SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO THE REAL AND VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS
cod. 1007172

Academic year 2019/20
2° year of course - First semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Psicologia sociale (M-PSI/05)
Field
Psicologia sociale e del lavoro
Type of training activity
Characterising
42 hours
of face-to-face activities
6 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Learning objectives


At the end of the course the student should have acquired knowledge and skills related to the analysis of psychosocial processes in post-modern societies, with particular reference on the one hand to the dynamics concerning cultural diversity, on the other hand to interactions with and within virtual environments. The student should also have developed:
1) the ability to understand and face, with independent judgment and a critical sense, the questions and challenges posed by post-modern societies (especially through discussion in class around socially relevant issues);
2) the ability to use and apply the knowledge deriving from social psychology to the role of psychologist (especially through exercises and classroom simulations);
3) the ability to design targeted psychosocial interventions (especially through classroom reflection on how research results can be applied to reality and group work implemented with the supervision of the teacher);
4) the ability to communicate clearly and to critically discuss theoretical models, research, and practical applications related to the topics addressed during the course.

Prerequisites


Elements of social psychology.
English: ability to understand scientific articles

Course unit content


The course will focus on the latest theoretical and research approaches in applied social psychology and on possible lines of psychosocial intervention.
Through a critical analysis of the epistemological, theoretical and empirical paradigms the course will focus on issues related to applied social psychology such as: a) cultural diversity, intercultural relations, and psychological intervention in the multicultural society; b) psychosocial processes implicated in the self and other perception as well as in the interpersonal and intergroup relationships in the virtual worlds.

Full programme

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Bibliography


The bibliography will be partially different for attending and not attending
The reference texts for all will be:
Chryssochoou, X. (2006). Diversità culturali. Psicologia sociale della differenza. Novara: UTET
Davolo, A., Mancini, T. (2017). L’intervento psicologico con I migranti. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Wallace, P. (2017 nuova edizione). La psicologia di Internet. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
Further book chapters, national and international research articles for attending and non-attending students will be defined during the lessons and communicated through the Elly platform.

Teaching methods


Lectures, seminars with experts, and individual study will be proposed in order to facilitate the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. Group work, simulations, exercises, and discussions in the classroom will be offered to facilitate the development of competences, to encourage the acquisition of the ability to apply this knowledge, to enhance independent judgment and communication skills.

Assessment methods and criteria

The exam includes: a written test, an oral exam (for all) and a group test (for attending students)
A) group test: consists in the planning of a psychosocial intervention that will be presented and discussed in the classroom (replaced by additional readings for non-attending students). This assessment is aimed at assessing the ability to apply the knowledge learned to the design and evaluation of psychosocial interventions, as well as the communication skills and will be expressed in thirtieths (weight of the evaluation = 20%).
B) a written exam consisting of multiple choice questions. The writing is aimed at ascertaining the theoretical knowledge, it will be evaluated in thirtieths and will have a weight on the final evaluation evaluation of 30%. The student who does not get at least 18/30 cannot access the oral exam.
C) Through the oral examination (weight of the evaluation 50%; 70% for non-attending students), the following competences will be assessed the ability: a) to understand and deal with questions posed by postmodern society with autonomy and critical sense; b) to communicate clearly and to discuss critically the arguments addressed; c) to apply the skills learned to the reality and work of the psychologist.
The oral exam foresees at least three questions on different topics of the course, in which the following aspects will be evaluated: a) the knowledge , i.e., how much the student deals with the topics in detail; b) the expositive and argumentative competences, i.e., how precise is the language used to expose the concepts and how coherent and logical is the concatenation of the concepts presented; c) the degree of autonomy achieved and the critical competences acquired, i.e., how much the student is able to apply the concepts and theories learned to reality and how much he/she is able to reflect in a cyclical way on the questions posed.
The final grade will be given by the weighted average of the points obtained in each of the criteria indicated above.

Other information

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