PSYCHOLOGY UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

1^stYEAR

1st Semester

Introduction to Psychology I (PSYC 101) This course provides an objective and scientific introduction to the basic principles of psychology. Course topics may include the history of psychology, research methods in psychology, sensation and perception, learning, motivation, emotion and memory.

Introduction to Sociology (PSYC 103): This course introduces the academic discipline, principles, concepts and theories of sociology to the students. Topics may include the conceptualization of sociology as science, socialization, the nature of large- and small-scale groups, historical eras and social change, and race, ethnic and gender relations.

Introduction to Philosophy (PSYC 105): This course focuses on the basic concepts and questions of philosophy, theories of the philosophers in the history of philosophy, the disciplines of philosophy, philosophy and ethics, ontology, epistemology and philosophy of art.

Academic English I (ENPS 101): Introduction to the reading and writing skills needed to meet the expectations of university-level academic study. Emphasis is on building proficiency in academic reading and writing through extensive practice.

Atatürk's Principles and Revolution History I (HIST 101): This is the first of a sequence of two term-courses that focus on the political, economic, social, and cultural history of the late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Türkiye. It addresses issues related to why and how the Ottoman Empire ended; why and how the Republic of Türkiye came onto the agenda; what the nascent Republic inherited from the Empire in terms of the relationship between state and society; and what kind of nation and nation-state was imagined in Early Republican Türkiye.

Turkish Language I (TURK 101): This course is intended to develop sophistication in spoken debate of complex ideas. It covers characteristics of Turkish language and selected works in Turkish Literature. Emphasis is placed on reading, critically examining and discussing selected prose, stories and poetry. Correct use of Turkish will be discussed with examples of narration defects, punctuation and spelling mistakes etc. and historical and cultural foundations of literary texts will be analyzed.

1^st YEAR

2nd Semester

Introduction to Psychology II (PSYC 102) This course is the follow-up course of the Introduction to Psychology I. Subjects of the course may include intelligence, personality, developmental psychology, health psychology, social psychology, psychological disorders and treatment of psychological disorders.

Scientific Methods in Behavioral Science (PSYC 104): In this course, the basic research concepts and stages of research will be introduced to the students. With this course students will be able to design studies examining social problems, and they will learn the necessary concepts to evaluate the results of research.

Modern World History (POLS 104): This course intends to examine social and political results of modernization from historical perspective. This course covers especially modern European history, science revolution, reformation, enlightenment, colonization, political revolutions. By this way, this course aims to elaborate upon global effects of the modernization to 20th century in Central Asia, Middle East, Africa, Far East and Americas.

Academic English II (ENPS 102): This course is the second part of the introduction to the reading and writing skills needed to meet the expectations of university-level academic study. Aim of the course is to further develop academic reading and writing skills, critical thinking, summarizing and synthesizing long academic texts, and ability to use the most recent APA style in academic writing.

Atatürk's Principles and Revolution History II (HIST 102): This is the second of a sequence of two term-courses that focus on the political, economic, social, and cultural history of the late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Türkiye. It addresses issues related to Türkiye is experience with democracy during the cold war period; import-substituting industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s; the open economy of 1980s and its political, social and cultural outcomes; and Türkiye-European Union relations and their impact on the relationship between state and society in Türkiye.

Turkish Language II (TURK 102): This course is intended to develop sophistication in written debate of complex ideas. It covers selected works in Turkish Literature and different approaches to literature to answer the question why we read fictional works. Emphasis is placed on reading selected novels, stories and drama, and writing analytic papers on them. Correct use of Turkish will also be discussed with examples of narration defects, punctuation, and spelling mistakes etc. during the course.

   2^nd YEAR

3rd Semester

Statistics for Psychology I (PSYC 201): The course will cover a review of the basic concepts in statistics. After the introduction to the basic concepts, frequency distribution, mean, mode, median, standard deviation, variance, normal distribution, hypothesis testing, correlation techniques, simple regression will be covered.

Social Psychology (PSYC 203): This course provides an introduction to the field of social psychology. Students will examine perceptions of self as a social being, attitudes, impressions, close relationships, group processes and influences, and social motives. Furthermore, theoretical and empirical work in the areas of interpersonal attraction, group processes including norms, conformity, aggression, negotiation, cooperation, conflict, leadership, productivity and socialization processes will be discussed.

Experimental Psychology (PSYC 205): This course designed to provide students with knowledge about and hands-on practice with experimental research methods in psychology. Students learn how to plan, conduct, and analyze their own experimental research, and how to communicate the results of their research to others. This course is an introduction to the basic principles of learning and behavior as well as experimental research information.

History of Psychology (PSYC 207): Beginning with the Ancient Greeks to present, this course examines the history of psychology and it is designed to provide an introduction and overview of the historical development of psychology and its practice. Ideas about psychology such as the history of ideas about mind, key historical and social events shaping the field, and when and how psychology was regarded as a scientific field are the main points of this course.

   2^nd YEAR

4th Semester

Statistics for Psychology II (PSYC202): This course is a continuation of Statistics for Psychology I. The aim of the course is to introduce the methods of statistical hypothesis testing that are frequently used in psychology. Topics to be covered include analysis of variance (one-way and multivariate), correlation, and the use of non-parametric tests.

Lifespan Development (PSYC 204): This course covers physical, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of human from the periods of pre-birth to late adulthood. During this course students will learn about the nature and context of development, the major theories of development, as well as the research methods used to study human development. 

Cognitive Psychology (PSYC 206): This course provides a comprehensive introduction of the area of cognitive psychology. Topics to be covered include the emergence and importance of cognitive psychology, memory, problem solving, thinking and reasoning, attention, pattern recognition, short-term storage and processing and forgetting.

   3^rd YEAR

5th Semester

Research Methods in Psychology (PSYC 301): This course is designed to provide students with the necessary tools to design scientific research and prepare a research report in the field of psychology. It includes topics such as theories and hypotheses, correlational and experimental research, ethics, and APA style references, as well as reliability and validity, confounding variables, descriptive statistics, sampling, and factorial design.

Psychology of Learning (PSYC 303): This course covers basic principles of learning and conditioning particularly from the behaviorism perspective. Topics of the course include what learning is and how it is measured objectively, the principles of habituation, desensitization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and avoidance.

Theories of Personality (PSYC 305): This course will familiarize students with a variety of personality theories and approaches, their history and applications. The key theorists will be introduced along with the strengths and limitations of their different approaches. 

   3^rd YEAR

6th Semester

Cross-Cultural Psychology (PSYC 302): This course covers the influence of culture on human cognition, emotion, and behavior. Cross-cultural similarities and differences in behavior, individual development, social behaviors and areas such as personality, intelligence, emotion, language and perception constitute the main topics of the course.

Psychopathology (PSYC 304): These courses introduce students to psychopathologies. By focusing on the major scientific theories of their etiology and treatment provide an overview of the main psychological disorders.

Industrial and Organizational Psychology (PSYC 306): This course introduces the fundamentals of human behavior which is necessary to create a more effective and efficient institutional environment and examines the effects of behavior on performance. The aim of the course is to enable students to understand and analyze behavior based on individual, team, and institution.

   4^th YEAR

7th Semester

Clinical Psychology (PSYC 401): This course provides a broad overview of the field of clinical psychology, focusing on science and practice. Topics to be covered include definition, training, and professional activities of clinical psychologists, along with history and current controversies, diagnosis according to the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-V, interviewing and psychological assessment methods, psychotherapy approaches, ethics.

   4^th YEAR

8th Semester

Ethical Principles in Psychology (PSYC 402): Ethical issues inherent in the conduct of psychological research and practice are discussed in this course. Topics on ethical issues and dilemmas relevant in different fields of studies, including therapy, clinical and organizational assessment, training, consulting, and forensic issues are covered throughout the course.

Health Psychology (PSYC 404): This course focuses on psychological approaches to health and disease. Using the biopsychosocial approach, topics include changing health habits, coping with stress, dealing with pain, and treating health problems.

 

ELECTIVE COURSES

Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 111): Alan dışı öğrencilere Psikoloji bilimini tanıtmak için açılan bu ders psikolojinin temel prensiplerine nesnel ve bilimsel bir giriş niteliğindedir. Ders konuları psikoloji tarihi, psikolojide araştırma yöntemleri, duyum ve algı, davranış, öğrenme, motivasyon, duygu ve bellek, zeka, kişilik, gelişim psikolojisi, sağlık psikolojisi, sosyal psikoloji, psikolojik bozukluklar ve psikolojik bozuklukların tedavisidir.

Physiological Psychology (PSYC 212): This course provides basic information about the biological basis of behavior. Along whit basic psychological processes, the structure and function of the nervous system and its relationship are discussed. Examining the neural and chemical foundations of various behavioral processes and the brain structures related to these behaviors is the main objective of this course.

Educational Psychology (PSYC 214): This course includes the application of the psychological principles to educational processes. Besides the basic concepts and theories of education, individual differences (e.g. intelligence, creativity), educational behavior, classroom management are introduced in this course.

Selected Topics in Psychology (PSYC 216): Topics that reflect current trends in psychology or specialized content areas forms the content of this course. The course is held as discussions of theoretical and empirical research papers published in recent years.

Stress Management (PSYC 218): This course provides an introductory background to the causes of stress and how stress affects our body. Topics to be covered include stress theories, coping with stress, personal and cultural influences on stress perception, function and consequences of stress.

Interpersonal Relationships (PSYC 220): The course examines interpersonal relationships from a social psychological perspective. The aim of the course is to introduce the relationship field to students with the latest theories and research areas. The topics such as interpersonal attraction and mate selection, formation of attachment bonds, social-cognitive processes in interpersonal relationships, jealousy and infidelity, loneliness, social rejection contribute to the content of this course.

Cognitive Development (PSYC 311): The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the mental changes that take place from birth through adolescence. The course covers the development of perceptual abilities, attention, memory, language, problem-solving and reasoning, and social cognition. It also provides a basic understanding of cognitive development research methods.

Self (PSYC 312): The aim of this course is to introduce the theories, researches, and concepts about the self, which is one of the subjects of Social Psychology. The course covers the theoretical approaches and research findings about self-development, self-regulation and self-presentation etc.

Social Cognition (PSYC 313): The concept of social cognition corresponding to how we process social knowledge is about how we understand, explain and interpret our own and others' behavior. Social cognition is, therefore, the interface between social psychology and cognitive psychology. The topics such as automatical thinking, social comparison, stereotypes, schemas and so on are the content of this course.

Consumer Behavior (PSYC 315): This course examines the psychological processes of the consumers, how they make a decision, and why consumer behavior differs among individuals.

Psychology of Emotion (PSYC 316): This course covers the theories and different approaches about human emotion. Topics to be covered include the definition, role and function of emotion, evolutionary origins and biological bases of emotions, emotional expressions, the effects of culture on emotions and basic emotions. 

Social Development (PSYC 317): The aim of the course is to examine contemporary theories, researches and methods to understand social and emotional development, especially in childhood. This course gives information about research areas such as social learning, social cognition, moral development, gender role development.

Political Psychology (PSYC 318): This course provides an overview of the growing literature on political psychology and explores the sources of public opinion and political behavior through the application of psychological theories. It also introduces psychological theories that help people understand what they think and feel about politics. Personality, leadership, voting, the role of the media, ethnic conflict, nationalism, terrorism, international security, and conflict are the topics of this course.

Applied Social Psychology (PSYC 319): This course combines the science of social psychology with the application of solving problems in daily life. It aims to provide students with the ability to apply theories and techniques in social psychology to social problems in daily life. The main issue of this course is social problems such as organizational systems, the justice system, education, the environment, personal health and the health care industry, and community concerns.

Sensation and Perception (PSYC 320): This course is related to the major human sensory systems (vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste) and perceptual experiences related to these senses. The course examines the anatomical, physiological, and neural connections that influence sensation and perception and its theories and concepts are explored.

Brain and Behavior (PSYC 321): As a basis of all mental activity and behavior, the nervous system and the brain is the main subject of this course. This course focuses on basic concepts of neuroscience and how brain mechanisms mediate sensation, motivation, emotion, learning, and abnormal behavior.

Memory (PSYC 322): This course introduces human memory along with the basic processes such as acquisition, retention, recall, and forgetting. The distinction of short term/long term memory, types of memory (semantic memory, working memory, sensory memory, autobiographical memory), amnesia, and implicit memory are included in this course. In addition, the topics such as the history of memory work, the biological structure of memory, critical thinking memory, aging, the effects of emotions on memory and memory errors contribute to the content of this course.

Social Behavior (PSYC 351): This course provides an introduction to the field of social psychology. Topics such as how people perceive themselves and others, how they make sense of the world, their attitudes, how they manage close relationships and relationships with individuals from different groups will be examined. In addition, interpersonal and intergroup processes such as aggression, conflict and leadership will be discussed from a social psychological perspective.

Psychology of Stress (PSYC 353): This course covers the concept of stress, and its effect on different areas of human life. Topics to be covered include stress theories, scientific literature on stress, psychophysiology and evolutionary origins of stress, coping, personal and cultural influences on stress perception, function, and consequences of stress.

Independent Study I (PSYC 411): This course aims to provide the students with the ability to examine a research topic comprehensively.  This ability is acquired through directed reading, library research and/or laboratory experience. Depending on the instructor, the course may include a research proposal, a research report and/or the production of a scientific paper.

Independent Study II (PSYC 412): This course aims to provide the students with the ability to examine a research topic comprehensively.  This ability is acquired through directed reading, library research and/or laboratory experience. Depending on the instructor, the course may include a research proposal, a research report and/or the production of a scientific paper.

Attitudes and Persuasive Communication (PSYC 413): This course examines theories and researches on attitudes, attitude change, and persuasion in social psychology. The course covers the historical background of the field, the nature of attitudes, the conceptual structure, and organization of attitudes, and the relation between attitudes and behavior. The most-researched topics in attitude research such as stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination contribute to the content of this course.

Psychology and Social Policy (PSYC 414): This course examines major public policy issues relevant to psychology. State policies, policy making constituencies, and policy making processes is reviewed. The roles that psychologists can play in affecting policy, including analysis, research, and advocacy, are examined.

Developmental Psychopathology (PSYC 415): This course aims to teach about the nature and extent of various developmental disorders through an understanding of common etiologies and developmental trajectories. Topics to be covered include main disorders of childhood, developmental pathways, theoretical explanations and diagnostic features. 

Introduction to Couple and Family Therapy (PSYC 416): This courseintroduces the major theories and central concepts that form the foundations of couple, family and marriage therapy. Topics to be covered include the historical development of systemic therapy, therapy models, essential skills and techniques, the role and function of the counselor and ethical standards.

Human Resources Management (PSYC 417): This course examines the role of human resource professionals as a strategic partner in managing organizations. In this course, key functions such as recruitment, selection, development, appraisal, compensation, and labor relations are examined.

Introduction to Organizational Behavior (PSYC 418): This course introduces the fundamentals of human behavior which is necessary to create a more effective and efficient institutional environment, and examines the effects of behavior on performance. The aim of the course is to enable students to understand and analyze behavior based on individual, team, and institution.

Contemporary Discussions in Psychology (PSYC 419): This course aims to analyze and analyze current issues and current theories in the field of psychology and provide in-depth knowledge about current issues.

Sports Psychology (PSYC 420): The course is an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of sports psychology. The purpose of the course is to provide the student with basic knowledge about psychological factors that affect performance in sports such as motivation, concentration, anxiety, focus.

Geriatric Psychology (PSYC 421): This course focus on the behavioral changes which occur during the normal aging process. Age differences in learning, memory, perceptual, and cognitive abilities is the main interest in this course.

Forensic Psychology (PSYC 422): This course provides a detailed overview of current research issues and theories in forensic psychology. The goal of this course is to introduce to some areas of forensic psychology and to teach how psychological research contributes to the legal system. In this course, key topics such as crime and guilt, violence and threat, sexual abuse, social risk factors, crime victims, ethical issues are handled.

Psychology of Trauma (PSYC 423): The aim of this course is to teach students the definition and effects of trauma on human psychology. Topics will include post-traumatic stress disorder, post-traumatic growth, etiology of trauma, trauma caused by disasters, effects of trauma on children and adolescents and psycho-social intervention to trauma. 

Traffic Psychology (PSYC 424): This course aims to introduce the students with the topic, research methods and approaches to traffic psychology.  In this course traffic psychology topics, such as driver behaviors, psycho-technical evaluation, risk behaviors in traffic, attitudes and individual driver behaviors and driver rehabilitation are introduced.

Psychological Tests (PSYC 425): This course an introduction to theories and principles of psychological testing and measurement and to a variety of standardized tests of intelligence, personality, achievement, interest, neuropsychology. Also examines controversies regarding the valid, appropriate and fair use of psychological tests.

Neuropsychology (PSYC 426): This course comprehensively interested in the relationship among brain and nervous system and mind and behavior. The goal of this course is to introduce the student to the role of specific brain regions and networks in producing behaviors. It also introduces the tools used to detect behavioral and cognitive deficits caused by brain dysfunction/injury.

Testing and Measurement in Psychology (PSYC 427): This course covers the basic principles of measurement in psychology. Topics to be covered include test development and the use of tests, norm development, validity, reliability, intelligence and issues in intelligence testing. 

Clinical Interview Techniques (PSYC 428): The aim of this course is to introduce the fundamentals of interview techniques in psychology. Within the scope of this course, students will have a general level of knowledge about concepts such as the role of interviewing in psychology, types of interview used, therapeutic alliance, frame of an interview, and risk factors that may affect the interview.

Internship (PSYC 429): This course offers students the opportunity to apply the psychology knowledge and methods they have acquired in a real working environment.

Introduction to Psychotherapy Theories (PSYC 430): The aim of the course is to review the history and characteristics of psychotherapy theories and to compare these theories to gain an insight into the advantages and limitations of each theory.

Graduation Thesis (PSYC 431): In this course, the students will conduct independent research under the supervision of a faculty member.