Psychology

This is an introductory course for discussing the integration among neural, mental, and social processes. The class intends to cover, but may not exhaust, following topics on the mind and brain: research history; research methods and basic issues; function of the basic operation of the unit and integration; evolution and development; message input - feeling, perception, and attention; the symbol of mind and brain processing - language and thought; plasticity - learning and memory; the likes and dislikes with the brain - emotional; motivation and will; output - activities; consciousness; character; heart and brain in groups - social cognition and behavior; the heart and brain of the sick - mental illness; heart and brain simulation - neural networks and artificial intelligence.

This course examines the nature and theoretical underpinnings of qualitative inquiry, including the basic techniques of qualitative methodology in Psychology.

The course offers an introduction to anthropology and sociology within the framework of the human sciences. Topics include: nature, culture, society, and conduct; forms of sociocultural construction of subjectivity; the ecological-economic domain; the socio-structural domain; the cognitive domain; conflicts and sociocultural problems.

This course offers a general introduction to perception. Topics include: sensation; sensory psychophysics; human perception; experimental psychology.

This course begins by covering the classical concept of the totalitarian state, as developed by Hannah Arendt and others, taking Hitler and Stalin as their models. Subsequent modifications and debates regarding the theory of totalitarianism, especially in the Soviet Empire, are discussed. The course questions what popular attitudes and psychological reactions exist towards totalitarian atrocities, such as the Holocaust, and under what psychological conditions are individuals capable of offering resistance. While these phenomena may now appear to be bygones of merely historical interest, the psychological aspects of “totalitarian situations” remain acutely important, even in present-day democratic societies. The massacre in My Lai, the obedience experiments carried out by Stanley Milgram, and other psychological studies provide shocking evidence of how easily average citizens are in danger of behaving inhumanely in social situations.

This course discusses the biological bases of principal cognitive processes, emotions, and human behavior. The course discusses topics including an introduction of psychobiology; psychopharmacology; genetics and evolution of the brain; movement; emotions, reward, and stress; and psychological disorders. The course recommends students have completed courses in general psychology and psychophysiology as prerequisites.

The course presents the major areas of Clinical Psychology. The course explores the main theoretical perspectives in Clinical Psychology including how to define the field of Clinical Psychology, and being able to identify the differences from neighboring disciplines; evaluating how the concept of mental disorder changed over the course of time; and the main theoretical perspectives in Clinical Psychology, and being able to identify the fundamental features that differentiate perspectives from one another. The course discusses multidimensional assessment including the main instruments and procedures used in clinical assessment, and the reasons for their use; and the reasons for, and the importance of, integrating different dimensions/indices during assessment. The course reviews research methods in clinical psychology including the main research methods used in Clinical Psychology, and their contexts of use; interpreting the results of correlational and experimental research, and of single-subject designs; and the basic characteristics and the usefulness of meta-analytic procedures in Clinical Psychology. Lastly, the course discusses psychopathology including identifying the clinical features of some main mental disorders, and evaluating the etiopathogenetic models of the mental disorders described during the course.

This course provides an introduction to the neuroscience of decision making, in particular the neural principles underlying perceptual as well as reward- and value-based decisions. Perceptual decisions involve choices based on ambiguous sensory evidence whereas reward- and value-based decisions hinge largely on probabilistic evidence and subjective preferences associated with potential choices. In addition, the role of training in perceptual decision making and the influence of reinforcement-learning in reward-based choices are discussed in the context of optimizing decision-related processing. Important methodological considerations on how the relevant neural data are collected and analyzed, including some computational modelling work, are also explored. The course draws mostly on recent research reports from both the human and non-human primate literature to illustrate the brain networks and the fundamental principles underlying decision-related processing and their relevance to interpreting neurophysiological and neuroimaging experiments and to understanding brain function in health and disease.

This course provides an introduction to the concept of abnormal psychology. The course starts with developing an understanding and knowledge about how we define abnormality in psychology and how this has developed and changed throughout history. Different approaches to understanding abnormal psychology are covered, starting with the biomedical model of abnormality. Following this, social, and cultural approaches to abnormality are covered, followed by the philosophy of abnormality. Psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive approaches to abnormality are also covered in detail. There is a focus on psychological disorders as they are currently classify them in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The hierarchy of evidence in clinical psychology research is also covered.