General and Cognitive Psychology
Source: https://english.spbu.ru/admission/programms/graduate/general-and-cognitive-psychology Parent: https://english.spbu.ru/admission/programms/graduate
37.04.01 In Russian
Level of education Master
Type of instruction Full-time
Duration 2 years
Programme description
- The master's programme ‘General and Cognitive Psychology’ is aimed at the fundamental training of professionally competent experts with in-depth knowledge of a wide range of theoretical and applied issues related to the study of basic mechanisms and regularities of mental life with a focus on the course of human cognitive processes. Graduates of the programme are capable of: participating in the development and expertise of technologies aimed at diagnosing, supporting and correcting human cognitive functions in a variety of areas of life; and maintaining the pedagogical and scholarly traditions of the University’s school of psychology
- The content of the programme includes competencies that enable the graduates to: carry out independent research in psychology; participate in interdisciplinary research teams; and work in a variety of applied fields that require the application of professional psychological knowledge
- The programme is unique in its versatility that makes it possible for the graduates to build successful careers without being confined to one narrow specialisation
Main courses
- Historical Psychology: Current Issues and Prospects for Development
- Cognitive Neurophysiology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cultural Anthropology
- General Psychology: Paradigm Construction
- Psychology of Visual Cognition
- Psychology of Creative Problem Solving
- Psychology of Symbolical Forms of Behaviour
- Data Analysis and Visualisation in Psychology in R and Matlab
- Cognitive Psychology
- IT Methods for Constructing Psychological Experiments
- Identity Construction
- Psycholinguistics
- Psychological Potential of Culture
- Psychology of Consciousness
- Introduction to Terms and Definitions of Contemporary Psychology
Our advantages
- Among the lecturers of the programme are: successful young scholars (specialists in cognitive research); and renowned professors and associate professors in Russia who are founders of their own research and theoretical traditions.
- The programme provides fundamental training: sophisticated research tasks; high requirements; and in-depth study of primary sources – articles and books in Russian and English.
- Students have an opportunity to take part in international conferences and various research projects, some of which are carried out jointly with colleagues from the world’s top universities.
- There is an opportunity to do an internship on the basis of world-class laboratories established within the framework of the mega-grants programme of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Teaching staff
- Valentina Byzova, Doctor of Psychology, Professor; author of two monographs, seven textbooks, and over 150 scholarly publications; expert in ethnopsychology and the psychology of corporeality
- Olga Danilenko, Doctor of Culturology, Associate Professor; author of two monographs, three textbooks, and more than 80 scholarly publications; Head of the interdisciplinary academic seminars ‘Mental Health: Philosophy and Psychology’ and ‘The Psychological Potential of Culture’
- Larisa Darinskaia, Doctor of Pedagogy, Professor, Member of the Scientific Committee in the field of pedagogical sciences; Member of the Expert Council on General Education and Supplementary Education for Children of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education; Member of the Federal Educational and Methodological Association for General Education of the Russian Academy of Education; Member of the Expert Council of the Regional Centre for Identification and Support of Gifted Children in Arts, Sports, Education, and Science (St Petersburg); Member of the Expert Council on Improving Legislation in the Sphere of Ensuring Children's Safety and Creating a Friendly and Comfortable Environment for Their Life and Development; Expert (reviewer) of a number of scientific journals; a renowned specialist in the field of creative development of personality, pedagogy and psychology of higher education, organisation and content of psychological and pedagogical support for the development of gifted and talented children; author of over 200 scholarly and educational papers in the relevant areas of pedagogical science and practice
- Iuliia Zaitseva, Candidate of Psychology; expert in phenomenological, existential, and narrative personality psychology; certified DDI trainer; coach in the phenomenological model of the Gestalt approach applied to organisational and personal development groups; author of more than 60 scholarly publications, including three textbooks
- Irina Mironenko, Doctor of Psychology, Associate Professor; author of over 85 papers in the fields of psychological theory and methodology, the psychology of everyday cognition, and the psychology of personal living space; expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences; recipient of the S L Rubinstein Award of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2020)
- Andrey Nasledov, Candidate of Psychology, Associate Professor, Member of the Scientific Committee in the field of psychological sciences; winner and prize-taker of the National Competition ‘Golden Psyche’ and the Ananiev Contest of Scholarly Papers in Psychology at St. Petersburg State University; a renowned expert in the application of mathematical methods and models to psychological and pedagogical research, and measurement methods in psychology and psychodiagnostics; author of numerous well-known scholarly and educational papers on current issues in psychology, as well as online courses
Main areas of research
- Cognitive and personality prerequisites for intellectual efficiency / inefficiency
- Processes for understanding verbal and iconic texts
- Understanding different forms of humour
- Psychophysiological mechanisms of thinking and speech
- Narrative identity construction
- Time image and spatial metaphors of time perspective
- Moral consciousness and trust/distrust as social and cognitive mechanisms in communicative acts
- Possibilities and limitations of the cognitive unconscious
- Perception and processing of conflicting and ambiguous incentives
- Cognitive control mechanisms
- Perceptual categorising mechanisms
- Psychological and psychophysiological components of attention processes
- Psychophysics and perceptual illusions
- The role of implicit knowledge in learning and decision making
- The role of consciousness in human cognitive activity
- The psychological potential of culture and subjective well-being
Career opportunities
- Graduates receive a universal and much-in-demand education in the research, educational and practical sphere. This makes it possible to be fully functional as researchers, teachers, consulting psychologists, coaches, analysts, and experts.
- Graduates of the programme carry out analytical work in various private and public companies (for example, they work as a research psychologist, specialist in personnel assessment and testing, monitoring user behaviour, and profiling).
- An important competitive advantage of the programme is that the fundamental nature of training and focus on a flexible set of competencies provide graduates with the opportunity to successfully and quickly adapt to the changing conditions of the professional market. The programme also develops the skills to create innovative products that have no analogues, which makes them unique and much-in-demand specialists.