Introduction To Psychology Level 3 Certificate Course

There are 7 lessons:

1 The nature and scope of Psychology

• What do Psychologists study?: Behaviour, Experience, Human and Animal Behaviour
• But its all Common Sense isn't it?
• Different Approaches to the Study of Human Behaviour: Neurobiological approach, Behavioural approach, Cognitive approach, Psychoanalytical approach, Psychoanalytical approach, Eclectic approach
• Key Issues in Psychology: Free will versus determinism, Nature-nurture, Developmental and Interactive Expressions of Behaviour, Applying psychology – Questionnaires, Interviews and Surveys, Non-Directive Interviews, Informal Interviews, Guided Interviews, Clinical Interviews, Fully Structured Interviews, Questionnaire Surveys, Advantages of Interviews, Limitations of Interviews
• Designing a Questionaire: Ambiguity and Bias, Closed and Open Questions

2 Neurological basis of behaviour

• Structures of the Nervous System
• The Central Nervous System: The Brain, The Spinal Cord
• The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Neurons, Sensory neurons, Motor neurons, Cranial Nerves, Spinal Nerves, The Autonomic and Somatic Nervous Systems
• How Nerves Transmit Messages
• The Brain and Behaviour: Methods of Investigating the Brain 1 Invasive Techniques - (Ablations and Lesions, Brain Damage, Electrical Stimulation of the Brain, Optical Dyes), Methods of Investigating the Brain Non-Invasive Techniques (Electroencephalogram (EEG), Brain Scans)
• Localization of Function

3 Environmental effects on behaviour

• Learning Behaviour: Modelling and Conformity, Conditioning, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Kinds of Consequences, Consequences and Timing, Extinction, Problems with Punishment
• Learning and Memory: Learing and Memory, Memory Improvement Strategies

4 Consciousness and perception

• What is Conssciousness? The Status of Consciousness in Psychology, The Nature of Consciousness
• The Relationship between Consciousness and Behaviour
• Unconscious and Subconscious
• Altered States of Consciousness: Daydreams, Sleeping and Dreaming, activation-synthesis theory of dreaming formulated by Hobson and McCarley (1977), Meditation
• Chemically Altered Consciousness
• Perception: Selective Attention, Factors Affecting Perception, Perceptual Biases, Perceptual Change (Cognitive dissonance, Perceptual defence)

5 Personality

• Theories of Personality: Personality Traits
• Theoretical Approaches to Human Personality: Social Learning Approach, The Psychoanalytic Approach, Phenomenological Approach, Trait and Type Approach
• Genes and Personality
• Personality Disorders
• Multi-Trait Theories: Eysenck’s Personality Theory (Extraversion, Introversion)

6 Psychological development

• Psychological Development
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Environment and Development: Development as a Sequence of Stages
• Stages of Development: Piaget’s Theory Of Cognitive Development
• Moral Development: Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
• Psychosexual Development: Freud’s Psycho-Sexual Stages
• Psychological Development: Erikson’s Psycho-Social Stages
• Adolescence
• Adult Psychological Development
• Criticisms of Stage Theories

7 Needs, drives and motivation

• Inroduction: Motivation. Need, Instinct, Drive
• The Behaviourist Drive Theory of Human Motivation: The Definition of Drive, Primary Drives, Secondary Drives, Stimulation Drives
• The Psychoanalytical Approach to Human Motivation
• Maslow's Theory of Human Motivation: Self Actualisation
• Complementary and Conflicting Motives