SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Enrollment year

2022/2023

Academic year

2022/2023

Regulations

DM270

Academic discipline

M-PSI/05 (SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY)

Department

DEPARTMENT OF BRAIN AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Course

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Curriculum

PERCORSO COMUNE

Year of study

1°

Period

1st semester (26/09/2022 - 13/01/2023)

ECTS

Lesson hours

54 lesson hours

Language

Italian

Activity type

WRITTEN TEST

Teacher

CASTELLI FULVIA (titolare) - 9 ECTS

Prerequisites

Italian language

Learning outcomes

The students will learn the scientific methods to investigate social human behaviour. They will be able to contextualize in a historical framework the pioneering experiments on social influence ant to analyse contemporary historical events. Particular emphasis will be placed on scientific data and the discussion of results.

Course contents

Topics that will be presented during the 9 weeks of lessons:

1) What is social psychology
- research methods for social psychology
- the historical development of social psychology

2) Social influence:

- conformism
- group processes
- persuasion and mass communication

3) Understanding of the social world:
- causal perception / attribution
- attitudes
- heuristics
- self-justification and cognitive dissonance theory

4) Social interaction: aggression, prejudice and stereotyping, attraction
5) social psychology in the digital age
6) political psychology

Original documentaries of classical experiments (can be found online) and documentaries will be screened and discussed in class:
- "Obedience to authority" by Stanley Milgram
- "The Quiet Rage: the Stanford Prison Experiment" by Philip Zimbardo
- PBS Frontline "The Persuaders"
- PBS Frontline "A Class Divided"
- "the Challenger disaster" (NASA space shuttle disaster, 1986)

Teaching methods

Reccomended or required readings

titolo: PSICOLOGIA SOCIALE
authors: Aronson, Wilson, Sommers
Italian edition (2021): 5th
English edition (2019): 10th
Publishers: IL MULINO

Chapter (TBA during the course) from the following book:
Autore: Cordelia Fine
Testosterone Rex. Myths of Sex, Science, and Society
Publisher: La nave di Teseo
Italian edition: 2019
English edition: 2017

Students will ALSO have to see the classic experiments by Milgram, Obedience to Authority and by Zimbardo, The Stanford Prison experiment (discussed in class). The following websites are recommended:
http://www.prisonexp.org/the-story

http://www.dailterdam.com/video/x24guhr_the-milgram-experiment_shortfilms

Assessment methods

Oral exam

Further information

Sustainable development goals - Agenda 2030

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