Social Psychology I

THE UNIVERSITY OF BELGRANO
Social Psychology

UNIT 1: What is Social Psychology?

? The social psychology perspective
? Historical roots of social psychology
? Main methodologies and theories
? Applications of the field

UNIT 2: Social Cognition

? Socio-cognitive focus
? Cognitive structures: categories and schemes
? Categorization process and the formation of stereotypes
? Processing of social information: ?guided by data? vs. ?guided conceptually?
? Heuristic approaches to the processing of information
? Attribution Theory

UNIT 3: Attitudes

? Define the concept of ?attitude?
? Principal theories
? Equilibrium Theory
? Dissonance Theory
? Theory of Rationalized Actions
? Changes in attitude: effects of persuasive communication
? Prejudices

UNIT 4: Social Identities

? Theory of Social Identity
? National Identity
? Nationalism and national stereotypes
? Positive and negative social identities
? Ethnocentrism and altercentrism

UNIT 5: Social Tolerance and Authoritarianism

? Social and psychological variables that impact the development of social tolerance
? Authoritarian individual
? Style authoritarianism vs content authoritarianism
? Dogmatism as a variable of authoritarianism in general
? ?F? scales (Adorno) and ?D? scales (Rokeach)
? RWA scale (Altmeyer) and Polarity scale (Tomkins)

UNIT 6: Conformity vs. Social Influence

? Social influence
? Conformity and innovation
? Psychology of active minorities
? Phenomenon of obedience to authority

UNIT 7: Groups and Leadership

? Group characteristics
? Formal and informal structures
? Group dynamics
? Decision-making process and the phenomena of ?group thinking?
? Leadership phenomena
? Personal characteristics of a leader
? Followers and their relationship with the leader
? Technical leadership vs. adaptive leadership
? Visionary leader

UNIT 8: Behavior

? Factors that impact social participation and behavior
? From mass psychology to the new social movements
? Material values

UNIT 9: Social Psychology in Action. 4 examples?
9.I. Social psychology, public opinion and the media
? Concept of public opinion: ?super citizen? vs. ?unsophisticated citizen?
? Theoretical approach to the effects of the media: hypodermic model, thesis of minimal effects, two-way communication, the critical paradigm, the spiral of silence, the theory of cultural indicators.
? Three functions of mass communications: Agenda-Setting, Priming and Framing
9. II. Social psychology in organizations

? Concept of organizations as a ?system?
? Groups within organizations
? Organizational leadership
? Conflict within organizations

9. III. Electoral behavior

? Study different analytical methods to better understand electoral behavior:

1) Sociological model used by Columbia University
2) Socio-psychological model by the University of Michigan
3) The Voter and the economic theories by Columbia University and London School of Law and Economics

? Current discussions and perspectives

9.IV. International Relations

? Psycho-social dimensions of international relations
? Conflict and its phases
? Ironic perceptions and implicit rationalities
? Conflict as a constructed phenomenon: logic and discourse