• Specialised knowledge of histories, forms, and traditions of writing for stand-up comedy/performance poetry as well as the cultural contexts of innovative practitioners and practices within stand-up comedy/performance poetry; of contemporary critical, analytical, and narrative theories of stand-up comedy/performance poetry;
• detailed understanding of key performance components within the discipline, to include: ideational sources, body, space, image, sound, text, movement, environment.
• dramaturgical and script-editing skills within stand-up comedy/performance poetry
• developed advanced self-management skills to include working in planned and improvisatory ways, as well as the ability to anticipate and accommodate change, ambiguity, creative risk-taking, uncertainty and unfamiliarity;

• To gain an understanding of the brain structures involved in decision-making and how they develop.
• To gain an understanding of the neural mechanisms of decision-making processes and how these are influenced.
• To gain an understanding of decision-making deficits and their role in psychological disorders.
• To identify the key anatomical and physiological components of decision making from a neuropsychological perspective.
• To explain decision-making development in terms of executive function, the role of the prefrontal cortex and influences on development.
• To outline decision-making deficits and roles of decision-making in psychological disorders

Teaching week 1 – Introduction to neuroanatomy & neurodevelopment

This week will provide participants with a basic understanding of anatomy and development, providing an important basis for the following weeks. This week will not have a specific focus on decision making, but provides students with a basic knowledge that will be needed to be able to understand the later content on decision making.

Learning outcomes:

• Develop an understanding of basic brain anatomy
• Develop a basic understanding of how the human brain develops

Teaching week 2 – The importance of the prefrontal cortex

This week will provide participants with an understanding of what the prefrontal cortex is and how it is involved in high order processes, specifically decision making. Participants will gain a general understanding of what makes the prefrontal cortex unique in terms of structure and function. This week will cover research evidence surrounding the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in various aspects of decision making.

Learning outcomes:

• Develop an understanding of what the human prefrontal cortex is and why it is important in decision making

Teaching week 3 – Neurotransmitters, Neurophysiology and decision networks

This week will build upon the anatomical and physiological knowledge developed so far, gaining a more complex understanding of how decisions are made. Participants will learn about the neurotransmitters involved in a decision and how they ‘act’ in terms of physiology. Participants will also learn about brain connectivity, specifically research evidence surrounding the specific connections and networks involved in decision making.

Learning outcomes:

• Building on previous learning to develop a more in depth understanding of the decision making process from a neurophysiological perspective.
• To begin to build an understanding of the brain networks involved in decisions.

Teaching week 4 – Decision making styles & the role of childhood experiences in decision-making

This week puts the previous weeks learning into an applied context, exploring decision making and development of decision making as a dynamic process. Specifically, there will be a focus on differences in decision making style exhibited in adulthood and factors in childhood that can affect the development of decision making.

Learning outcomes:

• To be able to put their previous learning into context.
• To build on basic neuroanatomical and physiological understanding from previous weeks, to explore the development of decision making in more detail.
• To develop a further understanding of decision making and what influences it.

Teaching week 5 – Decision making deficits

This week brings together everything covered in teaching weeks 1-4 in terms of neurotypical decision making, to explore deficits in decision making, such as that seen in schizophrenia. The content this week will cover observed decision-making deficits, research evidence suggesting underlying biological causes and the roles of external factors e.g. in childhood.

Learning outcomes:

• To build on previous knowledge of neurotypical decision making to gain an understanding of how decision making deficits contribute to psychological disorders and how they manifest.

On completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Apply and explain accruals and accruals accounting
• Model and explain financial sensitivities
• Appreciate the role of markets, and our place in them
• Understand and apply sustainable finance
• Integrate your learning and identify your next steps

**1. Cash flow versus Profit, Accruals & Accruals accounting **

An organisation’s sustainable cash flows and its accounting profits (or losses) are both supremely important, but they can be very different. For this reason, all larger organisations must publish both a cash flow statement and an income statement.

The reason for the difference is the accruals accounting principle. The accruals accounting principle is sometimes known as the matching principle. It means matching reported revenues, and the expenses incurred to earn those revenues, in the same accounting period. Even if the related cash flows took place in different accounting periods. Accordingly, financial reporting includes certain non-cash items and adjustments, in order to achieve the required matching. Examples include accruals for expenses incurred and committed, but not yet invoiced or paid. Changes in accruals are one example of a difference between cash flows and profits.

Applying accruals accounting is one of the more judgemental areas of financial reporting. The financial statements of larger organisations are externally audited, adding to their credibility. The organisation prepares the financial statements, and the auditors express an audit opinion on the fiancial statements, for an audit fee payable by the organisation.

**2. Capitalisation, Depreciation, Amortisation & Revaluation **

Other examples of differences between cash flows and profits include capitalisation, depreciation, amortisation and revaluation. Capital expenditure, or capitalised expenses, relate to an organisation’s larger assets that are expected to have a useful economic life of longer than a year. Examples include purchased plant and machinery, and transfer fees paid for professional sports team stars.

Accounting for this kind of expenditure spreads the accounting recognition of the total expense over the whole of the useful economic life of the asset. The accounting expense relating to tangible capital assets is known as deprecation. For intangible assets, it is known as amortisation. Accounting depreciation and amortisation are non-cash expenses.

The revaluation of long-term assets and liabilities is another example of a non-cash item in financial reporting. Depending on the nature of the revalued item, the revaluation may be reported as other comprehensive income or expense, rather than part of the profit or loss for the period.

**3. Financial modelling & Financial sensitivities **

A financial model is a simplified representation of a financial situation, using selected assumptions. Financial models are widely used in practice for valuation, and to support financial decisions and risk management. A model presents a financial calculation – or series of calculations – in a way that enables the user to understand it and to challenge it, especially about its assumptions. Well designed models also facilitate sensitivity analysis.

We will use Excel to illustrate financial modelling principles, but they apply generally, whatever modelling platform you or your colleagues are using. Key modelling principles include identifying and stating purposes, zoning workbooks into appropriate modules, workflow, visualisation and commentary. You will also appreciate the important differences between navigation, selection and editing.

Case study modelling applications will include the financial reporting and capital market concepts investigated throughout this course.

**4. Debt capital markets & Loan markets **

Capital is a source of finance for business operations, and also an investment for the capital provider. Borrowings and loans are liabilities for the borrower, and investment assets for the lender-investor. Creditworthy organisations can borrow money by issuing bonds. The bond is a promise by the issuer to repay the amount borrowed, plus interest, over a designated period of time. Issuers of bonds include a wide range of corporate and public sector entities, including central governments. Debt capital markets are the markets where bonds are traded.

The prices of bonds are inversely related to their current market yields. The yield is driven, in turn, by a number of factors including general market interest rates, and perceptions of the credit risk of the issuer. Credit rating agencies issue opinions on the credit risk of particular issues of bonds, as well as the general credit strength of certain issuers.

Loan markets relate to lending and borrowing documented in a loan agreement between a borrower and a lender, or a syndicate of lenders. Lenders include banks and other financial services organisations. Interest and capital repayments of loans and bonds are a legal contractual commitment of the borrower. Failure by the borrower to meet its obligations will generally be an event of default, giving additional enforcement rights to the lender. These lenders’ rights are a source of risk for borrowers, and a reason why adding debt to a financing structure increases risk for the borrower, at worst potentially leading to corporate failure for the over-borrowed company.

**5. Equity capital markets & Private equity **

The simplest, and most common, form of equity is ordinary shares, also known as common stock. Ordinary shares are a proportionate ownership interest in a company. Dividends on ordinary shares are a discretionary payment by the company, out of its profits (if any). This is key difference between equity capital and debt capital, debt servicing payments being contractual obligations. Shares and bonds are known collectively as securities. Other forms of security include intermediate ‘hybrid’ securities, which have some features of equity, and some features of debt instruments.

Equity is generally safer for the issuer compared with debt, but more expensive. Part of the cost of equity capital is the expectation, or requirement, of the equity investors for the company to grow its capital value. Equity capital markets are the markets where equity is issued and traded. Public companies, also known as listed companies, are those whose shares are quoted on a stock exchange, and which members of the public can invest in, generally through a broker.

Private equity deals with companies whose shares are not listed on exchange. Flotation, or an initial public offering, results in shares becoming listed on an exchange. Privatisation, or taking private, is the opposite process. Private companies have relatively fewer reporting obligations, but more limited access to new capital. Here as elsewhere, there is a trade off – and a strategic decision to make – to balance flexibility and cost. The balance point is likely to change over the life cycle of the business.

* Key theories and concepts in psychology of social cognition and emotions:

• Discuss nature v nurture, the relationship between the mind and the brain and the role of automatic vs controlled processes in shaping human behavior.

* How we study emotions: Emotional processing and social cognition research methods

* We are what we feel: The foundations of the theories of embodied cognition

• How our understanding of other’s emotions is an interpretation of emotional signals

* Develop a critical approach to the literature and research questions of the field.

What is Cognitive Psychology: an overview

This week will provide an overview of key findings, theories and research methods of cognitive psychology.

How we feel emotions: introduction to the psychology of facial expressions and to theories of embodied emotional processing

This week will provide an introduction to the main concepts and theories of social cognition. In particular, videos explore the extent to which mirror neurons shape our ability to understand others and our ability to understand that others might have mental states that differ from our own (theory of mind reasoning).

How do we study emotions? Emotional processing and social cognition research methods

This week explores the key research methods of embodied emotional processing and social cognition. It will outline the most important techniques in the broader cognitive psychology and evaluate the contribution they can make to emotional processing research and embodiment theories. It will also introduce the role of neuropsychological research in understanding how brain lesions can help us understand how the brain normally functions. Key methods of neuroimaging techniques covered will be specifically focused on electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG).

How do we recognise the emotional facial expressions of others? Feeling me to feel you – from theory-theories to the simulation theory

This week will provide an introduction to the main theories of emotional facial expression recognition. It will include an overview of the theory models as well as of the simulation theory models. It will also illustrate the key findings on facial mimicry often associated with better facial expression recognition.

Is it always easy to understand others’ emotions? The influence of context and expression ambiguity on mimicry during emotional recognition

Any emotional expression is a communication channel that has the intrinsic intention of conveying a message. The expression finds its meaning in the interaction with another person and its sense in the social context.

This week provides an overview of the factors that influence the emotional understanding in a natural social situation. This week will outline some of the main factors that are thought to affect the way we have insights about other’s feeling and intentions. This includes our attitude towards the other (for instance our motivation to understand their emotions), prior knowledge that we have about them and the ambiguity of the facial expression itself.

* Key theories and concepts in psychology of social cognition and emotions:

• Discuss nature v nurture, the relationship between the mind and the brain and the role of automatic vs controlled processes in shaping human behavior.

* How we study emotions: Emotional processing and social cognition research methods

* We are what we feel: The foundations of the theories of embodied cognition

• How our understanding of other’s emotions is an interpretation of emotional signals

* Develop a critical approach to the literature and research questions of the field.

What is Cognitive Psychology: an overview

This week will provide an overview of key findings, theories and research methods of cognitive psychology.

How we feel emotions: introduction to the psychology of facial expressions and to theories of embodied emotional processing

This week will provide an introduction to the main concepts and theories of social cognition. In particular, videos explore the extent to which mirror neurons shape our ability to understand others and our ability to understand that others might have mental states that differ from our own (theory of mind reasoning).

How do we study emotions? Emotional processing and social cognition research methods

This week explores the key research methods of embodied emotional processing and social cognition. It will outline the most important techniques in the broader cognitive psychology and evaluate the contribution they can make to emotional processing research and embodiment theories. It will also introduce the role of neuropsychological research in understanding how brain lesions can help us understand how the brain normally functions. Key methods of neuroimaging techniques covered will be specifically focused on electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG).

How do we recognise the emotional facial expressions of others? Feeling me to feel you – from theory-theories to the simulation theory

This week will provide an introduction to the main theories of emotional facial expression recognition. It will include an overview of the theory models as well as of the simulation theory models. It will also illustrate the key findings on facial mimicry often associated with better facial expression recognition.

Is it always easy to understand others’ emotions? The influence of context and expression ambiguity on mimicry during emotional recognition

Any emotional expression is a communication channel that has the intrinsic intention of conveying a message. The expression finds its meaning in the interaction with another person and its sense in the social context.

This week provides an overview of the factors that influence the emotional understanding in a natural social situation. This week will outline some of the main factors that are thought to affect the way we have insights about other’s feeling and intentions. This includes our attitude towards the other (for instance our motivation to understand their emotions), prior knowledge that we have about them and the ambiguity of the facial expression itself.

• An introduction to the history and key debates in Psychology and Neuropsychology exploring the main different cognitive functions and how they interact with one another.
• The key techniques and methods to study the mind.
• The main theories, models and concepts of attention, memory, language, perception and emotional processing

Unit 1: What is Cognitive Psychology: history and current core debates

• To learn about the key findings and assumptions of Cognitive Psychology.
• To familiarise learners with some of the central debates in Cognitive Psychology.
• To understand the relationship between the mind and the brain, as well as the role of genes and experience in shaping human behaviour.

Unit 2: How do we measure the mind? Introduction to Psychology’s main research methods

• To provide an understanding of the main methods in Cognitive Psychology.
• To learn about neuroimaging techniques and neuropsychological findings and how they contribute to our knowledge of the human brain.
• To develop a critical approach to methods and how each of them helps answer specific research questions

Unit 3: Introduction to the psychology of human language

• To learn the main theories and models related to human language acquisition and to critically evaluate the extent to which empirical studies support different theoretical claims
• To understand the main models accounting for the development of different components of language.
• To develop a critical approach to theories highlighting the crucial role of learning context during language acquisition (shared attentional orienting).

Unit 4: Introduction to memory, perception and cross-modal interactions

• To learn the main ideas and models of working memory and its role in relation with short- and long-term memory.
• To understand how language and memory interact with perception to facilitate aspects of our daily life.
• To develop a critical approach to the modular understanding of the mind and appreciate how sensory modalities greatly influence each other.

Unit 5: Introduction to attention, consciousness and free will

• To learn the psychological concept of attention and how it shapes thinking.
• To understand the contribution of neuropsychology to our understanding of human attention.
• To develop a critical approach to literature on the relationship between attention and consciousness.

• Specialised knowledge of histories, forms, and traditions of writing for performance as well as the cultural contexts of innovative practitioners and practices within film and TV; of contemporary critical, analytical, and narrative theories of production;
• script-editing skills within screenwriting industries;
• developed advanced self-management skills to include working in planned and improvisatory ways, as well as the ability to anticipate and accommodate change, ambiguity, creative risk-taking, uncertainty and unfamiliarity;
• how to create effective structure within a screenplay; how to write powerful characters for the screen;
• advanced awareness of the relevant market and distribution demands of entertainment industries.

On completion of this course you will understand:

• Project evaluation & discounted cash flow techniques
• Net present value, internal rate of return, and total shareholder return
• Market values and book values
• What traditional accounting misses out
• Shareholders and other stakeholders

1. Profits aren’t enough – Servicing capital providers

Sustainable businesses need to earn consistent and predictable profits. But accounting profits alone are not enough. Let’s say you’re in the happy position of owning a profitable business outright, and your business managers are generating and reporting $1 million of annual profits and cash flows for you, the 100% owner. So far so good?

Well, depending how much of your capital is tied up in the business, $1m annual profits might not seem so good after all. What if the net business assets were worth $1 billion – 1,000 times as much as the annual profits? This business is using, and tying up, $1bn of your capital, that you can’t deploy elsewhere. Your managers are only achieving a rate of return on your capital of $1m / $1bn = 0.1% per annum. You could probably achieve a greater rate of return – for a similar level of risk – by deploying the capital elsewhere.

So – as the business owner – you’ll want to monitor your investment and your managers by the rates of return they’re achieving on your capital, as well as the $ amounts of profits. As business managers and project managers, we need, in turn, to understand our capital providers, and the rates of return our capital providers are – quite reasonably – requiring from their capital investments in the business we’re employed in.

2. Future value, Present value & Net present value

The amounts of reported profits and cash flows are fundamentally important. But so is their timing. $1m receivable tomorrow is better than $1m receivable in 10 years’ time. If we get $1m tomorrow, we might be able to use it a number of different useful ways. For example, we might be able to repay some borrowings earlier, and save interest expense. Or we might be able to deploy the $1m into another attractive investment opportunity.

On the other hand, if we have to wait another 10 years to get our $1m, we won’t have any of those attractive options open to us. So we’d clearly prefer to collect our money earlier, assuming no difference in the amounts. This preference reflects the time value of money. But what if we had to choose between getting a smaller amount of $0.8m tomorrow, or the full $1m in 10 years’ time?

Tools for making that evaluation include Future value, Present value, and Net present value. These project evaluaton tools are all Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) techniques, giving results in money terms. They factor in the timing of forecast cash flows as well as their amounts. And they also take account of the rates of return required by our capital providers.

3. Internal rate of return, Yield & Total shareholder return

Another group of Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) project evaluation techniques includes Internal rate of return (IRR). IRR summarises a set of cash flows as a single percentage figure. The IRR measure is independent of any investor’s required rate of return. The greater the positive percentage IRR figure, and all other things being equal, the more attractive the proposal for an investor. IRR can also be used to evaluate the cost of different financing proposals. The lower the IRR, the more cost effective the financing appears to be on this measure.

Yield is one of the many words in finance with a number of different meanings. In the context of borrowing and financing, yield is the internal rate of return (IRR) of the borrowing – or other financing – cash flows. Yield is also a measure of the rate of return on an investment in tradeable debt, for example a corporate bond.

Total shareholder return (TSR) is a measure of the rate of return enjoyed by investors in equity shares (shareholders). TSR takes account of the capital value of the shares over time, together with any dividends on the shares over the same period, and any other relevant cash flows for the shareholder. TSR is calculated as the IRR of these relevant cash flows. Many companies whose shares are listed on an exchange use TSR as a key performance measure for their senior managers.

4. Valuation, Market & Book values

Values and valuations are fundamentally important, but not always straightforward to quantify. Appropriate valuation techniques, and the values themselves, can depend on the circumstances, as well as the nature of the asset. One valuation method for a business is a DCF analysis of the entire enterprise.

When a company’s shares are listed on an exchange, the latest traded price per share is quoted continuously during trading hours. The total current market value of the (equity) shares is simply the share price multiplied by the number of shares. This total figure is sometimes known as the market capitalisation, to emphasise the perspective that the current market price of the shares might represent an overvaluation – or an undervaluation – by the market.

Multiples valuation means comparing values, or estimating values, based on a mutiple of a relevant financial measure. Examples include PE ratios for a company’s equity, and EBITDA multiples for the whole enterprise (the total of the company’s equity and its debt). Market values imply a sale and purchase transaction, or a potential sale and purchase transaction, in the market. Book values, in this context, mean amounts reported in a company’s financial statements. Book values and market values can differ substantially, with market values of successful companies often greatly exceeding their book values. Reasons for the differences include valuable intangible corporate assets, that are not recorded in traditional financial statements. Book values for large organisations are audited, adding to the credibility of the reported book values.

5. Growing and Safeguarding stakeholder value

Growth enhances corporate value, while risk destroys value. Accordingly, managers can grow corporate value by appropriate sustainable growth of the future net positive cash flows of the business. In turn, this might flow from revenue growth, cost control – or both – assuming no change in related risk. Similarly, all other things being equal, applying risk management techniques to reduce the risk of future cash flows will increase their value, via a reduction in the required rate of return for the (now) lower-risk cash flows. In practice however, there will more often be a trade-off between improving – or worsening – forecast cash flows and related levels of risk. For example, discontinuing insurance cover will save insurance expenses, but increases the risk of suffering uninsured losses. The sustainability of the entire business, including its environmental sustainability, is increasing a key dimension of its stakeholder risk management. Stakeholders include shareholders.

A more subtle way to enhance shareholder value is to reduce the amount of capital that the company needs in order to operate. For example, by better working capital management. An example would be improving trade credit terms negotiated with and applied to customers and suppliers. In a simple case, this might enable the company to return capital to its shareholders for them to deploy elsewhere, while continuing to generate profits in the company.

The stakeholders in a business include its shareholders, but also an increasing wide group of other poeple, organisations and potentially other entities. For example, one life sciences business mentions its stakeholders as including customers, employees, suppliers, industry organisations, local and central governments, those who live and work where the business operates, and society as a whole. Companies are increasingly – and explicitly – taking account of the interests and capital value of all of these other stakeholders, and professional management of the company’s relationships with them, and not just the company’s own shareholders as in the past.