England
In the first block, you'll be asked: How are we changed by our changing world? What can social psychology tell us about life today and contemporary people? What do social psychologists contribute to discussions of big issues like globalisation, new media and surveillance technologies, mobility and migration, political change and economic crises? You'll also consider the power of psychology itself, looking at ways that psychological knowledge has impacted our daily lives. The areas of social psychology covered in this block include critical social psychology and research, and social psychology linked to theories of the subject.
You'll explore the relationships between individuals and cultures in modern, diverse societies. Looking at the encounters between people in a world of increased mobility, you're asked: What happens when different cultures meet? What are the potential barriers? Can intercultural dialogue be achieved? You'll study how new encounters can lead to both conflicts and positive cultural mixing. The block also asks: What are the politics of identity and difference in today’s mobile society? The approaches covered include sociocultural psychology and social representations theory.
You'll look at how people get involved as members of society or citizens and study how they join together to produce social change. These include everyday actions, such as voting, as well as more extreme forms of political action, for example, in contexts of conflict and uprising. The block asks: What drives people to join large-scale protest movements? And how is their participation affected by social media? You'll also investigate how social psychology itself has contributed to social action and change. The approaches covered include political psychology, liberation psychology and the social identity approach.
This block centres on the idea that the person studied by psychologists is socially produced. This again raises questions about similarity and difference, and how free we are to choose who we want to be. You'll be asked how recent changes in work and employment have impacted our lives and identities, comparing the ‘good’ workers of today with workers of the past. It discusses gender, looking at research on ‘new’ femininities and masculinities in contemporary society. It discusses happiness and suggests that the goal of being happy is more complicated than it appears! The approaches covered include social constructionism, critical discursive psychology, a psychology of the second order and positive psychology.
This block features one of the most famous areas of psychology: the theories of psychodynamics and psychoanalysis, which originated in the work of Sigmund Freud. The block considers these not in relation to therapeutic practice but for their application to society more generally. It offers psychoanalytic re-interpretations of classic psychological topics like bystander behaviour. You'll read accounts of ongoing conflicts (like Israel-Palestine) and explanations of people’s fears and responses to contemporary threats. The areas covered include psychoanalysis, psychodynamics and psychosocial studies.