Psychology

This course explores the influence of a variety of social and psychological factors on health and health-related behaviors. Students debate the evidence that health is related to socio-economic status and to personality, and critically evaluate the explanations which have been put forward to account for these relationships.

This course explores how humans and other group dwelling species solve challenges by living in groups. Topics include game theory, cooperation, human communication, imitation, the relationship between gestures and speaking in human evolution and development, and why culture is important for sociality.

This course introduces basic knowledge in child development, especially the essential influence of the environment of family to child development. Course topics include: theory of child development, influence of child development, child social adaptation, psychological problems during child development, treatment, parenting, early-child development in foreign countries, baby care, disadvantaged children and child welfare. 

Students will be required to use theory to analyze relational phenomenon during child development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young people's sexual development, behavior, and upbringing have changed drastically over the past few decades. While sex used to be a topic people simply would not talk about as short as 50 years ago – especially when it came to youth - young people's sexual health had become a priority in research and public health policy today. While many concerns exist about young people's sexuality (e.g., regarding the impact of exposure to Internet porn and online dating apps), the sexual health of youth in the Netherlands is relatively good, compared to many other countries. Recent research even suggests that young people's sexual health has improved over the past decade. This raises the question to what extent societal developments relate to young people's sexual development and behavior. This course analyzes young people's sexual development and behavior. It does so by addressing different theoretical models explaining young people's sexual behavior (e.g., the evolutionary, socio-constructivist, and bio-psycho-social model); analyzing potential determinants and consequences of (un)healthy sexual behavior; and linking scientific research to (recent-) societal developments and debates, both in the Netherlands and worldwide. Lectures are provided by experts from a variety of organizations, including Utrecht University, Rutgers, the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), and the University of Amsterdam.

Ever since Freud, the unconscious mind has been a critical part of our understanding of the human mind and behavior. Despite its power to captivate popular imagination, scientific psychology's treatment of unconsciousness has a history of vicissitudes. This course traces the historical origin and subsequent development of the idea of the unconscious mind in psychological theories and practice. Freud's notion of unconsciousness, as well as lesser known, but critically important theorists' contributions are examined and their contemporary implications are discussed. The modern methods used in the contemporary examination of unconscious processes are introduced, and the current understanding of psychological unconsciousness is discussed from neuroscientific, perceptual, cognitive, developmental, social, and clinical perspectives. The course surveys the uses of the scientific understanding of unconscious processes in a variety of applied contexts and explores implications of the psychological knowledge about the unconscious mind in contemporary culture and society. This includes a critical examination of the evidence for the role of unconscious processes in abnormal human behavior and discussions about implications of the unconscious mind for identity and responsibility.

The course provides a survey of human factors and ergonomics with particular reference to human functions in human-machine systems. The course considers basic human capabilities and the ways that these capabilities are taken into account in the design of human-machine systems and work environments.

 

After introducing the scope of health psychology, this course explores the biopsychosocial and lifespan perspectives to the maintenance of health and prevention of disease. The course introduces participants to the dominant theories, models, and paradigms current in the field. The influence of some of the broad domains of psychology (developmental, social, individual differences, biological) on health are explored, and how these shape and inform the practice of public health, health promotion, and approaches to addressing the social disparities in health.

The course begins by tracing relevant theoretical perspectives, from a contrast between constructivist and ecological approaches to perception, to contemporary notions of enactive perception and embodied cognition. It will be argued that constructivist and ecological approaches have to some extent been combined in a ‘dual streams’ model of human vision, which emphasises that visual information is processed in different brain areas, in different ways, for different purposes. Evidence for this model will be considered, from neuropsychological symptoms arising from brain damage, functional brain imaging, and behavioural experiments requiring people to interact with visual illusions. We will then focus on the action side of this model, considering the requirements for effective action guidance, and sketching some basic control principles. Feed-forward and feedback control will be discussed, as a prelude to the concepts of inverse and forward modelling. We will then consider in more detail how we represent our bodies and the external world in relation to one another, in order to make purposeful action possible. We will draw distinctions between space occupied by the body, immediately around the body, within reaching distance, and beyond. We will refine our discussion of body representation with the concept of a body schema, and consider how the body schema relates to our feeling of ownership of our bodies. Finally, we will return to the idea of forward modelling, and consider whether this control principle can help explain how it is that we feel that like active agents in the world, rather than passive spectators on our own actions.