Behavioural Regulation I: Affect and Motivation

Course goals

After participating in this course, students should be able to:

1. Critically evaluate and discuss state of the art research on affective and motivational processes that play a key role in the regulation of human behaviour.
2. Integrate scientific knowledge about the role of affect and motivation with scientific knowledge about cognition and thought in behaviour regulation.
3. Critically reflect on experimental research methods.
4. Develop ideas on how experimental research methods could be amended to test a newly developed research idea.
5. Give an oral presentation about a newly developed research proposal in a clear and inspiring way.
6. Provide constructive feedback on the work of peers.
7. Write a structured and scientific essay that provides an answerto a relevant question in relation to behavioral regulation.

Relatie tussen de toetsen en leerdoelen (The students' progress toward these learning goals will be evaluated and graded on two occasions) ‘
•       

Content

This course presents an overview of central topics and different psychological perspectives on affect, motivation, and behavioral regulation. Students are invited to critically reflect on various theoretical approaches and how these may explain basic aspects of behavioral regulation. Besides a general introduction into the basic principles of affect, emotion, mood, and motivation, this course will cover several related topics that have been found to be innovative and important research domains.
The primary goal of this course is to offer students an advanced understanding of how the affective system is responsible for shaping and controlling behavior and behavior-related aspects. Such understanding is essential when examining how people regulate their health and interpersonal behavior, and the way their behavior is influenced and maintained by the social and physical environment. The course will run parallel to SHP2 (Behavioral Regulation II: Thought and cognition). Together, these courses form a theoretical module on behavioral regulation. As such, some meetings and assignments will be combined. This course is intertwined with SHP2 (Thought and Cognition), with which it shares the opening and closure lecture.