Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic. Each section is an intensive course in a specialized area of psychology, such as community psychology, social and clinical judgement, and psychology of infancy. Usually offered every term. Prerequisite: three psychology courses, junior standing and permission of instructor.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in Psychology (3)

Stereotyping and Prejudice

This course examines the psychological processes underlying stereotyping and prejudice in a variety of groups and in different social contexts. The origins, maintenance, and subsequent effects of prejudice are examined, along with strategies to reduce prejudice. Both classic and contemporary research on prejudice are considered.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in Psychology (3)

Stress and Coping

This course focuses on theory, methods, and applications of stress and coping research. Includes models of stress responses and the effects of personality, gender, and culture. The class also discusses stress-related growth, developmental changes in coping, stress and health, depression, and clinical interventions. Emphasis is placed on learning to critically evaluate the methods and implications of current stress research.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in Psychology (3)

Face Perception

Humans are experts at perceiving and recognizing human faces. Face perception is critical to daily functioning and face recognition is entwined with identity. This course explores how people perceive and recognize faces through the lifespan and examines when perception/recognition is most successful and also when it fails. The prominent theories of face processing, neuroscience evidence, and perception/memory disorders are discussed.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in Psychology (3)

Cross-Cultural Psychology

This course examines similarities and differences in psychological phenomena (e.g., abnormal behavior, communication, emotions, health behaviors, identity, and relationships) across diverse cultures around the world and within the United States. It explores the cultural framework and assumptions from which theories and constructs in psychology have been developed and reviews methodological issues in cross-cultural research.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in Psychology (3)

Emotion: From Lab to Clinic

What are fear, anger, sadness, happiness, and love? This course surveys the historical, theoretical, and empirical bases of the scientific investigation of the psychology of emotion. Exploring from mechanism to function, students study issues arising from contributors in philosophy, physiology, classical psychology, contemporary psychology, psychopathology, cognition and social psychology as well as neuropsychology and neurology. Topics include emotional development, stress, aggression, love and affection, depression, mood disorders, evolution, social interaction, theory of mind, and consciousness, and much more.

Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics in Psychology (3)

Understanding and Treating Anxiety

This course covers how professionals diagnose clinical anxiety. In addition, there is discussion of various psychological theories for each disorder and examples of current psychological treatments for anxiety. The course provides a thorough examination of current theory and treatment for some of the most common disorders.