Social Psychology

Selectable PhD Course within the subject of psychology, 7.5 credits

The course syllabus below in PDF

Course Syllabus

Aim

Upon completion the student should be able to:

1. Describe theories, models and empirical findings in modern and classic social psychology, above and beyond the expectations for an undergraduate introductory course.

1. Discuss social psychological research and reflect upon strengths and limitations in contradictory arguments in the literature.

1. Design and describe a research project that integrates social psychology with work from other fields in psychology.

Content

Social psychology is the study of how thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the actual or imagined presence of others. The course provides an introduction to this field, but with greater depth than an undergraduate course. The course has a special emphasis on critical debates in the literature, as well the connection between social psychology and other fields.

Social psychology has also played a central role, for good and for bad, in the debate about replicable psychological research. Researchers and students from other areas could learn from the pitfalls in this field, as well as the awareness and agendas that these challenges have led to.

Teaching and Absence

The teaching comprises a mix of lectures and discussion seminars. If requested, the teaching would be in English. All students are expected to participate in the seminars, in case of absence there will be compensatory written assignments.

Examination/Assignments

The course is structured so that students can choose to read all materials and be examined within the time-frame of scheduled teaching, or alternatively, to do most of the reading and assignments after the teaching has been concluded. The examination includes active participation at the discussion seminars (1), presentations at the seminars or brief written summaries of the assigned literature (2), as well as a research proposal. Points 2 and 3 can be done after the teaching has been concluded, and the proposal is the most important for the final grade.

For each seminar all students are expected to read at least one of the chapters from the previous lecture, as well as assigned research articles (presented at the start of the course). Beyond these readings, participants can choose if they want to participate in presentations or write short summaries afterwards (200-250 words per chapter). Those who sign up for the seminar presentations are expected to read all chapters from the previous lecture – there will be a random assignment of who presents what. As noted, those who do not have the time to read everything have the option to instead provide written summaries, and these can be submitted after the teaching period is over. Each written summary should correspond to an abstract for a review article on the given topic – that is, summarizing key findings as well as providing one or two personal reflections.

For the final examination students write a research proposal for a future research project, in which social psychological methods and models/theories are integrated with work from another field in psychology (e.g., developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience). The research proposal should follow the guidelines for a research project grant or postdoc grants at the Swedish research council. Detailed information is provided at course introduction.

Literature

Baumeister, R. F., & Finkel, E. J. (2010). Advanced social psychology: The state of the science. New York, NY: Oxford University Press (832 pages).

In addition to the textbook there are additional readings in terms of research articles, as presented at the start of the course.