Psychology and French Studies

This module concerns the study of basic mental processes, such as memory, attention, learning, and categorisation. You will explore the current issues, debates and approaches in many key areas of cognitive psychology. We will see how research has evolved in these fields, both in terms of the practical challenges, and the development of psychological theories. We will also investigate how basic findings in cognitive psychology can have a wider application to society, such as in treatments for psychological disorders, or in the influence of misinformation in belief formation.

By the end of the module, you will understand more about these core topics, and will be able to show a critical appreciation of research methods, approaches and outcomes in cognitive psychology. You will develop skills to write about a topic in cognitive psychology in an informed and reflective way.

This module consists of both oral and aural skills and must be taken alongside the Written Skills module. It builds upon skills gained in the first year.

This module aims to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency in spoken French in a range of formal and informal settings (both spontaneous and prepared). Specific attention will be given to developing good, accurate pronunciation and intonations well as fluency, accuracy of grammar, and vocabulary when speaking the language.

This module also aims at broadening students’ knowledge about different aspects of modern French-speaking society, politics and culture, and contemporary issues and institutions in order to prepare them for residence abroad in their 3rd year.

By the end of this module, students should have enhanced their comprehension of the spoken language, as used in both formal speech, and in everyday life situations including those that they may encounter in French-speaking countries.

This module comprises of both oral and aural skills, to be taken alongside the corresponding Written Language module. It builds upon skills gained in the first year of the Intensive course. Students who have taken the Intensive language course in their first year, normally follow this course throughout the second year.

The module aims to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency in spoken French in a range of formal and informal settings (both spontaneous and prepared). Specific attention will be given to developing good, accurate pronunciation and intonations well as fluency, accuracy of grammar, and vocabulary when speaking the language.

This module also aims at broadening students’ knowledge about different aspects of modern society, politics and culture, and contemporary issues and institutions in order to prepare them for residence abroad in their 3rd year.

By the end of this module, students will have had the opportunity to enhance their comprehension of the spoken language, as used in both formal speech, and in everyday life situations including those that they may encounter in French-speaking countries.

This module comprises of reading and writing skills to be taken alongside the Oral Skills module.

This module aims to consolidate skills gained by students in the first year of study, and enable them to build a level of competence and confidence required to familiarise themselves with the culture and society of countries where French is spoken.

The module aims to enhance students’ proficiency in the writing of French (notes, reports, summaries, essays, projects, etc.) including translation from and into French; and the systematic study of French lexis, grammar and syntax.

You will have the opportunity to enhance your linguistic proficiency, with particular emphasis on reading a variety of sources and on writing fluently and accurately in the language, in a variety of registers.

This module comprises of reading and writing skills to be taken alongside the Oral Skills module.

This module aims to consolidate skills you have developed in the first year of study, and enable you to build a level of competence and confidence required to familiarise yourselves with the culture and society of countries where your studied language is spoken.

The module aims to enhance your proficiency in understanding spoken French, as well as in the writing of French (notes, reports, summaries, essays, projects, etc.) including translation from and into French; and the systematic study of French lexis, grammar and syntax.

The module aims to enhance your linguistic proficiency, with particular emphasis on reading a variety of sources and on writing fluently and accurately in the language, in a variety of registers.

Whilst aiming to expand on your knowledge and skills on research methods acquired in the Part I modules, this module aims to develop knowledge and skills on experimental research methods employed across the different topics in psychology, such as social, developmental, and cognitive approaches. This will involve learning about how to plan, conduct and report research and how to evaluate research studies. You will learn conventions in writing and presentation styles in psychology, and your writing and method skills will address the complexities and confounds in experimental studies.

This module will develop your ability to be clear, accurate, complete, and concise in writing up research. You will build these skills as an individual, but also through collaborative work. You will develop the ability to generate and explore hypotheses and research questions, and will carry out empirical studies drawing on a variety of psychological methods. Additionally, you are required to plan, conduct and report empirical research including defining a research problem, formulating testable predictions, choosing appropriate methods, planning and conducting data gathering, demonstrate evaluation of data, and producing a professional report. You will employ evidence-based reasoning when presenting, interpreting and evaluating psychological research, and will use some psychological tools such as experimental software and computer packages including at least one statistical package.

This module provides you with an introduction to non-experimental methods by which psychological research is conducted, data collected and analysed, whilst also addressing the ethical issues relevant to a range of experimental and non-experimental methods. You will undertake blocks of exercises in which they design, report and evaluate different forms of psychological research through questionnaires and surveys, in addition to interviewing and qualitative analysis.

Working in small groups, you will design and implement research projects on a given topic, followed by independent analyses and interpretation of the results, which are then written up in the research reports. You will also engage with the various ethical issues affecting psychological research on human participants and the strategies for addressing those issues in conducting psychological research with integrity. The module will support further your abilities to be clear, accurate, complete, and concise in writing up research. You will also develop the ability to use appropriate software and online resources in the generation and analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative data.

This module is a non-credit bearing module. If you are a major student going abroad in your second or third year you are enrolled on it during the year prior to your departure, and timetabled to attend the events. These include: introduction to the International Placement Year and choice of activities; British Council English Language Assistantships and how to apply; introduction to partner universities and how they function; working in companies abroad; finance during the International Placement Year; research skills and questionnaire design; teaching abroad; curriculum writing and employability skills; and welfare and wellbeing.

Expanding on the knowledge gained in Part I, you will further develop your knowledge of theory and research in a number of core areas in this field. Starting with the history of social psychology, you will explore topics such as social beliefs and judgements, intergroup relations, and applying social psychology to everyday life.

The lectures will cover contemporary and empirical developments in the key areas of social psychology, and the accompanying seminar programme will help develop a range of your academic and transferable skills in relation to social psychological subject matters, including the use of technical language, integrating knowledge, analytic skills, argument construction, and presentation.

In this module, you will gain the knowledge and skills to understand how psychological research findings reported in journals and textbooks have been obtained; carry out your own analysis of data collected during practical classes and report the results; and analyse and report the results of your own research project.

You will come to identify the appropriate form of analysis for different data types, and will use the statistical package R to conduct the analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate for different research designs.

Building on learning from your first-year statistics modules, we move into more complex forms of regression (linear and non-linear), moderation and mediation. The classes in this module extend your knowledge and understanding of correlation and simple regression to the area of multiple regression. We consider more than one influence on a behaviour and when thinking about how those influences may work together, and possibly how they are ordered in time, whether we can say that the influence “causes” a behaviour. We also consider alternative forms of analysis for data that do not fit the methods learned so far that are needed for considering causes of behaviour.

The practical sessions in this module take a further step in growing your independence for writing and performing your own statistical analyses. By solving problems across many different datasets, we prepare you for working with your own data and analysis for your third-year project.

On successful completion of the module, you will have broadened your skills and understanding of statistics such that you can choose from among a range of methods which best suits a research question and its dataset. Also, you will have developed skills so that you can interpret the results of studies with confidence and express how general these results are likely to be across different samples and populations.

As part of The International Placement Year you will normally spend at least eight months abroad in your third year. You will have the opportunity to:

• analyse the contemporary relevance of a tradition, contemporary social, political or economic issue, or a living part of the regional culture.
• reflect critically on cultural differences observed in everyday life such as social relationships, politics, attitudes to food, drink, religion, etc., explaining them in the context of various historical, social and cultural developments.
• think analytically about your intercultural position and understanding of the relevant culture(s).
• reflect on language use (different registers, varieties of pronunciation and accents, dialects, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, and aspects of grammar) and the process of the acquisition of skills in the relevant language(s).

The module also aims to enhance and develop your language skills, with all assessments being written in the target language. If you have started a language as a beginner in year one you will spend a minimum of four months in a country where that language is spoken. If you are a joint honours student who is studying two languages, you may choose to spend the year in either of the two countries concerned or, if appropriate arrangements can be made, you can spend a semester in each country.

Lancaster University will make reasonable endeavours to place students at an approved overseas partner. Students conduct either a study placement at a partner University, a teaching assistantship placement with the British Council or an appropriate working placement with a vetted employer abroad or a combination of placements (please note that there are some restrictions on British Council placements which usually last for the whole of the academic year).

Joint honours degrees

If you are a joint honours student who is combining a language with a non-language subject, your placement year will provide the opportunity to develop your language skills and cultural awareness, but will not necessarily relate to the non-language aspect of your degree.

Lancaster University cannot accept responsibility for any financial aspects of your International Placement Year.

This module will explore cutting-edge topics in developmental psychology, including the latest development in foetal research, new theories of communication and learning in infants and children, social cognition, face perception, perception of elementary physic and the theory of the mind.

You will explore empirical research evidence from classic as well as contemporary research sources in developmental psychology, with a particular focus on the early stages of human development, from foetal studies through to toddlerhood. This module will also provide you with invaluable insights into how to conduct research into issues concerning developmental psychology

The module will introduce you to the fundamental neuronal principles underlying cognition and behaviour, with particular emphasis on perceptual, cognitive, and emotional processes. You will be provided with basic knowledge about the anatomy, physiology, and functions of the central and peripheral nervous systems.

You will become acquainted with a range of theories and research methods in cognitive neuroscience and explore how knowledge of physiological processes can aid our understanding of a wide range of human behaviour. The module provides you with the essential preparation for neuroscience-related advanced modules in your third year.

This module is integrated with the French Language: Written Skills module.

Both the oral and the written language modules focus on particular topics of cultural and contemporary interest. The general aim of these modules is to develop further the abilities the students gained during their second year and the year abroad.

By the end of this module, we aim for you to have developed an informed interest in the society and culture of the French-speaking world. They should also have acquired almost native-speaker abilities in both spoken and written language.

This module is integrated with the French Language: Oral Skills module.

This module has two main aims. The first one is to enhance your linguistic proficiency with emphasis on understanding of spoken and written French, the speaking of French (prepared and spontaneous) in both formal and informal settings, the writing of French, and the systematic study of French lexis, grammar and syntax. The second aim is to increase your awareness, knowledge and understanding of contemporary France.

By the end of this module we aim for you to have an informed interest in the society and culture of the French-speaking world. They should also have acquired almost native-speaker abilities in both spoken and written language.

The project is a piece of empirical work that will be completed under the guidance of a member of the lecturing staff. Exploring a topic of your choice, you will gain significant knowledge and understanding of how to develop and conduct psychological research, and will learn how to operationalise a manageable research problem.

In collaboration with a supervisor, you will develop the ability to formulate specific research hypotheses and carry out and write up an independent piece of research. This will equip you with in-depth and specialised expertise in a specific area of psychological inquiry, and transferable skills in project management, data skills, and reviewing literature.

This module will consider different ways in which the concept of ‘dictatorship’ has been understood and critiqued throughout the twentieth century. Considering examples from Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Guinea, Italy, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, students will explore the differences between the Latin American caudillo, European dictators, and the ‘Big Men’ of Africa. Selected critical and theoretical sources will be drawn upon to develop a more critical understanding of dictatorship, including the work of Hannah Arendt, Roberto González Echevarría and Achille Mbembe.

The module will also examine relationships between dictatorship and cultural production. How have dictators represented themselves in their writing, speeches and literature? To what extent have they controlled cultural production and to what end? How, in turn, have they been represented in cultural production? What role do writers, artists and intellectuals play in evaluating and critiquing dictatorship? In turn, can the writer, artist or intellectual be considered to be a dictator in the particular world view he/she projects and/or the rhetoric he/she adopts?

This module introduces you to major themes that shape the experience of contemporary city dwellers: gender, social inequality, and practices of citizenship. These interlinking themes will be introduced through novels, poetry and films on the following European, North American (with the emphasis on immigrant communities within its cities) and Latin American cities: New York, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, Barcelona, Berlin, and Los Angeles.

Each topic will be covered though an introductory lecture and a core text, followed by a range of additional texts for students to analyse. During workshops students will share their findings and opinions, emphasizing on identifying links between the topics studied, aiming to encourage discussion.

The format of the module encourages cross-referencing between the themes of the module (for example, gender and sexuality are relevant to an analysis of social inequality, and vice versa).

This final year module will provide you with an overview of the range of literature and culture produced in Sub-Saharan Africa, the French Caribbean and France to better understand the various relationships between France and these different parts of the Francophone world.

You will be given the opportunity to identify and discuss themes that they will find through analysis of a selection of novels and films. These themes will include language and style, and issues addressed by writers and film-makers in relation to identity, gender, culture, history, and representation itself.

Exploration of La Francophonie, the French Mission Civilisatrice, and relationships between contemporary France and her former colonies will provide context for the study of these novels and films. Discussions will be informed by the work of thinkers including Franz Fanon and Edward Said.

This module is taught in English and all texts are available in English.

Technological progress now affects virtually every aspect of Western culture and society and it has become impossible to speak about contemporary culture without taking into account the radical transformations induced by digitization in both practices and concepts. This module introduces you to the most important phenomena and issues that arise in this context in France in particular and allows you to explore how artists use the new possibilities offered by the internet. The discourses about the effects of technology are as wide-ranging as the effects themselves, generating much confusion and often also superficial judgements about the uses and dangers of the Internet in particular. The module therefore begins by clarifying the most important concepts and the problems surrounding digitisation. It then takes a closer look at some of the fascinating cultural artefacts technology has inspired and enabled since the 1990s in the French context, and at the ways in which the life and meaning of "literature" has evolved."

This module aims at exploring the nature of the relationship between the individual and society, notions of progress and economic justice, as these are still widely debated topics in contemporary Europe in light of the current economic and political crisis.

This module will use the concepts of utopia, dystopia and ideology as a forum for discussion on the relationship between individual imagination and social discourse in the nineteenth century, as well as the relationship between fiction and political discourse. You will look at the major intellectual debates which influenced the contemporary European thought after the French Revolution.

You will explore the development of major ideologies and cultural movements such as Romanticism, Marxism, Socialism and Positivism, spanning from the period immediately following the French Revolution to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The aim of this module is to consider how poets have engaged with controversial aspects of modernity in their works. You will be given the opportunity to explore the relationship between literature and society in French poetry from Charles Baudelaire to Michel Houellebecq.

You will be given the opportunity to explore a selection of French poets’ responses to the rise of industrialisation, the development of mass-culture and the growth of cities, through a variety of themes. They will discover how poets have embraced, questioned and critiqued the temporality of modern life through literary experimentation.

The module will introduce the emergence of new forms of writings associated with the beginning of this period such as the prose poem, free-verse, the manifesto and aesthetic experiments mixing poetry and visual art in the early twentieth century.

This module lives in the space between the here-and-now and a future made possible by science. You’ll explore perceptions of science across different languages and cultures, from Asia to Europe to the Americas, and explore relationships between the spiritual and the material.

You’ll look at some intriguing questions about science and the twenty-first century human condition:

• Where is AI taking humanity and are we already robots?
• Might genetic engineering lead to animals developing souls?
• Are science fiction writers contemporary shaman?
• What unseen matters and horrors can science fiction render visible and comprehensible?
• What possibilities do modern medical advances offer for transformative queer and trans healthcare?

You’ll find out about differing views on these and other topics from a wide range of source materials, such as speculative fiction, graphic novels, film, philosophical essays, and online talks.

Typically, the module covers five main themes:

• Spirit and Matter
• Speculative Fiction
• The Post-Human
• Philosophy, Art and Neuroscience
• Biomedicine and the Hospital

What makes a good translation and how do translations do good? This module aims to help you understand the practice of translation as it has evolved historically from the 18th century to the present across European and American societies. The materials we study include historical textual sources (philosophical essays on the craft of translation from French, German and Hispanic authors of the 19th and 20th centuries), representative fictional texts reflecting on translation processes, and contemporary documents from the EU directorate on translation, PEN and the Translators' Association. We will also make considerable use of contemporary online resources as exemplified by Anglophone advocates of intercultural exchange such as Words Without Borders. Our aim is to look at translation as both a functional process for getting text in one language accurately into another and a culturally-inflected process that varies in its status and purpose from one context to another. We will pay particular attention to the practical role that literary translators play within the contemporary global publishing industry and consider the practicalities of following a career in literary translation in the Anglophone world.