Kommentar |
Instructor: Aleksandra Swiderska, PhD, Department of Psychology, Warsaw University, Poland
Seminar description:
How do people make sense of themselves? And how do they make sense of others? These are the main questions that social cognition seeks answers to. In broad terms, social cognition is an approach to the study of social phenomena by the exploration of their cognitive foundations. It focuses on mental processes involved in perception, encoding and memory, and evaluation of social stimuli; the influences of both internal and external factors on mental processes; and finally, on the behavioral manifestations of these processes in the surrounding world. Throughout the seminar, we will adopt the social cognitive perspective to investigate a range of topics, for example knowledge of the self, person perception, including the perception of faces and minds behind them, attitudes and attitude change, judgment and decision making, the role of language, neural basis of social cognition, the role of consciousness, stereotyping and prejudice, and cultural differences.
Requirements:
- Attendance is mandatory. No more than two unexcused absences are allowed (that is, you can miss a maximum of two sessions of 1,5 hours).
- Active participation in class activities is mandatory.
- The main seminar assignment is to prepare and present a research plan on a chosen topic (related to social cognition). We will work on the projects together in class. More details will follow during the first meeting.
If you have any questions, please contact me at aleksandra.swiderska@psych.uw.edu.pl |