Social Sciences Foundation

Cognitive, Social and Media Psychology

Cognitive, Social and Media Psychology

Cognitive, Social and Media Psychology: Cognitive psychology will teach you about the structure of human memory, models of memory and strategies for memory improvement. Social psychology will look at the explanations for aggressive behaviour and aggression in crowds. Study either a) the psychology of addiction, models of addictive behaviour, vulnerability factors in addiction and types of intervention, or b) Media psychology, the role of persuasion and attitude change in decision-making, influence of TV on persuasion and the psychology of celebrity.

Cognitive Psychology

• The Multi –Store Model of Memory
• The Working Memory Model
• Strategies for Memory Improvement

Social Psychology – Psychological Theories of Aggression

• Group Display of Aggression in Humans

Addiction – Alternate Topic A

• Models of Addictive Behaviour
• Explanations for Smoking Addiction
• Vulnerability to Addiction
• Types of Intervention

Media Psychology – Alternate Topic B

• Persuasion and Attitude Change
• The Influence of Attitudes on Decision Making
• The Influence of TV on Persuasion
• The Psychology of Celebrity

Research Methods and Families and Households

Research Methods and Families and Households

This will introduce you to the various research techniques used by sociologists. You'll be able to check and analyse both quantitative and qualitative data. You'll assess their utility for studying a sociological issues and different groups of people. This gives you an in-depth understanding of the role of the family in contemporary society. You'll study the changes to the nature of family life. These include childhood, home roles and the size and structure of families and households. You'll study recent developments in society and the impact on the family.

Research Methods

• Introduction to Research Methods
• Quantitative and Qualitative data
• Factors Affecting the Researcher’s Choice of Method
• Evaluating Sociological Methods
• Social Surveys, Interviews, Participant Observation, Secondary Data

Families and Households

• The Role of the Family in Society
• The Family and Social Change
• Factors Contributing to Family
• Divorce and Marital Breakdown

Psychological Approaches and Biological Rhythms

Psychological Approaches and Biological Rhythms

Approaches to Psychology, Research Methods and Ethics: Gain an understanding of different approaches to psychology, its research methods and ethics; study theoretical ways of approaching psychology, as well as practical ways of conducting investigations in psychology; learn to plan, produce and evaluate research methods; design your own research study and how to conduct them; learn ways to collect, analyse and present data. Look at the British Code of Ethics in psychology when doing research. Learning includes various ethical considerations in the types of research.

Approaches to Psychology

• Four Main Approaches to Psychology - Key Features and Assumptions
• Cognitive
• Psychodynamic
• Behavioural
• Biological

Research Methods

• How Psychological Research is Conducted
• Experimental Methods
• Groups
• Operationalisation of Variables
• Hypotheses
• Designs
• Non-Experimental Methods
• Sampling and Sampling Methods
• Participant and Situational Variables
• Ethics
• Validity
• Descriptive Statistics

Ethics

• Ethical Issues
• Ways of Dealing with Ethical Issues
• Ethics in Real Life Investigations

Mass Media and Globalisation

 Mass Media and Globalisation

Gain an understanding of both the debate between ownership and control of the media and media effects. Perform an in-depth analysis of the issues around the various competing interest groups who have differing levels of control over the output of the media. This includes the owner, the editors and journalists and the audience. Analyse the power of the content of the media over the behaviour of the audience and the various sociological theories related to this issue. Perform a detailed analysis of the three main processes of globalisation: political, economic and cultural. You'll evaluate the benefits and potentially negative impacts of globalisation in both developing and western societies.

• Introduction to the Mass Media
• Ownership and Control of the Media
• Media Effects
• Representations of Ethnicity and Gender in the Media
• Introduction to Globalisation
• Economic Globalisation
• Cultural Globalisation and Political Globalisation

Developmental Abnormal Psychology

Developmental Abnormal Psychology

Physiological Psychology: Learn to understand stress and the psychological stress response, stress-related illness and the immune system, factors that mediate stress, ways of coping with the stress response, methods of stress management, and abnormal psychology. Learn about eating disorders and either schizophrenia or depression, their classification and diagnosis as well as explanations for these disorders.

Stress as a bodily response

• Stress Introduction and the Body’s Response to Stress
• Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
• Stress Related Illness and the Immune System

Stress in everyday life

• Life Changes and Stress

Mediating and coping with the effects of stress

• Personality Factors
• Coping with Stress

Psychological and Physiological methods of stress management

• Psychological Methods of Stress Management
• Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy and Stress Management
• Physiological Methods of Stress Management
• Alternative Methods of Stress Management

Crime and Deviants

Crime and Deviants

Learn about and develop skills to evaluate a range of explanations for criminal and deviant behaviour in society. You'll look at the patterns of criminality in society in relation to gender, class, age and ethnic differences. Consider the usefulness of statistical data when examining these patterns. You'll do a piece of independent coursework, worth 25 per cent of the total mark for this module.

• Introduction to Crime and Deviance
• Explanations of Crime and Deviance
• Sociological Explanations
• Ways of Measuring Criminal and Deviant Behaviour
• Explanations for Gender and Ethnic Differences in Crime statistics