02207 - General Psychology (C1)

Course contents

LEARNING

- Classical conditioning. The basic procedure involved in classical conditioning. Extinction - Generalisation – Discrimination – Spontaneous recovery.

- Operant conditioning – Law of effect – Positive and negative reinforcement – Shaping – Schedules of reinforcement – Escape and avoidance learning.

- Similarities and differences between classical and operant conditioning.

- Clinical application of learning methods

MEMORY

- Memory as information processing (registration – storage – retrieval)

- The nature of memory: sensory memory (iconic and echoic memory), short-term memory, long-term memory

- Models of memory and neural components

- Serial position effect

- Declarative and procedural memory

- Retroactive and proactive interference

- Memory and emotions

PERCEPTION
- Recognition and localization in perceptual experience

- Gestalt psychology and visual perception

- Perceptual constancies

- Illusions and ambiguous figures

- Perceptions of movement

- Infant visual perception

- Perception and emotions

 

ATTENTION AND STATES OF VIGILANCE

- Circadian rhythms

- Selective attention and divided attention

- Psychophysiology of sleep

- REM sleep and NREM sleep: functions of dreaming

 

THOUGUT

- Categorization and formation of concepts

- Types of thoughts

- Mental set, problem solving and insight

- Divergent/Convergent thinking

- Inductive/Deductive reasoning

 

INTELLIGENCE

- Theories of cognitive development: Piaget's genetic epistemology

- Interaction between genetic and environmental factors

- Measurement of intelligence: IQ tests

- Theory of multiple intelligences: emotional intelligence

 

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

- Stages in language development
- Relationship between language and thought
- Localization and lateralisation of language
- Cortical areas, language and language disorders
- Verbal/Non-verbal language
- Communication skills
- Communication and interpersonal dynamics in clinical context

EMOTION

- Theories of emotion: activation, expression and recognition of emotions
- Cerebral hemispheres, specific brain structures in emotional experience
- Facial expression of emotion
- Emotions and social influences

MOTIVATION

- Human behaviour: biologically-based motives, sensation-seeking motives, complex psychosocial motives
- Homeostatic drive theory and drive reduction theory
- Theories of the attachment process: early social development
- Imprinting and maternal deprivation

CONFLICT AND STRESS

- Types of conflict
- Effects of conflict on behaviour
- Psychophysiological responses to stress
- Stress and illness: acute and chronic stressors and the immune system
- Problem-focused coping strategies and emotion-focused coping strategies

FRUSTRATION AND AGGRESSION

- Causes of frustration
- Responses to frustration
- Frustration-aggression hypothesis
- Theories of aggression: psychoanalytic approach, ethological approach, social learning
- Reduction and control of aggressive behaviour

Readings/Bibliography

Office hours

See the website of Maria Paola Zamagni