Unit name | Social and Socio-cultural Psychology |
---|---|
Unit code | EDUCM5405 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
Unit director | Dr. Meadows |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Education |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
The unit provides an opportunity for students to examine research and theory on social and socio-cultural psychology and the socialisation of children within the family, the school and the community. Topics include: Psychology as a social science. Social perception and social cognition, person perception, attitudes, attribution. Social group processes; inter-group processes including: prejudice, inter-group conflict, social identification, small group processes including norms, leadership, decision making, productivity; conformity and obedience, majority and minority influence, friendship, dominance, aggression. Social and relationship issues: parent-child, sibling and peer relationships, the social worlds of school, adolescence, delinquency; developmental psychopathology, sex roles and sex stereotyping, interpersonal attraction, aggression; pro-social behaviour, altruism, moral development. Socio-cultural psychology: Vygotskian theory.
Aims:
Students will demonstrate that they:
The course will be delivered through whole group lectures and discussion led by research-active members of the Graduate School.
The needs of a wide range of students, including those with disabilities, international students and those from ethnic minority backgrounds have been considered. It is not anticipated that the teaching and assessment methods used will cause disadvantage to any person taking the unit. The Graduate School of Education is happy to address individual support requests as necessary.
The intended learning outcomes are tested by means of a written assignment in which students will be expected to analyse relevant texts and synthesise concepts from current social and socio-cultural psychology texts and make links/connections and recognize associations/relationships between these concepts. This written assignment (of approximately 3,000 words) will extend similar work conducted during the unit, building on formative feedback that students receive on two activities that are designed to enable them to develop research skills:
In their assignments, students will be expected to build on the formative work carried out during the unit to develop balanced arguments that reflect a multidisciplinary awareness and an ability to contextualise concepts, and draw appropriately upon a wide range of psychological evidence.
Dunn, J. (2004) Children’s friendships. Oxford: Blackwell
Franzoi, S. (2006) Social psychology, New York: McGraw-Hill
Hewstone, M., Rubin, M., and Willis, H (2002) Intergroup Bias, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 53: 575-604
Meadows, S. (2010) The child as social person. London: Routledge. Pellegrini, A., and Blatchford, P. (2000) The child at school. London: Arnold
Rutter, M., Giller, H. and Hagell, A. (1998) Antisocial behaviour in young people. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.