This intensive, discussion-based seminar will equip you with useful insight and critical analysis about Positive Psychology by emphasizing scientific literacy. The workload for this seminar requires intensive reading. To excel in this seminar, students must be willing to enthusiastically read, dissect, and critique ideas within Positive Psychology. This requires students to articulate various ideas in verbal and written form.

The choices that people make determine their lived experiences, their social, economic, and political realities, and their overall well-being. For this reason, the study of choice is of special interest across both the sciences and the humanities, and is a central focus of academic disciplines like psychology, economics, cognitive science, neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy. This course will introduce you to the interdisciplinary study of human choice behavior, and will examine in detail what we know about how people make choices, how observed choice patterns and mechanisms relate to those in animals and artificially intelligent machines, and how we can accurately predict and influence people’s choices and choice outcomes. The primary objective of this course is to build students' understanding and appreciation of the diverse perspectives on human choice behavior. Moreover, by exploring the mechanisms and nuances of decision-making, students will gain insight into their personal choice patterns and acquire strategies to improve their own choice outcomes.

Open to senior honors candidates in psychology. A two-semester sequence supporting the preparation of an honors thesis in psychology. Students will present their work in progress and develop skills in written and oral communication of scientific ideas. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Honors Program in Psychology.

Introduction to the structure and function of the vertebrate nervous system. We begin with the cellular basis of neuronal activities, then discuss the physiological bases of motor control, sensory systems, motivated behaviors, and higher mental processes. This course is intended for students interested in the neurobiology of behavior, ranging from animal behaviors to clinical disorders.

This course will develop theoretical and computational approaches to structural and functional organization in the brain. The course will cover: (i) the basic biophysics of neural responses, (ii) neural coding and decoding with an emphasis on sensory systems, (iii) approaches to the study of networks of neurons, (iv) models of adaptation, learning and memory, (v) models of decision making, and (vi) ideas that address why the brain is organized the way that it is. The course will be appropriate for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. A knowledge of multi-variable calculus, linear algebra and differential equations is required (except by permission of the instructor). Prior exposure to neuroscience and/or Matlab programming will be helpful.

The course consists of weekly 90-minute lectures on Positive Psychology: The topics include Well-Being as a Life Goal, Good Character, Learned Helplessness, Optimism, Coaching, Therapy and Prevention, Positive Education, the Positive Corporation, Agency, and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, there will be weekly recitation sessions and exercises for students to measure and to increase their personal well-being.

Introduction to the structure and function of the vertebrate nervous system. We begin with the cellular basis of neuronal activities, then discuss the physiological bases of motor control, sensory systems, motivated behaviors, and higher mental processes. This course is intended for students interested in the neurobiology of behavior, ranging from animal behaviors to clinical disorders.

The goal of this course is to introduce both Psychology majors and non-majors majors to the field of Developmental Psychology. Developmental Psychology is a diverse field that studies the changes that occur with age and experience and how we can explain these changes. The field encompasses changes in physicalgrowth, perceptual systems, cognitive systems, social interactions and and much more. We will study the development of perception, cognition, language,academic achievement, emotion regulation, personality, moral reasoning,and attachment. We will review theories of development and ask how these theories explain experimental findings. While the focus is on human development, when relevant, research with animals will be used as a basis for comparison.

An overview of theories and research across the range of social behavior from intra-individual to the group level including the effects of culture, social environment, and groups on social interaction.

This course provides an introduction to the basic topics of psychology including our three major areas of distribution: the biological basis of behavior, the cognitive basis of behavior, and individual and group bases of behavior. Topics include, but are not limited to, neuropsychology, learning, cognition, development, disorder, personality, and social psychology.