Cog Psych for Security Studies

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

In this course, students learn how psychology, and specifically cognitive psychology, is foundational to understanding human behavior in the security domain. This course surveys the many ways in which mental states like beliefs and desires, and cognitive processes like bias and decision-making, lead to conflict, often despite our best efforts. Students will gain an understanding of cognitive psychology as a research domain and its place among other specialties in psychological research and practice, as well as its career applications. Students will also gain familiarity with the intersections of cognitive psychology research and theory, on the one hand, and both applied research (e.g., interventions) and current topics in security studies, on the other. Intersections of psychology and security studies covered in the course include, but are not limited to, psychological processes, bias, and augmented cognition in intelligence analysis; cognitive neuroscience and deception detection; assessment and selection; decision science, sensemaking, and decision support tools; grand strategy and soft power; how conflict shapes our thought; information and influence operations; psychology and privacy; psychology of terrorism, extremism, and civil war; psychology and great power competition; and violence and human nature.