Skills II: Observing Others and Yourself
Full course description
Skills II focusses on both personal skills and academic (research) skills. In Skills I students get a mentor assigned who will supervise the meetings of Skills II. The mentor and the group will meet several times during Skills II. The focus of the first meetings will be on personal development skills. Students learn to engage in character strength and improvisational (improv) theatre exercises in period 1, become aware of their own character strengths (period 2) and learn how to apply them in a different setting. Improv theatre exercises enhance key life skills such as resilience and the ability to connect with others by being attentive to the offers others make during play and, thus, to others’ perspectives and emotional states while also learning that others will accept their offers.
During period 3, students will work in small groups on their first observational research. These research projects are methodologically supported by the courses Methods and Techniques and Statistics for Psychologists I. The projects are substantively related to the course Discover Psychology which runs in parallel to the observational study in period 3. In this period the mentor and the group have three group meetings to discuss the progress of this research. Additionally, students will present their research results together with their subgroup and write a research report. As preparation for the observational research students follow the practical training Systematic Literature Search. Finally, the students will complete the practical trainings Data Processing via SPSS, and Observing behaviour.
The corresponding practicals for this course are: Observing Behaviour, Data Processing in SPSS, Systematic Literature Search, Portfolio Year 1 Part 1
Course objectives
Students are able:
- to identify their signature strengths and are able to apply them in a different context;
- to understand how positive personal values (e.g., integrity, benevolence, honesty, respect for human dignity) help build strong relationships with others;
- to explain how individual differences, social identity, and worldview may influence beliefs, values, and interaction with others and vice versa;
- to identify aspects of individual and cultural diversity and the interpersonal challenges that often result from diversity and context;
- to explain the empirical cycle and have followed this cycle themselves in making a research design, the conduction of an observational research, and the analysis and interpretation of the data;
- to mention the most relevant aspects of observation and have had exercise in the observation of behaviour;to communicate in a scientific way by writing a research paper and presenting (orally) the results.
- E.B. de Sousa Fernandes Perna