Social Psychology

obligatory courses

Student participating in social psychology lecture should have a basic background in research methods (experimental and cross-sectional studies), statistics, and cognitive psychology.

The main aim of this course is to introduce students to social psychology, the science explaining how “the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human beings” (Allport, 1954). The course includes several topics of social cognition, intergroup relations, judgment and decision making, attitudes, social influence, group processes, problems of aggression and violence. The course is preceded by the introduction to research methods specific for social psychology.

TThis introductory course in social psychology reviews most important issues in the discipline by presenting the new discoveries compared to the classic approaches. It is also tailored to the interest of the lecturer – thus it discusses broadly how human attitudes, identities and group membership affect people’s judgements about themselves and others.

Thematic structure:

1. What is psychology. Big questions of psychology. The neighboring disciplines. Experimental method and correlational studies.

2. How psychologsts explain reality? Third variable problem. Mediation and moderation. European sources of social psychology – classic thinkers.

3. Social cognition. Person perception. Priming: cognitive, goal priming, behavioral priming. Subliminal priming and emerging controversies. Impression formation and face perception.

4. Cognitive miser model. Cognitive motivation, cognitive closure, heuristics, schema, scripts. Biases and illusions (hindsight bias, just world beliefs etc.).

5. Self fulfilling prophesies. Thomas theorem and Pygmalion effect. Stereotype threat and its reduction.

6. Decision making and judgments. Prospect theory, trust and mistrust, prisoners dilemma.

7. Explanations and attributions. Early experiments by Heider and key attribution theories, fundamental attribution error, ultimate attribution error.

8. Attitudes. Definitions (ABC), measurement. Theory of reasoned action and planned behavior. Implicit and explicit attitudes.

9. Attitude change. Mere exposure, self-perception. Cognitive dissonance and its explanation. Persuasion, sleeper effect. Conformity and minority influence. Dynamic models of social influence.

10. Human aggression. Obedience studies and explanations of violence. Frustration-aggression theory. Modelling aggression, virtual violence, gaming. Scapegoat theory.

11. Helping and altruism. Passive bystander, diffusion of responsibility, social identities and helping, empathic concern. Helping relations.

12. Social identities and identification. Narcissism. Theories explaining ingroup favoritism SIT, ODT, SURT, TMT, RWA, SDO.

13. Stereotyping and prejudice. Stereotype content model. BIAS map. Dehumanization and infrahumanization. Contact hypothesis and prejudice reduction.

Crisp, R. and Turner, R. (2009). Psychologia Społeczna. Warszawa: PWN. (all)

Wojciszke, B. (2010). Sprawczość i wspólnotowość. Gdańsk: GWP. (chapter: 1. Interpretacja ludzkich działań, 4. Męskość-kobiecość. Stereotypy a fakty)

Kossowska M. and Kofta, M. (2009). Psychologia poznania społecznego. Warszawa: PWN. (chapter: 1. Motywowane poznanie społeczne, 7. Psychologia poznania społecznego w erze neuronauk, 15. Ku zmienności i zróżnicowaniu: współczesna psychologia poznania międzygrupowego)

Kofta, M. and Bilewicz, M. (2012). Wobec obcych. Zagrożenia psychologiczne a stosunki międzygrupowe. Warszawa: PWN. (chapter: 1. Zagrażająca przeszłość i jej wpływ na relacje międzygrupowe, 2. Emocje międzygrupowe a stereotypy i zagrożenia społeczne, 11. Autorytaryzm jako ideologiczna wizja świata społecznego, 12. Kolektywny narcyzm a sprawa polska)

Student uderstands mechanism that guide people’s social behawior, understands sources of attitudes and differences between conscious and non-councious processes, can provide expertise in situations that require social-psychological expert knowledge, understands situational causes of human behaviour and attitudes.

Exam:

60% of grade is test (multiple choice format)

40% is essay written during exam (longer response to open-ended format question)

Task during lectures:

Twice during the semester there will be a practical task (short essay). Those who pass both practical tasks will have maximum points bonus on essay part of the exam. The task will check if students can use social psychology concepts to understand everyday behavior.

non applicable