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Course name: PSY 601 Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis
Instructor: Adil Sarıbay
Course description: The main aim of this course is to develop an advanced and nuanced understanding of the logic underlying quantitative approaches and statistical tests commonly used in scientific research and to develop the skills essential to dealing with data in a typical research project (e.g., exploring, describing, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting data) in Psychology (and beyond). To achieve these goals, the course focuses on Linear Regression and simulation-based methods. Special emphasis will be given to critically evaluating research and these commonly used data-analytic tools and to producing solid and reproducible science with the help of modern innovations. The course will also give students competence in using R for data analysis and the ability to self-sustain further learning in statistics, data analysis, and R.
Course name: PSY 602 Advanced and Multivariate Statistical Methods
Instructor: Mehmet Harma
Course description: The purpose of this class is to introduce some of the advanced multivariate statistics including discriminant function analysis, logistic regression, path analyses, structural equation modeling, dyadic analyses, measurement invariance, and network analysis using various programs such as MPlus, R, JASP, SPSS. Specifically, this course aims to enable students (1) develop an understanding of theory/model-based measurement, testing, and analyses, (2) comprehend why structural equation modeling and related statistics (e.g., network analysis) are useful in social sciences, (3) acquire skills in analyzing data using different statistical packages (4) recognize and critique the limitations and common mistakes in applying specific statistical methods in published papers.
Course name: PSY 603 Advanced Theoretical Discussions in Psychological Sciences
Instructor: Onurcan Yılmaz
Course description: The most fundamental topics in the history of psychological science will be discussed in this PhD-level course around the current literature. The main topic will be chosen depending on the expertise of the instructor (e.g., morality, parenting, attention, bilingualism, memory, language development, attachment, politics, smoking addiction, face perception, social cognition, social development, auditory perception, etc.), and comparative readings will be made on different sub-fields of psychological sciences on this topic. In the first part of the course, recent theoretical and methodological advances in psychological sciences will be discussed. Then, the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins of “chosen” behavior will be focused on. The following will reveal the neural and cognitive origins of that behavior. Next, contextual factors will be investigated understanding the boundary conditions that elicit that behavior. At the end of the course, the students are expected to (1) acquire a critical perspective on how to synthesize knowledge in different subfields of psychological sciences and (2) have a good understanding of how human behavior can be explained holistically.
Course name: PSY 604 Parenting
Instructor: Berna Uzundağ
Course description: This course will focus on the factors that affect parenting, the role of parent-child interactions, parental behaviors, and parent-child relationship in child development across different developmental periods. The course will inform the students about how scientific knowledge can be translated into intervention and training programmes to foster positive parenting and better outcomes in terms of child development.
Course name: PSY 605 Cognitive Development
Instructor: Berna Uzundağ
Course description: In this course, the developmental change in several major areas of sociocognitive functioning during infancy and childhood will be examined. The course will focus on selected topics such as joint attention, self-regulation, language and communication, theory of mind, and parenting. The effects of social and environmental context on development and implications for education and social issues will be discussed.
Course name: PSY 606 Technology and Children
Instructor: Berna Uzundağ
Course description: This course will focus on the role of children’s and parents’ use of screen-based technologies in children’s cognitive and socioemotional development and parent-child interactions.
Course name: PSY 607 Language and Cognition
Instructor: Aslı Aktan Erciyes
Course description: This course focuses on the relation between language and other cognitive processes both by covering theoretical as well as empirical literature. The course aims to examine the interface of language and thought from various perspectives, focusing on some of the specific cases.
Course name: PSY 608 Special Topics in Bilingualism
Instructor: Aslı Aktan Erciyes
Course description: This course aims to address how bilingualism is related to selected topics covered in cognitive psychology. Various topics such as numbers, time, motion events and space in relation to bilingualism will be investigated.
Course name: PSY 609 Seminar in Language Development
Instructor: Aslı Aktan Erciyes
Course description: This course will involve the study of typically developing children, focusing on phonological, semantic, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic development from pre-linguistic to complex language development. Major topics include contemporary models and key issues in typical speech-language acquisition, including models and theories of language acquisition.
Course name: PSY 610 Advanced Selected Topics in Developmental Psychology
Instructor: Aslı Aktan Erciyes
Course description: The purpose of this graduate-level course on Special Topics in Developmental Psychology is to provide students with an overview of the major issues, theories, methods, and empirical data from the field of development. This course will be a seminar on cognitive processes, such as executive functioning and related aspects of cognition.
Course name: PSY 611 Theoretical Perspectives in Developmental Psychology
Instructor: Aslı Çarkoğlu
Course description: Aim of this course is to critically evaluate major contemporary theoretical perspectives in human development. Endogenous, exogenous and constructivist theories will be surveyed while examining how these theories currently inform and guide research in the field of human development.
Course name: PSY 612 Child and Family
Instructor: Aslı Çarkoğlu
Course description: This course aims to focus on the development of the child within the family context. Starting with a focus on family systems theory, the course will critically examine the role of the family (parents, siblings as well as the extended family) in shaping the developmental processes of the child.
Course name: PSY 613 Emerging Adulthood
Instructor: Aslı Çarkoğlu
Course description: This course aims to survey the social and cognitive developmental processes of the emerging adults. Expanding on the social developmental processes by focusing on lifestyle-style issues and related health-risk behaviors, the interplay between culture and identity will be further explored.
Course name: PSY 620 Visualization
Instructor: Ahu Gökçe
Course description: This course aims to introduce visualization as a tool to convey messages and/or information. (In)effective ways of visual communication and their implications on human behaviour will be covered by focusing on the underlying visual attention and working memory mechanisms.
Course name: PSY 621 Advanced Selected Topics in Visual Attention and Memory
Instructor: Ahu Gökçe
Course description: This course aims to introduce various visual attentional mechanisms and their implications on memory driven processes, broadly defined as visual memory. The selected topics will focus on fundamental mechanisms of visual attention, namely search and selection history, visuospatial attention, visual working memory and ensemble perception. At the end of this course students will acquire knowledge on the different theories on the interplay between visual attention and memory processes and be familiar with various experimental paradigms used in the field.
Course name: PSY 622 EEG: Theory and Practice
Instructor: Efe Soyman
Course description: Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most widely used techniques in cognitive neuroscience. Although there is an abundance of software and toolboxes that allow for recording and analyzing EEG signals with just a few clicks, a thorough understanding of the theoretical, methodological, technical, and practical factors governing EEG is absolutely necessary for accurately utilizing it for top-tier research. Accordingly, this course will cover the theoretical and practical aspects of EEG by combining theoretical class meetings and discussions with hands-on practical application sessions. By the end of the course, the students will be equipped with the theoretical understanding and the practical skills to set-up their own EEG system, develop experimental designs suitable for EEG, and record and analyze EEG signals by applying innovative techniques.
Course name: PSY 623 Advanced Selected Topics in Social and Affective Neuroscience
Instructor: Efe Soyman
Course description: This course will cover theoretical discussions and empirical findings in a variety of selected social and affective neuroscience topics, such as perception of others’ faces, self and other distinction, pair-bonding, empathy, compassion, helping, discrimination, and dehumanization. Each subject will be discussed from a critical point of view so that the students understand the limitations, as well as the benefits, of adopting a neuroscientific approach to understand social and emotional phenomena.
Course Name: PSY 624 Memory & Self
Instructor: Sezin Öner
Course description: This course aims to inform students about current debates on human memory at personal and collective level. It deals specifically with the link of the “self” to remembering the past and imagining the future. We will discuss the formation and characteristics of episodic memories, memory across the lifespan and its links to identity, the role of forgetting and memory distortion in self-construal, adaptive and future-oriented functions of episodic memory, the social aspects of autobiographical memory, and collective identity. As we proceed through the readings, students will gain an understanding of human memory structure and its relevance to personal and collective identity.
Course Name: PSY 625 Advanced Selected Topics in Memory & Cognition
Instructor: Sezin Öner
Course description: The course entails critical discussion of recent research in selected areas of cognition and memory. Topics covered in the course include episodic memory, working memory, attention and executive control. Our focus will be on human cognitive processes, and how they relate to social behavior, development, and pathology, with additional readings about primate cognition for comparative and evolutionary perspectives. . Evidence derived from work with clinical populations, healthy older individuals, research involving the use of animal models, and brain-imaging techniques to study the neural basis of memory and cognition will be explored. Students will be required to read and critically evaluate selected articles from the literature and engage in active discussion during class, focusing in particular on ongoing debates in the field across a number of topics.
Course name: PSY 630 Open Science and the Replication Crisis
Instructor: Adil Sarıbay
Course description: This course aims to introduce the reasons underlying the Replication Crisis in Social Psychology and the subsequent efforts to address the crisis, i.e., the Open Science Movement. The course gives special emphasis to the misuse and abuse of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing, questionable research and measurement practices, and other issues that have created specific and widespread shortcomings and pitfalls in the empirical database of Social Psychology as well as other fields of science. The course also offers solutions and innovative tools that address these issues at a practical level.
Course name: PSY 631 Close Relationships and Self
Instructor: Mehmet Harma
Course description: The primary aim of this course is to serve as a graduate-level seminar on the most cutting-edge and robust (i.e., reproducible) social psychological research on close relationships and self, with a particular emphasis on intimate relationships (i.e., dating and marital or marriage-like relationships). At the end of this course, student should have a very thorough grasp of what the new trends in the field are, the current findings, who the key researchers in the field are today, what their theories are, and where the field is going. A second aim is to provide opportunities to practice skills (e.g., a 15-minute presentation, a written research paper) that will promote academic success in all areas of research.
Course name: PSY 632 Moral Psychology
Instructor: Onurcan Yılmaz
Course description: This PhD-level course aims to explore core social psychological concepts, theories, and phenomena related to human morality from various perspectives: cognitive, social, behavioral, and evolutionary. The readings are selected mostly from the primary literature and will be made available in pdf format. At the end of this course, the students are expected to (1) acquire a critical perspective on contemporary moral psychology, (2) understand evolutionary, cognitive, individual differences, behavioral, and anthropological perspectives on human morality, (3) have a good understanding of recent empirical and theoretical advances in moral psychology, and (4) have the ability to submit a preregistration protocol and proposal in registered report format.
Course name: PSY 633 Human Nature
Instructor: Onurcan Yılmaz
Course description: This PhD-level course aims to provide a holistic perspective on human nature from various perspectives: philosophical, theological, and scientific. At the end of this course, the students are expected to (1) acquire a critical perspective on what “human nature” is, (2) understand different “human nature” definitions and different perspectives, (3) have a good understanding of empirical advances such as artificial intelligence and philosophical discussions such as free will-determinism, and (4) to be able to write an opinion essay that reflects their own opinion on what “human nature” is.
Course name: Political Psychology
Instructor: Onurcan Yılmaz
Course description: This PhD-level course aims to explore core social psychological concepts, theories, and phenomena related to human political behavior from various perspectives: cognitive, social, political, behavioral, and evolutionary. At the end of this course, the students are expected to (1) acquire a critical perspective on contemporary political psychology, (2) understand different theoretical discussions and perspectives on human political behavior, (3) have a good understanding of recent empirical and theoretical advances in political psychology, and (4) have the ability to submit a preregistration protocol and proposal in registered report format.
Course name: PSY 635 Advanced Selected Topics in Psychological Science
Instructor: Onurcan Yılmaz
Course description: This PhD-level course aims to explore core psychological concepts, theories, and phenomena related to human behavior from various perspectives: cognitive, social, developmental, behavioral, neuropsychological and evolutionary. At the end of this course, the students are expected to (1) acquire a critical perspective on contemporary psychological science, (2) understand different theoretical discussions and perspectives on human behavior, and (3) have a good understanding of recent empirical and theoretical advances in the discipline.
Course name: PSY 636 Advanced Selected Topics in Social Psychology
Instructor: Onurcan Yılmaz
Course description: This PhD-level course aims to explore the major issues, theories, methods, and empirical issues in the field of social psychology. This course will be “selected” seminar course on social psychology.