Psychology of self-control (PSYC19)

According to prominent scholars, self-control is central to success across life domains, from school to work to relationships. Quite simply, self-control—also colloquially know as willpower—is thought to lead to the good life. In this lecture course, we will do a deep dive on self-control, examining how organisms exercise control, bringing thoughts, emotions and behaviours into line with preferred standards. This course will expose students to a number of classic and contemporary theories and empirical findings in the area of self-control. The topics covered in this course represent a broad selection of major themes in the field and each topic will provide students with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the field as well as learn how social, personality, and cognitive psychologists think about this topic. The topics covered in class include ego depletion, executive function, the neural bases of self-control, personality, motivation, goal setting, goal pursuit, and decision-making. Importantly, given recent controversies in the field of psychology, we will also spend a considerable time discussing the replication crisis, including what it means for our understanding of the psychology of self-control.

Science of Behaviour change (PSYD19)

How can we break bad habits? How can we start healthy habits? This course will explore the science of behaviour change, examining how to go from where you are to where you want to be. Topics include goal setting and planning, self-regulation, motivation, temptations, nudges, and habits. While this senior seminar will cover theories of behaviour change, it will also have an applied component where students work on improving their own habits.

This seminar course is designed to not only introduce you to theories and research on behaviour change, but also to leave you with strategies you can use in your everyday life as you set and try to reach your various goals. These strategies are meant to be practical and to be used long after you graduate. I’ve designed this course to maximize meaningful learning and to minimize the memorize-and-regurgitate kind of style that we all get enough of in undergraduate courses. Lectures will be short. On most days, I will try to limit my own talking to a brief orientation to each day’s topic and then to guide student discussions. For half the course, I will provide highlights of our two texts and lead discussion and classroom exercises. For the other half of the course, I will assign different students to lead discussion of articles from our course reader. The success of this seminar depends on everyone’s preparation, and everyone’s preparation will depend on carefully completing the readings and weekly reaction papers.

Psychology of self-regulation (PSYD5430)

The primary goal of this course is to serve as a graduate-level introduction to psychological theory and research on self-regulation: “the many processes by which the human psyche exercises control over its functions, states, and inner processes” (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004, p. 1). A second goal is to allow you to acquire the theoretical and methodological skills necessary to become influential self-regulation scientists should the inclination strike you. A third goal is to provide opportunities to practice skills that will promote academic success in all areas of research.

This course will expose students to a number of classic and contemporary theories and empirical findings in the area of self-regulation. The topics covered in this course represent a broad selection of major themes in the field and each topic will provide students with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the field as well as learn how social, personality, and cognitive psychologists think about this topic. The topics covered in class include (but are not limited to) self-control, executive function, motivation, goal setting, goal pursuit, and the neuroscience of control. We will also spend time discussing the replication crisis and how it has shaped our understanding of the psychology of self-regulation. The course will be discussion based, with lecturing kept to a minimum.

I’ve designed this course to maximize meaningful learning and to minimize the memorize-and-regurgitate kind of style that we all get enough of in undergraduate courses. Lecturing will be minimal. On most days, I will try to limit my own talking to a fairly brief orientation to each day’s topic and to guiding discussions where necessary. The course will mainly consist of student-led discussions aimed at fostering meaningful (as opposed to superficial) understanding of the material. Because participation is essential at the graduate level, I expect all of you to come to class having completed the assigned reading and having responded (in writing) to the reading. This should stimulate lively discussion and debate.