- UCAS course code
- LL63
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Bachelor of Arts (BASS)
BASS Social Anthropology and Sociology
- Typical A-level offer: ABB including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: BBC including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 34 points overall with 6,5,5 at HL
Course unit details:
Philosophy of Psychology
Unit code | PHIL30361 |
---|---|
Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 3 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
This course will be concerned with specific questions about consciousness, perception, emotion, artificial intelligence, animal minds, as well as questions about the underlying mechanisms of the mind more broadly.
Questions include:
• Is the mind made up of task-specific modules?
• How much is perception influenced by cognition?
• Can A.I. ever become conscious?
Philosophy of psychology draws on a range of empirical results in psychology, and this course will introduce students to scientific evidence that has a bearing on these philosophical issues.
Aims
The course aims to:
- Help students to engage with some of the central problems in philosophy of psychology;
- Enhance students' power of critical analysis, reasoning and independent thought, and their ability to bring those powers to bear on important philosophical issues;
- Familiarise students with some of the most interesting and provocative texts in contemporary work on philosophy of psychology.
Learning outcomes
Teaching and learning methods
-Lectures (20 hours): delivery of content
-Tutorials (10 hours): small group discussion will facilitate student engagement
-Office Hours: students will have access to the course convenor through regular office hours
-VLE: learning materials (reading lists, lecture slides, etc.) available online (asynchronous)
-Essay Plans: students will be encouraged to submit essay plans for formative feedback
Knowledge and understanding
-Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of central 20th and 21st century texts on philosophy of psychology.
-Explain philosophical and scientific positions about the mind accurately.
Intellectual skills
-Articulate and defend precise philosophical and scientific positions, and to anticipate and rebut objections to those positions.
-Identify and apply philosophical research methods consistently.
Practical skills
- Interpret and criticise both primary and secondary texts.
Transferable skills and personal qualities
-Critically reflect on the latest science, and to articulate and defend their own views.
Employability skills
- Analytical skills
- Group/team working
- Innovation/creativity
- Oral communication
- Problem solving
- Research
- Written communication
Assessment methods
Method | Weight |
---|---|
Written exam | 50% |
Written assignment (inc essay) | 50% |
Feedback methods
The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate fora is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.
We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Blackboard; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.
Recommended reading
The following reading list is indicative, and students are not required to read all the publications listed.
-Bermùdez J. L. (2005), Philosophy of Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction.
-Bermùdez J. L. (2006), Philosophy of Psychology: Contemporary Readings.
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 20 |
Tutorials | 10 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 170 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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Mohamed Raamy Abdul Majeed | Unit coordinator |