Human Factors and Scientific Methods

The course will give an introduction to psychology as discipline and science, that is its problem domains, theories and research results. The course will discuss findings from psychological theory and science in light of design challenges and choices. The course will also present and discuss topics on the basics of scientific prinsiples when using humans as test subjects.

• Perception
• Learning
• Memory
• Attention
• Intelligence and personality
• The social animal
• Principles of science
• Validity and reliability
• Biases
• Representativity and individual differences
• Qualitative and quantitative research

Knowledge:

• Will know about basic themes and discussions in the field of psychology, with a focus on their consequences for thoughts and understanding of behaviours.
• Will know about central terminology used in psychology to describe phenomena, and how these have changed over history
• Will have basic knowledge and understanding for how psychological knowledge may be applied, and how it may affect individuals, groups and society
• Will know of central terminology and principles of the scientific method.

Skills:

• Will be able to explain different psychological approaches and their consequences.
• Will be able to discuss design issues and choices in light of psychological theory and knowledge.
• Will be able to perform information gatering based on scientiffic princeples.

General competance:

• Have developed professional curiosity and respect for scientific values.

• Lectures
• Individual essay