Divisions
Applied Psychology
Applied Psychology Division in Istanbul University aims at applying psychological knowledge to industrial/organizational, clinical and health areas.
There are two lecturers working in the area of industrial organizational psychology. Some examples of the undergraduate courses given by these lecturers in the division are as follows: “Industrial-Organizational Psychology”, “The Development of Human Resources”, “Psychological Environment Factors in Industry”. Postgraduate courses include “Work Stress”, “Career Development Theories and Applications”, “Organizational Psychology Concepts and Research”, “Assessment in Industrial and Organizational Psychology”. The main research interests of the staff in this area include work stress, leadership, positive psychology, career counseling, personality at work and job search behavior.
Clinical psychology is divided into two main areas: Psychoanalysis and Clinical/Health psychology. In this area four lecturers are working. Some of the undergraduate courses in the area include, “Psychoanalytic Psychopathology”, “The Comparison of Psychoanalytic Concepts” and “Abnormal Behavior Psychology”. Some examples from the Postgraduate courses in the area of psychoanalysis include “Projective Tests”, “Freud and Post Freudian Texts” and “Psychoanalytical Psychopathology”. Examples of Clinical/Health psychology postgraduate courses include “Advanced Health Psychology” and “Cognitive Behavioral Therapies”. The main research interest of the staff in this area includes chronic pain and its treatment, stress, adolescence psychopathology, psychosomatic diseases, eating disorders, Projective tests.
For further information consult the related faculty member.
Social Psychology
The discipline of Social Psychology, implements studies of human beings in relation to their states of belonging to a sociological background in relation to their interactions with one another. The main aspect and the aim of research and the courses given are to analyze our own sociological backgrounds and to understand the local knowledge of people.
Social Psychology division of İstanbul University benefits from two distinct methodological differences; two paths to attain the same objectives: The first uses mostly traditional methods to point and conceptualize problematics in such as ethics and the latter uses discursive methods and discourse which are derived from a post-modern point of view. Our department is a pioneer institution in Turkey that gives importance to qualitative research methods as well as quantitative ones.
Some examples of the undergraduate courses given by these lecturers in the division are as follows: Introduction to Social Psychology, New Approaches in Social Psychology, The History of Knowledge in Psychology, Applications in Social Psychology, The Foundations of Knowledge in Psychology, Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology, Research in Social Psychology. Main research areas our faculty members focus on are ethics, values, political psychology, gender issues, linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, speech analysis.
Developmental Psychology
Developmental Psychology, which is one of the sub branches of psychology, aims to investigate the systematic and successive changes that occur in physical, emotional and social functioning and their interactions over the course of the individuals’ lifespan. Developmental Psychology explains all these developmental changes in accordance with principles, rules, theories and mechanisms so that it enables the envision (prediction) of development patterns. Developmental Psychologists, who investigate universal characteristics in development while taking cultural and individual differences into account, study development in three areas as physical development, cognitive development and personality-social development. Developmental Psychologist conduct research and deliver lectures at universities as well as working in preschool, hospital, and nursing home settings. Additionally, they may work as consultants to television programs or consultants to toy companies for toy designs. There are three compulsory courses in our undergraduate program (BA), namely Introduction to Developmental Psychology, Lifespan Biological and Cognitive Development and Lifespan Personality and Social Development. For the students who are further interested in this area can also take Developmental Psychology Projects; Psychodrama; Parenting and child rearing styles courses. Currently, research and thesis studies on the near and far effects of attachment; the effects of parenting behaviors on child development; the children’s perception of marital conflicts and how they are affected by this conflict; psychodrama; metacognitive processes, theory of mind and the development of epistemological understanding are carried out in our department.
Experimental Psychology is the branch of psychology that uses scientific experimental methods and a variety of other research methods to study human and animal behavior and cognition in controlled conditions. Experimental psychologists in Turkey generally teach related psychology courses, supervise and conduct research projects in universities. However experimental psychologists can also be employed in a variety of other settings including private research centers and laboratories as well as governmental institutions conducting research specifically on human and animal behaviors and cognition. Experimental Psychology Division contributes to the undergraduate program of the Psychology Department at Istanbul University by offering courses on cognitive psychology, memory, learning, physiology, cognitive neuropsychology, animal cognition, experimental methods and research. The Master’s Degree Program in Experimental Psychology aims to prepare students for doctoral programs, academic and research careers. The program provides students with scientific approach and knowledge in experimental psychology, statistics, methodological knowledge and research training. Graduate students are advised to choose a thesis topic in one of the following areas related to research interests of the academic staffs: human memory, planning, problem solving, reasoning, decision-making, executive functions, theories of learning, mechanisms of human associative learning, spatial learning, attention, concept learning and evaluative conditioning.