Psychology

This course examines the science of what enables individuals to operate at the peak of their potential, including the conditions that are thought to give rise to optimal motivation, emotional agility, resilience, and other factors that support wellbeing and performance. It explores skills and pathways for cultivating wellbeing while giving consideration to relevant individual differences and cultural factors. The content draws on a variety of disciplines, including psychology, education, philosophy, sports science, and organizational science. It covers the historical and philosophical views of wellbeing, motivation, and performance; the paradigm shift from problem-focused to strengths-based approaches; and the evolution from individual- to system-level perspectives of what contributes to wellbeing. 

This course examines key theories and approaches used to understand and influence health and wellbeing. Consideration will be given to the types of questions that are asked by health psychology researchers, and the different methods and tools used to deepen understandings of health and illness in the social world.

This course introduces students to the field of social psychology and the principles underlying group and individual interaction.  It presents the historical and philosophical roots of social psychology in the context of the current state of the discipline.  Students become acquainted with debates and tensions between different schools within social psychology and are presented with critiques of the discipline. The course presents the richness, complexity, and variety of human social behavior and the discipline that studies it in a conceptually integrated way. 

This course examines conceptual, methodological, and ethical issues at the center of current debates in the field of cognitive neuroscience. It explores how brain-behavior relationships are identified and used to inform models of cognition; methods of measuring and influencing cerebral activity; the neural mechanisms underlying a wide range of mental processes, such as attention, perception, and memory; and the implications of advances in our knowledge of the brain for psychiatric and neurological populations and society at large.

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of age‐related change and consistency across the spectrum of human growth. This course builds on students' prior knowledge and introduces them to longstanding and current issues. The focus is on presenting the key elements of each perspective under scrutiny and then inviting students to critically review, examine, and evaluate the available information. Topics include: Stressed out kids? The over-scheduling debate. Prejudiced from preschool? The development of stigma in childhood. Decision-making in pediatrics: How should child patients get involved? Are children reliable and credible witnesses? Impressionable young minds? Screen time & child outcomes.  

This course examines important conceptual frameworks and theory within social psychology and the social sciences generally. Māori perspectives and exemplars will be a significant emphasis within the course. 

This course provides a study of the developmental psychology of school-age children and the influence of education on their development. It begins with discussion of the general theories of development before exploring physical and psychomotor development, cognitive development, development of communication, language, and personality, and social development. The course also examines the changes in learning and motivation in education as well as development in the educational contexts of school, family, peers, media, and technology. 

This course enhances students’ knowledge of emotion science and their capacity to evaluate empirical data and current emotion theories, show how findings from a range of methodologies contribute to our understanding of emotion and strategies for enhancing emotional wellbeing, and enables students to discuss and evaluate contemporary research in written and oral formats, both independently and in groups. 

This course is focused on the topic of infant and early childhood cognition, and draws on our knowledge of the developing brain and findings from neuroimaging. It begins with an introduction to the field of infant cognitive development, an overview of brain development, and current methodology for studying infants and their brains. The course covers a new topic each week, including both domains of knowledge (objects, number, faces, social reasoning, morality) and mechanisms of early learning (information expectation, information seeking, statistical learning). The course provides a state of the art on cognitive development and focuses on the most recent research that has transformed our understanding of what and how infants learn.

This course introduces students to current models within clinical psychology and describe the role of clinical psychology within a range of mental health services. Students are introduced to prevailing models within clinical psychology and examine approaches to the aetiology, assessment, formulation, intervention, and evaluation of psychological presentations across the life span.