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.

PSYCHOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE ELECTIVE CLASSES
All elective courses are taught in English. 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. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

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. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

Multicultural Psychology
This class will examine how “cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche, resulting less in psychic unity for humankind than in ethnic divergences in mind, self, and emotion” (Shweder, 1991, p. 91). It will explore how psychology is socially constructed and will pay particular attention to the following factors as they influence human development: oppression, language, acculturation, economic concerns, racism and prejudice, sociopolitical factors, child-rearing practices, religious practices, family structure and dynamics, and cultural values and attitudes. We will explore the meaning of culture and how it affects our thoughts and behavior. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

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. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

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). (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

GENERAL ELECTIVE CLASSES
All classes are open to all students without prerequisites. Classes may vary by semester based on faculty availability and student interest.

Argentina and Human Rights
The class comprises theoretical and practical contents of human rights and modernity. The main objective is to cover the historization of human rights, through an analysis of modernity and capitalism. It focuses on the history of human rights in Argentina from the independence revolutionary era to the return of the democratic government in the 1980s. Finally, the class reviews the experience of human rights in Argentina through two specific ways: The 1976 military coup, the detention camps, and the transition to democracy; Through the visit to communal memory spaces related to the systemic and institutional violation of human rights during the 1976-1983 military governments. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

Directed Research
This class offers a unique opportunity for students to delve deeply into host context research projects. Students will be guided through projects that are both feasible in the study abroad context and relevant to their broader intellectual interests. The class is structured through regular individual meetings with a faculty mentor to discuss the formation and execution of a research plan and, depending on the specific project, the possibility to conduct field- or internet-based research. At the end of the semester, students present a formal research paper. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

Food, Culture, and Argentine Society
Understanding food’s role in culture, in society, is therefore a local and global concern. This class examines all of these issues from anthropological and sociological perspectives and draws on the rich culinary situation of the course in Buenos Aires throughout. Living in a time where food is no longer limited to home and restaurant kitchens, this course explores the place food has in a globalized world. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

Globalization and Economic Challenges in Latin America
Starting from economic changes in Latin America in the 1960s through future economic scenarios for Argentina in the 21st century, this class examines globalization’s historic impact as economies and financial systems become more interconnected. Supporting topics ranging from climate change, commercial conflicts, and strategic trade alliances with China, the U.S., and other regions, a series of field visits allow students to gain firsthand experience with the economic challenges and opportunities globalization presents in and around Buenos Aires. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

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. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

International Political Economy
This class explores theoretical issues and illustrative case studies related to international political economy. Students examine ways domestic and international politics affect relations between states by examining the role of government in the production, distribution, and consumption of resources. Students also learn to apply core concepts and theories in international political economy to case materials. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

International Trade
This class gives students the conceptual basis and the necessary tools for understanding modern international trade at the intermediate level. Topics include gains from trade in a classical world; the modern theory of international trade; factor price equalization; empirical tests and extensions of the pure theory model; economic growth and international trade; the nature and effects of protection; motives and welfare effects of factor movements. Each topic will be followed with examples and case studies mainly under the context of Argentina’s international trade with the U.S., China, and the rest of the world. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

Sports and Identity in Argentina
This class draws on the approaches of anthropology, sociology, history, and other disciplines to bring new perspectives on some of the most popular sports in Argentina like soccer (“football”), rugby, and polo. What is the connection between cultural identity and the sports world? How do popular sports impact on nationalism in Argentina? Gender and equality in sports? We will examine how socio-cultural, political, and economic issues are understood in sporting terms and concepts: the hero; merit and sacrifice; individual identity and team identity, the vindication as society through sports victories and even the idea of sports as a path to social mobility. (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

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.