The aim of personality psychology is to study why people perceive, respond and recover differently from similar situations. When we are facing a particular stressful situation we tend to respond in different ways according to our personality characteristics, independently of the specificity of the situation. Therefore, individual differences play a relevant role that need to be considered when we study behavior in different contexts.

The aim of personality psychology is to study why people perceive, respond and recover differently from similar situations. When we are facing a particular stressful situation we tend to respond in different ways according to our personality characteristics, independently of the specificity of the situation. Therefore, individual differences play a relevant role that need to be considered when we study behavior in different contexts.

Examines changes in cognitive, social, and emotional functioning, including theory and research that illuminate some central issues in characterizing these changes: the relative contributions of nature and nurture, the influence of the context on development, continuity versus discontinuity in development, and the concept of stage. Includes observations at the Gorse Children's Center.

Cognitive psychology is the study of how we sense and interpret information from the world around us, incorporate this new information with our prior experiences, and determine how to respond to an ever-changing environment. Thus, cognition encompasses a range of phenomena that define our mental lives. This course considers empirical investigations and theoretical accounts of cognitive issues, including learning and memory, creativity and problem solving, decision making, attention, consciousness, and language.

Autobiographical memories of personal past experiences create our life stories. Our memories range from the mundane to the momentous. In this course we will explore the functions of autobiographical memory as well as its development. What are the basic cognitive processes that contribute to our ability to remember and report the past? How do we interpret past events to inform the development of our self-identity? How do social experiences contribute to the development of memory?

Does the idea of Finals Week stress you out? Have you ever felt hungry or thirsty? Is our biology to blame when people cheat on their partners? From mental health and hunger to sexual motivation and aggression, our hormones dictate many of our basic choices and ultimately control how we interact with our world. This course will explore how hormones communicate with our brain to influence behaviors such as sexual attraction and reproduction, parental care, and social behavior. Special emphasis will be placed on the underlying biology and role of the nervous system in regulating hormone levels.

Students will be exposed to a variety of advanced statistics and methods commonly used in clinical psychological research. Statistics and methods that will be covered include but are not limited to: data cleaning strategies, moderation, mediation, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Students will complete secondary analyses of pre-existing datasets to answer hypotheses related to advancing our understanding of mental health and well-being.

This course will explore the relationship between personality and the stress response, in particular, the role of neuroticism in this relationship and its association with health. In particular, we will explore the personality dimensions that play a role in the stress response, the types of stressors and its implication on health, and the techniques to reduce both psychological and physiological stress.

Students will work in teams to code videotaped observations of romantic partners discussing relationship conflicts. Students will learn to code emotion expressions and behavior at the dyadic and individual levels. Course topics include methodological issues such as coding bias, construct validity, and intercoder reliability, as well as empirical research on individual differences in conflict behavior and links between conflict behavior and relationship outcomes.

This course will explore conceptualizations of childhood and adolescence in the United States today. Using both academic articles and media resources, the course will address topics such as: early education and school readiness; play and extracurricular involvement; college access and attendance; mental health, self-esteem, and social media; and youth activism. We will use developmental psychology as the lens for most of our readings and discussion, although the course will integrate concepts from sociology, history, and education.