Psychology

This course examines some features of the disciplines that study animal behavior and focuses on the most relevant methods of investigation. The different aspects of behavior are examined from a comparative perspective and with a particular focus on cognitive and perceptual processes. The course discusses topics including a brief history of ethology and comparative psychology, approaches to the study of behavior, the evolution of behavior, phylogeny and behavior, physiological mechanisms and behavior, learning and cognition, motivation, early experience and learning, comparative cognition, social behavior, living in groups, social cooperation, predators and preys, optimal foraging theory, and anti-predatory behavior. The course recommends students have basic knowledge of general biology, psychobiology, and genetics as a prerequisite.

This course explores human memory and attention. Topics include theories of attention, short- and long-term memory, and processes involved in memory encoding, maintenance, and retrieval. The course emphasizes the development of the skill of critical evaluation of evidence and theory. Lectures are accompanied by practical classes, in which students gain experience in experimental methods used in cognitive research, and seminars in which research papers are critically evaluated.

This course provides an introduction to mental health and clinical psychology. Students learn the theories, techniques, and applications of clinical psychology. Additionally, through case studies, students learn how to conduct clinical evaluations according to scientific standards, and develop intervention plans, in order to quickly improve the client's core problems. The course focuses on the teaching and practice of four major areas of clinical psychology: clinical psychological assessment, clinical psychological intervention, social services and regional assistance, and clinical psychological research. Research in clinical psychology is a required part of the course.

This course offers an introduction to neuropsychology and the primary methods used within the field. Topics include: attention; memory; perception and movement; executive function; neuropsychological rehabilitation.

This course covers the conceptual frameworks and applied methodologies for user centered design and user experience research. Emphasis is placed on learning and practicing a variety of usability research methods/techniques such as scenario development, user profiling, tasks analysis, contextual inquiry, card sorting, usability tests, log data analysis, expert inspection and heuristic evaluation. This is a research and evaluation course on usability and user experience with the assumption that the results of user and usability research would feed directly into various stages of the interface design cycle. Assignments include learning to use Morae software suite to run tests, conducting literature review of usability research, performing a method and tool review of usability research approaches and a variety of emerging usability research software, and completing the term project in usability testing. The usability test project uses actual real time cases from organizations in the local area.

The contents of the class are arranged around the following topics: the concepts of health and illness, why do we care about health; the social determinants of health, why is health social, beyond mind and body, construing in inter-action; a systemic-constructivist model of health and illness; and caregiving experience. Depending on the nature of discussions and research articles, the class content may be adapted to promote students’ interests and engagement, and develop their research and evidence based readings. The course requires a foundation level of psychological literacy developed throughout the first to second year of undergraduate study in psychology as a prerequisite.