Contemporary Issues in Psychology Workshop 3 Tutor Notes

Workshop 3: Applying the Counselling/Neuropsychology Perspectives

What you need for this session:

- Learning Materials/slides
- Padlet for Tasks 1 & 2 (I would suggest either having one Padlet with columns for Tasks 1 and 2; or
have separate Padlets for each task with a general ‘wall’ format – its up to you!)
- Task 1: https://en-gb.padlet.com/adenovan/4wfe2e91n8tffxw7
- Task 2: https://padlet.com/adenovan/anwqka447qkvk2js
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ee2na3jZE from Irish First Dates Connor and Rachel (3mins
long approx.). Connor, carpenter. Has low expectations due to view of self as too honest. Connor
likes skinny jeans, high heels. Rachel finds sense of humour very attractive. The date goes well, with
lots of humour (mainly Rachel laughing at Connor). From a neuro point of view, both look a bit
similar facially, possess symmetrical faces, and attract/bond over humour, trying different Irish
accents/dialects. Flirting (mainly via humour) early on with Rachel asking Connor if he would like her
to stay over as a joke.
- Prompt: Think about the behaviours/issues relating to relationship formation (does the date look like
it’s going well, are the people falling in love?) and which aspects of counselling/neuropsychology
could explain the behaviours/issues in the clip?
- Timings are very approximate this week, if you find you finish the activities fairly quickly, I’d suggest
facilitating a discussion with the students about which of the perspectives (Counselling vs Neuro) is
the best/easiest to apply to ‘relationships’ (and get them to think about the other two perspectives
covered so far – Social/Developmental).
- Breakout rooms are required for Task 2. Could, for example, focus a lot on similar facial feature from
neuro given similarity is attractive as is symmetry. Seeking rush of love at first sight (links to
euphoria). For counselling, focus on relationship qualities, such as must be warm, trusting, empathic,
accepting etc.
- Looking for someone with a good sense of humour. Flirting is a must. Also looking for my mirror
image ;-)
- Seeking love at first sight, the rush of meeting someone who just looks good and makes you laugh.
- Looking for someone who is trusting, non-judgemental (I am a naughty one), and understands my
passion for football.
- Is psychology a ‘science’? Discuss!

Session Schedule

Approx. Slides Instructions

timing

Pre session 1 Have the materials uploaded/shared on the screen and present SLIDE 1
(welcome to session) whilst you wait for students to arrive.

Make sure students are set as ‘attendees’ (right click on their name and change
their status to ‘attendee’).

0-5 mins 2-3 SLIDES 2-3 – introduce the session aims and the two tasks we’ll complete this
Contemporary Issues in Psychology Workshop 3 Tutor Notes

week.

Use these notes as a guide – it is fine if you end up spending more time on one
activity than the other, so long as you get students thinking about how we can
apply Counselling and Neuropsychology.

5-25 mins 4 TASK 1 (SLIDE 4) – whole group discussion, get the students to post the First
Dates clips or details of their clips to a padlet

Give the students around 10 mins to post their thoughts and then spend 10
minutes going through the padlet (try and encourage students to feed back
their thoughts via the microphone/chat)

First Dates is a TV series where the first dates of couples are filmed – students
should be thinking here about the behaviours/issues relating to relationship
formation (does the date look like its going well, are the people falling in love?)
and which aspects of counselling/neuropsychology could explain the
behaviours/issues in their clip? Hopefully, you’ll have some funny examples
from the students(!)

25-45 mins 5-6 TASK 2 (SLIDE 5): the next task involves sending the students out to their break-
out rooms to write short ‘lonely hearts’ ads based on either Counselling or
Neuropsychology (so featuring concepts/ideas from either approach). Students
should write their lonely hearts ads without explicitly stating which perspective
they based it on. The ad should be fairly short (can be funny – SLIDE 6 has some
funny examples of ads).

Give the students around 10-15 minutes to write their ad and get them to post
their ad on the Padlet before returning to the main room.

Then go through each ad – get the students to guess the perspective and vote
for a winner.

45-50 mins 7 Wrap up and summarise the session

If time, get the students to nominate which perspective (counselling/neuro)

they think is the best for explaining ‘relationships’ and why (i.e. try and get
them to evaluate the perspectives and say which is superior and why).

Also, if time, you could get the students to think about which of the four
perspectives covered so far (Social, Developmental, Counselling,
Neuropsychology) is the best/easiest to apply to ‘relationships’.

50mins 8 Finish the session by clearly outlining that the students should complete the
online learning materials (in Week 3’s Moodle folder – on Individual Differences
and Community Psychology) and that there is some prep to complete for next
week’s workshop (details on Moodle)

Direct the students to the Support Session if they have any queries about the
unit (3-4pm Mondays).
Contemporary Issues in Psychology Workshop 3 Tutor Notes

END!