationships between these traditions.

Ireland is in a state of ongoing transformation, experiencing rapid and dramatic economic, social, and cultural changes in a short period of time. Yet there are structural continuities traced back to modern Irish society before and after independence that underlie and help to explain these changes. This course explores the continuities amidst the significant changes in contemporary Irish society drawing on a comparative perspective. This provides a framework to identify what is similar to the continuities and changes in Ireland compared to other related societies, and what is different in the Irish experience contrasted with other societies. Topics include periods of boom and bust in Ireland's development, particularly the Celtic Tiger and current austerity; population, emigration, and immigration; inequality, poverty, and class; housing; education; labor markets; social networks; religion and secularization; pluralism and liberalization; consumerism and individualism; the media; social movements; and nationalism and national identity.

This course considers the nature of sociology in terms of its historical origins, its major theoretical traditions, and key dimensions of social life. The course examines different dimensions of social inequality, focusing on the main social institutions and patterns of social relations that determine the small matters of whether we go hungry, whether we have shelter, the nature of a university education, and why "witches" are no longer burnt at the stake. The course considers how we define the world and how we suffer or benefit from these definitions, while also considering the ways society "makes" us, and how we in turn "make" society.

This courses introduces students to the basic concepts of financial economics. Topics covered include how to value assets that generate a sequence of cash flows over time for their owners; guidelines for capital budgeting decisions by firms; how firms raise money from equity markets and bond markets; the trade-off between risk and return in financial assets; basic principles for investing wealth in a portfolio; and the theory and practice of corporate financial structure.

This course covers MATLAB programming (data types and structures, arithmetic operations, functions, input and output, interface programming, graphics and implementation of numerical methods); finite floating point arithmetic, catastrophic cancellation, and chopping and rounding errors); solution of nonlinear equations (bisection method, secant method, Newton's method, fixed point iteration, and Muller's method); numerical optimization (method of golden section search and Newton's optimization method); solutions of linear algebraic equations (forwarding Gaussian elimination, pivoting, scaling, back substitution, LU-decomposition, norms and errors, condition numbers, iterations, Newton's method for systems, and computer implementation); interpolation (Lagrange interpolation, Newton interpolation, and inverse interpolation); numerical integration (finite differences, Newton cotes rules, trapezoidal rule, Simpson's rule, extrapolation, Gaussian quadrature); and numerical solution of ordinary differential equations (Euler's method, Runge-Kutta method, multi-step methods, predictor-corrector methods, rates of convergence, global errors, algebraic and shooting methods for boundary value problems, and computer implementation).

This course introduces students to a basic understanding of psychology's explanations for human thought, feelings, and behavior, covering the core concepts, theories, and research methods that psychologists use. Among other topics, the course covers aspects of child development, personality, thinking and learning, social interaction, therapeutic approaches, and biological psychology. The course places psychology in a real world context, addressing cultural differences in human behavior and considering how psychology can be applied in every day life.

Topic in this course include random variation, populations and random samples, descriptive statistics, binomial and normal distributions, hypothesis testing and confidence intervals, sample size calculations, comparison of two populations, hypothesis testing and confidence intervals, independent and paired samples, analysis of categorical data. Chi-square tables, estimation and hypothesis testing for a population proportion, comparing proportions in two or more populations using independent samples, experimental design, validity and efficiency, experimental unit and pseudoreplication, randomization, factorial designs, introduction to linear regression and correlation, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, and partitioning sums of squares.

The concepts of terrorism and political violence loom large in contemporary politics and policy-making but are frequently misunderstood and under-theorized. This course explores a range of approaches to terrorism and political violence. The first part of the course explores the history of terrorism and a diversity of understandings of and theoretical approaches to terrorism and political violence. The second part of the course explores a range of topics including: types and causes of terrorism, the state and terrorism, the role of religion, policy responses, and the so-called "war on terror."