Psychology

This course consists of an overview of the third wave of cognitive therapy, particularly Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT focuses on strategies of mindfulness and acceptance as well as interventions to clarify values and modify behavior. This seminar focuses on the following questions: (1) What is mindfulness and what forms of mindfulness-based therapy are there? (2) What are the basic assumptions and goals of ACT? (3) What is psychological flexibility and through which processes can it be promoted? (4) How and when can ACT be used in adults and children and adolescents to treat mental disorders? Students develop workshops on an ACT process in groups and carry them out as part of the seminar. The seminar is experience-oriented and interactive and includes practical exercises. The bulk of the course content is distributed in the form of research papers and interactive classroom presentations and discussions.

The module focuses on attention and cognitive control, memory, language, social interaction, problem solving and thinking, and decision making. This module communicates knowledge about the neurocognitive basis of emotion and how cognitive function is influenced by emotion and introduces different types of brain damage and psychoorganic syndromes. Students participate in laboratory demonstrations to train important skills for conducting empirical studies in cognitive neuroscience, including reporting the results in accordance with the international norms for publication in psychology. This course is part of PSYCHOLOGY: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE (30 ECTS).

The course examines the classical distinction between 'nature’ and ‘nurture’, and the status of genetic and environmental explanations of psychological variation. The research techniques covered include twin studies, gene-environment interaction studies, Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and polygenic risk scores. The course also explores the nature of gender differences, including the role of biological sex and culture in the development of gender identity, and sex differences in cognitive abilities and vulnerability to mental health problems and developmental disorders such as autism. Lastly, students explore social and cultural influences on the vulnerability to mental health problems, using developmental psychology, global mental health, and social psychiatry approaches. 

In this course students learn about crucial cognitive functions. To learn about these functions, the course looks at ‘distorted’ cognitions in health, in neurological, and in psychiatric patients. Distortions, in memory, perception, and across other areas of cognition, are highly informative. Healthy human beings are often inaccurate when judging what is right in front of their eyes, what happened in an event from their memory or how much their behavior is modulated by emotional responses. Neurological injury leads to systematic changes in perception and cognition and by studying these distortions we can learn about the role of different brain regions and networks in affected functions. Finally, psychiatric illness often dramatically modulates conscious experience. From looking at both everyday and pathological ‘distortions’ students learn more about how the brain fulfils the incredibly complex task of creating our mental world. 

A research project that assigns students to expert professors in their proposed research topic. The course takes the students' research capabilities to a more professional level. This can be most closely compared to what is called a supervised research project in the USA.

This course is designed as a comprehensive survey course of theory and research in social psychology. The goal is to explain how human thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other people and cultural background. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to critically think about how research in social psychology can shed light on events going on around the world and in their own lives and how it can help to better human existence. The main topics include: the self; social perception; social cognition and information processing; attitudes and persuasion; conforming; prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination; social influence and group behavior, and romantic, aggressive, and helping behavior; and applied social psychology.
 

The course introduces students to basic concepts in the study of human sexuality from a psychological perspective and encourages students to think about the personal, social, and cultural dimensions of human sexuality. It covers topics such as clinical sexology, the context of sexuality in Irish society, sexual health promotion, and a critique of contemporary issues including “hooking up,” pornography and sexualization, and sexuality, with a particular focus on youth and emerging adulthood.