Undergraduate - UnitPSY3150 - Contemporary social psychology

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

To find units available for enrolment in the current year, you must make sure you use the indexes and browse unit tool in the current edition of the Handbook.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	School of Psychology and Psychiatry
Offered	Not offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)	TBA

Synopsis

This unit presents contemporary theories and methods in social psychology. A social cognitive perspective is used to examine issues such as evolutionary social psychology, self-concepts, attitudes, counterfactual thinking, self-deception and group behaviour. Particular emphasis is placed upon the application of social psychological theories to issues such as psychological health, social problems such as racism, political processes, advertising and health promotion.

Outcomes

On the completion of this unit students will:

understand recent theoretical advances in social cognition research, and how these might contribute to addressing social problems;

develop skills in the critical evaluation of social psychological theories, and the types of research designs that can be used to test social psychological hypothesis; and

be able to apply these skills in developing an individual research topic.

Assessment

Multiple choice exam (2 hours): 60%
Critical appraisal of current theoretical and research literature (2000 words): 40%

Contact hours

Two 1-hour lectures per week and one 2-hour tutorial per fortnight

Prerequisites

PSY2022 or PSY2042

Prohibitions

PSY3151

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

http://www.med.monash.edu.au/psych/course/ugrad/major-minor.html