Undergraduate Courses

This page displays a list of all undergraduate courses in the Department of Psychology. Not all courses will be offered in every year. If you're interested in enrolling in a Psychology course, you should check the list of undergraduate courses offered in the coming year first.

All undergraduate courses offered by the department are half-year units. Students intending to major in Psychology are required to complete both PSYC1003 and PSYC1004 as part of their undergraduate program. Please check the list of undergraduate courses offered in the coming year if you plan to enrol.

Students interested in continuing on to undertake Clinical training should review the Graduate page, and may also find information on overseas recognition of qualifications useful.

First Year Courses

PSYC1003 Psychology I : Understanding Mind, Brain, and Behaviour

Coordinator : - Dr Michael PLATOW

Covers Cognitive Psychology, Biological Psychology, and an Introduction to Methodological Design and Statistics. Targeted towards teaching the relationships between brain, neural representations and behaviour, and cognitive processes such as reading, language, memory and attention.

PSYC1004 Psychology II : Understanding People in Context

Coordinator : - Dr Phillipa BUTCHER

PSYC1004 takes an innovative new seminar + laboratory format in which information delivery had been specially designed to be more flexible for staff and students. This unit is designed to introduce some of the other core areas of psychology, including personality, human development and social influences on behaviour.

PSYC1005 Life Issues : Applying Psychology

Coordinator : - Dr Ross WILKINSON

This course provides an introduction to how theory and research in psychology can be applied to a wide range of questions that people often ask about themselves, their families and relationships, their work, their future, society and the environment. During the course a series of questions will be addressed from different perspectives including clinical, developmental, cognitive, and social psychological approaches. The questions will cover a range of issues and will typically change from year to year.

Second Year Courses

PSYC2001 Social Psychology

Coordinator : - Dr Dirk VAN ROOY - Dr Boris BIZUMIC

This course will cover concepts, research and theory within social psychology. We will look at, for example, social influences on perception (of ourselves and others), attitudes, the relationship between attitudes and behaviour, group development, conformity and obedience to authority, prejudice and religious beliefs, cooperation and conflict, the development and breakdown of interpersonal relationships and rule-breaking behaviour such as cheating, bullying and sabotage.

PSYC2002 Developmental Psychology

Coordinator : - Dr Phillipa BUTCHER

Course will have a deeper focus on specific areas of children's lives, examining how language acquisition, cognitive, emotional and social development interact to impact on such aspects of life as gender identity, involvement with the legal system, peer and family relationships, and problems of adolescence.

PSYC2007 Biological Basis of Behaviour

Coordinator : - Dr Brendan O'BRIEN

Introduces behavioural and systems neuroscience and brain mechanisms underlying behaviour. Covers organisation, evolution and development of the nervous system; sensory systems; control of movement; the autonomic nervous system; the hypothalamus and hormonal control; structure and function of the cerebral cortex; and learning, memory and cognitive processes.

PSYC2008 Visual Perception and Cognition

Coordinator : - Dr Mark EDWARDS - Dr Romina PALERMO

Course is divided into two sections. The first section covers aspects of visual perception. Topics include: historical review of the different theoretical approaches to studying visual perception; organisation and function of cells early in the visual system; concept and clinical neuropsychological implications of multiple and parallel visual pathways; perceptual constancies and sensory and perceptual illusions. In the cognitive section, the focus is on memory. Topics include: working memory; long-term memory; memory disorders; visual object recognition; visual word recognition; syntax, semantics and sentence processing and face recognition.

PSYC2009 Quantitative Methods in Psychology

Coordinator : - Professor Mike SMITHSON

Introduces selected quantitative techniques used in psychological research and practice, such as applications of statistical techniques in the design and analysis of experiments and surveys, and construction and applications of techniques of psychological measurement in experiments and surveys.

PSYC2011 Perspectives on Crime from Psychology and Criminology

Coordinator : - Mr Daniel SKORICH

The emphasis of this course is to discuss the contribution that psychology can make to the study of crime. The course examines psychological theories of crime, as well as traditional and contemporary approaches to controlling crime.

Third Year Courses

PSYC3002 The Social Psychology of Group Processes and Social Change

Coordinator : - Dr Michael PLATOW

Covers psychological processes involved in relations between and within and between groups. Includes topics such as Analyses of the Social-Psychology of Groups, Social Identity, and Stereotyping; Group Cohesion and Norms; Cooperation, Helping, Trust and Fairness; Leadership, Power, and Social Influence; Group Decision Making, Motivation, and Collective Action; and Negotiation and Communication.

PSYC3011 Perception

Coordinator : - Dr Mark EDWARDS

This course gives students an extensive theoretical understanding of how the visual system operates and also shows how to apply this knowledge to real world situations and clinical neuropsychological cases. Vision is a fascinating area of study that can be approached from many different disciplines in addition to psychology, e.g. neurology, computer science, electrophysiology and engineering.

PSYC3015 Issues in Cognitive Psychology

Coordinator : - Dr Romina PALERMO

This course examines contemporary research issues and theories in cognitive processes, and will also include explanations of cognitive disorders. Possible topics: attention, consciousness, visual memory (for scenes and faces), neuropsychological rehabilitation.

PSYC3016 Issues in Behavioural Neuroscience

Coordinator : - Dr Brendan O'BRIEN

Covers a variety of advanced topics in neuroscience, emphasising vision and visual perception, and/or control of movement, cerebral lateralisation and higher order cortical processing. Many levtures will be given by members of the Institute of Advanced Studies and the Centre for Visual Science who are actively engaged in research into these topics.

PSYC3018 Advanced Research Methods

Coordinator : - Dr Dirk VAN ROOY

Covers measurement of psychological constructs; research designs; collapsing of data; ANOVA; multiple regression; computer-based analysis; method and results sections; planned and post-hoc contrasts; integration of ANOVA and regression as an introduction to the general linear model; searching/analyzing literature; SPSS ANOVA and Regression.

PSYC3020 Health Psychology

Coordinator : - Dr Elizabeth RIEGER - Dr Jay BRINKER

Health Psychology introduces the student to the intricate relationship which exists between psychological factors and the biological processes of human health and illness. Definitions of illness focussing on the notion of illness as a psychosocial dysfunction are presented in the context of emerging definitions of Health Psychology itself. The course then goes on to examine the idea of stress and the stress reaction as the theoretical model linking psychological and biological processes. The relative and related roles of personality, stress and the psychosocial environment in the genesis of organic pathology and illness are then presented in some detail, along with the body of contemporary empirical evidence supporting these roles. Issues dealing with health risk behaviours such as smoking and diet are considered and evidence for psycho-biological links mediated through the autonomic nervous system, the endocrinological system and the immunological system are discussed. Examples from cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease, the neoplastic diseases and the neurological diseases are taken to illustrate these points.

PSYC3023 Special Topics in Psychology

Coordinator : - Professor Don BYRNE

The course will involve seminars and/or research programs to be supervised by staff members or visitors to the ANU. The format of this course will depend on the availability and interests of staff in given years. Programs are designed to enable students to acquire research skills and knowledge of advanced topics in psychology.

PSYC3025 Abnormal Psychology Across the Lifespan

Coordinator : - Dr Bernd HEUBECK - Dr Richard O'KEARNEY

This course introduces a range of abnormal behaviours and psychopathology across the life span, e.g. oppositional behaviour and conduct disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, schizophrenia, or dementia (these may change from year to year). Covers clinical description, individual differences, biological, psychological, social and contextual influences, the examination of prominent models in the literature, and the treatment of selected psychological disorders.

PSYC3026 Personality & the Assessment of Individual Differences

Coordinator : - Dr Phillipa BUTCHER - Dr Ross WILKINSON

This course provides an overview of theory and research in the assessment and study of human personality. Topics covered include : classical test theory and psychometric principles; the assessment of individual differences and abilities; personality traits; biological influences on personality; psychoanalytic theories of personality; the phenomenological perspective in personality psychology; and, the role of social learning and social cognition in personality functioning.