Psychology

This course demonstrates that psychology is a science that encompasses the collaborative efforts of scientists from many different disciplines. Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes, and as psychologists, we aim to describe, understand, predict, and sometimes change behavior.  This course considers different approaches to understanding the human mind, the brain, and behavior.  Scientific methods of psychological research are introduced by addressing some of the main questions that drive contemporary psychology: How do we experience fear or happiness? How do we (think we) see the world around us? How do we learn, remember, and forget things? Where should we draw the line between normal and abnormal behavior? How social are humans? When do people harm or help others?

This course develops an integrated understanding of modern approaches to some of the core areas of psychology (the remaining core areas are covered in Psychology 2B). Students are also presented with a broader historical, conceptual, and methodological framework of psychological as well as its ethical dimensions and transferable skills such as identifying and summarizing key literature.

This course studies the main differences between the psychology of work, of organizations, and of human resources, and the two fundamental theoretical frameworks (rational and social constructionist) of the psychology of organizations. Topics include: organizations-- a psychosocial approach; individuals within the organization; groups and teams within the organization; the organizational system.

Full course description

The mind-body problem is a legacy from the scientific revolution which started in the 16th century and reached its culmination point with Newtonian physics. Starting with Galileo’s and Descartes’ formulation of this problem we will discuss different philosophical positions in a more in-depth fashion. In the behavioral- and neurosciences these problems transform into questions about consciousness, conscious experience, and conscious perception. Those topics disappeared from science with the rise of behaviorism in the early twentieth century. But now they are back in the behavioral- and neurosciences again. Only over the past few decades consciousness has reappeared in cognitive science and neuropsychology. We will start this course with some philosophy, then we will scrutinize modern day sciences, especially cognitive science and neuroscience for ideas on mind and consciousness. At the end of the course we will go back to philosophy and we will ask ourselves whether all this empirical knowledge from psychology and neuroscience has brought us further in unraveling the brain-consciousness- (or mind-body) problem.

Course objectives

• To acquaint students with current ideas, philosophical arguments and empirical evidence on the nature of mind and the relationship between mind and body. We focus on modern cognitive and neuropsychological theories in the area of consciousness. Philosophical reflection on the caveats and problems associated with the notion of consciousness will be stimulated.  

Prerequisites

COR1002 Philosophy of Science and at least one 2000-level course from either Humanities, Social Sciences or Sciences.

This course looks at the brain: what it does and how it does it. It takes students on a journey through contemporary neuroscience. What do we know about how the brain enables you to feel, see, move, experience emotions, and have thoughts and memories? What do we still need to know, and what happens when the brain starts to go wrong? 

This course gives students an insight into aetiology, assessment, treatment, and service provision in clinical psychology in the UK. Selected topics covering adult psychological disorders, child and adolescent problems, the neuropsychology of psychological disorders, and learning disabilities are presented mainly by practicing clinical psychologists with expertise in these areas. 

This course explores the career path of a health psychologist and the work health psychologists are likely to be engaged in. Students learn about the relationship between lifestyle behaviors and health, and they evaluate and discuss the application of psychology to  choices regarding lifestyle behaviors. The course also provides several different health psychology models and explains their use in the prediction of lifestyle behaviors; highlights the real-life application of psychology to behavior change interventions for unhealthy lifestyle behaviors; and applies theoretical models in health psychology to developing real-world interventions.