Psychology

The course is designed to equip students with experience, knowledge, and skills for succeeding in globally interdependent and culturally diverse workplaces. During the course, students are challenged to question, reflect upon, and respond thoughtfully to the issues they observe and encounter in the internship setting and local host environment. Professional and personal development skills as defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), such as critical thinking, teamwork, and diversity are cultivated. Assignments focus on building a portfolio that highlights those competencies and their application to workplace skills. The hybrid nature of the course allows students to develop their skills in a self-paced environment with face-to-face meetings and check-ins to frame their intercultural internship experience. Students complete 45 hours of in-person and asynchronous online learning activities and 225-300 hours at the internship placement.

In this course, students learn to use neuroscience methods to study the cognitive development of infants, children, and adolescents. The course begins with the various methods used in developmental cognitive neuroscience, such as pediatric and infant MRI, EEG, and fNIRS. In this context, students uncover and discuss the benefits and challenges of each approach and the feasibility of studying different age ranges. The course then examines typical brain development as assessed with in vivo MRI (including trajectories of white & gray matter over the life span). Next, are more specific aspects of cognitive development such as the development of visual processes where students learn how learning to read affects the brain and how regions involved in face processing develop throughout childhood to support important social functions such as face recognition. Topics are approached using a mix of formats including active participation, working in subgroups, presentations, short lectures, and videos.

This course explores the application of psychological principles, theories, and methods of research in studying religious behavior, cognition, and motivation, as well as the role of religion in human life. The course draws on the contributions of other fields of psychology and focuses on the attitudes, values, and experiences of people and their relationship with the supernatural. Topics covered include: the emergence of psychology of religion; approaches to the study of psychology of religion; religious experience; morality; coping and adjustment; and functions of religion in adult life.

This course provides a broad foundation for the study of human social behavior. Topics such as attitudes, social cognition, interpersonal relations and group processes are discussed. One aim of this course is to introduce students to the theories and research of social psychology. A second aim is to help students appreciate how the findings of social psychologists are relevant and applicable to the day-to-day situations in our lives.

This course analyzes the complex nature of language from its structural, functional, and processing dimensions. It explores the functional architecture of the language processing system and the processes involved in comprehension and production.

Autobiographical memory is the ability to remember and reconstruct the past. This course focuses on how people remember their lives, and how cultural factors influence autobiographical remembering. In this context, the course discusses research in cultural differences on cognition and autobiographical memory, especially in cultural life scripts and life stories, as well as childhood amnesia and the reminiscence bump.