Courses

Why are people superstitious? Why do people blush when they are embarrassed? What is intelligence (and are IQ tests a good way to measure it)? Why don't psychopaths feel guilty when they harm others? How reliable are childhood memories? Why do we laugh? Do violent video games make people act violently? Why do some people seem instantly trustworthy and others seem "creepy"? How do we choose whom to sleep with, date, or marry? How does stress affect our body? While questions like these have been asked for centuries, psychology has begun to provide answers to these - and other questions about the human mind - by applying the tools of scientific investigation. In this course you will receive a broad introduction to the science of psychology: from the history of the field and its major advances, to the latest research on topics such as perception, memory, intelligence, morality, sexuality, mental illness, religion, language, and creativity. You will also learn about the tools and methods psychologists use to investigate the mind, such as observing how the mind of a child changes and develops over time, looking at people across cultures, measuring brain activity, and experimentally manipulating everything from the shape of a figure presented on a computer screen, to the smell of a room, or the attractiveness of the experimenter.

Full details for PSYCH 1101 - Introduction to Psychology

This course provides an introduction to the science of the mind. Everyone knows what it's like to think and perceive, but this subjective experience provides little insight into how minds emerge from physical entities like brains. To address this issue, cognitive science integrates work from at least five disciplines: Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Linguistics, and Philosophy. This course introduces students to the insights these disciplines offer into the workings of the mind by exploring visual perception, attention, memory, learning, problem solving, language, and consciousness. 

Full details for PSYCH 1102 - Introduction to Cognitive Science

Introduction to Human Development provides a broad and foundational overview of field of human development, starting from conception and ending through process of death and dying. The course will start with an outline and explanation of the lifespan perspective in human development. The biological beginnings of life and prenatal development will serve as the start of the discussion of human development, followed by an exploration of physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development at each subsequent stage within the lifespan (e.g., infancy, early childhood, middle & late childhood, etc.). Discussion of each developmental stage will highlight major research findings and their real-world application.

Full details for PSYCH 1131 - Introduction to Human Development

Environmental Psychology is an interdisciplinary field concerned with how the physical environment and human behavior interrelate. Most of the course focuses on how residential environments and urban and natural settings affect human health and well-being. Students also examine how human attitudes and behaviors affect environmental quality. Issues of environmental justice and culture are included throughout. Hands-on projects plus exams.

Full details for PSYCH 1500 - Introduction to Environmental Psychology

Over the centuries, artists in a wide variety of media have employed many approaches to the creative process, ranging from the philosophical to the mechanical to the virtual. This course unravels some of the mysteries going on inside software used for art and music. It looks at ways of breaking things apart and sampling and ways of putting things together and resynthesizing, and explores ideas for creation. This course does not teach software packages for creating art and music. The course complements ART 2701 and MUSIC 1421.

Full details for PSYCH 1650 - Computing in the Arts

Research, theory, and application in sport psychology. An interdisciplinary approach which applies social and personality psychology, motivation, clinical psychology, exercise physiology, and biochemistry to the study of competitive domains. Topics will include: achievement motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, group and team dynamics, leadership, aggression, stress, and youth sports. Where possible, fieldwork experiences will be conducted in exercise physiology and exercise testing, as well as biofeedback.

Full details for PSYCH 1990 - Sports Psychology

Introduction to psychology from a biological perspective, which focuses on brain mechanisms of behavior. Topics include the structure and function of the nervous system, physiological approaches to understanding behavior, hormones and behavior, biological bases of sensation and perception, learning and memory, cognition, emotion, and communication.

Full details for PSYCH 2230 - Intro to Behavioral Neuroscience

Children who grow up in multilingual environments have a profoundly different experience compared to monolingual children. In this course, we examine the nature and impact of this experience on the socio-emotional, cognitive, and linguistic development of young children, focusing on the complex multilingual and multicultural reality in Israel as our main case study. Specifically, we explore the multilingual development of children from several minority and immigrant groups in Israel: Arabs, Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Ethiopian immigrants, Israeli-born children of labor migrants, deaf communities, among others.

Full details for PSYCH 2350 - Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in Early Childhood

In a complex environment with many sources of variability, how can one tell with confidence whether a particular observed effect is real? And how much confidence is appropriate? This course introduces the principles of statistical description and inference as strategies to answer these questions, with emphasis on methods of principal relevance to psychology, neuroscience, and the behavioral sciences.

Full details for PSYCH 2500 - Statistics and Research Design

What is "personality"? How is it scientifically studied and measured? To what extent, do biological, social, and cultural factors shape personality? Is personality an expression of our genetic make up and biology, the culmination of social influences, the interplay of both, or the result of random events? In this course, we will review the major theoretical paradigms of personality psychology, discuss contemporary research, theory, and methodology, and learn about key historical debates in the study of "personality".

Full details for PSYCH 2750 - Introduction to Personality

Introduction to research and theory in social psychology. Topics include social influence, persuasion, and attitude change; culture, social interaction and group phenomena; evolution, altruism, and aggression; stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination; everyday reasoning and judgment.

Full details for PSYCH 2800 - Introduction to Social Psychology

How do we form and change our first impressions of other people? What kinds of events put us into happy versus sad moods? What explains why we persist in holding stereotypes of groups? Can we explain why we think an act is immoral? This course addresses these types of questions (and many more!) using social and cognitive psychological theory and methods. Using a variety of sources – from empirical journal articles, textbooks, TED talks, and blog-posts – we examine cutting-edge psychological research on the causes and consequences of our own and other people's judgments, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors. We use different teaching methods to accomplish these learning goals, including lectures, group activities, and small group discussions.

Full details for PSYCH 3800 - Social Cognition

This course provides an introduction to the science of the mind. Everyone knows what it's like to think and perceive, but this subjective experience provides little insight into how minds emerge from physical entities like brains. To address this issue, cognitive science integrates work from at least five disciplines: Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Linguistics, and Philosophy. This course introduces students to the insights these disciplines offer into the workings of the mind by exploring visual perception, attention, memory, learning, problem solving, language, and consciousness. 

Full details for HD 1102 - Introduction to Cognitive Science

Introduction to Human Development provides a broad and foundational overview of field of human development, starting from conception and ending through process of death and dying. The course will start with an outline and explanation of the lifespan perspective in human development. The biological beginnings of life and prenatal development will serve as the start of the discussion of human development, followed by an exploration of physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development at each subsequent stage within the lifespan (e.g., infancy, early childhood, middle & late childhood, etc.). Discussion of each developmental stage will highlight major research findings and their real-world application.

Full details for HD 1130 - Introduction to Human Development

HD 2170 introduces students to the major theoretical perspectives, research findings, research methods, applications, and controversies in the study of human development during the period of adolescence and the transition to emerging adulthood. The main focus is on individual development, but we view this development from an interdisciplinary perspective. The emphasis in the course is on psychological development, but we also will draw on related fields, such as sociology, anthropology, biology, neuroscience, and education. Within psychology, we will be looking at adolescence and emerging adulthood from the standpoints of developmental, cognitive, social, personality, clinical, and biological psychology. There will be some use of statistics in the course, but sophisticated knowledge of statistics is not required. This is a second-level course, so the emphasis is on creative, analytical, practical, and wise understanding and application of concepts of development.

Full details for HD 2170 - Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Introduction to psychology from a biological perspective, which focuses on brain mechanisms of behavior. Topics include the structure and function of the nervous system, physiological approaches to understanding behavior, hormones and behavior, biological bases of sensation and perception, learning and memory, cognition, emotion, and communication.

Full details for HD 2230 - Intro to Behavioral Neuroscience

Children who grow up in multilingual environments have a profoundly different experience compared to monolingual children. In this course, we examine the nature and impact of this experience on the socio-emotional, cognitive, and linguistic development of young children, focusing on the complex multilingual and multicultural reality in Israel as our main case study. Specifically, we explore the multilingual development of children from several minority and immigrant groups in Israel: Arabs, Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Ethiopian immigrants, Israeli-born children of labor migrants, deaf communities, among others.

Full details for HD 2350 - Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in Early Childhood

What is "personality"? How is it scientifically studied and measured? To what extent, do biological, social, and cultural factors shape personality? Is personality an expression of our genetic make up and biology, the culmination of social influences, the interplay of both, or the result of random events? In this course, we will review the major theoretical paradigms of personality psychology, discuss contemporary research, theory, and methodology, and learn about key historical debates in the study of "personality".

Full details for HD 2600 - Introduction to Personality

Introduction to research and theory in social psychology. Topics include social influence, persuasion, and attitude change; culture, social interaction and group phenomena; evolution, altruism, and aggression; stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination; everyday reasoning and judgment.

Full details for HD 2810 - Introduction to Social Psychology

This lecture-based course will provide an overview of the development of memory throughout the lifespan, from infancy to old age. Students will learn about the models of memory, how memory develops through the years, as well as the neurological, cognitive, and social factors that influence memory development.

Full details for HD 3120 - Lifespan Memory Development