PSYCHOL 2007 - Psychology in Society

This course seeks to build upon Level I Psychology, specifically areas relating to social and cross-cultural psychology. Social psychology lectures will include topics central to the dominant contemporary social psychological approaches and theories. Topics will consider the different levels of analysis used to understand social behaviour; the social and psychological functions of stereotyping; explicit and implicit processes in social perception; intra-and inter-group behaviour, identification and conflict; public understanding of science; and the influence of social norms and ideology on cultural discursive practices. Cultural psychology lectures will examine the ways in which the culture we are born into exerts a powerful influence on all aspects of our lives and how psychological knowledge itself can be shaped by cultural assumptions and values. Particular emphasis will be placed on indigenous issues in psychology and the experiences of people from refuges backgrounds, and the importance of understanding these in the context of clinical and applied work with diverse populations.