Psychology and the Brain

Overview courses

• Introduction Psychology

  The course provides an overview of the field of psychology. What are the genetic and biological fundamentals of behavior? What is consciousness? How do we sense and perceive the (visual) world? How do we learn, remember, and think? Why do we behave as we do? Apart from these very fundamental questions, the course will also cover, among others, the following topics: intelligence, social psychology, developmental psychology, personality, psychopathology, and the treatment of psychopathology.

• Evolutionary Psychology

  This course shows students how to explain human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. During the course we will use this perspective to explain sexuality, cooperation, parenting, aggression, and cognition. The course consists of lectures and students will also do several assignments to practice evolutionary theorizing.

• Biological Psychology

  Concepts from biology relevant to the processes studied in psychology. The structure and organization of the central and peripheral nervous system, neurotransmission, psychotropic drugs and the biological mechanisms underlying perception, motor skills, emotions and the higher cognitive functions (memory, speech, consciousness) are discussed. The lectures also deal with neurological disorders (Parkinson's, Broca's aphasia, Alzheimer's, etc.) and the biology of behavioral disorders (sleep disorders, psychoses, anxiety, depression, addiction).

• Behaviour Genetics in Psychology

  Behaviour genetics is the field that uses genetic methods to investigate why certain traits run within families. Family members may be alike in personality, behaviour, cognition, psychological health and lifestyle because they share their home environment but also because they are genetically related to each other. This course will focus on the influence of genes and the environment, and their interplay, on individual differences between people. Various research methods applied in behaviour genetics will be discussed, including animal studies, twin and family studies and genome-wide association studies.

• Neuropsychology

  Using our knowledge of the working of the brain we discuss the prinicples of neuropscychology. Neurological and psychiatric disorders as agnosis, aphasia, and dementia. On the basis of patient examples that correspond as closely as possible to the literature, the neuropsychological diagostics, among others, are illustrated.