Penn Psychology:

For non-psychology graduate students, first get permission of instructor, then get permission of Dr. Mike Kahana, Director of Graduate Studies, then contact Mr. Mike Greer, Department Administrator, to obtain the permit (greermb@psych.upenn.edu).

Special note - The following Criminology Dept. course will count towards the Psychology graduate degree:

CRIM 671-301: Violence: A Clinical Neuroscience Approach (Raine) M 2-5 (Counts as a 709)

This course illustrates a clinical neuroscienceapproach to understanding violence in which the tools of neuroscience – neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, neuroendocrinology, neuropharmacology, molecular and behavioral genetics – are used to help inform the etiology and treatment of violence. Clinical components include psychopathy, proactive and reactive aggression, homicide, domestic violence, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, antisocial personality disorder, crime, and delinquency as well as their comorbid conditions (schizophrenia, drug abuse, hyperactivity). The interaction between neurobiological and psychosocial processes in predisposing to violence will be highlighted, together with developmental and neurodevelopmental perspectives on violence focusing on prospective longitudinal and brain imaging research. Key implications for forensic psychology, the criminal justice system, neuroethics, and treatment will also be outlined. (Counts as a 709)

Thinking, judgment, decision making, beliefs, and probabilility, with emphasis on fallacies and errors. This is a "Mind"sector course.

This course considers the evolution of social behavior in animals, and introduces the application of evolutionary theory to human mating systems and behavior. Topics covered include Darwin 's theory of natural selection as applied to behavior, sexual selection, the evolution of parental care and mating systems in birds and mammals, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and the evolution of cooperation. This is an "Individual and Group "sector course. This is a .5 cu course (meets 10/20/08 - 12/5/08).

A discussion of basic learning processes, particularly as illustrated in nonhuman organisms. Topics include how organisms learn about events themselves (e.g., habituation), how they learn relations among events (e.g., Pavlovian conditioning), and how they learn relations between their own behavior and events (e.g., instrumental learning). Emphasis is placed upon current data and theories. This is a "Mind"sector course.

Cross-listed with INSC 595

Current research on the neural basis of behavior is organized in six subsections: animal communication, sex behavior, circadian rhythms, energy and water balance, synaptic plasticity and learning, and addiction. Topics are selected based on excitement surrounding recent research developments. Each topic is analyzed initially at the behavioral level, followed by the systems and the cell and molecular levels. Throughout the course, attention is paid to the analysis interesting stereotyped behaviors, e.g., bird song, lordosis, licking, whose description and neurology has provided insights into the neural systems that contribute to overall neural control of behavior. Attention is also paid to the development of understanding of the neuroanatomy of selected neural systems. This is a "Brain"sector course.

Cross-listed with BIBB451
This course will cover basic principles of human and animal behavior genetics, including the genetics of normal variation as well as extreme phenotypes represented by behavioral, psychiatric and neurologic disorders. The course will focus on methods necessary to critically evaluate research findings on normal and abnormal human behavior. Animal models will also be reviewed.

This course focuses on the current state of our knowledge about the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. A combination of lectures and student seminars will explore the molecular and cellular basis of learning in invertebrates and vertebrates from a behavioral and neural perspective.

The backgrounds and mathematical sophistication of the students entering the LCS-IGERT graduate program will vary widely. A two-semester Mathematical Foundations sequence will provide all students with basic mathematical modeling and algorithmic tools, while still providing sufficient challenges for the most advanced. These two courses (course numbers to be announced soon), will be taught in a computer/media lab setting and will cover relevant aspects of a wide range of mathematical topics that are directly relevant to animal, human or machine communication, or that provide prerequisites for these topics. Examples of topics directly relevant to communication include information theory, game theory, and formal language theory. Examples of important topics include signal processing, machine learning, and probabilistic models. These two semesters obviously cannot substitute entirely for the dozen or more semesters that normally would be required to cover a similar range of topics. However, they can give students the ability to understand and implement algorithms from published descriptions, especially given appropriate libraries of basic functions, and to discuss alternative approaches with experts in a well-informed manner. It is clearly not the case that every LCS-IGERT students will use every mathematical or algorithmic topic from this course in his or her research. However, applications are often unexpected, and fortune favors the prepared. In addition, this background will enable students to make sense of a wide range of courses and readings that might otherwise be inaccessible. Finally, the shared experience of this course will help IGERT students to establish a personal as well as conceptual basis for future collaborations. Each semester of this two-semester sequence will be co-taught by two faculty members. Because of the diversity of topics and of the students' backgrounds, the two-semester course sequence will be organized into a series of "modules", each designed to explicate a core mathematical and algorithmic topic. Each module will deal with specific problems of the type that IGERT students need to solve and will be as self-contained as possible, although of course one module will often require understanding of concepts and techniques taught in another. This is a "Mind"sector course. (Cross-listed with COGS 502 and LING 546)

Covers two unrelated topics: loglinear and logit models for discrete data and nonparametric methods for nonnormal data. Emphasis is on practical methods of data analysis and their interpretation. Primarily for doctoral students in the managerial, behavioral, social and health sciences. (Cross-listed with Stat 501)

This seminar will cover a range of topics within contemporary moral psychology, covering (among other things), the following sorts of issues: how people arrive at their particular set of moral beliefs, the extent to which moral beliefs based on reasoning as opposed to more intuitive processes, the extent to which moral beliefs are revisable, and what causes people to revise their moral beliefs, whether moral beliefs are "special" in terms of their personal and social significance, and the extent to which people’s moral beliefs guide their behavior. Students will be expected to read and actively discuss selected papers, and will be asked to present readings at various points. There will be a final paper assignment.

Cross-listed with INSC 576 and PHRM 550

(This course may be used as a Psyc 709) - Neuropsychopharmacology provides an overview of the neurobiology of major neurppsychiatric illnesses. The course is divided into four modules related to behavioral disorders or disciplines: The specific modules covered are: affective disorders, substance abuse, schizophrenia and behavioral genetics. The modules present material that integrates clinical and basic neurobiology approaches to research of complex behavioral disorders. Each module covers a specific area using the following format: clinical features basic and clinical neuroscience studies relevant to understanding the pathobiology and mechanisms of treatment of each set of disorders case presentation or outside speakers. Course Director: Dr. Irwin Lucki, 3-3305.

All Clinical students will register for this course in the Fall of their second year.

All Clinical students will register for this course in the Spring of their second year.

All Clinical students will register for this course in the Summer at the end of their second year.

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Department of Psychology

Graduate Courses - Fall 2008 (tentative)