Psychology

This course discusses psychological and neuroscientific studies on visual awareness and voluntary actions. It selects and critically assesses influential publications in this field and discuss their wider implications.

This course provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities for research psychologists with the growing development of social robotics. This is achieved by examining the state of the art in this domain, investigating social robotics use in clinical disorders, and exploring different areas where social robotics research holds potential to inform our understanding of human cognition and behavior.

This is a research project carried out under the guidance of a supervisor at the Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) at the University of Edinburgh.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

The field of computational psychiatry has taken off over the last decade. Research in this field uses computational modeling to identify the precise component mechanisms underlying deficits and biases in learning, decision-making and other cognitive processes. The first part of this course reviews some of the early classic papers in this new field illustrating how this approach has been used to advance understanding of psychiatric disorders ranging from anxiety and depression to addiction and schizophrenia. Each week, one or two papers are set in advance, presented using a lecture format, and discussed via class participation. These papers are selected to present some of the most widely used theoretical frameworks and experimental tasks. In the second part of the course, students are introduced to current issues in advancing the nosology of psychiatric disorders. This covers why the field has become unhappy with traditional binary diagnostic categories and alternate approaches advanced to address this, including NIMH’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework for investigating psychiatric disorders, the Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology (HiTOP), and modeling of latent factors to tease apart symptom variance associated with comorbid conditions. Following this, students are introduced to precision and translational psychiatry and issues pertaining to the promise or perils of translating computational psychiatry findings into real-world practice.

This course examines theoretical developments in the psychology of learning from a behavior analytic perspective. It provides definitions of the basic behavioral terminology and an overview of the emergence of the experimental analysis of behavior. By focusing on theoretically important experiments, it traces the evolution of behavior analytic research, starting with animal-based work using simple classical and operant conditioning paradigms and finishing by examining modern behavior analytic research on language and higher cognition in humans. The strong scientific tradition of behavior analysis is emphasized, as evidenced by rigorous measurement of behavior, precise specification of methods, and careful interpretation of outcomes.

This course introduces fundamental modeling principles in psychology, with a particular focus on model testing using the maximum likelihood approach. It covers the formulation of model likelihoods and the application of computational techniques to maximize them. The course demonstrates the use of models through examples primarily drawn from perception and cognition. Topics include threshold models, signal detection theory, multinomial processing tree models, reinforcement learning models, and more.

This course focuses on the psychology of emotional well-being as well as strategies on how the study of emotion can be applied to different domains of life. It discusses various concepts related to emotional well-being from different psychological perspectives, developing a deeper understanding of the positive and negative emotions experienced by human beings and analyze their causes and effects on well-being. It explores the various models of emotion and critically analyzes their merits and limitations, as well as their practical application. It explores various classic theories such as Basic Emotion Theory, Social Constructivist Theory, Cognitive Appraisal Theory, and the RULER Model of Emotion Intelligence.

This course offers a brief survey of the neural mechanisms that underlie health behaviors such as eating, drug use, and stress. Besides learning about neural mechanisms important across diverse health domains, students learn to examine a particular health behavior in detail, not only understanding its underlying neural mechanisms, but using this understanding to develop future research. 

The course provides an interdisciplinary overview of the developmental science of adolescence and emerging adulthood. The course highlights contemporary theories of adolescent development and emerging adulthood by drawing on neurobiological, psychological, and sociological perspectives of adolescence. The course also critically examines major developmental issues of adolescence, including peer influences, health risk behaviors, stress and mental health problems, learning and achievement, and the development of purpose and identity, and more. Across topics, students will have the opportunities to learn about important empirical and theoretical literatures, and explore novel insights for parenting, youth policy, and theory-driven educational interventions to address pressing developmental issues that characterize the transition from childhood to adolescence and emerging adulthood. 

This course is structured into two parts: Part 1 – Lecture and Seminar (1.5 hours) and Part 2 – Discussion and Team-Based Practicum (1.5 hours). In the lecture and seminar sessions, we examine key developmental issues characteristic of adolescence and emerging adulthood through critical analysis of textbook chapters alongside supplementary materials. Starting from Week 3, students engage in practical, inquiry-based learning activities such as team discussions, data analysis, research design, and the development of empirical research proposals, using topic-relevant scholarly papers and empirical datasets. 

Prerequisites: Introduction to Psychology, Statistics and Research Methods in Psychology or equivalent course. 

This course introduces various ways in which psychology can contribute to understanding and improving facets of everyday life. The course critically reviews theory and research and their applications to a variety of life domains. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking skills in considering the relevance of evidence-based psychology for specific areas of everyday life. Lectures are delivered by staff and guest speakers, who present material from their own areas of expertise. The specific topics covered vary by year, but examples of previous topics include: psychological wellbeing; child & adolescent mental health; disability & society; group relations; humanitarian emergencies; media & entertainment; law & crime.