Psychology

Perception is a fundamental function of the interaction with the environment. For example, perceiving an object or a person is a prerequisite for proper behavior in everyday activities or communication. This course mainly focuses on vision because it is a particularly important modality among others but it aims to learn the mechanism of the visual system and its function. In most psychological studies, researchers draw an inference of an underlying (covert) mental mechanism and its function from the observable (overt) psychological phenomena. This course examines how a certain visual phenomenon can be interpreted as a clue to understanding a mental process that is hard to measure directly. Some cases of visual deficits will be introduced to promote the better understanding of the visual system by comparing with “normal” function. 

Although it is desirable that other topics should be covered such as attention or memory, almost all lectures in this course are about sensation and perception, especially vision.

This course explores various philosophical proposals that attempt to conceptually capture the activity of bullshitting and the mental state of those who engage in it. It addresses suggestions from the psychological debate related to the recipients of bullshit, focusing on the susceptibility to and the detection of bullshit. The focus of the seminar is on interdisciplinary discussion of the weekly seminar readings. Using Harry Frankfurt’s essay “On Bullshit,” questions include what is this phenomenon of misleading speech referred to as bullshit? How can bullshitting be distinguished from lying and deceiving? What are the bullshitter's goals? Who is particularly susceptible to falling for bullshit? And how can bullshit be recognized, exposed, or even overcome?

This course helps students appreciate the philosophical foundations for conducting qualitative research and to understand why and how qualitative research is carried out in psychology. A sample of current qualitative methodologies and examples of how qualitative methods may be applied in psychological settings are provided. The student is introduced to the processes involved in making sense of qualitative data and how qualitative data can and should be analyzed. Designing qualitative research reports is also covered.

This course examines the role of human psychology - human thought and behavior - in the climate and biodiversity crises. Students learn about topics such as political and social identities, motivated reasoning and cognitive biases, money and power, human and social systems, morality, and the psychology of protest and civic action. 

Students study memory systems, language comprehension and production, thinking and reasoning, problem solving, decision making and creativity as well as examples of applications of the contribution of these processes in understanding real-life applied situations (e.g. driving; food choices; navigating the environment; etc.). The applied settings also relate to perception and attention. Students learn how to describe the memory systems and demonstrate an understanding of speech and language production and comprehension. They explain thinking and reasoning and their fallacies. This course teaches students to describe and critically evaluate the contribution of cognitive psychology in explaining real-life situations. 

Theoretical-practical course whose purpose is for students to identify the concepts and theories of the study of human personality considering their respective historical, cultural and epistemological contexts, based on the transmission of content in classes and evaluation activities in which they must propose synthesis and original applications of the contents reviewed in the course.

This course aims at providing knowledge about adjustment and personal growth to enable students to develop more effective coping skills and social behaviors. Topics include models of personality, life cycle, self-identity, love and attraction, sexual knowledge and fulfilment, marriage and family, life style and health, stress management, social skills training, assertiveness training and theories on competent personhood.

This course introduces students to the critical potential of "everyday lived experience" as a radically different approach to psychological research and practice that provides a link between psychology and social theory. Introduction to psychology of everyday lived experience; concepts such as lived experience, voice, values, subject position, participation; ethnography of lived experience as researching with the other; case studies such as children living in a debt economy, the everyday experience of being a migrant, digital technology and the transformation of everyday living, everyday caring, etc. Case studies vary from year to year.

Theoretical-practical course whose purpose is for students to acquire fundamental knowledge of evolutionary development during the school stage, adolescence, adulthood and senior citizen, based on active participatory methodologies.