IFSA Study in Buenos Aires Plus: Psychology and Neuroscience

Looking for specific classes? Explore CHART, our exclusive class database—if the IFSA Study in Buenos Aires: Psychology and Neuroscience academic track is preapproved at your institution, you’ll find classes recently taken by other IFSA students.

Select from IFSA electives and language classes along with one direct-enroll class at a local university to meet your academic needs and goals. Through our partnerships with Universidad del Salvador (USAL) and Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT), you have the option to study in English alongside Argentine students. A second USAL or UTDT class may be chosen for a supplemental fee.

IFSA ELECTIVE CLASSES
Customize your class load based on your personal interests and degree requirements, choosing from electives on the IFSA Study in Buenos Aires: Psychology and Neuroscience academic track. All elective courses are taught in English and are worth 3 U.S. semester credit hours. Classes may vary by semester based on faculty availability and student interest.

Brain, Drugs, and Addiction
This class examines substance use and its impact on how the brain functions from the perspective of neuropsychology. The concept of drugs, normal brain functioning, and the impact of their consumption at the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological levels will be analyzed. Students will address social, psychological, cultural, and biological aspects that are linked to the deterioration of the nervous system, as well as the differences between occasional use, problematic use, and addiction. Finally, a comparison will be made in the substance use and its impact approach between Argentina and the U.S.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Taking an interdisciplinary approach, students apply the principles of psychology to the needs of businesses. They identify problems and provide solutions to increase employee engagement and productivity. This class offers the city of Buenos Aires as a learning laboratory, therefore, while its concepts are applicable to a variety of cultural environments, each unit additionally examines the topics from a uniquely Argentine perspective. Through case studies and field visits, students achieve a comparative analysis of business life in the U.S. and Argentina.

International Internship Seminar
Students are placed in individual internships but collectively take part in the seminar to prepare for the experience, understand expectations, set personal objectives, identify and strengthen specific skills, critically reflect on their progress, share experiences, and learn from each other throughout their term. Students develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their professional areas, and Argentine work culture. In this seminar, which is focused on application of theory to practice, students gain real-world work experience while developing intercultural agility—skills and experiences that are critically important to personal, academic, and professional success.

Intervention Strategies in Mental Health
This class covers strategies of intervention in mental health. Some psychologists in Argentina have defined “mental health” as a comprehensive and inclusive state of actions capable of producing welfare rooted in the insertion of the individual in their functional milieu. Together students learn about mental health, intervention, and effective strategies, while exploring the applications across diverse situations and populations. Identifying effective preventive and therapeutic strategies is crucial to establishing public policies which contribute to mental well-being at individual, family, community, and social levels.

Multicultural Psychology
The purpose of this class is to place psychology in a global perspective from a cross-cultural approach—to analyze mental processes that may be universal while evaluating how cultural differences impact behavior. To do so, students will critically examine theories of multiculturalism and diversity. Students will explore the ways in which psychology is socially constructed and pay special attention to factors that influence human development, such as oppression, language, prejudice, among others. The course is experiential, so that students learn through observation of their own and others’ behavior.

Social Cognition and Neuroscience
Integrating insights from cognitive psychology, social cognition, and cognitive neuroscience, this class explores how we understand other people’s behavior. Students will examine the organization of the brain and its functions from a descriptive dimension, as well as from a global and systemic perspective to understand how we construct social cognitions and their effect on behavior and social interaction. Intending to make the theoretical contents easily understandable, the topics will be approached from practical examples, both from the local culture (e.g., fútbol, mate) and from global social examples (e.g., the Holocaust, bullying).

The Psychology of Crime and Justice
This class introduces the broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches to forensic psychology and criminal justice. Is a criminal mind born as such, or is the criminal a product of their environment? What role do governments and societies play in facing crime? Students will gain a foundation in relevant areas of psychology and psychoanalysis and then examine how that science interacts with real-world judicial systems. Additional topics will include punishment, treatment, and rehabilitation; assessment and intervention; and how dimensions of privilege can impact perceptions of crime and justice in conscious and subconscious ways.

IFSA LANGUAGE CLASSES
Developing skills in a foreign language can profoundly impact your life personally and professionally. Though language study (other than Essential Spanish) is not required, students frequently report their Spanish language class as one of their favorites and the one they applied most outside the classroom.

Essential Spanish
If you’ve never taken Spanish and you decide not to take an elective language class, you’ll take this introductory seminar taught intensively during the first weeks of the program. By introducing key words and phrases and venturing out into the city to practice them, this class also provides insights into local customs and daily life. Right from the start, you’ll gain essential skills to communicate effectively and navigate in a new culture. (1 U.S. semester credit hour)

Spanish Language
No prior language study is required. A mandatory pre-arrival language assessment will determine your appropriate language level. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

• Beginning Spanish I
• Beginning Spanish II
• Intermediate Spanish I
• Intermediate Spanish II
• Advanced Spanish I
• Advanced Spanish II

DIRECT-ENROLL CLASSES
USAL and UTDT classes are considered the introductory classes to a more specific topic of study and are open to all USAL and UTDT students. Therefore, they are general in scope and do not require extensive background knowledge in the subject. Classes at USAL and UTDT vary by semester and availability may not be confirmed until after you arrive on-site. Offerings may include the following classes, taught in English unless otherwise indicated and each worth 3 U.S. semester credit hours:

• Basic Processes I (Spanish-taught class)
• Basic Processes II
• Coaching for Human Resources
• Consumer Behavior
• Family Psychology
• Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology (Spanish-taught class)
• Neurosciences III
• Study of Human Behavior (Spanish-taught class)
• Urban Inequalities

Visit the USAL and UTDT websites for additional elective class information.