The general objective of the course is to provide students with the tools to understand how individuals interpret and interact with the external world and with others.
At the end of the course, in accordance with the Dublin Descriptors, to pass the exam, the student must demonstrate:

1. KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: understand the various facets of the concept of communication, the relationship between social and cultural aspects of communicative events, the general foundations of scientific psychology, and cognitive processes.

2. APPLIED KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: apply the knowledge and understanding skills acquired during the course to future work contexts.

3. AUTONOMY OF JUDGMENT: (a) develop the ability to independently find, discern, and use objective information and scientific data to formulate responses to clearly defined problems; (b) be capable of articulating and defending their own position on topics covered in class.

4. COMMUNICATION SKILLS: (a) effectively express the knowledge acquired; (b) be precise in the use of disciplinary terminology; (c) communicate understanding, skills, and activities related to the discipline with peers, superiors, and clients/patients.

5. LEARNING ABILITY: develop critical thinking skills essential for understanding texts and more complex issues.

There are no specific pre-requirements.

The integrated course consists of three modules covering the following contents:

- General Psychology:
1. Overview of scientific psychology
2. Biological bases and main objects of study in psychology
3. Principles underlying thinking, reasoning, decision making, and problem solving
4. Functionality and limitations of the cognitive system: memory, attention, and vigilance
5. Basic conditioning and learning
6. Role and regulation of emotion and motivation in human behavior and performance
7. Phenomena of demotivation and burnout

- Philosophy and Pragmatics of Language:
1. Trends in linguistic pragmatics and its main concepts
Speech act
- Illocutionary force
- Illocution and perlocution
- Non-natural meaning
- Principle of Cooperation
- Types of implicatures
- Semantic and pragmatic presuppositions
2. Uses of linguistic pragmatics in discourse analysis.

- Pedagogy of Learning Processes:
1. Theoretical foundations of the ecological-cultural approach
2. The ecological-cultural perspective on language development
3. The relationship between cognition, discourse, and social function in language development

General psychology
Alternatively, choose one:
- Bassi M., Delle Fave A. (2019). Psicologia generale per le professioni medico-sanitarie. Utet, Torino
- Gerrig R. J., Zimbardo P. G., Anolli L. M., Baldi P. L. (2018). Psicologia generale. Pearson, Milano-Torino
- Feldman R. S., Amoretti G., Ciceri M.R. (a cura di) (2013). Psicologia generale. McGraw-Hill, Milano
- Atkinson W. W., Hilgard E. R. (2017). Introduzione Alla Psicologia. Piccin-Nuova Libraria, Padova
The lecture presentations will be made available to the students.

Philosophy and pragmatics of language:
Austin J.L., Come fare cose con le parole, Marietti, Genova 1987, Lectures 1 (pages 7-14, “Performativi e constativi”) e 12 (pages 108-120, “Classi di forza illocutoria”).
Caponetto L., “Atti linguistici”, in E. Paganini (editor), Il primo libro di filosofia del linguaggio e della mente, Einaudi, Torino, pages 97-108.
Caponetto L., “Implicature”, in E. Paganini (editor), Il primo libro di filosofia del linguaggio e della mente, Einaudi, Torino, pages 109-119.
Sbisà M., Detto non detto. Le forme della comunicazione implicita, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2007, Chs. 2, 3 and 4.

- Pedagogy of Learning Processes:
The lecture presentations will be made available to the students

PHILOSOPHY AND PRAGMATICS OF LANGUAGE
1. ORIENTATIONS OF LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS AND ITS MAIN CONCEPTS
1A. SPEECH ACTS: felicity conditions; various forms of infelicity; distinction between locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts.
1B. ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE: classification of different types of illocutionary forces; indicators of illocutionary force.
1C. ILLOCUTION AND PERLOCUTION: natural and non-natural effects; conventions and rules; role of intention.
1D. NON-NATURAL MEANING: various types of intentions; the psychologization of meaning.
1E. THE PRINCIPLE OF COOPERATION: communicative interaction; purposes of conversation; conversational maxims.
1F. TYPES OF IMPLICATURES: conventional implicatures; conversational implicatures; particularized and generalized conversational implicatures.
1G. SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC PRESUPPOSITIONS: the notion of presupposition; common ground; presupposition triggers.
2, USES OF LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS IN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: analysis of conditions of felicity and natural and non-natural effects of different types of illocutionary acts; inferential strategies to make explicit conversationally implicated contents; identification of triggers for conventional implicatures and semantic presuppositions.

Interactive frontal lessons with the aid of projected files in Power Point or compatible formats prepared by the instructor. Additionally, practical examples will be presented with collective discussions, brief group exercises, critical viewing of original videos/experiment reconstructions, and analysis of video demonstrations.

The PowerPoint presentations related to the teaching units will be available on the Moodle@units and Microsoft Teams online platforms.

Assessment is conducted through a single final exam, consisting of a written and an oral part, where knowledge and skills related to all modules are verified.

The 2-hour written exam consists of:
- A 30-minute multiple-choice test with 16 closed questions on topics covered in the course syllabus, each with 5 answer choices, up to 2 of which may be correct. Each question is worth 2 points, incorrect answers are worth -1 point, and unanswered questions are worth 0 points.
- Two open-ended questions regarding the content of the lectures.

The oral exam consists of discussing 5 examples of discourse analysis, lasting about 30 minutes.

The written exam will evaluate the student's knowledge of the concepts presented and discussed in class, their ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases, and their use of appropriate terminology.

The oral exam will assess the student's ability to identify, analyze, and describe communicative and linguistic phenomena studied in language pragmatics using appropriate terminology.

The grading scale adopted is as follows:
Excellent (30 - 30 with honors): excellent analytical skills, excellent command of language, excellent knowledge of the concepts discussed in class; the student can brilliantly apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases.
Very good (27 - 29): good analytical skills, notable command of language, good knowledge of the concepts discussed in class; the student can correctly apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases.
Good (24-26): good knowledge of the concepts discussed in class, adequate command of language, sufficient analytical skills; the student demonstrates an adequate ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases.
Satisfactory (21-23): the student shows just sufficient ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases, with limited knowledge of the concepts discussed in class; however, they demonstrate satisfactory command of language.
Sufficient (18-20): the student shows limited ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases; the command of language is just sufficient, and their knowledge is minimal.
Insufficient: the student cannot apply theoretical knowledge to practical cases; they have no command of language and barely know the concepts discussed in class.

This module delves into the following topics closely related to one or more objectives of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development:

3 Health and well-being
4 Quality education
5 Gender equality
10 Reduce inequalities