Psycology and Health

General aims The course of Psychology of Work aims to offer students an up-to-date overview of the contents and main lines of research that characterize the discipline at a national and international level. To this end, the proposed program includes both lectures and practical exercises through which students can experiment with the applications of the studied contents. The topics covered in the course are divided into two large thematic areas. A first series of contents examines "the individual at work", starting from the analysis of the individual characteristics that promote adjustment, success, and the integration with the rest of the organizational components. A second series of contents instead examines the "working environment" and its influence on organizational behavior. Transversal elements to all the contents presented is the emphasis on the nature and specificity of the research procedures that led to the construction of the knowledge underlying the discipline, and the attention to the applicability, and therefore the usability of the contents presented within the contemporary organizational scenario. The practical exercises, of a laboratory nature, will have the objective of allowing each student to experience the use of some selected contents presented in class. Finally, interested students will be allowed to participate in specific research initiatives. Knowledge and understanding At the end of the course, students will be in possession of the conceptual categories necessary to interact with the disciplinary contents that constitute work psychology, even in its most recent developments. Students will also have knowledge of the most accredited sources with respect to the acquisition of updated knowledge of the discipline, and will be able to interact with advanced contents compared to the different thematic areas covered in the course. The acquisition of the theoretical models presented during the course, will also allow them to formulate specific hypotheses concerning the causes of some organizational phenomena of common occurrence, such as stress, dissatisfaction, success and desire to change jobs. The frequency of practical exercises will instead make each student able to critically evaluate the use of some methodologies of intervention typical of the psychologist of the work. Applying knowledge and understanding Students will be able to identify the theoretical models that underlie specific co-structures used in the discipline, enucleating their nature, their limits, and their concrete applicability in organizational interventions. The workshop activities will provide them with the skills necessary to complete simple interventions of job analysis, analysis of profiles, and evaluation of the organizational adaptation profile. Making judgements The course of work psychology requires the active participation of the student, through interventions, but also by answering specific questions proposed by the teacher at the end or during the lesson. All of this is aimed at promoting the student's ability to reflect critically on important disciplinary themes, also by inserting them within the broader social and ethical framework. Given the nature of the proposed contents, the methodological needs of the discipline (ie, using the right tools), ethical problems (ie, selecting but not discriminating), and social (ie, promoting the health of individuals at work), at the end of the course the student is called to acquire the critical tools necessary to interact appropriately with the knowledge transmitted. Communication skills At the end of the course, students will have acquired the theoretical and technical knowledge and the necessary "disciplinary lexicon" to communicate and interact, with respect to specific topics, both with colleagues and with the various professional figures active in the sector. These skills will be developed throughout the course through the use of laboratory activities, at the end of which the students, individually or in small groups, will be gradually called to report to the class and to the professor what has been achieved, and to receive evaluative feedback, both on the activity and on how to present it. Learning skills At the end of the course the student who has actively participated and performed the laboratory activities, will have acquired the theoretical skills of founding practices of work psychology, framed not only as a theoretical discipline, but as a basic and applied research area. The exposition of the topics will aim at the critical analysis of the origin of certain knowledge that characterizes the discipline in different disciplinary fields (often general psychology, personality, and social psychology). The active participation in the classroom activities, and the critical reflection on the topics of the course, will make the student able to start independently the study of advanced topics characterizing the practical application of the discipline.