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2011/2 Provisional Module Catalogue - UNDER CONSTRUCTION & SUBJECT TO CHANGE
 Module Code: PSY2016 Module Title: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY WITH RESEARCH METHODS 2
Module Provider: Psychology Short Name: PSY2016
Level: HE2 Module Co-ordinator: FIFE-SCHAW CR Prof (Psychology)
Number of credits: 15 Number of ECTS credits: 7.5
 
Module Availability
Semester 1
Assessment Pattern
Project report (2000 words)  - Weighting 50%

Exam (1 hr)                              - Weighting 50%
Module Overview
This course is intended to cover the core BPS curriculum in social psychology and as such is a broad coverage module dealing with a range of topics in the sub-discipline.   This is combined with a research project in which you design a study, collect data, analyse and report the findings from it.
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
N/A
Module Aims

This course builds on the foundational knowledge of Social Psychology that you developed in first year and engages the relationship between social psychological theory and research.   In this course, we will examine how the most influential ideas and studies in social psychology have been re-interpreted over time, providing a historical explanation of the ideas that inspire today's cutting-edge research.  You will develop a deeper understanding of the four core messages of social psychology; that behaviour is a product of the person and the situation; that the role of situational factors are systematically underestimated; that this underestimation is itself an effect of culture; and that social psychological research represents an advance on "common sense" knowledge of the social world.   There are two components to the curriculum.  A series of eleven weekly lectures will be delivered by four research-active social psychologists.   Students will also participate in a tutorial with one of the four members of staff in groups of approximately thirty, each of which is lead by one member of staff.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, you will have greater first-hand familiarity with the thinking and writing of foundational social psychologists, and an enhanced literacy (including methodological and statistical literacy) of the current research in the field.  You will develop the capacity to explain and to narrate how research questions form and change in social psychology, and will be able to explain how social psychological research can inform practical matters of policy in a range of domains.  Through the research practical, you will develop embodied skills of putting methods into practice, and gain a full appreciation of all stages of the social psychological research process.  This course will equip you both to specialize in social psychology at placement and dissertation level, and will leave you with transferable skills in research methods, scientific literacy and scholarship that you can bring to other areas of psychology, and indeed to other fields
Module Content
1) Social influence
2) Persuasion
3) Implicit attitudes
4) Group and intergroup behaviour
5) The Social identity approach in social psychology
6) Stereotypes
7) Social Memory
8) Social cognition: About minds and bodies
9) Interpersonal attraction
10)Social cognition models as applied to health contexts
11) The social constructivist movement

The hutorials are based around running a classical 2 x 2 psychology experiment.
Methods of Teaching/Learning
The eleven lectures will be of two hours duration and the five tutorials conducted in groups of approximately 30 will be in two hour blocks.
Selected Texts/Journals
Allport, G. (1954).  Stereotypes in our culture.  In The nature of prejudice. New York: Addison-Wesley.
Barslau, L.W., Niedenthal., P.M. Barbey, A.K., & Ruppert, J.A. (2003).   Social embodiment.  Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 43, 43-92.

Brown, R. (2000). Group Processes.  Oxford, Blackwell.
Cialdini, R.B., & Goldstein, N.J. (2004).  Social influence: Compliance and conformity.  Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 581-621.
Gergen, K.J. (1985).  The social constructionist movement in psychology.  American Psychologist, 40, 266-275.
Greenwald, A.G., McGhee, D.E., & Schwarz, J.L.K. (1998).  Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition:  The Implicit Association Test.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480.
Harris, C.B., Paterson, H.M., & Kemp, R.I. (2008).   Collaborative recall and collective memory:  What happens when we remember together? Memory, 16, 213-230.
Haslam, S.A., Ellemers, N., Reicher, S., Reynolds K.J., & Schmitt, M.T. (2010).  The Social Identity Perspective Today: The Impact of Its Defining Ideas.  In Postmes, T., & Branscombe, N.R. (Eds).  Rediscover Social Identity.   Psychology Press.
Hogg, M. & Vaughan, G. (2010).  Social Psychology (6th edn). Pearson Education; Harlow, Essex, UK.
Jost, J.T., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2002).  The estrangement of social constructionism and experimental social psychology:  History of the rift and prospects for reconciliation.  Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 168-187.
Lyons, A., & Kashima, Y. (2003).   How are stereotypes maintained through communication?  The influence of stereotype sharedness.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 989-1005.
Ogden, J. (2008). Health Psychology: A Textbook (4th edn), Open University Press, Maidenhead.  Chapter 2.
Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986).  The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion.  In L. Berkowitz (ed.)  Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 19).  Orlando, Fla., Academic Press.
Schubert, T., & Semin, G.R. (2009).  Embodiment as a unifying perspective for psychology.  European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1135-1141.
Singh, D. (1993).  Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 292-307.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J.C. (1979).  An integrative theory of social conflict.  In W. Austin, & S. Worchel (Eds).  The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24).  California: Brooks/Cole.
Last Updated
5.5.11