Psychology

This course explores the historical and epistemological background of the so-called linguistic turn. It discusses differences between various positions related to language in social psychology including rhetoric, discourse, narrative, and social constructionism.

This course develops an integrated understanding of modern approaches to some of the core areas of psychology (the remaining core areas to be covered in Psychology 1B). Students are also presented with a broader historical, conceptual, and methodological framework of scientific and psychological research. Besides this, students are taught and can practice a range of general research skills.

This course includes laboratory experience and discusses various paradigms and phenomena related to different aspects of human cognition. The course discusses topics related to experiments including the ability to understand the aims and the experimental design underlying an experimental paradigm used to study a given phenomenon; the ability to evaluate both internal and ecological validity in a given experimental paradigm; the ability to identify the weaknesses underlying a given experimental paradigm; and the ability to accurately interpret the meaning of the results of an experiment. The course begins with methodological issues related to experimental psychology and works its way up from lower-level perceptual aspects of cognition, such as vision and object recognition, and then on to higher-level cognitive abilities. The phenomena that are illustrated and discussed are, among others, perceptual effects, the pop-out effect, the Simon effect, the Stroop effect, and also more recent phenomena illustrating how the cognitive system reacts to social signals and experimental settings with high ecological validity. Effort is made to keep theory and lab practice in parallel. Basic methodological aspects underlying the different experimental paradigms is also given strong emphasis. The course illustrates the relationship between the different effects investigated in the lab with the way cognitive processes are used in real life. The course requires students to have basic knowledge in cognitive psychology and methodology in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience as a prerequisite.

The sense of agency, the feeling of control over our voluntary actions and their outcomes, stands as a fundamental aspect of the human experience. It represents the inherent phenomenology accompanying one of the most pivotal capacities possessed by living organisms: the ability to effect change in our environments through purposeful, goal-directed behaviour — the very essence of being an agent. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that cognitive scientists from diverse domains have dedicated substantial efforts towards unraveling the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms that shape this intriguing phenomenon. In this seminar, (1) we will cover the classic papers that have laid the foundation for sense of agency research in experimental psychology, (2) we will discuss and critically evaluate different models and measures of the sense of agency, (3) we will go over sense of agency research involving multiple agents (joint agency and social agency), (4) and finally, we will discuss sense of agency and AI (“synthetic agency”).

This course introduces the representative studies and core theories in the fields of behavioral economics and decision psychology. The lectures include topics such as prospect theory, heuristics and biases, self-control, and social decision making. This course teaches one how to analyze and solve various problems of choice in daily life, based on the psychological and economic theories of decision making.

Designed for advanced level undergraduate Psychology students, participants must have taken the introductory psychology courses (both I and II) or similar courses; students who do not meet this prerequisite must seek permission from the instructor on the first day of the course. To succeed in this course, it is highly recommended that participants are familiar with basic terms in elementary statistics.

This course introduces the study of human development through the life-course. It considers biological, psychological, and social domains of concern, viewing development as a product of genetic maturational, self-directed, and social factors. A psychosocial perspective provides the orienting framework for the course, emphasizing the continuous interaction of person and social environment. The framework helps students identify essential tasks, concerns, and sources of vulnerability and resilience in development and functioning through the life course.  

The course encompasses a range of perspectives, drawing on recent lines of inquiry in neuroscience and neuropsychology; psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and social learning theories; ecological models; stress and coping studies; and concepts of culture, race, and ethnicity related to growth and behavior. Lecture and discussion seek to bridge theoretical perspectives, social policy considerations, and direct practice issues with particular attention to diverse and vulnerable populations. 

Advanced statistical techniques for the analysis of psychometric data, focusing on reliability analysis, principal component analysis, cluster analysis, and various regression techniques. Students lean how to evaluate psychometric scales and use them for prediction and measurement.

This course discusses the main neuropsychological syndromes and the neuropsychological profile of the main neurological and psychiatric diseases. The course explores topics including an introduction to clinical neuropsychology and neuropsychological assessment; neurology and neuroradiology for neuropsychologists; cognitive deficits and neuropsychological syndromes in neurological disorders; neurodegenerative diseases, dementia, and its risk and protective factors; and neuropsychological profile in psychiatric disorders. The course requires students to have a basic understanding of concepts from psychobiology, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuropsychology as a prerequisite.