Psychology in Society

This course seeks to build upon Level I Psychology, specifically areas relating to cross-cultural, organisational and social psychology. Cross-cultural psychology lectures will examine the ways in which the culture we are born into exerts a powerful influence on all aspects of our lives and how psychological knowledge itself can be shaped by cultural assumptions and values. Particular emphasis will be placed on indigenous issues in psychology, and people from refugee backgrounds, and the importance of understanding these in the context of clinical and applied work with these groups of people. Organisational psychology will provide students with an understanding of how psychology can be used to enhance selection, recruitment and performance assessment in organisations, the impact on work performance of organisational culture, and the role of the organisational psychologist. Social psychology lectures will include topics central to contemporary research in social cognition drawing specifically on experimental research on explicit and implicit processes in social perception. It will consider the social and psychological functions of stereotyping and the extent to which this psychological process can be brought under intentional control.