Key Studies in Psychology

This is a journey through the most interesting and important studies in psychology, the classics as well as the most cutting edge experiments. The emphasis is on critical evaluation and on understanding how diverse research interests pose different methodological challenges

Imagine that the Nobel Committee decided to award 15 Nobel Prizes in Psychology… Who would receive them and why? In this course, we will explore a selection of such key studies, from a variety of disciplines, including social, developmental and clinical psychology. We will read original research reports, play out the experimental conditions in class, watch video footage, but most of all, discuss, debate and analyse their respective strengths and weaknesses. You will discover psychology at its best- and gain many precious skills along the way. This workshop should give you a feel for the variety of theoretical approaches within psychology, and pinpoint some major theoretical developments to guide you through your further studies. Moreover, it should provide you with an opportunity to sample various methodological techniques and compare their respective strengths and weaknesses, so that you should be better equipped to evaluate a piece of psychological research and conduct one yourself. Last but not least, in this course we shall consider how much these studies have contributed to the science of psychology, as well as to our understanding of everyday life.

List of topics/classes and bibliography

1. In the beginning there was Freud…: The case of Anna O.

2. The Bobo Doll experiments: Bandura’s social modelling approach to aggression.

3. The end and the means of psychological research: Milgram’s (1963) Behavioural study of obedience

4. Showcase psychology: Zimbardo’s (1972) Simulated prison experiment

5.The challenges of child research: Baillargeon’s (1987) studies on the development of object concept

6. Do autistic children have theory of mind? Baron-Cohen’s (1985) exploration on the frontiers of developmental, cognitive and abnormal psychology.

7. Does psychotherapy work? Eysenck’s (1952) seminal study.

8. When memory fails… Clive Wearing: The worst case of amnesia ever known

9. Mapping the human brain: Maguire et al’s (1998) observation of neuronal activity in navigation tasks.

10. Teaching sing language to a chimpanzee (Gardner & Gardner, 1969)

11. Does language determine thought? Problems with circularity in psychological research and ways of resolving them: Boroditsky’s (2001) research on Chinese speakers conceptions of time.

12. So, how often do you do it? Dealing with sensitive issues: Kinsey Report (1948, 1953) on Sexuality.

13. Tackling the nature-nurture debate: Bouchard & McGue’s (1981) review of familial studies of intelligence.

14. Beyond psychology: Tversky and Kahneman (1981) and their Nobel Prize-winning research on heuristics in judgment and decision making.

15. Does psychology matter? A discussion on the methodological and theoretical developments in psychology.