The Department of Psychology offers overseas and international courses periodically in collaboration with the University of Florida International Center (UFIC). The international programs take you to a variety of culturally distinctive areas, where you draw from local intellectual and cultural resources in your completion of a specific psychology course. Previous courses have included travel to Central America (PSY 4905; Independent Research), Rome, Italy PPE 3004, Personality Psychology), and Gothenburg, Sweden (CLP 3144; Abnormal Psychology), and future courses are being developed in rugged coastal New Brunswick, CA, Barcelona, Spain, and Brisbane, Austrailia. Most international courses are intensive, intercultural experiences; students study and live in local villiages or towns, and their coursework is integrated with selected aspects of those communities. Program costs are determined by the UFIC, and include course tuition, housing and selected meals and transportation. The duration of each program, as well as the nature of its accommodations, requirements, and costs, vary for each course, and are publicized in the Fall term for courses being offered the following Summer term. Course availability is strictly limited, so students need to apply early. Examples of previous courses international courses include:
Conducted in Belize, Central America, students immersed themselves in a variety of distinctive cultural contexts. Housed with Mayan families in remote Mayan villiages, students learned to live without running water, electricity, or many modern conveiences, cooking tortillas over open-heath fires, working in the fields, schools or communities during the day, and sleeping in hammocks in thatched huts at night. Exposure to the distinctive Garifuna (descendents of the African slaves), Carribe, East Indian, Hispanic, and post-colonial cultures were also included, as students traveled throughout the country, reading about the cultures, experiencing them, and participating in their communities and community projects.
Held in Rome, Italy, Personality Psychology allowed students to immerse themsevles in the ancient culture of Rome, while nestled within the city's center in the Campo d' Fiori just a short walk from St. Peter's Cathedral and the Vatican. Drawing from European experts in Humansitic, Psychodynamic, and Personal Construct Psychology, the course provided a distinctively European perspective on the psychology of personality. Course projects integrated aspects of Roman culture, arts and architecture, highlighting mankind's longstanding commitments to coming to understand the nature of being human and the human experience.
Conducted in Gothenburg, Sweden, Abnormal Psychology was designed to coincide with the World Congress on Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy and Constructivism. The course concentrated on understanding the construction and deconstruction of mental illness. Trips to the Swedish Museum of Psychiatry and keynote addresses by Aaron Beck and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama highlighed the experience, as well as the opportunity to listen to and interact with some of the foremost scholars in the world in the areas of psychological distress and psychotherapy.
Held in New Brunswik, Canada, Personal Growth is designed to enable students to bring the course content to life through their experience of personal, interpersonal, and community development. Located in the remote coastal community of Alma, NB, this course is designed to provide an intensive, residential experience dedicated to personal, interpersonal and societal growth and development. Situated on Chignecto Bay in the Northeastern corner of the Bay of Fundy, the Villeage of Alma provides a pristine, remote, and rugged context for intensive study, personal reflection, and community building. Students stay on the bay in the community's only "hotel", located just yards from the entrance to Fundy National Park, which serves as the site for the course's classrooms and the base for its experiences and exploration. Sea kayaking, rock climbing, and cave exploration highlight the trip, together with hikes, overnight lighthouse stays, and community projects and participation. Intensive classroom presentation and discussion are punctuated by individual, group, and community projects.