University of Sussex

This course explores sleep and its impact on wellbeing. It covers topics such as the biological underpinnings of sleep, sleep across the lifespan, sleep and cognition, and sleep disorders among others. The potential implications of lifestyle and sleep habits on sleep and health are also discussed. Various types of animal and human research studies are reviewed in order to enhance understanding of the current research in the area of sleep.

The course focuses on the role health psychology can play in health. Explore how broader social factors can affect health and discuss health care in global contexts. Draw on your own experiences to evaluate the role of health cognitions, behaviors, systems and health-promoting campaigns in different cultures, and demographic populations. The course considers a range of psychological theories and methodologies used within the discipline. It covers the history and scope of health psychology, from origin to virtual clinics. You will have the opportunity to contribute to and design interactive activities, recognizing the complex roles that psychology plays in human health.

If the ‘everyday' refers to the mundane, the unremarkable – to the forms of life routinely taken for granted – it is also through the practices of everyday life that we experience who we are, how our lives are invested with meanings, and how we engage with change. In the modern world (especially in the developed north), it's difficult to think about cultures of everyday life without also considering the media and its contribution to the structuring of daily life, its varied use in daily life, and its discursive construction and engagement with aspects of everyday life. In this course, students explore critical approaches to everyday life, including those engaging with media.

This course provides an overview of key debates within moral psychology, such as the definition of morality, rationalism, emotionism, and nativism. Students consider multiple theories and research which provides insight about how moral judgements are related to cognitions, emotions, and social identities. The consequences of the moral emotions will be discussed, considering implications for mental health, interpersonal relationships, and social equalities.

This course examines the political lessons children’s books encode about what childhood is, and about which children matter and why. Students read children’s texts ranging genres and forms—including fantasy, school stories, picturebooks, and domestic fiction—written between the late eighteenth century and the present day. Key focuses include agency, gender, race, class, and the environment.  The course considers the role of illustration, classic film adaptations, and seminal works by authors which may include Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaiman, C. S. Lewis, Beatrix Potter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and J. K. Rowling. These works are illuminated in discussions in small group seminars.