Educational Program
The Department of Psychology endeavors to push for Curriculum Reform in order to meet the needs for the changing society and world. We strive to expand and integrate the undergraduate curriculum, designing our courses to incorporate emerging trends and technologies. Our undergraduate program is designed to serve as a springboard to the graduate program, not only providing extensive training to the next generation of researchers but also to promote inter-disciplinary exchange and collaboration within the department. The Honors Thesis program was designed to train and mentor undergraduate students. This undergraduate research program is targeted at undergraduate students who plan to pursue graduate studies or who are interested in conducting their own research. Students are required to participate in different stages of the research process in order to integrate their knowledge in Psychology, and to develop all aspects of research ability. In order to meet the needs of students seeking employment upon graduation, the department is also planning an Applied Psychology program that will train our undergraduate students in many aspects of professional competence and their ability to apply psychological knowledge to practice.
In recent years, there is growing interest in the fields of psychology and cognitive neuroscience to explore how behavioral training can enhance brain function and structure. Mindfulness training has been found to improve many functions of the human brain, such as attention, creativity, emotional regulation, and happiness. The Psychology department offers courses on mindfulness, such as 'Mindfulness Training: Research and Practice', as well as 'Mindfulness and Emotional Regulation'. These mindfulness courses aim to promote mind and body enhancement by improving self-awareness and concentration, as well as emotional regulation, empathy and cognitive flexibility.
Research Highlights
The development of the field of Psychology in Taiwan has always been the core mission of the Department of Psychology. The scope of our teaching and research covers all major areas in psychology, and we value every division equally. Historically our department has actively promoted the field of Indigenous Psychology, an area that assumes that Western psychology is based on educated, industrialized, and wealthy populations that are qualitatively different from Taiwanese society. Specifically, our faculty seeks to understand and highlight the role of culture and the uniqueness of Taiwanese culture. At the same time, the Psychology department is aware that the intersection of psychology and neuroscience on behavior and mind processes is a significant trend in contemporary psychology. Our faculty uses a variety of approaches, including genetic bases and neurochemistry to link the nervous system and cognitive functions, and computational modeling to generate neural network simulations. NTU recently demonstrated support for this direction by establishing the Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center (located at the Psychology department), Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, and The Clinical Center for Neuroscience and Behavior. Our department is actively involved in inter- and multi-disciplinary collaboration with various centers and institutes at NTU and other universities, exploring human behavior through studies of the mind, social and cultural contexts, as well as biological and physiological mechanisms.
International Program
Since 1999, the psychology departments of NTU, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University have been promoting faculty and student academic exchange. Since then, each department has taken turns in hosting an annual symposium that primarily consists of student oral and poster presentations. The aim of this symposium is two-fold, to provide an opportunity for students from all three universities to present their own research, as well as to interact and potentially collaborate with each other.
The Meiji University-NTU Neurobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience Exchange Program began in 2013. NTU and Meiji University has since taken turns in hosting the program in 2013 and 2014. This program includes laboratory visits, oral and poster presentations and open discussions between faculty and students from both universities. Students participating in the program are required to communicate in English, thus providing an opportunity for them to improve their communication skills and obtain a valuable academic experience.
Our international programs show significant contribution to our students' learning by exposing them to research outside NTU and broadening their international outlook. Typically only graduate students have the opportunity to attend international conferences, but our international programs expose our undergraduate students to a similar experience by having professors help to establish the link with international labs. Finally, not only do these programs promote students' intellectual exchange and international experience, they also help our faculty begin and maintain long-term collaborations with universities outside Taiwan.