Psychology

This foundation course provides a study of the psychopathology of high-profile offenders, including serial killers, psychopaths, violent criminals, and sexual offenders. Taking a lifecycle approach, it examines the antecedents of offending, genetic influences, and the detection, prosecution, treatment, and punishment of this group. Real case examples are used to illustrate offender groups such as Fred West, Jeffrey Dahmer, Peter Sutcliffe, Ted Bundy, Dr Harold Shipman, Ivan Milat, and Michael Bryant. This intensive course is taught by some of Australia’s leading forensic psychiatrists, clinicians, and researchers from the forensic mental health services, police, corrective services, law, and forensic medicine.

The course discusses the main theoretical aspects and empirical findings on learning and memory processes in humans. It examines human memory and learning from a behavioral, cognitive, and neuroscientific perspective with a special emphasis on current research trends and topics. 

This is course is a study of cross-cultural issues in personnel psychology. The course discusses topics including an overview of recruitment and selection (methods, cognition, personality, motivation), job performance (appraisal and management), training, and career development (career calling); key concepts, theories, and issues of the cross-cultural approach to the study of personnel: effect of culture on organizational process (recruitment, selection and assessment) and individuals’ characteristics (personality, cognition, values, motivation and career calling); applying personnel psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and diversity management to real-world contexts and issues (e.g., diversity training, staffing and selection bias); and reflecting on the role of culture in working with culturally diverse personnel. The course requires a basic knowledge of personality traits, motivation, intelligence, psychological testing, and industrial and organizational psychology as a prerequisite.

This course is concerned with the application of psychological theory and research to criminological and forensic contexts. Students consider issues such as the following: the reliability of eyewitnesses' accounts of what they have seen and identification of faces they have encountered; why it is that faces of other races are more likely to be misidentified in police line-ups; if people can be recognized reliably from ID cards, passports, and CCTV; issues with current face recall systems; whether children make good reliable witnesses; how it is possible to tell whether someone is lying; why some people become criminals and others do not; and the relationship between mental illness and crime.

This course consists of an introduction to the major areas of interest in developmental psychology. The course explores topics such as biological, cognitive, emotional, and social development, by conceptualizing the individual as a whole at different stages of the lifespan. With an emphasis on the scientific nature of psychology, the course presents common research methodologies employed by developmental psychologists. Primary attention is devoted to the period of infancy through adolescence with some coverage of adulthood, and late life. The course focuses on questions such as: What psychological changes occur during infancy, childhood, and adolescence? What psychological processes drive the development of children? What are the psychological, neurobiological, and genetic/environmental causes of developmental disorders, such as language impairment, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia? What can psychologists do to promote healthy development in neurotypical individuals and support development among individuals with developmental disorders? The course requires students have basic knowledge on general cognitive functions such as perception, attention, language, and memory as a prerequisite.

This course offers a study of personality and difference from a psychological perspective. This course examines why and when a person behaves in a different way than someone else and how personality impacts what will happen to us in our life. The course also discusses practical applications of theory and research findings and learns to apply measurement techniques for assessing individual differences. The course explores the different theoretical conceptualizations and measurement approaches of personality and intelligence. Based on the purpose of the assessment, different methods may prove more or less useful. The course discovers different explanations for why people differ in their personality and their level of intelligence. The course looks at physiological, evolutionary-genetic, as well as contextual explanations. Further, the course analyzes the relationship between personality, intelligence, and meaningful life events. What personality traits are important for marital satisfaction and what characteristics make us become a criminal? But also, how does becoming a parent or getting a new job change our personality? Lastly the course introduces real life applications of knowledge on personality and intelligence. Specifically, the course discusses how this knowledge is used in clinical settings (e.g., when having patients with a personality disorders) and in organizational settings (e.g., for personnel selection purposes).

This course covers theories, research methods, and current issues related to child development. It specifically explores changes in biology; cognition; language; emotion; personality, and morality from birth throughout childhood.

Learning from and remembering experiences is critical for survival; failure of the psychobiological mechanisms underlying memory formation and retrieval can have severe and life-changing effects. In this course, students gain knowledge of the neural basis of learning and memory and develop an understanding of how learning and memory are impacted by, or are a feature of, various mental health conditions. Lectures may include the following topics: types of learning and memory; memory formation, persistence, and modulation; memory-related disorders, and corresponding pre-clinical models.