Psychology (PSYC) 340

Overview

Applied social psychology combines the science of social psychology with the practical application of solving problems in the real world. Applied social psychologists focus on social problems, such as violence, discrimination, stress, work satisfaction, the justice system, education, the environment, the health care industry, the welfare system, and the mass media.

Objectives

Upon completion of PSYC 340, students should be able to:

• Delineate clearly the difference between mainstream social psychology and applied social psychology. In doing so, they should be able to define applied social psychology, recognize the difficulties inherent in the application of applied social psychology, and recognize areas that are applicable to investigation through the paradigm of applied social psychology.
• Describe the research methods used by applied social psychologists to investigate specific social problems.
• Develop a clear understanding of the social problems noted in Part 2 of the course, including family violence, forensics, youth violence and suicide, substance abuse, stress and job satisfaction, and media issues. You should be able to comment on the problems and suggest possible solutions to them.
• Demonstrate the skills necessary to prepare a proposal for effecting social change. You must be able to collect relevant data, analyse it, and then use this data in support of your proposal for social change.

Outline

Part 1: Introduction to Applied Social Psychology

Unit 1: Background and Theories

Unit 2: Research Techniques in Applied Social Psychology

Part 2: The Application of Applied Social Psychology

Unit 3: Youth and Educational Settings

Unit 4: Job Satisfaction and Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Unit 5: Substance Abuse

Unit 6: Psychology and the Law

Unit 7: Family Violence

Unit 8: Diversity Issues: Gender and Ethnicity

Unit 9: The Effects of Media

Unit 10: The Effects of Advertisements

Part 3: The Achievement of Social Change

Unit 11: Policy and Social Activism

Evaluation

To receive credit for PSYC 340, you must complete all of the assignments, achieve a grade of at least 50 per cent on the course project and a composite course grade of at least "D" (50 per cent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Quiz	Assignments 1 and 2 are 15% each. Assignment 3 is 10%	Course Project	Total
5%	40%	55%	100%

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.