This is a writing-intensive course that fulfills the University?s Junior Writing requirement. Each section focuses on a particular aspect of current issues in psychology. The topic is selected based on the expertise of the teaching staff. All sections share similar writing assignments, ranging from in-class short writing assignments to lengthy papers that include literature review. Classes emphasize discussion and extensive peer review of written work. Topics for individual sections will not be available until shortly before the start of the semester.

Students in this course will explore psychological theory and research pertaining to gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Topics include sexual orientation, sexual identity development, stigma management, heterosexism & homonegativity, gender roles, same-sex relationships, LGB families, LGB diversity, and LGB mental health

An introduction to the "other" dual diagnosis. People with intellectual disabilities are more likely than the general population to develop a mental illness at some point in their lives. Students will be introduced to how mental illness is manifested in this population and the medical, behavioral, and psychotherapeutic options for treatment. This course will be helpful to those going into such fields as human services, special education, medicine, and communications disorders. This is a core course for the DDHS certificate program.

This course introduces students to psychological theories of prejudice and intergroup relations with a strong emphasis on applying these theories to the multi-ethnic context of the United States. The course begins with an overview of key issues in the study of intergroup relations with references to perceptions and experiences of many native and immigrant groups in the United States. We will then review classic and contemporary theory and research on prejudice and intergroup relations with special attention to examples from social psychology.

Research in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience is constantly revealing new facts about how we see, hear, speak, move, recognize, remember, learn, and reason. The goal of these scientific studies is to explain these mental processes thoroughly and completely. However, many people feel that there is something about our consciousness or inner mental life that can never be explained by any scientific theory, no matter how advanced. In this seminar, we will ask what consciousness is, and will assess what current science can tell us about it.

The focus of the course is stress and disease. Students will learn about the neural circuits and biochemical mechanisms underlying the body's response to stress and how stress impacts disease. The bulk of the reading material for this course will consist of primary (peer-reviewed) research and review articles on stress and disease in animal models (some clinical papers in humans may also be covered). Students are expected to actively participate during class, give presentations, and write a research project proposal.

This course examines the role that international justice plays in globalized conflicts around the world, specifically taking into account psychological and social scientific perspectives. We will start by looking at different forms of justice, their limitations and dangers, and how they were applied in international conflicts (e.g., Nuremberg trials, truth and reconciliation commissions such as in South Africa, international criminal tribunals such as for the former Yugoslavia, native justice traditions such as those by the Navajo or Gypsies).

This course will examine children's development and socialization in the context of families, communities, and the larger social context. An ecological perspective will be used that highlights the multiple levels of influence that shape a child's life and which recognizes the active role of the individual in shaping, as well as being shaped by, social contexts. The complex interactions among families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, government, and historical time period will be explored as they serve to provide opportunities and risks for the developing child.

This course is for students who intend to become Psychotherapists. Classes are devoted to discussions of alternative ways a therapist might handle specific situations that commonly arise in clinical work including: establishing a working alliance with challenging patients, setting appropriate boundaries and managing boundary violations, handling resistance, repairing relationship ruptures, and maintaining an optimal balance between focusing on process and focusing on outcome. Role - playing is used extensively, and the class is highly interactive.

This course compares current philosophical and psychological perspectives on consciousness with those found in religious scriptures. For example, on the one hand, first person vs. third person perspective, the relation of consciousness to brain, the existence of qualia, blindsight, zombies, inverted spectra, what it is like to be a bat, and on the other hand, pure consciousness, the unity of mystical thought, heaven within, Buddha nature, Samadhi, Dhyana and Prajna, suchness, the prayer of quiet, the cloud of unknowing, all this is that.