02207 - General Psychology

Academic Year 2022/2023

Learning outcomes

Identify the major causes of stress in a work environment. Identify the psychological consequences of work related issues such as the burnout syndrome and mobbing.

Course contents

PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES: Brief historical overview of psychology; research methodology; activity on common misconceptions in psychology.

ATTENTION, CONSCIENCE AND MEMORY: Pre-attentive elaboration, selective attention, automatic and controlled processes, priming effect (subliminal messages). Conscience, conscious states, conscious and unconscious processes. Different types of memory (short-term memory, working memory, long-term memory); interference and oblivion.

LEARNING: Associative learning (classical and operating conditioning). Types of reinforcement (positive and negative reinforcement) and punishment.

THINKING AND REASONING: Deductive and inductive reasoning, syllogisms, conditional reasoning and errors in deductive reasoning, theory of mental models, inductive reasoning and examples (triple of numbers and selection task by Wason, Monty Hall problem).

EMOTION AND STRESS: Biological basis of emotion. Theories and functions of emotion. Expression and emotion measurement. The stress response. Acute and chronic stress. Emotions, stress and health.

DECISION-MAKING AND NEGOTIATION: Two systems of reasoning, representativeness, availability and anchoring and adjusting heuristics. Prospect theory, framing effect, attraction and disturb effects. Hints of distributive and integrative negotiation, practical experience. 

 

ONLY FOR PROF. EDU. STUDENTS:

AND MOTIVATION: Motivation and reinforcement. Motivation and intentions.

JUDGMENTS OVERTIME: Time discounting phenomenon and consequences for health. Hints of methods of simulation and to motivational interviewing.

 

ONLY FOR TPALL STUDENTS:

COMMUNICATION AND MISINFORMATION: Hints of communication, communication and health-related information, misinformatioon, disinformation and fake news.

RISK PERCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION: Discrepancy between perceived and objective risk, statistical literacy, numeracy, risk communication in medical settings. 

VACCINE HESITANCY: Definitions and theoretical models, social and psychological determinants, methods of debunking and pre-bunking with practical experience.


Readings/Bibliography

A pdf of the powerpoint presentation will be available on "Virtuale" after each lecture. Pdfs of the powerpoint presentations of the lectures will be the material to be reviewed for the written exam.

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The following textbooks are recommended if you want to explore further the topics covered in class.

Nicoletti R., Rumiati R., Lotto L. (2017). Psicologia. Processi cognitivi, teoria e applicazioni. Il Mulino
Capitoli: 1 CENNI STORICI; 2 METODI DI RICERCA IN PSICOLOGIA; 4 ATTENZIONE; 5 CONDIZIONAMENTO E APPRENDIMENTO; 6 SISTEMI E PROCESSI DI MEMORIA; 9 COMUNICAZIONE; 10 PENSIERO E RAGIONAMENTO; 12 GIUDIZIO E DECISIONE; 13 EMOZIONI

Bassi M., Delle Fave A. (2019, II ed). Psicologia generale per le professioni medico-sanitarie. UTET.
Capitoli: 2 APPRENDIMENTO, 3 MEMORIA, 4 PENSIERO E RAGIONAMENTO, 5 LINGUAGGIO PENSIERO E COMUNICAZIONE, 6 LE EMOZIONI, 7 LA MOTIVAZIONE, 8 ATTENZIONE COSCIENZA E STATI ESPERIENZIALI.

Teaching methods

Lectures with slides. At the end of each lecture a pdf with the powerpoint presentation will be uploaded for students.

During classes students will learn with examples, simulations of experiments and individual and group practical activities.

 

Assessment methods

Written exam with 11 multiple choice questions and 4 open-ended questions.

The multiple choice test consists of 4-choice questions on the topics covered during the lectures. Only one answer is correct (score +1). There are no penalties for wrong or blank answers.

Each open-ended question will be scored from 0 to 5. The maximum total score for all correct answers is 31 that is 30 e lode.

Grade acceptance/refusal: After the grades are communicated to the students, students can refuse the grade within 5 days with an email sent to the instructor (teresa.gavaruzzi@unibo.it).

Teaching tools

The handouts of lectures slides will be provided by the teacher on the online platform (Virtuale).

Office hours

See the website of Teresa Gavaruzzi