Course overview
What cognitive processes are involved in prejudice and discrimination? What are the factors that influence a person's likelihood to identify with a particular group? How do we talk about racism? These are some of the questions that social psychologists are interested in exploring. In this course you will learn about topics central to contemporary research in social psychology, examining the principles and processes that enable us to understand human social behaviour. You will learn about social cognition approaches, processes of social influence, behaviour in groups, and theories of social thinking and ideology. Through critical examination of these topics, you will be introduced to four different levels of analysis in social psychology, which will provide you with a broad understanding of the range of epistemological traditions that underpin social psychological research.
Course learning outcomes
- Explain a variety of theories and methods used in social psychology research.
- Contrast between social psychological theories operating at different levels of analysis.
- Critically evaluate knowledge claims in contemporary social psychology topics.
- Apply social psychology theory and methods to address real world problems
- Communicate applications of social psychology to varied audiences.