University of Otago

The course introduces the psychology of religion, focusing on insights from contemporary cognitive and evolutionary psychology into human religious belief and behavior. It explores questions such as: Can science explain religious belief? What do cognitive and evolutionary theories reveal about belief in God? Is religion universal or a product of human evolution? How does religious belief develop in childhood? What social functions does religion serve? The course combines research from psychology and religious studies to examine topics including the psychology of atheism, terrorism, and the effects of religion on prejudice and tolerance.

This course examines theoretical concepts, debates and worldviews relevant to envisaging ‘just’ urban sustainability, based on comparative critical analyses of city transformations led by Indigenous, environmental and/or equity imperatives.

The course explores key theories that inform film and media studies and the discourses that define these disciplines. It offers an overview of theoretical approaches to moving images and visual cultures, interrogating theories of and through images alongside the politics of visibility, invisibility, and hypervisibility. The course covers topics such as third cinema, media spectacles, and video activism.

The course explores healthy and valuable soil systems, focusing on the soil microbiome, carbon sequestration, water retention, and sustainable production. It examines the biological, chemical, and physical aspects of soil and emphasizes strategies for soil regeneration.

This course examines biopsychology, sensation and perception, and cognitive processes. Topics will include sensation and perception, learning and memory, executive function and motor control. It considers these abilities and their underlying brain mechanisms across the developmental spectrum (from infancy to advanced ageing), as well as in populations with neurological conditions.

The course examines the molecular aspects of viral entry, replication, and assembly in host cells. It also covers mechanisms by which viruses manipulate the hosts to multiply and cause disease.

This course examines the psychological dimensions of prominent literary texts and looks at the complex relationship between literature and psychology from a broad range of perspectives. Students will read a range of literary texts with a view to understanding—both analytically and empathetically—problems and adaptations, focusing particularly on trauma in its various manifestations. Further, instead of simply considering the resulting post-traumatic "pathologies" the property of individuals, the course adopts a psychosocial lens to emphasise the broader social dimensions underpinning maladaptive psychological formations, as well as their (frequently unconscious) transgenerational transmission. It concludes with a reflection on the little or big "madnesses" that may lie hidden within the very fabric of what is considered to be "sane" and "normal" in Western society.

The course examines plant and fungal diversity with an emphasis on New Zealand species, the processes that drive species diversification, and methods for exploring and describing evolutionary relationships among species.

The course explores theories of drug use and abuse, the neurobiological effects of drugs, and drug policy and law in New Zealand and the world. 

The course examines microbes in human disease and the contribution of microbiomes to our health. It also covers the role of microbes in food preparation or spoilage, and the detection and control of food-borne pathogens.