Graduate Course List 2017-2018

Core Courses Department Wide

Psychology 9540 (Fall, 2017 & Winter, 2018; two semester course). Research Design and Statistical Modeling. P. Tremblay. This course covers the main univariate and multivariate statistical and modeling procedures with the objective of developing a solid conceptual understanding and ability to use the methods proficiently in independent research. The lab assignments provide hands-on training at the conceptual/hypothesis, design, and statistical analysis levels by using data examples that simulate realistic and often challenging research situations (e.g., missing data, non-normal distributions, unbalanced designs, and confounding variables). Software applications used for demonstration include SPSS and R for most common procedures and Mplus for multilevel and structural equation modeling. Students have the flexibility to work with their preferred software. The course topics are organized into four general units: I. Foundational Statistics (sampling distributions, inferential statistics, confidence intervals, effect size, replication and power), II. ANOVA, ANCOVA and MANOVA, III. Multiple Regression and Extensions (including mediation, moderation, multilevel modeling, and models for categorical outcomes such as logistic regression), and IV. Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The course textbook is Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied Statistics. From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques. Second Edition. Los Angeles: Sage. Wednesdays,  9:00 am to 12:00 pm; Starts: Sep 13; Room HSB 11 Full course (1.0); two terms.

Psychology 9542B (Winter 2018). Multilevel Modeling (MLM). P. Tremblay. This course serves as an introduction to theory, design, and application of multilevel modeling, and it is ideal for students who plan to do research with group level data (e.g., peer groups, teams in organization or sports, dyads such as couples or twins, surveys with clustered data, neighbourhoods, and classrooms) or multi-observation studies (e.g., daily diary studies, longitudinal designs, experimental designs with multiple repeated stimuli). Students should have some training in multiple regression and would benefit from experience in analysis of variance and structural equation modeling. Course topics include a review of traditional regression procedures, research design with multilevel structures, the basic two-level regression model (and extension to three-levels), methodological and statistical issues including power analyses, models with longitudinal data, models with dichotomous, categorical or count outcomes and structural equation models with multiple data levels and mediation. My overall objective is to provide students with the necessary knowledge to apply MLM to research through hands-on individualized projects tailored to their research interests and needs. Students have the opportunity to analyze their own data, to use large data sets provided in the course, or to conduct simulation studies. Mplus and SPSS Mixed Models are used for demonstration in the course but students are free to work with other programs such as R. Key articles will be assigned. Recommended additional resource: Finch, H., & Bolin, J. (2016). Multilevel Modeling using Mplus. New York: Chapman and Hall/CRC. Prerequisite: must have taken Psychology 9540 (Research Design) or equivalent course. Tuesday, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm; Starts Jan 9; SSC 8438/8440. Half course (0.5); one term.

Psychology 9555A (Fall 2017). Structural Equation Modeling. P. Tremblay. My aim in this course is to help you develop a solid conceptual and theoretical understanding and ability to use SEM and its extensions correctly and effectively in your own independent research. Although no prior experience with SEM is required, experience in multiple linear regression, factor analysis, and psychometric principles of reliability and construct validity is required. The course topics include the foundational concepts of the measurement and structural models, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), traditional path analysis, and basic principles of model building including specification, identification, estimation, hypothesis testing, and modification. Topics also include applications and extensions of SEM such as scale construction and validation, mediation and moderation, multi-group analyses, item response theory, measurement invariance and bias, latent growth modeling and mixture modeling. Students will have the opportunity to work on projects tailored to their research interests and needs. Mplus is the software package used for demonstration in the course, but students are free to use other programs such as R or EQS. Key articles will be assigned, and a highly recommended book is Kline, R. B. (2016). Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling. Fourth Edition. New York: Guilford Press. Prerequisite: must have taken Psychology 9540 (Research Design) or obtained the permission of the instructor. Tuesday 9:00 am to 12:00 pm; Starts Sep 12; SSC 8438/8440.  Half course (0.5); one term.

Psychology 9558A. (Fall 2017) Qualitative Research Methods.  P. Tremblay.  An overview and in-class practice of qualitative research methods including in-depth interviewing, focus groups, naturalistic observation, content analysis, and thematic analysis of textual information. The course focuses on five qualitative research perspectives: grounded theory, descriptive and interpretive phenomenology, case studies, narrative psychology, and applied ethnography. These methods are valuable for (1) collecting rich textured data (2) discovering themes and categories from textual data, (3) developing mid-range theories that explain how people experience and work through various problems. In psychology, these methods are particularly useful in research programs investigating new concepts and fostering content and construct validity at the early stages of psychometric work. The first part of each class will consist of lecture material and discussion of theory and methodology. The second half will be dedicated to hands-on class activities such as practicing in-depth interviewing, conducting focus groups, and coding contextual data. Although much qualitative research can be done with a simple text editor, students will be exposed to special software applications such as Nvivo 11 and RQDA (in R). Note that this course is also open to third-year level undergraduate students and that performance expectations and assignment standards will be higher for graduate students. Course work and evaluation consist of an individual pilot project using interviews or existing textual data sources, three thought papers framed as summarized research proposals, and a short presentation.  Thursdays 1:30 to 4:30 pm; Starts Sep 7; Talbot College (TC) Rm 205. Half course (0.5); one term.

Psychology 9560B. (Winter 2018) Open and Reproducible Science.  L. Campbell. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with recent developments in open science and reproducibility of the research workflow. By the end of this course students will be familiar with documenting their research workflow (e.g., idea generation, hypotheses, study materials and procedures, re-usable data sets, annotated code, meta-data, output), in both a private and public manner, from beginning to end in a manner that allows others to reproduce their methods, analyses, and results. Students will also become familiar with using the Open Science Framework to document their own research workflow. Thursdays 10:00 am to 1:00 pm;  SSC 7405/09 Half course (0.5); one term.

Clinical Science and Psychopathology

Psychology 9300A. (Fall 2017) Professional Foundations of Clinical Psychology. I. Nicholson. The course serves as an orientation to professional issues relevant to all areas of clinical psychology. Ethics, standards of practice, legislation, and other professional issues will be considered. This course is restricted to Clinical Students. Mondays 6:00pm to 9:00pm;  Location TBC Half course (0.5); one term.  

Psychology 9301B. (Winter 2018). Clinical Skills Pre-practicum. N. Kuiper. This course is designed to provide clinical psychology students with an initial orientation to fundamental issues and skills that underlie assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Substantial practice in basic interviewing techniques, using a programmed micro-skills approach, will be one of the major components of this course. Students may also receive some preliminary practice using several standard cognitive-behavioral techniques. Examples of other topics that may be covered include therapist issues, the therapeutic relationship, client issues, assessment, and goal-setting procedures. The course will focus on helping each student developing a framework for understanding practical concerns and issues relating to clinical work. Pre-requisites: Successful completion of Psychology 9300 and current enrolment in the clinical psychology graduate program. Half course (0.5); one term. 

Psychology 9310A. (Fall 2017). Child Psychopathology and Diagnosis. E. Hayden. This course will familiarize students with current concepts and research on the major psychological disorders of childhood, including issues of classification, phenomenology, course, and major etiological theories. A developmental psychopathology perspective will be taken throughout, with an emphasis on lifespan continuities and discontinuities of psychopathology and factors linking typical development to psychopathological processes. Current approaches and methods in psychopathology research will be examined. Class size is limited to 15 students. In the case that student demand exceeds course capacity, enrollment preference will be given to clinical program students.  Tuesdays 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm;  Location TBC  Half course (0.5); one term.  

Psychology 9320B. (Winter 2018). Psychotherapy Approaches. D. Dozois. This course will introduce students to important concepts, issues, and theories in contemporary psychotherapy. The course will examine the theoretical rationales, goals, therapeutic techniques, and efficacy of several different therapeutic approaches, broadly subsumed under psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, and experiential modalities. This course will also address various issues in psychotherapy such as investigating effectiveness and assessing psychotherapy outcome. Through lectures, class presentations, readings, videos, class discussions, and experiential class exercises, students will critically evaluate the theories and techniques of major approaches to psychotherapy. Enrolment is restricted to clinical psychology students. This course is intended to serve as an overview course for more junior clinical students. Tuesdays 9:00am to 12:00 pm;  Location TBC  Half course (0.5); one term. 

Psychology 9380Y. Clinical Psychology Proseminar (Fall 2017 and Winter 2018). D. Dozois This proseminar course consists of a series of workshops, brownbags and two clinical program meetings (1 in the fall and 1 in the spring). Typically, there are two workshops and six brownbags per year. Presentations focus on various clinically relevant topics, and are made by adjunct clinical faculty, core faculty, or other guest speakers. Workshops are typically a half-day or day-long, with each providing in-depth coverage of a specific topic of interest to clinical students. The proseminar series is a requirement of the clinical program, with all students (except those completed or on internship) expected to attend all of the events that are part of the proseminar series. This course is limited to clinical students. Zero weighted course; three terms.

Psychology 9800. (Fall 2017 & Winter 2018). Clinical Assessment Practicum. D. Saklofske. This course is designed to provide clinical students with basic skills in the administration, scoring, interpretation, and integration of several major psychological assessment instruments currently used in clinical practice with adults and children. Supervised practical experience assessing adults and children in clinical settings is included. Emphasis is also placed on the integration of assessment data, case conceptualization, and report writing. There will also be discussions of current issues in clinical assessment, ranging from basic issues of psychometrics, to contemporary quantitative developments in assessment technology. Prerequisites: Limited to clinical students who have already taken Psychology 9300, 9301. A course in psychopathology, either Psychology 9310 or 9311 are required as either prerequisites or corequisites. Mondays 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm;  Location TBC  Full course (1.0); two terms. 

Psychology 9890. Clinical Internship. (Fall 2017, Winter 2018 and Summer 2018). D. Dozois. This course is a full-year (2000-hour) internship for clinical students who have completed all course and practicum requirements, and have made substantial progress on their dissertation. Typically, students are expected to submit a first draft of their dissertation prior to leaving on internship. The internship must be carried out at an approved setting, and written permission is required from both the supervisor and the Director of the Clinical Psychology Program.

Psychology 9805Y, 9806Y, 9807Y, 9808Y, 9809Y, 9810Y, 9811Y, 9812Y, 9813Y or 9814Y. Clinical Practicum. L. Swartzman. This clinical practicum involves placement of clinical students with an adjunct clinical faculty supervisor in one of our clinical settings (adult or child). Prerequisites: For clinical students who have completed Psychology 9300, 9301, 9800, and 9310 or 9311. Clinical students will complete 9805Y before using 9806Y for the next practicum placement, complete 9806Y before using 9807Y for the subsequent practicum placement and so on. Half-course (0.5 or 180 hours)=9805Y to 9819Y; two or more terms. Quarter-course (0.25 or 90 hours)=9820U to 9839U; two or more terms.

Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences

Psychology 9221A. (Fall 2017). Advanced Topic in Neuroscience -Behavioural Pharmacology. M. Kavaliers.  Behavioral Pharmacology is an area that combines detailed behavioural analysis from an evolutionary perspective and pharmacological manipulations in the investigation of the mechanisms that modulate and regulate various basic psychological processes. In this course we will consider combined behavioural and pharmacological analysis of basic emotional and motivational systems (e.g. social behaviours, sexual behaviour, defense, aggression, ingestive behaviours, learning and memory.) In addition, we will consider animal model systems of human psychopathology, including that of drug abuse. Thursdays 2:30 to 5:30pm; SH 3355  Half course (0.5); one term. 

Psychology 9223A. (Fall 2017). Neuroimaging of Cognition. J. Culham.  Brain imaging, particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has become a common tool to study specialized human brain regions involved in cognitive functions. The course will be comprised of a combination of lectures, tutorial development, and tutorials. The lectures will cover brain imaging technology, current techniques for experimental design and analysis, and a discussion of the merits and limitations of neuroimaging as a tool for cognitive neuroscientists. By the end of the class, students should be able to read, understand, and critique papers in brain imaging and have a sufficient foundation to begin to use fMRI as a tool in their own research. The course is intended for graduate students in Psychology, Neuroscience and related disciplines but is also open to upper-level undergraduates with the instructor's permission. There are no prerequisites and no prior neuroimaging experience is required, although some background in psychology or neuroscience and basic statistics (p values, correlations, t-tests, ANOVAs) will be assumed. Mondays and Fridays 9:30-11:30 am (SSC 7405/9 Sept 11 - Oct 30 excluding Fall Reading Week; SSC 1000, Nov. 3, 6 & 10; Independent work Nov. 13-Dec. 15). Half course (0.5); one term.  

Psychology 9250Y. (Fall 2017 and Winter 2018). Research Seminar in Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences (CDB). J. Grahn. Faculty and students in Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences and related areas meet every week for one hour to report on ongoing research. Some didactic topics are also covered. Friday 12:30 to 2:00 pm ;  AHB 1B04 Half course (0.5); two terms. 

Industrial Organizational Psychology

Psychology 9611A. (Fall 2017). Performance Appraisal and Related Issues. R. Goffin. As a topic within the area of industrial/organizational psychology, this course will cover research relevant to the application of psychological theory and methods for the purpose of appropriately measuring a key criterion variable within work-settings, that is, job performance. A variety of approaches to the measurement of performance will be discussed in detail and some of the more prominent topics will be validation and evaluation of the “goodness” of performance appraisals, attempts to improve performance appraisals, and theories of job performance. Note: You must obtain permission from the instructor to take this course if you are not in the Industrial/Organizational program. Thursdays 1:30pm to 4:30 pm;  SSC 8438/40 Half course (0.5); one term.

Psychology 9622B. (Winter 2018). Motivation and Leadership. J. Meyer. This seminar course is designed to familiarize students with theory and research on motivation and leadership in a work context. We will discuss classic and modern theories of motivation and leadership and critically evaluate the research that has been conducted to test them. Implications for the design of motivation systems and for the assessment and selection of managers will also be addressed. Preference for enrollment will be given to students in the Industrial/Organizational program. Thursdays 1:30 to 4:30pm;  SSC 8438/40 Half course (0.5); one term.

Psychology 9646A. (Fall 2017). Doctoral Seminar in Industrial Organizational Psychology. N. Allen. Tuesdays 2:00 to 5:00 pm;  SSC 8409 Half course; one term.

Social, Personality and Social Development

Psychology 9701A. (Fall, 2017). Theories in Social Psychology. L. Campbell. The general purpose of the course is to provide an overview of different theoretical approaches in social psychology and the ability to critically evaluate the range and the limits of social psychological theories from a metatheoretical perspective. The class will address (a) meta-theoretical principles in the evaluation of scientific theories, (b) classic and contemporary approaches to understanding social psychological phenomena, and (c) current controversies in social psychology. Maximum enrollment: 12 students (priority will be given to social psychology students at the Master's level). Thursdays 10:00 am to 1:00 pm;  SSC 7438 Half course (0.5); one term.

Psychology 9732B. (Winter 2018). Decisions in the Social World. E. Heerey. The nature and process of human decision-making is a major branch of a number of disciplines including economics, law, medicine, business and cognitive psychology/neuroscience. This work has taught us much about the neurocognitive architecture of decision-making and the processes, heuristics and biases that shape people’s choices. However, many of our decisions are made in social contexts, meaning that they are influenced by interpersonal as well as intrapersonal factors. The goal of this course is to explore how interpersonal factors shape the landscape of decision space, enhance or detract from the quality of a decision process, and how social factors interact with personal factors to affect people’s choices. We will consider different sorts of decision models (e.g., normative, prescriptive, and descriptive) and examine evidence from a broad range of sources including observations of choice behaviour, cognitive models, and brain activity. We will conduct some of our own experiments in the context of the class to develop a firsthand perspective on the nature of social decision-making. Monday 1:30 to 4:30 pm;  SSC 7405/09 Half course (0.5); one term. 

Psychology 9733B. (Winter 2018). Advanced Topics in the Psychology of Gender. R. Calogero. Gender is deeply embedded in social practice, organizes social life, and fundamental to understanding self and others. This seminar is a graduate-level introduction to the psychology of gender. We will cover historic and current theories, methods, and models of gender, gender-related issues, and gender relations, drawing primarily from social psychological, sociocultural, and feminist psychological research. The seminar will include a combination of primary source readings, presentations, discussion, and reflections on theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects of scholarship on the psychology of gender. A main objective of this course is to challenge gender lore and advance our understanding of what gender is, how and when it matters in social interactions with others, how and when it impacts evaluations of ourselves and individual identities, and how it shapes our social world.  Wednesday 1:00 to 4:00 pm;  Westminster Hall 20E Half course (0.5); one term.

Courses in Other Departments

Epidemiology 9531B Methods and Issues in Program and Policy Evaluation in Health and Human Services (Winter 2018). The course description below is taken from: https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/epibio/graduate/current_students/course_information/course_descriptions.html#Epidemio9531B While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the course description please consult the page above for the official listing.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the major issues in the fields of health and human services program and policy evaluation. Students will develop an inderstanding of the theoretical frameworks used for evaluative research, validity issues in evaluative research, and the multi-methods, theory-driven approach to evaluation. Students will also develop an understanding of the relative value of different designs that can be applied to evaluation research. Students will have the opportunity to develop their theorectical, methodological, and interpretive skills through various examples and applicantions and through the development of a proposal on an evaluation question of interest to them. Course Weight: 0.5 credits