Bridging Social Psychology

2023-2024

General Information

Course Code P_MBRIDGI
Credits 6 EC
Period P1
Course Level 500
Language of Tuition English
Faculty Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sc.
Course Coordinator prof. dr. P.A.M. van Lange
Examiner prof. dr. P.A.M. van Lange
Teaching Staff prof. dr. P.A.M. van Lange
Part of programme(s)

Practical Information

You need to register for this course yourself. The (de)registration deadlines can be found on VU.nl

The maximum number of students for this course is 30.

Teaching Methods Lecture

Course Objective

The central goal of this course is threefold. First, the course provides a comprehensive overview of the various views regarding the benefits of bridging social psychology. Second, the course addresses various theoretical issues and societal problems that call for transdisciplinary approaches. Third, the course focuses on theoretical and

analytical skills, using assignments in which students write theoretical reviews on an “timely” topic advancing strong (theoretical) analysis and resulting in inspiring and novel take-home messages for the scientist -- and ideally for society as well. The course also

includes an exchange about career development.

Course Content

Social psychology may be regarded as the science of social phenomena, and as such is meaningfully linked to several other fields of psychology and disciplines beyond psychology. Given its breadth and location within the scientific landscape, the potential of social psychology to bridge with other fields and disciplines is increasingly

recognized. Such bridging may bring about theoretical benefits (e.g., contributing to an overarching theory), including methodological benefits (e.g., contributing to convergent measurement), and societal benefits (e. g., contributing to knowledge that helps us understand and potentially solve a societal problem).


The central goal of this course is threefold. First, the course provides a comprehensive overview of the various views regarding the benefits of bridging social psychology.

Second, the course addresses various theoretical issues and societal problems that call for transdisciplinary approaches. Third, the course focuses on theoretical and analytical skills, using assignments in which students write theoretical reviews on an “timely”

topic advancing strong (theoretical) analysis and resulting in inspiring and novel take-home messages for the scientist -- and ideally for society as well. The course also includes an exchange on career development within (social) psychology and behavioural science.


There are more and more journals in Psychology and other disciplines that focus on

theoretical or empirical reviews, such as Current Directions in Psychological Science, Current Opinion in Psychology, Perspectives on Psychological Science, or Social and Personality Psychology Compass. The goal is to write such an article. Examples of topics are aggression, helping, volunteering, suicide, empathy, fairness, trust, revenge,

forgiveness, religion, individualism in society, hate, hostility, extremism, radicalization, refugee support, functions of sport, or any topic that is bound to be interesting to a broader audience – or simply, the interested, scientifically oriented layperson.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

group assignment
lecture
literature survey
Lectures and tutorials

Method of Assessment

Essays and assignments

Literature

- Various articles.