The aim of this course is to introduce students to the theoretical and practical issues from key areas of criminological psychology. The course will examine the contributions made by psychology to the theory, prevention and treatment of criminal behaviour, the prevention and investigation of crime and the understanding of criminal justice processes.
This course will devote itself to the study of the aging process and the elderly. It will cover the biological, social and psychological processes involved in aging and rhe influence of lifestyle and social circumstances on this process. It will also include the care of the aged and examine the various theories about the aged and their perceptions. Difficult issues that confront the aged such as spousal loss, isolation, invalidity and dying will all be discussed alongside the handling of these situations.
This course will examine social change as an integral process with a focus on efforts at transforming social, public and private sector organisations including health, education and service institutions. The theories and dynamics of social change in institutions and the catalysts and elements of change will be discussed with a focus on leadership roles in initiating and managing the change process.
This course will inform students about the ways in which people interact with one another and are influenced in social settings. Theoretical positions and research findings on conformity, obedience, audience effects and social loafing as well as how the processes responsible for these can be manipulated in leadership, union, ethnic, religious and other settings will be discussed.
This course will expose psychology students to the design and analysis of research on the measurement of human characteristics. It will cover issues in statistics and quantitative methods that are pertinent to the measurement of human values, attitudes, attributes, interests and potentials. It will also cover measurement issues dealing with consumer surveys, job and performance analysis.
This course will introduce students to community development based on participatory bottom-up, multi-sectorial models. Different approaches to development will be compared in terms of effectiveness. There will also be a focus on the principles that underlie sustainable development, culminating in the design of a development project based on the Village Earth model.
In this course the student will be introduced to person-environment interactions and how these impact upon individual and community functioning. The issues of substance abuse, poverty, school failure, delinquency, aggression, high-risk behaviour and violence will be studied in terms of their nature, causes, effects on individuals and society and their handling. The ways individuals interact with others and social groups such as churches, schools, families and the larger cultural environment will also be discussed including the issues of diversity, marginalisation and empowerment. All issues will be studied with an interventionist orientation.
This course will examine the theoretical explanations of learning disabilities, including genetic, psychological, cognitive processing and social explanations. It will also examine the treatments prescribed by various theories and researchers, and students will engage in intervention activity in the child development laboratory of the department.
This course examines the theoretical conceptions and contributions on the physical, intellectual and psychosocial characteristics of children in the early childhood stages of life. It will cover how these characteristics affect the development of personality, cognition, behaviour and learning of preschool children.
This course will introduce the student to research methods. It is to enable students to understand empirical research issues and also to plan and conduct research projects in their areas of interest. It will cover the basis, assumptions and approaches to research. The functions of research, the different kinds of research, instrumentation and analytical tools will also be discussed. Emphasis will also be placed on procedure in conducting and evaluating research as well as intervention strategies.
