UCL - Psychology 1

[PSP1120]

[90h] 8 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Raymond Bruyer, Bernard Rimé

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

The General psychology courses (1 & 2) are a coordinated group which is designed to provide students with a systematic presentation of current basic knowledge in psychology. By covering the main areas of research relating to this knowledge, these courses are also designed to introduce students to the study of the basic processes in behaviour through scientific methods. By the end of the course, students will have acquired the basic concepts in the discipline which will be used in further studies. (This course is linked with the other psychology courses both in the bachelor's degree as well as the 'licence').

Main themes

In each of the areas covered, the course is designed to provide the basic knowledge on which further training in psychology, both at Bachelor and Master levels, can be built. There is a brief historical overview of the basic knowledge, and it is presented from different perspectives (e.g. developmental, differential, comparative, clinical, experimental and applied) to form a coherent whole. The lecturers use illustrations to show how useful this knowledge is and how it can be applied to various fields of psychological intervention.
In General psychology 1, the following areas are covered : activation (sleep, vigilance) ; basic mechanisms of cognitive activities (attention, perception, learning, memory) and affective ones (motivation, emotions) ; active
interactions with the environment (action). The course starts with a historical perspective of contemporary psychology as well as the main methodological principles.

Content and teaching methods

The part of the General psychology course which is held in the first year of the Bachelor's degree (General psychology 1) is part of the first semester with a variety of subjects. It starts with a general introduction to the two courses, which deal with the major stages in the history of scientific psychology, the major figures and the main research methods. It then moves on to the following topics :
sleep, vigilance and attention ; perception; memory and learning ; action ; motivation and emotions. The course mainly consists of lectures which are reinforced by supervised group work designed to give practical illustrations of the lecture topics. There is also a small piece of individual work which requires active use of the library.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisites : none
Assessment : written examination in the form of a multiple choice questionnaire + participation in group work + assessment of individual work
Support : detailed manual
Supervision : lectures + supervision of groups + lecturers available for advice on individual work.
Other information :
Courses available in other UCL programmes, for which students should contact the study adviser in their faculty to gain further detailed information about which parts are officially recognized as equivalent : DROI1220 (DROI12BA), ESPO1120 (INGE11BA), FLTR1620 (HIST12BA), IEPR1007 (EDPH11BA), MED1270 (MED12BA), PSP1120 (PSP11BA).