Lahore University of Management Sciences

PSY 310 – Biological Psychology Spring 2013

Instructor Imran Rashid Room No. 239-A Office Hours Email Telephone Secretary/TA TA Office Hours Course URL (if any) Course Basics Credit Hours 4 Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration Recitation/Lab (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration COURSE DESCRIPTION For the lay public psychology is synonymous with the analysis of personality and treatment of mental disorders and with the armchair fantasies of Freud and his epigones, when in fact its purview extends over a very broad range of human behavior and the best it has to offer is well-grounded in empirical research conducted by tens of thousands of psychologists from all over the world. Contemporary psychology is concerned with every conceivable aspect of human behavior, from birth (and even before that) to death (but not beyond), from the nitty-gritty details of genetics and neurobiology of behavior to the larger questions of love and hate, prejudice and aggression, altruism and morality, and in between with the mysteries of perception, language and cognition, will and consciousness, and, yes, also with mental disorders, their etiology, and treatment (with no help from Freud). COURSE OBJECTIVES Students will become acquainted with the broad range of concerns of contemporary psychology. Students will learn the use of empirical methods in psychological research. Students will gain an appreciation of the reciprocal relationship between biology and psychology of behavior—how biology influences

behavior and how experience and behavior affect the brain. Students will gain an appreciation of how psychology can help us understand complex social and political issues. Students will learn to think critically about the material they encounter and be able to distinguish between sense and nonsense in

psychology. Grading Quizzes (4) 30% Midterm 25% Final 25% Term paper 20%

CLASS SCHEDULE Lecture 1 Introduction to the course; what is psychology? Critical thinking in psychology (Chapter 1) Lecture 2 How psychologists do research: Descriptive, correlational, and experimental methods in psychology; research ethics (Chapter 2) Lectures 3-4 Genes, evolution, and environment: Genetics of behavior; environmental influences on behavior; nature and nurture (Chapter 3)

Lahore University of Management Sciences

Lectures 5-6 The brain, mind, and self: Biology of mind: neurons and neurochemicals; brain structures and areas; imaging the brain. (Chapter 4) Lectures 7-8 Body rhythms and mental states: Biological rhythms; sleep and dreams consciousness; drugs and consciousness; hypnosis (Chapter 5) Lectures 9-10 Sensation and perception: Introduction to the various senses; how the sensory systems perceive, organize, and interpret information. (Chapter 6) Lectures 11-12 Learning and conditioning: classical and operant conditioning; observational learning. (Chapter 7) Lectures 13-14 Behavior in social and cultural context: Obedience and compliance; attribution theory; group behavior and identity; conflict and prejudice (Chapter 8) Lectures 15-16 Thinking and cognition: Elements of cognition; cognitive biases; intelligence and its assessment; animal minds. (Chapter 9) Lectures 17-18 Memory: Creation of memories; theories of memory; biology of memory (Chapter 10) Lectures 19-20 Emotions, stress, and health: The nature of emotions; stress; stress and emotion; coping with stress (Chapter 11) Lectures 21-22 Motivation: Hunger, thirst, love and sex; pursuit of happiness (Chapter 12) Lecture 23-24 Theories of personality: Freud and psychoanalysis; humanistic theories; contemporary research on personality (Chapter 14) Lectures 25 Life-span development: cognitive development over the life-span (Chapter 13) Lectures 26-27 Psychological disorders: classification of disorders; anxiety and mood disorders; dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder); schizophrenia. Course Reading Wade, Carole & Tavris, Carol (2011). Psychology 10th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.