Course Catalog

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Course Catalog

SHATTERED BRAINS, FRACTURED MINDS (PY2009)

This course provides knowledge - but also provokes the student's knowledge on the mind-brain relationship. Phenomena in brain-damaged patients teach us how the brain creates our mind. We will talk about how memory, language, visual perception, but also social processes or the body image are represented in the brain. This course is not a standard neuropsychology course and is accessible for non-psychology students.

INTRODUCTION TO GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND SOCIETY (PY2010)

Surveys major issues concerning gender and the science of psychology in an attempt to answer the question: why is there such a gender gap when women and men share more psychological similarities than differences? Topics include: developmental processes and gender; gender roles and stereotypes, biology and gender; cross-cultural perspectives of gender; social-cultural theories of gender; language and gender, emotions and gender, health and gender.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (PY2013)

The course is an introduction to developmental psychology. From various points of view it explores the key question What is, and how can we understand, human development? It engages with central issues of developmental psychology (among others, through the work of influential psychologists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, E. Erikson, Jerome Bruner, Katherine Nelson, Peggy J. Miller, and Michael Tomasello) and puts them into cross- and interdisciplinary contexts. These contexts include evolutionary theory; cultural and sociocultural, narrative, and critical psychology; history; anthropology; and philosophy. Beyond the scientific and conceptual domain, the course also investigates phenomena of human development in literature, arts, and film.
PY1000 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite.

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY (PY2020)

Students will learn the basics of doing experimental research in psychology, including the ethics of working with human subjects, researching ideas in the scholarly literature, and designing and interpreting research findings. The principles learned here apply in many domains where research is employed to describe and understand persons and social reality. MA1020 is recommended as a prerequisite.

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY LAB (PY2020L)

This LAB is a co-requisite for PY 2020. It will take place every second week. RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY LAB A and B are therefore scheduled at the same in the same room.

PERSONALITY & INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES (PY2022)

Personality addresses central psychological questions on how persons think, feel and act. This course provides students with a solid foundation in the basics of theory and research in personality psychology. Students will be introduced to classic and contemporary perspectives in the field, continuing controversies and debates and the rationale and techniques for personality assessment. PY1000 is recommended as a prerequisite.

ABNORMAL & CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY (PY2043)

Examines the classification systems for abnormal behavior, using the DSM IV Multiaxial diagnostic system as the base for studying currently recognized major diagnostic categories. Uses an integrative biopsychosocial model to study the etiology of various psychological disorders as well as empirically supported treatment methods.

CLINICAL THEORIES (PY2044)

This course will provide an introduction to theories of personality and counseling, including psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, and family systems approaches. Theories will be examined in relation to their key concepts, view of human nature, therapeutic processes, techniques and procedures. Theories will be critiqued and compared, with special emphasis on the application of cultural and ethical issues

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PY2045)

Studies the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations. Presents the basic fields of study that compose the science of social psychology, and how its theories impact on most aspects of people's lives. Topics of study include: conformity, persuasion, mass communication, propaganda, aggression, attraction, prejudice, and altruism.

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY (PY2046)

Human beings are cultural beings. We cannot understand human nature without understanding its cultural fabric. We cannot understand ourselves and our being in the world without understanding this world as a cultural world, in fact, as consisting of multiple cultural worlds in which we live at the same time. In this course, we inquire why the cultural dimension is crucial for human psychology. To this purpose, we explore a number of cultural worlds, Western and non-Western. We also investigate various psychological functions such as thinking and consciousness, remembering and memory, and self-construction and identity. And we look at different cultural sign and symbol systems such as language, art, literature, and film. In this way, the course also offers the opportunity to think about our own cultural existence and the way we view ourselves and others.