Psychology
City's Department of Psychology was amongst the first in Britain to teach health psychology, pioneered the teaching of counselling psychology and specialises in organisational psychology. Teaching style and method is increasingly orientated to problem solving rather than to the simple acquisition of facts.
The Psychology Department is based in the School of Social Sciences housed in a £22m landmark building which opened in 2004. This provides an attractive, modern space for teaching, including computing and experimental laboratories.
The following courses are normally available:
|
Code |
Course Title |
Available |
|---|---|---|
|
PS1003 |
s | |
|
PS1004 |
f | |
|
PS1005 |
f | |
|
PS1006 |
s | |
|
PS2002 |
f | |
|
PS2003 |
s | |
|
PS2004 |
f | |
|
PS2005 |
s | |
|
PS2006 |
s | |
|
PS2007 |
f | |
|
PS3002 |
f | |
|
PS3003 |
f | |
|
PS3004 |
s | |
|
PS3005 |
f | |
|
PS3006 |
s | |
|
PS3007 |
s | |
|
PS3012 |
s | |
|
PS3013 |
s | |
|
PS3015 |
s | |
|
PS3017 |
f | |
|
PS3018 |
f | |
|
PS3020 |
f | |
| PS3021 | Coaching Psychology: Theory, Research & Practice | s |
| PS3051 | Understanding Mental Health | s |
PS1003 Cognitive Approaches to Mind and Behaviour
Aims:
To introduce students to Cognitive Psychology. Students will learn about the nature of perception, information processing, phenomena and theories of memory and thinking and language.
Module Content:
- Sensation and Perception: Thresholds, Weber’s law. Signal detection theory
- Pattern recognition. Data-driven vs. conceptually-driven processing. The Gestalt laws of perception
Innate vs. learned factors in perception. Perceptual constancies and visual illusions. - Selective attention. Dichotic listening. Iconic and Echoic memory.
- Memory: Ebbinghaus and Bartlett. Encoding, storage, retrieval stages. Two-store theory. Characteristics of short-term and long-term memory.
- Levels of processing, organisation and retrieval in long-term memory
- Reconstructive memory, context effects. Episodic, semantic and procedural memory. Amnesia.
- Thinking and language: Trial and error learning vs. insight. Gestalt ideas on problem-solving. Inductive and deductive reasoning.
- Behaviourist vs. nativist views of language (Skinner vs. Chomsky). Linguistic universals. Language structure, transformational grammar. Teaching chimpanzees language
PS1004 History and Theory in Psychology
Aims:
To introduce students to the major historical and theoretical issues in Psychology. Students will learn about the philosophical origins of Psychology, behaviourism, introspection, cognitivism and postmodernism. Students will be introduced to major figures in the history of Psychology, including Wundt, James, Watson, Skinner and Piaget.
Module Content:
- The emergence of mind as a topic of scientific study – philosophical and scientific developments in the 19th century
- Behaviourism and the crisis in intrespectionism
- Psychodynamic theory
- Gestalt theory
- Genetic epistemology
- lass test
- Skinner and logical positivism
- The behaviourist crisis and the emergence of cognitivism
- Cognitive psychology and algorithmic approaches
- Chaos, discourse and networks – new developments in Psychology
PS1005 Biological Approaches to Mind and Behaviour
Aims:
To introduce students to the biological bases of behaviour. Students will learn about the role of the nervous system in behaviour, the structure of nerve cells, the organization of the nervous system, methods in the study of brain and behaviour.
Module Content:
- The brain as the organ of behaviour. Illustrated by famous cases from neurology.
- The neuron, structure and function, including action potentials and neurotransmitters.
- The brain, gross anatomy.
- The brain, detailed anatomy, including major nuclei.
- Introduction to methods.
- The midbrain and hindbrain, sleep and primitive behavioural functions.
- The diencephalon, especially the hypothalamus, autonomic regulation and homeostasis.
- The telencephalon 1, the basal ganglia and limbic system.
- The telencaphlon 2, the cerebral cortex.
PS1006 Lifespan Psychology
Aims:
To introduce students to life span developmental psychology. Students will learn about biological, physical and psychological changes that occur as we age. Four broad issues will help form the basis of students’ understanding the role of nature and nurture;critical and sensitive periods, continuity versus discontinuity and stability versus change.
Content:
- What is lifespan development? Key themes of physical, cognitive, social and personality development. Key issues such as continuity vs. discontinuity
- Prenatal Development
- Infancy and Childhood - cognitive development
- Infancy and Childhood - attachment and social development
- Infancy and Childhood -Introduction to subsequent sessions.
- Adolescence – Cognitive development and the search for identity
- Adolescence – Social development and family system changes
- Adulthood – Personal Relationships
- Adulthood – Work, unemployment and retirement. Further issues in identity
- Review of key themes and issues.
PS2002 Cognitive Psychology 1
Pre-requisite: Cognitive Approaches to Mind and Behaviour
Memory:
- Historical and theoretical issues and debates in the field of human memory
- Encoding and retrieval processes and forgetting
- Memory systems, reconstructive processes, and memory impairment
Written language processing:
- Evolution of written language
- Historical perspectives on cognitive analyses of written language processing
- Contemporary conceptual and theoretical issues: Models of lexical access in reading; mechanisms of spelling; neuropsychological approaches
- Inter-relations between reading, spelling and speech.
PS2003 Cognitive Psychology 2
Pre-requisite: Cognitive Approaches to Mind and Behaviour
Perception and Attention:
- Theories and conceptual issues in visual and auditory perception.
- Early views and elements of psychophysics.
- Structure of visual and auditor systems. Colour, depth and motion perception ; pitch perception; elements of speech perception. Patterns in visions and hearing. Face and object recognition.
- Historical development of theories of attention. Mental chronometry, selective and divided attention.
Thinking and Reasoning:
- Historical review of thinking and reasoning
- Issues in problem solving and logical reasoning
- Judgement under uncertainty
- Concepts of heuristics and biases
- Risk perception
PS2004 Biological Psychology
Pre-requisite: Biological Approaches to Mind and Behaviour
- Historical approaches to the relations between brain and behaviour
- Current issues in biological psychology
- Basic neurobiology; functional organisation of the brain
- Development of the nervous system
- Neurophysiological basis of perception, emotion, memory, reproductive behaviours, and learning and reward.
PS2005 Developmental Psychology
Pre-requisite: Life Span Psychology
- History of developmental psychology
- Current concepts in child development
- Physical development, including neural, motor and sensory development
- Cognitive development in infancy and childhood
- The development of language
- Social development; moral and emotional development.
PS2006 Social Psychology
Pre-requisite: History and Theory in Psychology
- Historical and cultural context of Social psychology; contemporary questions and conceptual issues
- Groups. Group influences. Inter-group relations and social identity theory
- Social cognition. Attitudes and attribution theory. Information processing in social context
- Social constructionism
- Relationships: explanatory theories
- Self and social context.
PS2007 Personality & Differential Psychology
Pre-requisite(s): PS1004 History and Theory of Psychology
Syllabus:
• Theories of personality.
• The notion of intelligence.
• Ways of measuring intelligence and personality.
• Extremes of normality and the concept of abnormality.
• Theories of learning and models of personality.
Preparatory Reading Suggestions:
Carver, C.S, & Scheifer, M.F. (2003) Perspectives on Personality (5th edition), New York: Allyn & Bacon.
Murphy, K.R., & Davidshoffer, C.O. (2005) Psychological Testing: Principles and Applications (6th edition), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson EducationPre-requisite: PS1004 History and Theory in Psychology
PS3002 Concepts and Categorisation
Pre-requisite: Cognitive Psychology 1 or Cognitive Psychology 2
- Similarity-based theories of concepts (Prototype and Exemplar)
- Mathematical modelling of semantics and categorization
- Theory-based theories of concepts
- The role of causal-explanatory structure
- Cognitive linguistics and philosophical approaches to the problem of meaning/concepts
- Category-based inference.
- Conceptual combination
PS3003 Judgment and Decision Making
Pre-requisite: Cognitive Psychology 2
- The subjective expected utility model. Its rationale and status as a normative decision theory
- The computation of ideal decisions
- The Ellsberg and Allais paradoxes
- Alternative descriptive accounts of decision making under uncertainty
- Prospect theory
- Descriptive theories of choice among alternatives: satisfying; elimination by aspects
- The sunk cost and Concorde fallacies
- Nonconsequentialist decisions
- Conceptions of Subjective probability and the quality of human judgment
- Bounded rationality and fast and frugal decision making
PS3004 Memory: Trends and Issues
Pre-requisite: PS2002 Cognitive Psychology 1
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Differing views of short-term and working memory
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Transfer appropriate processing
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Forgetting
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implicit memory
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Recognition
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Global memory models (SAM, MINERVA 2,TODAM, etc.)
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Reconstructive processes in memory
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Developmental changes in memory.
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PS3005 Sound and Symbol in Written Language
Pre-requisite: Cognitive Psychology 1
- Evolution of written language; symbolic representation of sound and meaning
- Orthographies of the world; theoretical implications for cognitive processing
- The orthography – phonology – semantics triangle
- Interaction of orthography and phonology in spelling
- Models of visual word recognition
- Role of phonology in orthographic processing; evidence from alphabetic and logographic reading
- Orthographic effects in auditory processing
- Cross-linguistic perspectives
PS3006 Neurobiological Approaches to Perception, Attention & Action
Pre-requisite: Biological Psychology
- Neuropsychological and neurophysiological methods: Imaging techniques (EEG, fMRI), brain damaged patient studies, animal studies
- Critical review of neuropsychological approaches to understanding the relationship between brain and behaviour
- Functional anatomy of the visual, auditory and somatosensory system
- Involvement of subcortical structures in perception (blind sight and split brain studies)
- Cortical plasticity and reorganisation (phantom phenomena)
- Subliminal processes and selective perception
- Attention and disorders of attention (neglect, extinction)
PS3007 Approaches to Autism
Pre-requisite: PS2005 Developmental Psychology
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Diagnostic characteristics of autistic spectrum disorders
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Psychological approaches to autism
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Deficit in understanding other people
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Deficits in executive functions
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Cognitive deficits including central coherence, perceptual, conceptual and memory processes
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Developmental approaches
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Conceptual underpinnings of different approaches including consideration of as-yet untried strategies.
PS3012 Health Psychology
Pre-requisite: Social Psychology
- Contemporary theories and methods in health psychology
- Health behaviours
- Theories of stress
- Doctor-patient communication
- Health promotion
- Addictions and excessive behaviours
- Sexual behaviour and sexual health
- Living with HIV/AIDS
- The problem of pain
PS3013 Organisational Psychology
Pre-requisite: Social Psychology
- Introduction to the field of Occupational Psychology; emerging trends
- Overview of assessment and selection
- Assessment and development centres
- Selection interviews
- Psychometric testing
- Issues in career development
- Examination of performance appraisal, 360 ? feedback
- Leadership
- Strategies to enhance employee innovation and training
PS3015 Psychology as Philosophy
Pre-requisite: History and Theory in Psychology
- Theoretical introduction
- Are reasons causes?
- The nature of intentionality
- Free will and determinism
- The problem of consciousness
- The mind-body problem
- Cognitivism and Artificial Intelligence
- The nature of language
- Freud
- Social Psychology
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PS3016 Positive Psychology
The aim of this module is to provide students with an understanding of psychological theories and research on positive psychology, an area in psychology that focuses on the scientific study of topics such as psychological well-being, positive emotions, optimistic expectancies, self-esteem, and human strengths and virtues. Students will learn about correlates and predictors of happiness and well-being across various cultures; biological, social, and economic predictors of optimal psychosocial adjustment; cognitive, motivational, and interpersonal predictors of positive emotions and life satisfaction; and emotional intelligence. Psychological processes that have implications for facilitating positive therapeutic change will also be highlighted (e.g., recent foci in several forms of therapy on ‘mindfulness meditation’, facilitating acceptance of aversive memories and emotions; articulating personal goals and values; bolstering self-efficacy and mastery). The module will examine theoretical and philosophical assumptions, classic theories, and—as a particular focus—recent empirical research in the thriving field of positive psychology. Research from the fields of clinical, personality, social, and health psychology will be discussed in terms of its relevance to the domain of positive psychology.
PS3017 Social and Emotional Development: The Early Years
Pre-requisite(s): PS2005 Developmental Psychology
Syllabus:
Images of childhood, current and past.
Theories of personal and emotional development in infancy.
Importance of relationships with family and social interactions with peers.
Young children's sense of personal and national identity.
Children as consumers.
Preparatory Reading Suggestions:
Littleton. K, & Ding. S (2005), Children's Personal and Social Development, London, Blackwell.
PS3018 Abnormal and Clinical Psychology
The course will introduce you to the main concepts in abnormal and clinical psychology. You will learn about specific mental disorders – looking at their aetiology and treatment. In addition, we will look at the profession of clinical psychology and the various activities the clinical psychologist is engaged in. The lectures will involve both formal learning and some experiential exercises.
At the end of the module, students should be able to:
• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of some main areas of theory and research in abnormal and clinical psychology.
• Discuss and critically evaluate issues in abnormal and clinical psychology.
• Understand how more recent approaches have built on traditional theory.
• Be able to identify and describe basic CBT interventions for the various mental disorders described in the module.
• Demonstrate understanding of some basic principals of the therapeutic encounter and the work of the clinical/counselling psychologist.
PS3019 Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience
This module builds on the knowledge and conceptual approaches acquired in the Cognitive Psychology and Biological Psychology courses. Students will be encouraged to extend and deepen their knowledge of selected theoretical issues in the emerging field of cognitive neuroscience. The topics presented are intended to give a flavour of the field as a whole, and to illustrate the strengths and limitations of the methodological tools that are employed within cognitive neuroscience.
The module aims
• to provide students with up-to-date knowledge about three research topics studied from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: time perception, active perception and memory.
• to help students develop skills of critical and analytical thinking and logical argument
On successful completion of the module students should be able to demonstrate
• a knowledge and understanding of some key theoretical issues and of recent research relating to the topics studied
• an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of different methods for inferring relationships between brain mechanisms and cognitive psychological constructs
• critical and analytical thinking and the ability to appraise existing research.
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