Psychology

This course draws from a range of theoretical, clinical, and methodological approaches to explore several key topics: the origin of the drive to pursue and persevere; the theory behind decision-making and the control over our choices; the prospect and challenges of change; the part psychology plays in our habits, the choice of partners, in our professional careers; the origins of power, narcissism, altruism, grit, and risk-taking. The course analyzes and discusses both the scholarly ramifications of these ideas and also how to understand them in our lives and society more broadly. This course examines the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and our choices. Through reading the text, books and articles, through lectures, discussions, class presentations, debates, case studies, multimedia, and a field trip, students study how psychology impacts most aspects of who they are and what choices they make. The prerequisite for this course is an introductory psychology course.

This course addresses the fundamental concepts and important research findings related to contemporary theories of associative learning in animals and humans. It examines the application of such fundamental research to issues such as drug use and food choice. It fosters skills in reading primary sources in this area and provides hands-on experience in carrying out a research project.

This course examines the study of preferences and experimental aesthetics within its historical context, the main themes of neuroesthetics and topics of debate in the field, and the methodologies used in the empirical study of aesthetics. The course discusses topics including the definitions of art, empirical aesthetics, Darwin and evolutionary perspectives, sensory systems , reward systems, scenes and landscapes, motion, color, faces and body, and current debates and future developments. The course requires basic knowledge of the foundations of cognitive psychology, of perception, and of the neural basis of behavior.

This course offers a study of neurology. The course discusses topics including general knowledges of anatomy and biochemistry of the central nervous system including neurotransmitters; general knowledges of neuroimaging; and pathogenesis, clinical manifestations and prognosis, possibility of pharmacological and surgical treatment, and neuropsychological correlates of the following diseases: Alzheimer dementia, Parkinson disease, tauopathies; Huntington disease, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, Epilepsy, cerebrovascular diseases, multiple sclerosis, and palliative care and end of life. The course requires students to have knowledge of the anatomy of the central nervous system and main vascular districts, and general knowledge of magnetic resonance imaging, PET, and SPECT, as prerequisites for the course.

In this course, the clinical aspects of the various anxiety disorders are presented as well as knowledge of theories and models about the maintenance factors and their treatment implications. In the tasks, case histories of patients with anxiety disorders are arranged according to different focus points. The framework is built by the various anxiety disorders (specific phobia, social anxiety disorders, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder). Based on these different anxiety disorders three different theories concerning the etiology and maintenance factors of anxiety are studied 1) learning theory, 2) cognitive theory, and 3) biological models of anxiety. Treatment implications from these different theories are also studied.

The course discusses the significance of interpersonal relationships and introduces several theories which systematically explain the psychological factors in human relationships. The course focuses on the relationships between family members; friends; colleagues, and persons of the opposite sex.

In this course basic principles of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry are discussed to develop an understanding of how these biological factors underlie human brain function. Topics include biological basis of emotion, motivation, stress, sleep, autistic, ADHD, and substance abuse disorders. Students become familiar with multidisciplinary methods of investigation through use of behavioral, computational, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging tools.

This course discusses the cognitive (e.g., conditioning, skill learning, interference paradigms) and neurobiological (e.g., long-term potentiation and molecular neuroscience, brain anatomy, hippocampus) substrates of memories and how they can be changed, and discusses important research methods and behavioral paradigms to study memory manipulation. Further, it discusses how these principles and methods can be applied in fields of education, cognitive enhancement, and clinical therapy. There are no prerequisites, but a strong interest in research methods, cognitive science and/or neuroscience of memory is highly recommended.