Psychology

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.

This course introduces students to learning about, practicing, and discussing the most effective science-backed methods for improving psychological well-being and building resilience. The course also places these often Millenia-old practices into their historical and cultural contexts. Students participate in and critically reflect on personal experiences with wellness practices and apply Thematic Analysis to qualitative data derived from journaling.  Topics include What is learned optimism, Resilience and positivity ratio, Mindfulness and science. e.g. Evolutionary psychology, plasticity, cognitive science, Thematic Analysis and its applications.

This course explores questions of memory, remembering, and time as these are refracted and represented via a range of verbal, literary, and cultural forms. The course considers the making of collective and public memory (e.g. the creation of national pasts; cultures of commemoration; oral history; testimonial forms; displacement, exile and global conflict; literatures of war) but also the question of individual and personal memory (e.g. language and identity; narrative and subjectivity; literature and psychoanalytic theory). As such, the course opens onto a wide range of topics, including but not limited to: the relation between the literary text and the history text; life-writing, autobiography and memoir; representations of childhood and ageing; engagements with the archive; the question of silenced, repressed or invisible histories; the historical, post-colonial and post-apartheid novel; discourses of trauma, truth and reconciliation; old age and forgetting; death and commemoration. Course entry requirements: At least second-year status.

This course introduces major topics in social psychology, including the social self, decision-making, attitudes and persuasion, conformity, helping and aggression, prejudice, and interpersonal relationships. It aims to deepen students’ understanding of social psychological phenomena and provide meaningful opportunities to apply these principles to personal experiences, everyday environments, and broader social contexts.

Health psychology is the scientific study of how biological, psychological, and social factors affect health promotion as well as the prevention and treatment of illness. The course looks at how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they cope and recover when they are ill. This course introduces students to the theoretical models, research methodology, empirical findings, and current issues in health psychology.