PLEASE NOTE: The Institute will be closing at 5:00pm (GMT) on Thursday 23 December 2021 and re-opening on 9.00am (GMT) Tuesday 4 January 2022. During this time our academic and professional services teams will be unavailable. If you book onto an online course that begins on 3 January 2022 after the 23 December, you will receive your Welcome Email on 3 January, the course start date. This email will include your username, password, and instructions on how to access the Virtual Learning Environment.
Aims of the course
- To introduce participants to key theories and concepts in psychology of social cognition and emotions
- To learn the key methods to study emotional and social cognition: how to measure our ability to recognise facial expressions and the feelings of others
- To study the foundations of the theories of embodied cognition: we are what we feel
Target audience
- Anyone with an interest in psychology. This course will touch on the fundamental principles of cognitive psychology with a specific focus on emotional social and embodied cognition
Course content overview
Psychology is the study of the human mind. cognitive psychologists primarily focus on how our mind works when interacting with other minds and bodies as well as interacting with itself, such as with our own memories and sensations. This course is an introduction to a fascinating discipline. It is intended for anyone with an interest in psychology. We will explore the key theories and findings on emotions and social embodied cognition, the key methods to measure our ability to understand the feelings of others. We will focus on the main theories of embodiment and hypotheses and on how researchers investigate and address them. In doing so, we will learn about the main methods and materials used to explore emotional embodiment and to measure our ability to recognise other people’s facial expressions. This will include the main experimental designs, behavioural and neuroimaging methods adopted. This course will show that psychology is not just about the mind; it will introduce participants to the idea that our mind is rooted in our body and that perhaps it is time to move on from this dichotomy.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online)
Orientation Week: 3-9 January 2022
Teaching Weeks: 10 January-13 February 2022
Feedback Week: 14-20 February 2022
Teaching week 1 - What is Cognitive Psychology: an overview
This week will provide an overview of key findings, theories and research methods of cognitive psychology.
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an input and output processor. Cognitive psychologists base their research on models of how people's minds process information and how different areas of the brain interact with each other to do it. These models relate to various cognitive functions including perception, attention, language, memory, thinking, and consciousness.
This week will explore:
a. History and key findings of cognitive psychology.
b. What is the purpose of cognitive psychology?
c. What is the literature framework of the major models.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week participants should:
- Learn about the key findings and assumptions of cognitive psychology;
- Familiarize themselves with some of the central debates in cognitive psychology concerning the role of nature vs nurture in shaping the human mind;
- Understand the relationship between the mind and the brain and the role of automatic vs controlled processes in shaping human behaviour.
Teaching week 2 - How we feel emotions: introduction to the psychology of facial expressions and to theories of embodied emotional processing
This week will provide an introduction to the main concepts and theories of social cognition. In particular, this weel explores the extent to which mirror neurons shape our ability to understand others and our ability to understand that others might have mental states that differ from our own (theory of mind reasoning).
Learning outcomes
By studying this week participants should:
- Learn key concepts and theories in studying emotional and social cognition;
- Become familiar with core debates on the role of facial expressions and on the embodiment of emotional recognition.
- Understand how the production and perception of emotional facial expressions is explored from different angles by different theories.
Teaching week 3 - How do we study emotions? Emotional processing and social cognition research methods
This week explores the key research methods of embodied emotional processing and social cognition. It will outline the most important techniques in the broader cognitive psychology and evaluate the contribution they can make to emotional processing research and embodiment theories. It will also introduce the role of neuropsychological research in understanding how brain lesions can help us understand how the brain normally functions. Key methods of neuroimaging techniques covered will be specifically focused on electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG).
Learning outcomes
By studying this week participants should:
- Understand of the main methods in Cognitive Psychology.
- Learn neuroimaging techniques and neuropsychological findings and how they contribute to our knowledge on emotional processing and embodied cognition.
- Develop a critical approach to methods and how each of them helps answer to specific research questions.
Teaching week 4 - How do we recognise the emotional facial expressions of others? Feeling me to feel you - from theory-theories to the simulation theory
This week will provide an introduction to the main theories of emotional facial expression recognition. It will include an overview of the Theory theory models as well as of the simulation theory models. It will also illustrate the key findings on facial mimicry often associated with better facial expression recognition.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week participants should:
- Learn the main theories of emotional facial expression recognition and to critically evaluate the extent to which empirical studies support different theoretical claims.
- Understand how the simulation models account for the facilitating role of sensorimotor simulations during emotion mind-reading process.
- Develop a critical approach towards the literature on production and recognition of emotional facial expressions and the mechanisms involving both sensorimotor simulation and theory-theory processing.
Teaching week 5 - Is it always easy to understand others' emotions? The influence of context and expression ambiguity on mimicry during emotional recognition
Any emotional expression is a communication channel that has the intrinsic intention of conveying a message. The expression finds its meaning in the interaction with another person and its sense in the social context.
This week provides an overview of the factors that influence the emotional understanding in a natural social situation. This week will outline some of the main factors that are thought to affect the way we have insights about other’s feeling and intentions. This includes our attitude towards the other (for instance our motivation to understand their emotions), prior knowledge that we have about them and the ambiguity of the facial expression itself.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week participants should:
- Learn that the embodied understanding of other’s emotions is an interpretation of emotional signals.
- Understand that the embodied understanding of other’s emotions is influenced by contingent factors of the reader and the expresser.
- Develop a critical approach to the literature and research questions of the field.
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Virtual Learning Environment
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards etc).
Certificate of participation
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
