Prof Jeremy Ginges

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Psychological and Behavioural Science. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course is not available to General Course students.

This course builds core knowledge of Social Psychology. Social psychology involves the scientific investigation of two things: how social behavior is influenced by the mental processes of individual minds (how we think and feel about the world), and how mental processes are influenced by our social and cultural context. It recognises that human psychology is inherently social, and that understanding how mental processes and social context influence each other can produce important real world insights. The lectures and classes will discuss a range of social psychology topics, such as social cognition, self and identity, prejudice, free will, inter-group conflict, cooperation behaviour, and morality. Each topic will highlight the relations between real world problems, social psychological theory and empirical data. This course will foster a critical evaluation of social psychological science and its relation to other areas of psychological and behavioural science.

By the end of the course, you should:

• Be able to present core theories and phenomena in social psychology.
• Be able to demonstrate that social psychology should be understood as both a social science and a natural science.
• Be able to draw connections between social psychology and real-world policy.

15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Students will complete a number of pieces of formative work to cement learning and prepare for summative assessments:

• Group presentations on the topic of the week and its application to social issues
• Multiple choice quizzes
• A short answer quiz

• Gilovich, T., Keltner, D., Chen, S., & Nisbett, R.E. (2023) Social Psychology (6th ed.) New York, NY: Norton
• Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., Jonas, K. (2020).  An Introduction to Social Psychology (7th ed.). Chichester: BPS Wiley.
• Hogg, M.A., & Vaughan, G.M. (2021). Social Psychology (9th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
• Steg, L., Keizer, K.,  Buunk, A.& Rottengatter, T. (2017) Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and managing social problems (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Van Lange, P.A.M., Kruglanski, A. W., & Higgins, E.T., (Eds.) (2012) Handbook of theories of social psychology: Volume 1. London: Sage.
• Van Lange, P.A.M., Kruglanski, A. W., & Higgins, E.T., (Eds.) (2012) Handbook of theories of social psychology: Volume 2. London: Sage.

In class test (90%).

Essay (10%, 3300 words).