Psychology

This course introduces students to a variety of ways where psychological knowledge is applied to everyday problems. Topics covered include understanding mental health problems and how they can be treated, how psychology can be used to influence health and well-being, the role of psychology in the workplace, and the relevance of psychology to educational practice, including understanding why ‘bullying’ occurs and how we can prevent it. Students learn about the research and theories that support these applications of psychology to everyday problems, and be introduced to the areas of professional applied psychology that underpin them.

This course examines the psychological theories of human development and applications to real-world problems that provide a context for understanding changes in social, emotional, physical and cognitive aspects of human development throughout the lifespan.

This course presents the theoretical and computational foundations of brain-inspired artificial intelligence. The focus is on machine learning based on artificial neural networks, from simple models up to state-of-the-art deep learning models. The final part of the course introduces the use of neural networks as models of perception and cognition. Laboratory classes introduce students to computer simulations with artificial neural networks. The course discusses topics including artificial neural networks: mathematical formalism and general principles; supervised learning: perceptron, delta rule, multi-layered networks, and error backpropagation; generalization and overfitting; supervised deep learning; recurrent networks; unsupervised learning: associative memories and Hopfield networks, latent variable models, and Boltzmann machines; unsupervised deep learning; reinforcement learning; computer simulation as a research method in cognitive science; and connectionist models of perception and cognition. This course requires basic knowledge of mathematics (high school level), including notions of linear algebra, calculus, and probability, as well as knowledge of statistics and neuroscience as prerequisites for the course. Computer literacy is required for the lab practices.

The course introduces students to topics in applied psychology (e.g. educational psychology, psychopathology and counselling, criminal psychology and neuropsychology/science) with an emphasis on their relevance in everyday life. There is less emphasis on particular psychological theories, but more focus on how this knowledge transfers to real life situations.

This course examines the theories, knowledge and research methods of cognitive neuroscience, including developmental neuroscience; neuroplasticity; neural mechanisms; motor learning; memory; cognitive control; social-emotional processes. It will look at these topics at different developmental stages, including infants, toddlers, adolescence and the ageing population.

The influence of feminism on psychology has a long history. By criticizing the gender discrimination in the history of traditional psychology research and examination (psychology), this course explores how gender is shaped and strengthened through psychology-related research, thereby emphasizing people and their social environment. The course focus is on the understanding of psychology research, the depth of feminist critique of psychology, and the clarity of student's own expression of own ideas.

In this course, different motivational systems and their interactions are looked at. The basic approaches to the study of motivation are surveyed: the physiological, behavioral, and cognitive (or psycho-social) approaches. The topic of motivation is also intertwined with that of emotion. Emotions can have motivational properties, but what is an emotion? And what do we know about the neural systems involved in emotional processing? These questions are covered in the last part of the course. The course discusses topics including theories, findings, and major questions regarding motivation; the methods and techniques used to study motivation; and applying this knowledge to the study of a specific human behavior, theorizing about the reasons for the behavior, predicting future behavior, and designing research to test predictions