Psychology

The course examines and evaluates different approaches to understanding and treating common psychological disorders. The history of these is considered along with the current forms of such models. The application of these models to treatments is described and the effectiveness of the treatments assessed.

This course aims discusses the main theories on learning and memory from a cultural differences perspective (for example, learning and cognitive styles in Western vs Eastern cultures), of intelligence, personality, and personality disorders from an individual differences perspective. The course examines theories on mood, emotion, and motivation. At the end of the course, students should be able to exhibit knowledge on theories and methods used to study personality, intelligence, learning, memory, emotion, and motivation from an individual and cultural differences perspective. This course requires students to have completed a general Psychology course as a prerequisite.

This course introduces the psychology of language which explores the relationship between the human mind and language. It aims to gain insights into the way in which the configuration of the human mind shapes language. It is concerned with how the cognitive system processes language and tries to provide accounts for it in terms of cognitive models based on experimental data. This course covers the following topics: language and the brain; language acquisition; animal communication and language; origin of language; representation of linguistic information in memory; sentence processing, and text comprehension. 

The course introduces a range of both theoretical and practical issues encountered by researchers when planning and carrying out studies involving atypical populations. The course attempts to integrate diverse research topics and explanatory models within a broader framework of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in order to demonstrate how challenging might be an effective end-to-end research process. The introductory sessions present the theoretical background and seek to highlight different methodological aspects (from participants recruitment to ethical issues in practice) driving the research in this field. The second part of the course focuses on critical discussions of current research works in the field, with particular attention to cognitive and emotional aspects in educational settings. The course discusses topics including research on atypical child development in educational settings; an overview of main approaches and explanatory models of atypical development; research methods in atypical development: from participant recruitments to ethical issues in practice and practical (clinical/educational) implications of results; critical evaluation of different research techniques according to studies aims and settings; individual and environmental risk vs. protective factors in atypical development; and cognitive and emotional research topics in atypical populations (specific learning disorders, ADHD, and Autism Spectrum Disorders). The course requires students to have basic knowledge of typical developmental psychology and research methods as a prerequisite.

Whether animals of different species have consciousness, concepts, representation, communication, and cultural abilities is not only an open question, but also closely related to people's daily curiosity and animal ethical practices. Through the study of this course, students are expected to master the methodology of philosophy of science and achieve a reflective balance between the transcendental thinking of philosophy of mind and the empirical evidence of cognitive science.