PYB202 Social Psychology

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

Humans are social beings whose thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others. This unit will allow you to develop greater insight into people's behaviour through the scientific investigation of the relationship between individuals and the social settings in which they live. We will study the effects of these social settings on people, and the psychological processes people use to influence others in social settings. We will consider cultural variation in social psychological phenomena, ethical issues in social psychological research, and how social psychological perspectives can help us understand and address real world issues. This unit will help you develop your database searching and written communication skills.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Explain and evaluate concepts, theories, and research in social psychology.
2. Situate a specific investigation within the context of relevant social psychological research and theory, sourced through academic databases.
3. Design a study that adheres to ethical guidelines and contributes to the social psychology literature.
4. Demonstrate effective written communication skills in accordance with the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit involves activities of between two and three hours each week, supplemented by your own study time. There are two types of activity:

• A lecture program that emphasises research and theory.
• A tutorial program involving a combination of practical guidance for the assignment and workshops to further engage with lecture topics. 

The lectures in this unit focus on research and theory in Social Psychology across a range of core topic areas. It is important to appreciate that, while most lectures are related to specific chapters in your textbook, the lectures and text complement each other. The lectures may only cover parts of the related Kassin et al. (2020) chapter or may contain extra material not covered in the chapter. You should use the topics covered in the lecture as a guide to the relevant sections in the textbook. This will help you in deciding what to focus on when studying for the exam.

In the interests of enhanced accessibility, the lectures for this unit will be recorded for later viewing. These are available on the PYB202 Canvas site.

The tutorial program aims to
• engage you in active learning tasks to promote knowledge and application of key concepts, theories, and research methods
• build essential skills for completing the assessment tasks and achieving learning outcomes
• create opportunities for peer learning and interaction.

You can chose to register for an online or in-person tutorial. 

Writing support resources are available via Canvas.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback on your progress in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:

• The tutorial program will provide you with the opportunity to discuss ideas related to the assignment before the assignment is submitted. You may seek further feedback on your learning by consulting with teaching staff via scheduled drop-in sessions and email.
• You will receive written comments and marks for each criterion for your submitted assignment.

Assessment

Overview

Assessment in this unit includes writing a research proposal and a final examination. The examples are contextualised in real world social situations and test your ability to apply your broad theoretical understanding to real contemporary problems.

You are required to electronically submit all written assignments electronically for content matching checks.  As this unit is an internal offering, you are expected to attend examinations in person, on QUT Brisbane campuses.

Note that prior to release of marks, the unit coordinator undertakes a moderation process to ensure that individual markers have applied criteria and standards consistently and fairly. Actively reading the feedback provided will enhance your learning success. 

Final grades are not confirmed until reviewed by the relevant Faculty Assessment Committee and approved by the Executive Dean at the completion of each teaching period.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Research Proposal

You'll take on the role of a researcher and after consulting the relevant literature, you'll design a study that would test a specified social psychological research question related to a real world issue. Your proposal will include a detailed introduction, method, ethical considerations, and discussion sections. This is similar to the kinds of research proposals that researchers produce prior to conducting a study in order to have the project approved by a panel, ethics committee, or funding body. It requires that you situate the research in the context of the relevant literature, emphasise why it is important to do this study, generate specific hypotheses, make appropriate methodological choices to test the hypotheses in a way that upholds national ethical standards for human research, describe the expected findings and discuss what we learn from them.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Final Examination

A final examination will consist of a range of question types. The questions will assess material covered in lectures and from the assigned readings. Details of examinable content will be given in the overview lecture in week 13.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

Kassin, S., Fein, S., Markus, H. R., McBain, K. A., & Williams, L. A. (2020). Social Psychology: 2nd Australian and New Zealand Edition. Cengage. (Print or Digital version, with Mindtap as an optional study tool)

Recommended text(s)

Your assignment needs to be in APA format (7th edition).

A simple guide to the 7th Edition style is available: 

• Shakespeare-Finch, J. (2020). A guide to formatting in psychology (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.

The authoritative source for APA formatting may also be useful to advanced and post graduate students and hard copies are available in the library (Call number 808.02 6/7):

• American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Students may also wish to review the free instructional aids on the APA style website: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Other

You will need to read journal articles related to the topic for the assignment.  Starter references will be provided via QUT Readings and you will need to locate additional articles via relevant search engines such as PsycINFO.

Risk Assessment Statement

You should be aware that some content in this unit may be confronting to certain audiences. Please exercise your own discretion when participating in classroom activities or discussions and, if appropriate, advise teaching staff if you do not wish to participate. The QUT Student Counselling service is also available and free of charge to all QUT students.

Course Learning Outcomes

PY45 Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology)

1. Describe and evaluate the core scientific perspectives of psychology with reference to theories, methods and research, from diverse perspectives, including first-nations perspectives.
   Relates to: Research Proposal, Final Examination
2. Critically examine the scientific discipline of psychological research and theories using oral, written and digital communication to address psychological issues in a respectful, ethical and professional manner.
   Relates to: Research Proposal, Final Examination
3. Develop interpersonal process skills that contribute to effective outcomes in collaboration with others, including developing innovative opportunities.
   Relates to: Research Proposal
4. Implement a range of digital capabilities to access, examine and utilise evidence-based information in the context of effectively responding to, and communicating, real world problems.
   Relates to: Research Proposal