Psychological Perspective of Human Life PSY-Coach>Psychhuman
Description
The aim of the course is to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to practise psychology in a reflective manner.
Upon completion of the course, graduates will have knowledge of historical and contemporary approaches to the human person in psychology.
This knowledge is meant to assist them in selecting methods of working with individuals that take into account the person's integrity.
The course also allows for reflection on the complexity of the subject of psychology and the limitations of its tools.
Lectures topics
1. Psychological perspectives of human life – role of reflective practise in psychology.
2. Discoveries of the Unconscious – Did Freud help us to dispel our illusions?
3. Psychoanalysis after and beyond Freud – Gurus, disciples and enfant terrible.
4. Human being from the standpoint of a behaviorist – Mastery over environment and a good life.
5. Neobehaviorism – Talking about the mind without putting it into a person’s head.
6. Homo sapiens as a result of evolution – Mind debarred from the paradise of the Ice Age.
7. Genes and Memes – How biology and culture carved the human being?
8. C. Rogers and Client Cantered Therapy – Third way of making the psychotherapy work.
9. Human being as information processing entity – Computers and embodied mind.
10. Christian Meta-Model of the Person – Answer for psychological reductionism.
11. Stop being WEIRD! – Non-western perspectives on psychology.
12. Transpersonal psychology – Towards integrating spirituality into psychology.
13. Compassion or Oppression – Controversy surrounding diagnostic systems for mental disorders.
14. Some things work but do we know why? - Looking beyond the DSM towards an idionomic approach.
15. Polycrisis in times of AI – Contemporary challenges as context of psychological practise.
Course coordinators
Term 2026/2027-Z: | Term 2024/2025-Z: | Term 2023/2024-Z: |
(in Polish) Tryb zajęć
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE:
(PPMpK_W01) at the advanced level uses terminology freely
in English, appropriate for psychology, according to the topic of the lecture
SKILLS:
(PPMpK_U04) can express oneself coherently and precisely in speech and writing in English, a language specialized for psychology
SOCIAL COMPETENCE:
(PPMpK_K01) demonstrates the need for lifelong learning of specialist terminology for psychology in English
Assessment criteria
Examination.
The final mark is based on students performance during the exam. The exam is oral and consists of two questions drawn at random during the exam. The questions are selected for each candidate by rolling the dice.
Bibliography
Readings:
Main readings:
Jung, C.G. ed. (1968). Man and his symbols. London: Dell Publishing.
Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. New York: Penguin Press.
Hayes, S. C., Ciarrochi, J., Sahdra, B. K., Hofmann, S. G., Ong, C. W., & Hernández, C. (2026). One size fits none: A call for an idionomic revolution. Clinical Psychology Review, 129, 102800. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2026.102800
Hayses, S.C. & Hofmann, S.G. (eds.) (2020). Beyond the DSM. Toward a process-based alternative for diagnosis and mental health treatment. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications.
Henrich, J. (2020). The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. New York: FSG.
Quindoz, J-M. (2005). Reading Freud. A chronological exploration of Freud’s writings. New York: Routledge.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin
Skinner, B.F. (2014). Science and Human Behavior. The Skinner Foundation.
Szasz, T. (1998). Cruel Compassion. Psychiatric Control of Society’s Unwanted. Amsterdam: Syracuse University Press.
Complementary readings:
Brzeziński, J.M. & Oleś, P. K. (2021). O psychologii i psychologach. Między uniwersytetem a praktyką społeczną. Warszawa: WN PWN.
Ferguson, A. & Gutiérrez-Peláez, M. (2022). Sándor Ferenczi. A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge.
Kagan, A., & Lassiter, C. (2026). An introduction to embodied mind: Thinking outside the head. Routledge.
Roesler, C. (2025). Dreams and Dream Interpretation. A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge.
Vitz, P. C., Nordling, W. J., & Titus, C. S. (Eds.). (2020). A Catholic Christian meta-model of the person: Integration with psychology and mental health practice. Divine Mercy University Press.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: