Social Psychology I

Is there a 'football hooligan' in us all?

Man is a social animal, and as such, it is very important to understand the psychology of how we interact with each other, or act as a group rather than as an individual. By understanding the "natural" social needs of a person, you can develop an increased sensitivity to other people, and better identify and assist people with attending to deficiencies in their social interactions.

"It is always fascinating to try and understand why people behave differently when they are around others. How football hooliganism occurs? Why people do things because they are told to, even though they may not agree with them. Why sometimes people do nothing when they see that others are in danger. A detailed and fascinating area of psychology." Tracey Jones, B.Sc. (Hons) (Psychology), M.Soc.Sc (social work), DipSW (social work), PGCE (Education), PGD (Learning Disability Studies), ACS Tutor

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Social cognition
2. The self
3. Attribution and perception of others
4. Attitudes and attitude change
5. Prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes
6. Interpersonal attraction
7. Helping behaviour
8. Aggression
9. Groups
10. Cultural influences

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• To determine how physical characteristics and non-verbal behaviour affect our formation of impressions of others, and how that information is processed;
• To understand the sociological perspective of the self and how we relate to others;
• To discuss attribution theory, the internal and external causes, and its role in self-perception and the perception of others;
• To understand the emergence of attitudes, changes in attitude, and the effect of attitudes upon behaviour and use as predictors of behaviour;
• To discuss the emergence of prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination from the perspective of social psychology and attitudes;
• To understand the influence of physicality, similarity, familiarity and proximity on interpersonal relationships;
• To understand helping behaviour through the influences of conformity, compliance, obedience and diffusion of responsibility;
• To define social psychological theories of aggression and to apply those theories;
• To understand the nature of group behaviour and to demonstrate awareness of group cognition;
• To understand the effect of culture on behaviour of individuals and groups.

What You Will Do

• Define ‘social cognition’;
• Determine the possible impression a jury might have of defendants and the social basis of those impressions;
• List the three general biases that may affect the jury’s “attributions and explanations” and briefly describe each one;
• Different types of schema;
• Explain why people are motivated to justify their own actions belief and feelings;
• Explain ‘cognitive dissonance’;
• Explain how can the desire for self-consistency influences our self-perception;
• Determine the purposes served by dissonance -reducing behaviour;
• Identify factors that form self-concept;
• Describe attribution theory;
• Describe how discounting principles relate to our perception of others;
• Identify the fundamental attribution error;
• Discuss how we use attribution to protect our self esteem;
• Discuss how consistency, consensus and distinctiveness help to form our explanations of another person’s behaviour;
• Explain how attitudes develop;
• Discuss how attitudes affect behaviour;
• Explain what makes people prejudiced;
• Explain how physicality influences our behaviour;
• Discuss the principle of similarity;
• Explain how familiarity and proximity influence the development of friendship;
• Explain why people conform;
• Discuss Millgram’s experiment on obedience;
• Explain why is a lone person more likely to help than a person in a group;
• Discuss how conformity, compliance, obedience and diffusion of responsibility influence helping behaviour;
• List the causes of aggression;
• Explain the concept of group polarization;
• Discuss how group decision-making influences conformity;
• Examine the influence of culture and society on each other.

If you are interested in this, you may also be interested in -

Stress Management http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Stress-Management-295.aspx

Marketing Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Marketing-Psychology-314.aspx

Multicultural Awareness http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Multi-Cultural-Awareness-369.aspx

Or if you are not sure if psychology is for you, why not try our Introduction to Psychology - http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/product.aspx?id=359

If you would like to see our range of psychology books, please visit - http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14

For more information on the range of careers available in psychology, have a look at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14

We have some interesting articles on psychology and counseling at - http://www.acs.edu.au/psychol/