Psychology

This course provides a fundamental knowledge of philosophies and concepts for human development and social policy – its definition, theory, approaches and methods for studying social issues and development. The course also discusses the interdisciplinary nature and relevance of social policy for government policy and civil society engagement, based on global and regional frameworks – including case studies of national social policy and practices in various fields.

This course introduces a holistic approach to an exploration of normal patterns of development from infancy to old age. Social and familial conditions affecting growth at different stages in the life-cycle will be studied, together with related problems of adaptation and adjustment.

This course deals with meaning-making in art, its perception, and its cognitive basis. It has a special focus on visual works of art - that is, on how artists construct meaning in vision - but also integrates literary texts. In both domains, it conveys insight into the way in which artists creatively exploit fundamental properties of both visual and textual processing in order to produce given meaning effects. It shows how artists’ formal techniques are attuned to the properties of the visual and cognitive system, notably on the basis of recent findings in neuroaesthetics and the psychology of perception. Furthermore, this course provides a general insight into the reasons why artists’ meaning-making techniques are so efficient. Therefore, it develops the necessary tools for the precise analysis of meaning in visual and textual media, also outside the purely aesthetic domain.

This course provides an understanding of psychological knowledge in several inter-related domains concerned with the biological bases of behavior. Emphasis will be laid on basic experimental science from analysis of molecular and synaptic events, single cell studies, brain activity scans, and clinical studies, and the relationship between cognitive, emotional, behavioral, neurological, and physiological processes are examined.

This course provides a broad-based understanding of classic and contemporary theory and research in Physiological Psychology, including the development of the nervous system; the biological basis of human and non-human animal behavior, typical and atypical neuropsychology; evolutionary theories of behavior; the roles of hormones, genetics, and epigenetics in behavior; and critical evaluation of cognitive neuroimaging techniques.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of emotions research, how this produces feelings of stress and how these concepts relate to some of the most common mental disorders - depression and anxiety disorders. Students will learn about psychology as a science and how psychological research is performed (including animal and human studies). Throughout the course we will examine how the findings from this research informs the clinical description of disorders and the treatment of anxiety, stress and low mood.

The human voice is a highly flexible tool for communication with others. The course familiarizes students with the main concepts underpinning the psychological processing of the human voice, and to introduce them to research on the perception and expression of speech, emotions, and identity. The content covered ranges from basic articulatory and acoustic properties of verbal and nonverbal vocal behavior (e.g. speech, laughter), to social and cognitive aspects of voice processing (e.g. identity recognition, evaluation of personality traits), and the neural underpinnings of human voice processing.

This course examines the psychology of dementia focusing on the cognitive and psychosocial impact on individuals with a diagnosis and those who care for them. Students examine patterns of both lost and retained cognitive skills in people with dementia. Students focus on how retained skills can be maximized, and how the caregiving experience can be improved for both people living with dementia and their caregivers. 

Researchers often overlook the environmental impact of cutting edge research; however, there is growing awareness that environmental sustainability needs to be embedded into all aspects of scientific research, and that all scientific communities need to take action to preserve our planet. This interdisciplinary course meets this challenge head on. Students review scientific benefits of state-of-the-art research methods in psychology and neuroscience, while also discussing methods for assessing and mitigating the environmental impact of these activities. Students evaluate research methods such as lab work with animals and people, scientific imaging, field work, and AI and data sciences. In the context of these methodologies, students discuss the practical and ethical dimensions revolving around emerging sustainability assessment and mitigation methods both inside and outside the University.

This course surveys the paradoxical (sometimes productive) neuro-psychological phenomena that can be observed after lesions of the central or peripheral nervous system, or by non-invasive (transcranial) brain stimulation. These phenomena contrast with the more common functional deficits of brain lesions or brain stimulation, and are used as windows to detail current concepts in cognitive neuroscience, brain plasticity, and rehabilitation. Each lecture begins with case descriptions of patients with paradoxical (sometimes productive) effects of stimulation/lesions on behavior. Examples include hyper-attention; an anarchic hand; the experience of leaving one's own body; or the integration of phantom limbs into one's own body scheme. The lectures explore how these phenomena fit or inform models of cognitive processes and plasticity in different domains (e.g. attention, motor control, interhemispheric interactions, multisensory integration) and point to implications for neurorehabilitation.