Unit 1: Introduction
- The history of psychology as an academic discipline
- Psychology as a science
- Research methods
- Working with experimental results
Unit 2: This is your brain
- Brain neurophysiology at the cellular level
- The brain structures
- The separation of brain and mind?
Unit 3: The development of thought and language
- Learning to think
- The development of language
- Can animals learn language?
Unit 4: How memories are formed
- Memories are made of this
- The biological basis of memory
- Memory for future events
- Brain damage and forgetting
Unit 5: Behaving ourselves: Reward and punishment
- Learning to behave: Skinner’s theory
- Classical conditioning
- Applications to everyday life
Unit 6: The development and measurement of personality
- Early theories of personality – the four humours
- The ‘super three’ or the ‘big five’ traits?
- Reliability and validity
- Biological approaches
Unit 7: Why do we conform and whom do we obey?
- Conformity
- Compliance
- Internalisation
- Identification
- Obedience
Unit 8: Eating, drinking, sleeping and sex: Theories of motivation
- Biological and psychological theories of motivation
- Hunger
- To sleep perchance to dream ...
- Sex
- Psychological theories of motivation
Unit 9: Why do fools fall in love? Theories of attraction and relationship formation
- The formation of relationships
- How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
- Theories of romantic relationship formation
- Evolutionary theories of partner selection
Unit 10: When it all breaks down: Brain damage, tumours and strokes
- Brain damage
- The case of Phineas Gage
- Neuropsychological problems
We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.