Foundations and Applications of Psychology

Aim

The course introduces psychology as an area of study and aims to give insight into the parts of the subject that are relevant from a broad ethological perspective. The focus of the course is in part for the student to learn central psychological theories and terms and how to apply these. Additionally, the student will learn to identify, review, and summarize scientific literature in the area on a basic level. After finishing the course, the student is expected to be able to:

• Describe psychology as a scientific discipline and how it can be applied in different contexts.
• Define and describe central subject areas within psychology.
• Give examples of central psychological phenomena and explain these using relevant theories.
• Apply psychological terminology and theories on specified situations and problems.
• Apply relevant formalities for structure and content when writing a basic academic paper.
• Identify gaps of knowledge and use relevant resources such as search engines, as well as critically reflect upon search results from psychological research.
• Present his/her findings and conclusions orally and answer questions regarding his/her own work.

Content

Introductions to the subject areas of psychology – Cognitive psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, learning theory, personality psychology, biological psychology and neuropsychology.

Psychology as a science – History of psychology, research methods, and psychology through the lens of the philosophy of science.

Literature review where the students in groups identify and describe a course relevant psychological phenomenon with help from scientific literature.