Social Psychology

Description

Overview: This class aims to enable students to critically engage with contemporary perspectives and debates within social psychology, particularly those surrounding cognitive and critical/discursive approaches. This class is aligned to the British Psychological Society’s QE syllabus and covers key areas within social psychology required for gaining Graduate Basis for Registration. The class builds on the level 2 class C8202 Social & Health Psychology, therefore prior knowledge of the content of the level 2 class is a requisite for C8307. Students will be required to work with challenging theories and to develop their independent learning skills through group work and individual study activities. Self-directed learning activities, tutorials and online learning activities will be used to encourage students to take responsibility over their learning; these will include elements of choice to stimulate motivation and interest. Critical thinking will be encouraged and developed through these activities and through discussions and informal feedback with peers and tutors. The class thus prepares students with the academic skills needed for moving into Honours year as well as providing a comprehensive understanding of key areas in social psychological research. Syllabus: The class focuses on the following topics, which represent major themes within the discipline: • Methods in social psychology • Attitudes, attitude formation, attitude-behaviour relations and attitude change • Social Cognition Models • Goal setting and self-regulation • Social schemas and social representations • Identity and group behaviour • Prejudice • Leadership Learning Outcomes: Learning outcomes: Cognitive skills i. an ability to evaluate contemporary and conflicting perspectives within social psychology. Knowledge and understanding ii. an understanding of a range of issues and topics areas within social psychology. iii. knowledge of the different methodologies used within different topic areas and social psychological perspectives. iv. an understanding of the epistemological assumptions of both cognitive and discursive perspectives and the implications of these for social psychological research and knowledge. Practical skills v. independent reading and self-guided study. vi. group work and self-directed learning activities. vii. practical experience in designing and/or conducting questionnaire research. viii. practical experience in collecting, analysing and reporting social psychological data. Assessment: Assessment: The class is assessed by one class practical and one final assessment (examination). The class practical counts for 40% and the final exam counts for 60% of the overall class mark. The practical will be set up and explained as part of the first lecture (see class timetable). It will require students to generate their own theoretically-derived hypotheses, and test those hypotheses using statistical techniques covered in the second and third year research methods classes. Prior learning in statistical analyses (see class statements for the second and third year research methods classes) and SPSS, or an equivalent software package, is therefore required. The final exam will be split into two sections: Section A and Section B. Each section will contribute 50% towards the final examination mark. There will be three exam essay-style questions in section A of the paper. These questions could focus on any of the class topics. Students will be asked to write an essay to answer one question from section A. Section B will comprise approximately 50 multiple choice questions. These questions will cover all the class topics. Each question will have four possible answers. You will be asked to answer all multiple choice questions by indicating the correct answer for each question. The examination will be held in the University’s Semester 2 exam diet (April/May). There will be an opportunity to take the resit in the University’s resit exam diet (July/August) for students who need it. The examination will be 2 hours.