Psychology

This course examines the development of thought, language and personality as well as issues in clinical psychology. It also covers social issues including communication, aggression, and altruism.

Through the lens of sociology and psychology, this course explores interpersonal relationships, including kinship, friendship, love, and marriage. It looks at interpersonal relationships as an essential component of human social interaction. The course also analyzes the reasons for conflict and ways to improve interpersonal relationships.

This course makes students familiar with diverse aspects of human behavior in organizations. The course considers the following: how organizations select good employees, how organizations maintain a healthy and motivated workforce, effective leadership styles, and the characteristics of high-performing teams. An array of different topics from work and organizational psychology are studied such as work stress, occupational health, emotions in organizations, leadership, personnel selection, work motivation, and teamwork. The course consists of lectures, assignments, and a group project in which students focus on one of the topics mentioned above.  At the end, there is a ‘mini conference’ in which groups present the results of their group work.

In this course, the core processes for developing theory-and evidence-based interventions are highlighted. Several topics in the field of applied psychology are discussed, such as socio-economic health inequities, safe sex, as well as sustainability topics such as pro-environmental behaviors. The application of the role of reserve capacities such as psychological and social capital, or stigma are reviewed. The course concludes with first-hand examples of existing behavior change programs, from problems they target and who are involved, to theory and empirical evidence, to development, implementation, and evaluation.

In this course, students learn about various ways to enhance cognition covering a broad range of approaches. The focus is on current hot topics such as brain stimulation, neuro-feedback, smart drugs, and meditation. Additionally, students have the opportunity to critically discuss the scientific basis of other (potential) cognitive enhancers such as sleep, hypnosis, nutrition, physical exercise, and neuro-linguistic programming. Lastly, the possibility of cognitive enhancement poses ethical questions that are discussed. At the end of this course, students have basic knowledge of the potential, current limitations, and risks of cognitive enhancement.