What Will I Learn?

• Understand research in psychology
• See social influences on everyday behaviors
• Develop greater understanding of other people
• Implement psychological research to meet one's own goals
• Perform better in a social psychology class

Requirements

• A willingness to learn and apply research in psychology to your own everyday life.

Description

This course serves as a quick introduction to the fundamentals of social psychology. In this introductory course, you'll learn about three major areas of psychology:

1. Accessibility and Priming: How is the mind organized and how can our brains trick us into perceiving the world in biased ways? We cover the notion of a schema and look at several studies on the power of priming.

2. Heuristics and Biases: What are the shortcuts that are brain takes? Whenever we make a decision or form a judgment, we like to think we're being careful and rational, but our minds want quick answers. Sometimes, these shortcuts can lead us astray.

3. Attribution: When we see other people, we often wonder why they do the things they do. Are they responsible for their choices or do we think that they're subject to environmental pressures? Attribution theories try to make sense of it.

Who is the target audience?

• Salespeople, teachers, customer service representatives...if you work with people, an understanding of psychology is essential.
• If you are currently taking a class in social psychology, this course could help you do better by providing a secondary instructor with an engaging teaching style.
• Anyone who is interested in people and power of social situations should take this course to better understand their social world.