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2011/2 Provisional Module Catalogue - UNDER CONSTRUCTION & SUBJECT TO CHANGE
 Module Code: PSY3069 Module Title: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY
Module Provider: Psychology Short Name: PSY3069
Level: HE3 Module Co-ordinator: OGDEN J Prof (Psychology)
Number of credits: 15 Number of ECTS credits: 7.5
 
Module Availability
Semester 2
Assessment Pattern
Seen assignment 2500 words - 50%
Seen assignment 2500 words - 50%

Students must achieve 40% in each component of assessment.
Module Overview
This module is intended to encourage students to think critically about psychology in terms of theories, methods and measurement and to draw upon social studies of science and social constructionist approaches as they critique a range of psychological areas including sex, scientific accounts, mental health, disease and text.  
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
Module Aims

The course aims to encourage critical thinking across a number of different psychological domains and to familiarise students with approaches such as the social study of science, social constructionism and discourse analysis.

 

 

 
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student should have a thorough understanding of how to critically analyse theories, methods and measurements within psychology and text in general drawing upon a number of approaches including the social study of science, social constructionism and discourse analysis.
Module Content
The course will be based around such topics as:
Critical approaches to theories, methods and measurements, sex as a natural act, social studies of science, deconstructing mental health, deconstructing disease, discourse analysis: theory and practice.
Methods of Teaching/Learning
Lectures, small group exercises, class discussions, group presentations, guided reading.
Selected Texts/Journals

Burr, V. (2003). Social Constructionism. London: Taylor & Francis. [Available electronically through the library or as “An Introduction to Social Constructionism” (1995) - an earlier edition of the same book. This is a very well written straight forward introduction to the notion of social constructionism. We recommend that you read the first chapter before the course starts and then dip into it for the rest of the course.]

 
Ogden, J. (2002). Health and the Construction of the Individual. Chapter one.
Routledge: London. This is my attempt at making quite a difficult set of ideas quite simple.
 
Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London:Sage. [Especially chapters 2,3, and 7. Good extra reading to cover the main ideas.]
 
Willig, C. (2001 or 2008) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology: Adventures in Theory and Method. Buckingham: Open University Press. [See chapter 6 on Discursive Psychology - either 1st or 2nd edition, also available electronically through the library. Clearly written and highly recommended.]
Last Updated
6th May 2011