Psychology

Learn concepts of culture, social norms and how to research them, generalizability, and cross-cultural relevance. Seminars provide an opportunity to explore concrete examples for how lives and development of youth can differ across cultures (e.g., initiation rituals, friendship, love and/or marriage, loneliness, social media, work, living arrangements, mental and physical health, beliefs about “emerging adulthood”, ...). Additionally, apply knowledge from lectures by analyzing generalizability and cross-cultural relevance of research articles about youth and their development, reflect on how your own culture can influence how you conduct and interpret research, and develop concrete suggestions for more culture-sensitive research.  This course provides an opportunity to focus on topics you are particularly interested in.

The Internship Workforce course provides students with an overview of working in the United Kingdom. The course looks at the changing organizational structures of work in Britain. It examines the social and economic changes that affect the workplace in the UK. Topics covered include: sociology of work, trade unions, oppression at work, generational changes at work, and the future of work. An internship while studying in London provides an opportunity to experience a “hands on” working situation and a different perspective on the workplace and working practices, while developing professional skills.

This course studies the psychology of communication, including theories, systems, and applications. Topics covered include the concept of communication; the process of human communication; theories, systems, and models; semiotics of communication; communication in animals; communication and human development; nonverbal communication; interpersonal and intrapersonal communication; and observation, listening, and response skills.

This course takes a purely biological view of a set of interconnected topics in the field of learning and memory. All learning and memory formation is dependent on changes in functional connections between neurons. The course starts with seminal findings illustrating this principle in Aplysia. These findings are then compared with mechanisms of Long-Term Potentiation (LTP). In a number of papers, and accompanying lectures, students gain insight into molecular mechanisms to manipulate intra-cellular processes contributing to LTP and neural plasticity, at the genomic, RNA, and protein levels. In parallel, students learn about some landmark neurophysiological findings that have been crucial in our current understanding of memory formation. With this background in mind, students read studies in which molecular tools are used to modulate memory formation and their neurophysiological correlates. The course focuses mainly on two forms of learning, namely episodic memory and skill learning. Most of the papers focus on animal models of learning, using molecular and neurophysiological approaches, but there are also papers on human and non-human primate learning. The lectures provide crucial background to understand the papers, and in a broad sense could provide topics for exam questions. The course is challenging, and so a background or strong interest in neuroscience and/or (cellular) biology is very strongly recommended for this course. Further, students must have a genuine interest in biological approaches of learning and memory.

This course covers changes to work and careers in the contemporary society and explores psychosocial factors required for adaptation to these changes. It examines new career models that describe the non-traditional career patterns as well as resources and skills for the career adaptation emphasized in each model.

The course provides an introduction to developmental psychology. It focuses on conveying an understanding of key developmental phenomena and theories of typical development in children and adolescents. Perceptual, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, personality and social development are discussed, in light of developmental models and developmental studies. The phenomena and theories within the various development areas are considered in the light of modern empirical research.