Psychology

This course provides an introduction to the milestones of human development from conception to childhood. It focuses on how children change as they progress through life and how differences among children come about. The content is drawn from research and theories in developmental psychology. Topics include prenatal development, perceptual and cognitive development in infancy, language development, preschool, temperament, attachment, and moral development. Text: Martha Lally and Suzanna Valentine-French, LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. Assessment: class attendance and activities (20%), exams (80%).

This course focuses on diagnosis and evaluation in clinical and educational psychology. Topics include: clinical interview; clinical psychology evaluation process; diagnosis and clinical psychological evaluation; detection of disorders; commonly used instruments; evaluation of health, disability, and dependency; educational evaluation-- concept, evaluation contexts, and purposes; psychopedagogical evaluation-- instruments, reports, and advice to teachers.

This course surveys the major approaches of human personality, covering classical and contemporary themes, such as psychodynamic theories, behavioral models, humanistic theories, trait theories, social learning theories and personality perspectives indigenous to cultures in Asia.

This course focuses on the application of knowledge about basic psychological processes (attention, perception, memory, and related processes) to the collection and evaluation of testimonial evidence. Topics include: the accuracy of witness statements; obtaining statements; false statements; statement evaluation; processes in the identification of persons; lineups; identification evaluation procedures; applied aspects of psychology of testimony.

This course is a general introduction to contemporary theory and research in perception, including an analysis of philosophical and biological issues. Students explore the representational nature of knowledge and establish links between principles of perception and developments within the visual arts, music, and literature. 

This course covers foundational topics in cognitive science from the perspectives of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, and computation. Topics may include how minds are defined, how they represent the world, how they communicate, and how they support adaptive behavior.

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. 

This course discusses the concept of psychological disorder and contributions of psychology, preventative psychology, and health psychology. It examines models of prevention and well-being. Other topics include: research methods and models; gnoseology and classification of mental disorders; assessment and treatment.

This course examines the psychological approach to personality. It covers how is personality defined and measured via a comparison of selected theories in personality (e.g. Erikson, Freud, Rogers), as well as the relationship between the social environment and personality formation.

This course conveys insight into the cognitive mechanisms and representations underpinning human meaning-making. The course presents an overview of the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human meaning-making, including conceptual metaphor theory, image schemas, framing, and blending. The theories employed stem from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, cognitive linguistics, and semiotics. The course also provides insight into the relationship between meaning-making and perception, as well as sensory-motor experience. Additionally, it seeks to give students a general understanding of what meaning is, regardless of whether it is expressed in language, images, or speech, or manifests itself through perception. Finally, this course provides the general theoretical tools required to analyze specific cognitive and cultural phenomena. The course is adapted to accommodate the diverse backgrounds of the students.