MCB-10806 Social Psychology

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

Dutch

Contents:

This course provides insight into the key issues studied by social psychology, with topics such as the self, perception of other persons, intimate relations and love, emotions, decision making, influence, group behavior, discrimination, aggression and cooperation. How do people form impressions of others? How does the difference between people's actual self and their ideal or ought self affect their behavior? Why is it that people often make use of stereotypes? What determines whether people cooperate with each other? How do social psychologists measure people's attitudes and emotions? These are examples of the types of issues that the course will examine.
In addition students BTC will get an introduction to the uses of computers and the library, as well as to the critical assessment of literature.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of this course, the student is expected to be able to:
- demonstrate understanding of the key topics of social psychology;
- integrate knowledge from different areas of social psychology, and apply this knowledge to practical problems;
- describe social psychological methods and techniques, and propose appropriate methods and techniques to examine research questions in the area of social psychology;
- use the Wageningen digital environment;
- acquire and assess information by using Wageningen Desktop Library;
- apply the rules for writing a paper.

Activities:

Lectures (which also includes class assignments), study of the book, and home assignments. For each of the lectures (except in the first week), students are requested to hand in an assignment, which relates to the topic of the lecture and will be discussed during class. The assignments will be graded as 'sufficient' or 'insufficient'. At least 7 out of 9 assignments need to receive a 'sufficient' grade to pass the course.

Examination:

The examination will be a written exam with open-ended questions. The final mark will be the mark for this exam, under the requirement that at least 7 out of 9 assignments have been graded 'sufficient'.

Literature:

Vonk, Roos (2007) Sociale Psychologie. Groningen/Houten: Wolters Noordhoff.