Towards Social Psychology

Course Code: 2VOL0820
University Level: Two (20 Credits)
Prerequisites: Successful completion of Introduction to Psychology
Delivery Method: Distance learning, paper and/or online
Start Date: June 2010 (existing students only)
Course Duration: 1 Term
Course Fees: 20 credits - see the finance page for more information.
Further Study: Optional part of the Degree in Voluntary Sector Studies

Module Description

Social, Developmental and Personality Psychology are three areas of psychology which are closely linked. This course aims to introduce the student to all three and to explore how the social and cultural environment affects how individuals grow and develop.

Each area is looked at from a number of different approaches and considers such questions as:

Is personality determined at birth?
What factors influence our development?
How we are motivated and what influences our emotions?

Unit One explores personality from two very different viewpoints; the idiographic proposes that it is the individual together with his/her unique life experiences determines personality and the nomothetic which groups people according to personality types based on the attitudes, feelings and behaviours they display.

Unit Two investigates human development through to adulthood. Childhood development was discussed with particular reference to the work of Piaget in Introduction to Psychology and this Unit takes the student through a number of theories that attempt to explain how individuals develop through adulthood. It goes on to introduce the psychosocial theory with particular attention to the work of Erikson, Levinson and Mead and concludes with a study of a number of minor theories which all fit within the social perspective.

In Unit Three, the student is confronted with the issue of what motivates human behaviour. How motivation can be defined is explored, as is the importance of the historical context. Theories from the psychoanalytical perspective (instinct theories), the biological (including homeostatic drive and drive reduction theories), the behavioural (incentive theories), the cognitive (expectancy and equity theories) and the phenomenological (Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory) are all discussed in some depth. The Unit closes with a look at theories within the Social Perspective and the student is able to assess the importance of the social environment on motivation.

The final Unit investigates the subject of emotion. The student is taken through the behavioural, psychoanalytic, biological, cognitive, phenomenological and social perspectives and introduced to important theories within these perspectives. Finally this Unit looks at psychopathy, a disorder in which individuals do not seem to experience emotions. A discussion of why this might happen is explored in the light of modern research.

New to study?
Consider our introductory course, The Certificate in Interpersonal Skills for Volunteers