SOC 202: Social Psychology

3 credits | Prerequisites: None

Course rationale

This course allows students to understand human behavior. Through studying psychology, students become more self-aware. As they read and learn to analyze research papers, case studies, surveys, experiments, and observations, they develop their capacity to understand people’s behaviors and responses to real-life situations and societies, past and present.

Course content

Introduction; doing social psychology, hindsight bias; theories used in social psychology; self-concept, serving bias, fundamental attribution error, behavior & belief; gender, genes and culture; human nature and cultural diversity, obedience, and conformity, two routes to persuasion; attitude indoctrination an inoculation; deindividuation, prejudice &its sources, theories of aggression, media influence on social behavior, conciliation behavior: helpfulness

Course objectives

The main objective of this course is to relevant biases

  1. To enable students to think in a social-psychological way
  2. To analyze the influence of the group in shaping individual behavior
  3. To grow familiarity with the social psychological research method
  4. Develop an understanding about cultural diversity and similarity
  5. To differentiate media content and learn the way media influences social behavior
  6. To enable students with the knowledge of minimizing aggression, to develop and demonstrate pro-social behavior and know the importance of nurturing it.

References

  1. David G. Myers (2007) Exploring Social Psychology [3rd or Later Editions],New York, McGraw- Hill.
  2. Sears et al (1988) Social Psychology [6th Edition] Prentice Hall: London.