Psychology

This course explores mental health issues, relational conflicts, and environmental challenges in modern society while emphasizing resilience as one of the key factors in prevention and recovery. Students learn and apply strategies to strengthen resilience and navigate life’s challenges. Through discussions and activities, students develop inner strengths, build healthier relationships, and promote mental health for themselves and others. 

Topics include Depression, Anxiety, Perfectionism, Attention-related issues, Relationships, Society and culture, Digital world, Connections, Perseverance, Self-regulation, Postivity, Self-care, Resilience and community. 

This graduate course varies depending on the research topic but may include weekly lab meetings, presentations of up-to-date research articles, and participation in scientific discussion with the instructor and lab colleagues related to the topic of brain and consciousness.

This course provides an introduction to research methodology with an emphasis on experimentation. The goal of this course is to teach students how to turn an idea into a good research question and then turn that question into rigorous research studies. To do so, we survey a variety of basic and advanced research techniques, including experimental, behavioral, observational, survey, and physiological methods. Students participate in discussions to understand the applications of each class topic to their research interests. Finally, students design their own studies that utilize methodological approaches.  

Topics include Having and testing ideas, Operationalization and issues of validity, Statistical power and correlational design: measurement construction, Experimental design, Repeated sampling, Survey, Unobtrusive measures and observation, Inducing and assessing emotions, Physiological methods, Dyadic and group designs, Meta-analysis and cross-cultural research, Presenting and publishing research. 

This course provides an understanding of the neural basis of behavior and mind. It introduces the field of neuroscience and behavioral neurobiology from a biological perspective, incorporating both evolutionary and physiological approaches to behavior. Topics include the structure and function of the nervous system, genetic and biochemical models of behavior, hormones and behavior, the biological bases of learning, cognition, communication, and language, and the evolution of social organization.

This course introduces the rich combination of text and illustrations in picture books, exploring their entertainment, educational, artistic, and literary qualities. It progresses from appreciating picture books to creating illustrated stories based on one's own life experiences, showcasing personal emotional expression. The theoretical component uses "Healthy Little Parade" as a textbook, referencing its application of emotional themes and teaching methods for extending and applying storytelling. The creative practice section combines art therapy and narrative therapy.

In Fundamental Cognitive Neuroscience, learn about these processes as well as other complex phenomena such as consciousness, brain structure, and how we change as we age. The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject of cognitive neuroscience and is aimed at both students and professionals in, for example, healthcare, or education. The course covers perception, attention, how memory works, emotions, higher cognitive function, communication and our view of others.  All based on what we know about the brain today.

This course pays special attention to issues of theory and method in the psychology of religion, in order to develop an understanding of personal identity, as well as mental and spiritual health in religious contexts. While recognizing the importance of gender, class, race, ethnicity and other social forms of identity, the course focuses on religious dynamics of personal identity and the formation of selfhood through case studies in consciousness, mysticism, embodiment, intertextual reading practices and cultural resources for being human. The course explores the various ways in which religion might inform personal, social and intersubjective notions of self, while providing conception of the good/the good life. Course entry requirements: Second-year status.

Based on the theoretical foundations of counseling psychology, this course introduces different theoretical schools (psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, family therapy, art therapy, existential-group therapy, Chinese indigenous psychotherapy, etc.) and their distinct assumptions and intervention approaches regarding personality growth and psychological crises. Drawing from the history of counseling psychology and modern evidence-based scientific research and applications, the course helps students develop a fundamental understanding of common psychological states such as anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Additionally, it provides basic concepts and actionable strategies for preventing psychological crises among emerging adulthood population.

This course covers topics in contemporary issues of psychology, health, and public health, including clinical, institutional, historical, and public policy aspects. Prerequisite: a course in public health.

This course teaches the psychiatric and neurological disorders that predispose to criminal offences. Most of this course pertains to neurocognitive processes of criminal offenders. Contextual factors, such as the history and current state of neuropsychology and psychiatry are discussed to provide the desired background knowledge of this topic. A considerable part of the course is devoted to neuropsychological abnormalities in offenders who are affected by a psychiatric disorder. Another substantial part of the course pertains to offenders with acquired brain injury. The connection between neural abnormalities and criminal offences are critically evaluated for each psychiatric or neurological disorder. A completely different side of neuropsychology and law, the effect of neurocognitive disorders in victims/witnesses of crimes on their eyewitness testimony, are also dealt with.