Psychology

This course explores the central question: How does our environment — natural or built — affect our mind, behavior, and brain? In a time of rapid environmental change, with expanding urbanization, shrinking green spaces, rising climate anxiety, and evolving relationships with technology, understanding the connection between environment and mental processes is more crucial than ever. Students examine what makes environments beneficial to our brain and wellbeing, how surroundings shape cognition, whether one can design cities that support mental health, and what happens in the brain when one feels connected—or disconnected—from nature. The course traces the history and key theories of environmental neuroscience, introduces sensory perception and environmental stress, and investigates the impact of both natural and urban settings on mental health. Through lab visits, neuroimaging case studies, and a hands-on research project, students actively engage with current research. Grounded in three core pillars—interdisciplinarity, research-driven inquiry, and reflective engagement—this course encourages students to draw on diverse methods, collaborate on original studies, and consider their own experiences of space and place as they explore how neuroscience can inform real-world environmental design and policy.

Health psychology is the study of how biological, psychological, and social factors influence health, illness, and healthcare. This course aims to (1) understand the field of health psychology, (2) examine the biopsychosocial model in health promotion and risk behaviors, (3) integrate biological, psychological, and social approaches to prevention and treatment, and (4) analyze how behaviors and psychosocial factors like stress impact physical and mental health. Topics include The systems of the body, Stress, Coping, resilience and social support, Health behaviors, Health promoting behaviors, Health compromising behaviors, The management of pain and discomfort, Management of chronic health disorders, Psychological issues in terminal illness, Heart disease, hypertension, stroke, and Type II Diabetes, Psychoneuroimmunology and immune-related disorders, and Using health services / Patients, providers, and treatments. 

This course examines the theories and methods of investigating memory and attentional processes to consider a number of domains of higher cognitive processing including memory, language, object and face recognition, categorization, and reasoning. An integrating theme of the course will be how such cognitive capacities contribute to skilled behavior and expertise across a range of domains of human behavior, and how they are implemented in artificial intelligence systems. The practical program will expose students to a variety of the research methods used to investigate higher cognitive processes, develop their understanding of how these methods can be used to investigate hypotheses about mental processes and consider applications of cognitive research to real-world problems and issues.

This course covers Social Psychology, which is the scientific study of behavior and cognition in social situations and the examination of causation factors. Hence, the course psychologically explores major social phenomena in contemporary society, and reviews relevant studies on psychological undertones of such phenomena.   

The course examines human characteristics in the context of Social Psychology in order to understand contemporary social issues. Topics include the influence of others, relations with others, evaluation of others and social phenomenon, social phenomenon happening in social groups, and more. Students will gain an enhanced understanding of themselves, others, and society at large by exploring how social phenomena, social issues, and daily experiences can be interpreted through theories of social psychology. The course goal is to increase understanding of how people perceive others and the social environments around them, how people respond to these social stimuli, and how they are affected by these factors. 

This course offers a comprehensive overview of key questions that drive current discussions about the links between the brain, cognitive processes, and language while also examining language as a tool for expressing social cognition. Students will explore various topics within Psycholinguistics, focusing on language comprehension and production, and will analyze how language assists in interpreting cultural phenomena.

This course equips pre-service teachers with knowledge of Educational Psychology and develops pre-service teachers' understanding of teaching-learning processes. Practical implications of various theories of Educational Psychology are dealt with in depth, including cognitive development, affective development, learning theories, intelligence, students with special needs, learning motivation, and evaluation.

The course provides basic knowledge of modern and contemporary psychoanalysis as a model of human mind, as tool for understanding psychopathological processes, and as a psychotherapeutic treatment. At the end of the course, students: a) know major psychodynamic theories of mental functioning and development; b) handle basic psychoanalytic assumptions concerning the nature of psychopathology and its treatment; c) understand current evolutions of psychodynamic psychology (e.g., single case tradition vs. empirical research; relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience; process and outcome research on evidence-based psychodynamic psychotherapies).

This course examines key concepts, theories and methods which underpin psychology as a science. It begins by reviewing historical and scientific foundations for the study of human behavior. Topics include development, social, emotional, and cultural influences on behavior, theories of personality and application of psychology to health and wellbeing.