Psychology Department Undergraduate Course Descriptions Spring 2015

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1 Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 1 General Psychology Instructor: Prof. Christopher Gade MW 2-3, 155 Dwinelle Introduction to the principal areas, problems, and concepts of psychology. This course is required for the major; students not considering a Psychology major are directed to 2. This course is also offered online as Psych W1. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY W1 General Psychology (web) Instructor: Prof. Christopher Gade Online Introduction to the principal areas, problems, and concepts of Psychology. This course will survey the scientific study of mental life and the mental functions that underlie human experience, thought, and action. The emphasis is on cognitive processes and social interactions characteristic of adults. However, research on nonhuman animals, as well as biological, developmental, and pathological processes, will be introduced as relevant. This course is conducted entirely online. This course, or its equivalent, is a prerequisite for admission to most upper-division courses in the Department of Psychology. Psychology 1 (or its equivalent) is required for prospective majors in Psychology, and is intended for lower-division students (freshmen and sophomores). This course is required for the major, but non-majors and upper-division students are welcome. This course takes place entirely over the Internet. It is also offered on campus as Psych 1. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 2 Principles of Psychology Instructor: TBD MWF 8-9, 145 Dwinelle Psychology 2 is designed for junior and senior non-psychology majors as an alternative to Psychology 1. This lecture-only course will provide an overview of the various topics in Psychology such as: Biological Psychology, Cognition, Abnormal Psychology, Personality Theory, Social Psychology, and Developmental Psychology. * Please be aware that Psychology 2 CANNOT be used to fulfill the Psychology major requirements. Rev: October 2014 ZX 1

2 Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 10 Research and Data Analysis in Psychology Instructor: Prof. Jennifer Lee TuTh 12:30-2, 4 Leconte 4 Units The course will concentrate on hypothesis formulation and testing, tests of significance, analysis of variance (one-way analysis), simple correlation, simple regression, and nonparametric statistics such as chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests. This course is required as a psychology major prerequisite for students who are admitted to UC Berkeley starting Fall Students may not sign up for both Psych 10 and 101. Students are advised to have completed the prerequisites as stated in the course catalog prior to taking Psych 10. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 24 Freshman Seminar in Psychology Instructor: Prof. Serena Chen W 10-11, 2308 Tolman 1 Unit Topic: How Social and Personality Psychology Inform and Influence Everyday In this seminar, we will read articles about theories and findings from social and personality psychology that can be readily applied to everyday social life. Slight emphasis will be placed on topics related to the self (e.g., self-esteem, self-compassion, authenticity). Class meetings will be heavily discussion-based, with the aim of creating a warm, engaging, and inclusive environment for a thoughtful discussion of the articles. Faculty Bio: SERENA CHEN is Professor of Psychology and the Marian E. and Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the impact of close relationships on the self and identity, and on the intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of social power. She is a Fellow of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, and is the recipient of the Early Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Social Sciences Division of the University of California, Berkeley. She was also identified as a Rising Star by the American Psychological Society. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C61 Freshman Seminar in Psychology Instructor: Prof. David Presti TuTh 9:30-11, Wheeler Auditorium Rev: October 2014 ZX 2

3 Students receive no credit for Psych C61 after completing MCB C61, C100A, 102, 110, 130A, 136, 140, C160, or NeuroSci C160. This course is an introduction to human brain mechanisms of sensation, movement, perception, thinking, learning, memory, and emotion in terms of anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of the nervous system in health and disease. This course is intended for students in the humanities and social sciences and others not majoring in the biological sciences. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 101 Research & Data Analysis in Psychology Instructor: Prof. Jennifer Lee TuTh 12:30-2, 4 Leconte 4 Units The course will concentrate on hypothesis formulation and testing, tests of significance, analysis of variance (one-way analysis), simple correlation, simple regression, and nonparametric statistics such as chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests. This course is an upper division major requirement for students who are admitted to UC Berkeley prior to Fall Students may not sign up for both Psych 10 and 101. Students are required to take Psych 101 as soon as they declare. Majors intending to be in the honors program must complete 101 by the end of their junior year. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 110 Biological Psychology Instructor: TBA MW 3-4, 100 GPB This course essentially offers an introduction to how the human brain works. It examines the biological basis of such things as sensory perception, learning, memory, emotions, stress and sleep. It also examines how these processing become dysfunctional in specific psychiatric and neurological disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C116 Hormones and Behavior Instructor: Prof. Lance Kriegsfeld TuTh 11-12, 245 Li Ka Shing Rev: October 2014 ZX 3

4 This course will provide a comprehensive overview of behavioral endocrinology beginning with hormone production and actions on target tissues and continuing with an exploration of a variety of behaviors and their hormonal regulation/ consequences. We will use a comparative approach to examine the reciprocal interactions between the neuroendocrine system and behavior, considering the effects of hormones on development and adult behavior in addition to how behavior regulates endocrine physiology. While much of the course will focus on non-human vertebrate species, the relevance to humans will be explored where appropriate. Topics include sexual differentiation and sex differences in behavior, reproductive, parental, and aggressive behaviors, and hormonal and behavioral homeostatic regulation. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 117 Human Neuropsychology Instructor: Prof. Robert Knight TuTh 10-11, 100 GPB This course will focus on understanding major neurological disorders including stroke, epilepsy, brain tumors, degenerative disorders including dementia and Parkinson s disease, infections and head trauma. Both the biological basis and psychological sequelae of these disorders will be discussed. Major neuropsychological syndromes to be addressed include disorders of language, memory, executive control, perception and emotion. The physical basis and application to neurological research of cognitive neuroscience research tools including electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, structural CAT scan and MRI scanning, fmri and PET will also be reviewed. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 118 Seminar in Neuroethics Instructor: Prof. Charles Gross Tu 12:30-3:30, 3105 Tolman Neuroethics is the study of ethical, social, and political issues arising from discoveries in neuroscience. Among the questions we will consider are: Can drugs make us happier or smarter? When does consciousness start in the animal kingdom and end from injury or disease? Can thoughts and lies be imaged? How does neuroscience impact on ethical and legal responsibility? Does ethics have a neural bases? What types of experiments should be allowed on humans and animals? When does ethical behavior appear in childhood and in evolution? What are the brain differences between males and females and between straight and gay people and what are their origins and relevance? What happened to psychosurgery? To eugenics? How common is cheating in science? How has neuroscience supported sexism and racism? Rev: October 2014 ZX 4

5 Seminar in Neuroethics. Enrollment is by instructor permission only. Please download Undergraduate Seminar Application at and completed application to Dr. Charles Gross at Application deadline is Friday, December 5, Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C120 Basic Issues in Cognition Instructor: Prof. Tania Lombrozo MW 12-1, 100 GPB This course will be a survey of the methods, findings, and applications of Cognitive Psychology from a cognitive science perspective. Topics include memory, language, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. The thesis of the course is that our mental lives are shaped by cognitive (mental) processes. These processes determine what we perceive, remember, and how we think. The perspective taken is interdisciplinary and includes philosophy, linguistics, computer science, etc., with Cognitive Psychology as the core discipline. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 121 Animal Cognition Instructor: Prof. Lucia Jacobs TuTh 9-10, 101 LSA What are non-human animals thinking about? Do they even think? How can we find out? What have we found out? In this course we will address these questions by surveying the field of animal cognition; about 25 years old and just getting going. We will define and discuss a range of cognitive processes from the simple to the complex (e.g., perception, learning, insight, communication, but also logic, language and deceit) and review the evidence for these processes, not just in your typical birds and mammals but in species from across the animal kingdom, from tortoises, spiders and honeybees to cichlid fish, octopuses and frogs. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C126 Perception Instructor: Prof. David Whitney M 4-6, 105 Stanley Rev: October 2014 ZX 5

6 An introduction to principal theoretical constructs and experimental procedures in visual and auditory perception. Topics will include psychophysics; perception of color, space, shape, and motion; pattern recognition and perceptual attention. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C128 Seminar in Affective Cognitive Neuroscience Instructor: Prof. Sonia Bishop M 4-6, 105 Stanley Processing, and reacting to the affective value or emotional salience of stimuli is a fundamental part of human experience. Over the last years researchers have attempted to use methods made available by advances in human cognitive neuroscience (e.g. fmri, eeg) together with studies of patients with brain damage (neuropsychology) to answer questions such as: how is stimulus affective value represented in the brain? How do we integrate what we know from psychology/ cognitive science studies regarding the influence of emotional salience on cognitive processes from perception, to attention, to memory to decision making with findings regarding the brain mechanisms that support these cognitive processes? How do individual differences in affective style or tendency to affective disorders impact these mechanisms? This course will cover key studies from the last decade that have attempted to address these questions. It will mainly focus on primary research articles (i.e. original empirical studies) in order for students to fully understand the methods and findings and not only the conclusions from these studies and to teach the skill of critical evaluation of original research. For a typical week, 2 articles will be set in advance, and covered in class. Final assessment will be by means of 3 50min essays with 5 questions being posed regarding the work of one or more of the papers covered students will be able to choose 3 out of 5 of the questions to answer. Example Topics are as follows. These may be adjusted slightly as this is the first time this course is taught. 1. What are emotions? Are emotions and cognition separate? Overview of the methods used for studying the brain basis of emotional processing in humans 2. Dimensional versus basic models of emotion do we have any data from human cognitive neuroscience which comments upon which model best captures how emotional information is represented in the brain? 3. Is the amygdala specific to fear or negative emotion? Which emotions is it involved in? What is its role relative to the OFC in representing affective value? 4. Why do we have our attention captured by threat? What can cognitive neuroscience approaches tell us about this? 5. Individual differences in attention to threat: how can we understand this from a cognitive neuroscience standpoint? 6. Which are the brain mechanisms involved in the modulation of memory by emotional salience? What role is there for neurotransmission here? Rev: October 2014 ZX 6

7 7. Is pain different to emotion? Are similar or distinct brain circuits involved? 8. What are the mechanisms by which humans and animals respond to stress? How does having control over stress help? 9. Are the neural mechanisms of fear conditioning preserved across species? 10. What evidence is there to support the notion that humans have co-opted fear extinction circuitry to enable emotion regulation? 11. How does the brain process reward? 12. How logical is decision making? How do emotional biases enter? 13. Can affective cognitive neuroscience help us to understand why people are altruistic and/or engage in moral acts? 14. Can basic affective cognitive neuroscience research help us understand what goes wrong in different disorders? Anxiety and Depression 15. Can basic affective cognitive neuroscience research help us understand what goes wrong in different disorders? Autism Enrollment is by instructor permission only. Please download Undergraduate Seminar Application at and completed application to Dr. Sonia Bishop Application deadline is Friday, December 5, Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 130 Clinical Psychology Instructor: TBA MW 3-4, 105 Stanley This is an important moment in the history of mental illness and its treatment. Confronted with sobering statistics on the prevalence of mental illness, staggering associated social and financial costs, and enormous difficulties getting available treatments to those who need them most, new models are being proposed for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. In this course, we will review research and theory based on existing models for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, consider the ways that mental illness and its treatment are represented in the media, and examine new models for diagnosis and treatment that are closely linked with recent advances in neuroscience and genetics. Students will have an assigned text, augmented with readings of primary sources. As part of the weekly discussion groups, students will prepare case presentations based on real and fictionalized patients and work on designing and critiquing research studies that embody both traditional and newer approaches to mental illness. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 131 Developmental Psychopathology Instructor: Prof. Stephen Hinshaw MW 10-11, 145 Dwinelle Rev: October 2014 ZX 7

8 This course will discuss linkages between developmental processes and child psychopathology. Included will be discussion of cognitive impairments in children, including learning disabilities and mental retardation; internalizing disorders, such as anxiety, withdrawal, and depression; externalizing disorders, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder; and child abuse and neglect. Psychobiological, familial, legal, and societal factors will be emphasized. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 140 Developmental Psychology Instructor: Prof. Alison Gopnik MW 2-3, 100 GPB This course explores the development of children from birth to adolescence, in a wide range of areas including biological, cognitive, linguistic, social, and personality development. It also covers the effects of genes, experience, and social context on children's development. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C143 Language Acquisition Instructor: Prof. Mahesh Srinivasan MW 11-12, 102 Moffitt Language is one of the core properties of what it means to be human, and in many ways, separates us from other animals. Language also depends on and provides a unique window onto many other aspects of cognition and perception, including our ability to process information and discover patterns, read the intentions and mental states of others, and structure and relate different ideas together. As such, the study of language provides an ideal entry point into the study of the mind, more generally. This class will explore how children acquire different aspects of language ranging from the basic sounds of a language to its grammatical rules and semantic structure providing a window onto the classic question of how nature and nurture interact. We will also touch on a number of other topics, including whether children are better at learning a language than adults, how language may have evolved and whether other animals are capable of learning a communication system like language, what clinical developmental disorders tell us about the nature of language, how language reveals and may even shape how we think about the world, and how mastering language may depend on an ability to think pragmatically, about the the intentions of others. Rev: October 2014 ZX 8

9 The class will blend together classic and contemporary work, and will include weekly lectures and a discussion section. Through the class, you will learn about the many different methods developmental psychologists use to probe children s and even young infants abilities and knowledge. Thus, the course will offer a broad introduction, not only to language development, but also to developmental science more generally. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 148 Seminar in Emotion and Emotional Development Instructor: Prof. Joseph Campos Th 2-4:30pm, 1111 Tolman This seminar is very different from the typical seminar. In those, students choose a topic, read extensively on it, and then present to the rest of the seminar group the nature of their findings. The Emotion Seminar is very different. It consists of readings in common by everyone in the class. Then, the time in class is spent in discussion about the topic of the day. Readings consist of approximately pages of readings from classic or contemporary sources. Our goal in the seminar is to ensure that everyone understands the nature of emotion, its manifestations, the interpersonal and clinical relevance of each topic, and the generation of empirical studies that could and should be done to advance our understanding of the specific topics being discussed. Students will be asked to write a one-page critique of the reading for the week, and pose three questions for class discussion. I have found that this method works well in keeping the class engaged in the topic. Among the major topics we will discuss are: What is emotion? What is emotional development the development of? What significant interpersonal consequences arise from one vs another view of emotion? What are the so-called self-conscious emotions and how do they differ from other emotional states? What is the emotion of love? (RARELY discussed in classes on emotion). How is love similar to attachment, yet different from it? What are some of the applications of emotion in society, such as lie detection and polygraphy? How do infants develop emotional states, and how is that knowledge important for parents and medical personnel? Rev: October 2014 ZX 9

10 Enrollment is by instructor permission only. Please download Undergraduate Seminar Application at and turn in completed application to Psychology Student Services Office (3305 Tolman). Application deadline is 4pm on Friday, December 5, Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 150 Personality Psychology Instructor: Prof. Ozlem Ayduk MW 1-2, 245 Li Ka Shing This course is a survey of the contemporary study of personality considered in its historical setting. The focus will be on personality psychology as an empirical field, thus, theoretical perspectives will be evaluated in the context of current empirical data. We will approach the study of personality at multiple levels of analysis (e.g., biological, trait, social-cognitive) and to ultimately integrate these levels for a better understanding of the person as a whole. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY C162 Human Happiness Instructor: Prof. Dacher Keltner MW 1-2, 105 Stanley The goal of this course is to engage you in an interdisciplinary approach to the study of happiness. The first part of the course will be devoted to different approaches to happiness in Classical Greek and Judeo-Christian thought, the great traditions of East Asia, and ideas about happiness that emerged in the age of the Enlightenment and more recently. With these perspectives as backdrop, we then will turn to the evolutionary and neuroscientific understanding of human happiness. We will consider the role different emotions play in the good life (e.g., compassion, awe), as well as different thought processes (e.g., optimism, appreciation). We will look at happiness, at love, and work, and the nature of stress and strategies that have been found in science to be effective in navigating stressful lives. We will conclude by considering the cultivation of happiness at the individual, community, and cultural level. Grading will be based on two exams. There is a lot of reading in the course, so please stay up to date. The exam will be based largely on the material covered during lecture, and will involve short IDs and essays. Rev: October 2014 ZX 10

11 Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 166AC Cultural Psychology Instructor: TBA MW 4-5, 10 Evans The purpose of this course is to help you gain a better appreciation for the ways in which human culture and human psyche interact, and to enhance your ability to deal with and understand variations in human behavior across cultures and ethnic groups. In order to achieve these goals, we will review psychological research on culture and ethnicity, examine theoretical and methodological foundations of crosscultural research in psychology. We will discuss the mounting evidence suggesting that much of psychological processes are culture-specific, theory-driven and contextdependent. We will discuss several basic questions of cultural psychology, such as, "What is culture? What is ethnicity? How does culture relate to psychological processes? How human psyche affects human cultures? How to apply cultural psychology to understand and deal with real life cultural conflicts or ethnical tensions? We will focus on questions regarding the effects of culture-specific theories of mind, person, self, and social institutions on human cognition, motivation, emotion, and social interaction. Discussion sections will incorporate a variety of activities (lecture, student presentation, discussion, etc.) which will hopefully promote lively discussion and debate. Attendance and participation in discussion section are essential for success in the course. My colleagues and I will do our best to foster an environment where all students feel free to express their ideas which means you MUST talk from time to time. Ψ PSYCHOLOGY 194B Honors Seminar Instructor: Professor Frederic Theunissen Th 3:30-5:30, 5101 Tolman 2 Units This year-long Honors Seminar (H194A-B) accompanies the Honors Thesis (H195A-B) and is a mandatory component of the Honors Program. The seminar is taken for 2 units each semester, while the honors thesis is taken for 1-3 units each semester (depending on the estimated hours per week of work on the research project). Last semester we focused on the research question of your thesis, as well as writing up and presenting the introduction and methods of your thesis. This semester we will focus on statistics, the results section of your thesis, and finishing the writing of your thesis. Rev: October 2014 ZX 11

12 There is no textbook for the course, but resources from various books and articles are on-line at Rev: October 2014 ZX 12