Psychology and Culture in Europe

The Psychology & Culture in Europe program offers an opportunity for psychology students to gain a unique perspective on the cities of London and Paris. The spring semester 2013 pre-departure course will introduce students to the importance of these two global capitals regarding contributions to the field of psychology. Travel for this program will occur in May session 2013 (May 10 - 28). The London portion of the program will include field trips to numerous sites of historical and cultural interest. Accompanied by an Ohio State Psychology Director of Undergraduate Programs Alisa Paulsen, the group will also visit Cambridge, Bethlem Royal Hospital, and the homes and museums of Freud and Darwin. The Paris portion of the program will include visits to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and some of Paris' greatest sites of psychological importance.

Please click here for more information on the trip. For an application, please click here: http://oia.osu.edu/programs/application-guide.html. Applications are due by November 1, 2012, to the Office of International Affairs (Oxley Hall, 1712 Neil Avenue).

Please note that you will receive 3 credits of Psychology 5797 credit and 1 credit of Psychology 3193.01 for participating in this program. The Psychology 5797 credits DO NOT count toward your major program in psychology. The Psychology 3193.01 credit DOES count toward your major program as part of the six credit hours allowable of the following (Psychology 3191, 6193.xx, 4998) if you are under the 38.86 (58-quarter hour major).  If you started at OSU in AU11 or after, the Psych 6193.02 credit will be one credit hour of three you would need to count for one course of electives on your major (you can add additional 6193.xx hours or internship hours, Psych 3191 to this).

To learn more about this experience, please plan to attend either one of the information sessions on Tuesday, September 25th from 5:00PM - 6:00PM or on Wednesday, October 24th from 5:00PM - 6:00PM in PS 35. If you have questions but are unable to attend one of these nformation sessions, please contact Dr. Alisa Paulsen at Paulsen.10@osu.edu with any questions you have about the seminar or the experience in London and contact Savannah Heilman at Heilman.40@osu.edu with questions about the application process.

London Trip Experience - by Alex Tranovich

Most people would not guess that London, England and the OSU Department of Psychology have anything in common. One has a population of a few million residents, the other a few hundred students, faculty, and staff members. One is thousands of years old, the other only slightly over one hundred. However, these two entities have progressed through the year 2012 with many exciting milestones. For the United Kingdom, 2012 will be a year to remember! It will have been the year of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, as well as many smaller, yet significant events. Likewise, the OSU Department of Psychology has also witnessed numerous milestones, especially its only department-coordinated study abroad trip. Not only was this the last year on the quarter system, it was also the last year the Department of Psychology’s London Study Abroad program travels to the United Kingdom during the month of June.

Coincidentally, all of these events have directly impacted my life this past summer. As a psychology major, I had the utmost privilege of travelling to London, England with twenty other psychology students and two fantastic resident directors. London has such an extensive and captivating history that dates to ancient Rome and it has continued to shape the world in many ways today. For me, visiting London was like traveling through time: from seeing the ancient wall that once surrounded ancient Londinium to the Olympic Stadium that recently hosted the summer games. As part of our “study tour” (British English for studying abroad), we toured many of the impressive cultural and historical sites London and its surrounding countryside have to offer. We visited the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (and saw a production of Henry V), rode on the London Eye (a giant Ferris wheel built for the new millennium), had a guided tour of the British Museum, and had a walking tour of the quaint city of Cambridge, home to the University of Cambridge. In being the last group of psychology students to travel to London during the month of June, we were also the last group to be able to see the queen during Trooping the Colour, an annual parade of various military regiments from around the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth that recognizes the monarch’s state birthday. This year, the parade nearly coincided with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (which was pretty much still in full swing despite the fact we arrived about a week after the official festivities ended).

In addition to the regular itinerary provided by the Department, sixteen of us opted for an additional day tour of Windsor Castle (the Queen’s official residence), Bath, and Stonehenge on our free day. Upon returning to the United States and talking to friends and relatives that have been to London before, I found out that we did more in eight days than most tourists do in three weeks. Despite this news, I always felt as though I had enough time to explore each site or museum we visited.

Typically in the same conversation regarding our various visits around London, people have asked me how the program related to psychology. I always explained that psychology was definitely the central core of our program. Before we left for London, we met weekly for two hours during spring quarter. During that time we discussed articles and works from Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Charles Darwin that we had read the week before. We had a guest lecturer, Dr. David Hothersall, who talked about British culture and Darwin’s life and works. While in London, we had three major trips that directly related to psychology as a science. The first was a visit to Down House, Charles Darwin’s home located in southern London. Many people do not recognize that in addition to his theory of evolution, Darwin was also a keen behavioral psychologist and published works related to his observations of both animals and humans. On the same day as our trip to Down House, we visited the Science Museum in central London. Here, we learned about Britain’s contributions to modern psychology, as well as toured an interactive exhibit related to neuropsychology and genetics. Finally, on one of our final days, we visited Freud’s home in northern London. Freud lived and worked out of his home for the last year of his life and the house was passed on to his daughter, Anna, a pioneer in childhood psychology. The house gave an excellent overview of both Freud’s works and was setup identically to the way Sigmund Freud would have had his home setup in the 1930s.

I credit the outstanding trip to the hard work of Dr. Paulsen and Ashley Sweaney, as well as those in the Office of International Affairs who planned such a fascinating itinerary that gave an outstanding overview to one of the greatest cities in the world. Though the switch to semesters has changed the timeline for when the Psychology London program goes abroad next year, I have heard some exciting (true) rumors about next year’s trip! Rumor has it that next year the trip will be longer and will also include a trip to the city of Paris! Because I thoroughly recommend the London part of the trip to any psychology student, I can only imagine what awesome things students will experience next year in both London and Paris!