Course description

This course focuses on the nature, development, and impact of attitudes and beliefs on our emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. We will discuss a number of theories and findings concerning attitude formation and change, and consider the relevance and application of those findings to advertising and to political and religious beliefs.

Learning Outcome

• When you have completed this course you should be able to
  
• Identify persuasion attempts by individuals and organizations.
  
• Improve your ability to resist persuasion techniques.
  
• Understand how persuasion differs across subgroups (e.g. gender and cultures).
  
• Understand the relationship between behavior and attitudes.
  
• Utilize persuasion more effectively in your own day-to-day lives.
  
• Employ persuasion techniques to improve the effectiveness of campaigns
  

Course Content

• Introduction to Attitudes and Beliefs:
  
• The Function, Structure, and Measurement of Attitudes
  
• Basic Mechanisms of Attitude Formation
  
• Attitude Change: The Yale group and Persuasion
  
• Affective and Cognitive Mechanisms of Attitude Change
  
• Behavioral Approaches to Attitude Change
  
• Techniques and Psychological Mechanisms of Persuasion

Compulsory Reading Materials

• Gregory R. Maio& Geoffrey Haddock. The Psychology of Attitudes and Attitude Change, 2^nd Edition. Sage Publications, 2015.
  
• Perloff, R. (2010). The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the Twenty-First Century, 4th Edition (Routledge Communication Series). New York: Routledge Press. ISBN # 978-0-315-80568 or ISBN-0: 0415805686
  

Optional Reading Materials

• R. B. Day. Attitudes and Persuasion Handbook. McMaster Custom Courseware,2016
  
• Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and Practice (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Press.ISBN#0205609996 / 978-0205609994.
  
• American Psychological Association (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Ed.).Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN# 1433805618/ 978-1433805615
  

Course description

This course explores the many modes and modalities of social influence which social psychology has studied and developed concepts for. Modalities of social influence cover processes by which social groups and actors normalise, assimilate and accommodate private and public opinion, attitudes, social stereotypes, institute normative expectations and ways of life, and achieve recognition and social change. We will discuss the social psychological traditions such as rhetoric, crowd behaviour, public opinion, leadership, norms, opinion and attitude formation, majority and minority influence, resistance and obedience to authority, dual-processes of persuasion, mass media effect models; fait-accompli, inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity.

The course will discuss current ideas and models in comparison with canonical paradigms in order to assess 'real progress' of what often seems 'old wine in new bottles'. The course builds a theoretical integration of modalities of influence in the 'cycle of normativity and common sense' including the normalisation, assimilation and accommodation of social diversity (Sammut& Bauer, 2011). The moral ambiguity of social influence treads a fine line between promoting wellbeing and social recognition, and manipulating beliefs, opinion and attitudes.  This raises ethical issues involved in the study and exercise of social influence in the modern public spheres.

Course Content

• Introduction to the study of Persuasion
  
• Constitutes Persuasion
  
• Attitudes and Consistency
  
• Credibility
  
• Sequential persuasion
  
• Motivational Appeals
  
• Structuring and ordering messages
  
• Deception
  
• Conformity and group influence
  
• Esoteric Forms of Persuasion

Learning Outcome

• After completing this course, you will be able to:
  
• Describe & recognize key ideas and theories in the social influence literature
  
• Detect and analyze techniques of influence
  
• Apply these theories to a design problem
  
• Apply these theories to a management problem
  
• Exposure to some key differences between how economists and psychologists think about human behavior
  
• Exposure to experimental methods in psychology and economics

Compulsory Reading Materials

• Billig M (1987) Arguing and thinking – a rhetorical approach to social psychology, Cambridge, CUP;
  
•  Influence: Science and Practice(5thedition) by Robert Cialdini, PearsonEducationInc

Optional Reading Materials

• Gigerenzer G (2007) Gut feelings, New York: Viking;
  
• Habermas J (1989) The structural transformation of the public sphere, Cambridge, Polity Press;
  
• Kahnemann D (2011) Thinking, fast and slow; London: Penguin Books.
  
• Paicheler G (1988) The psychology of social influence, Cambridge, CUP;
  
• Pratkanis AR (2007) The Science of Social Influence, NY, Psychology Press;
  
• Sammut G and MW Bauer (2011)  Social influence: modes and  modalities, in: D W Hook, B Franks & M W Bauer (Eds) The Social Psychology of Communication, London, Palgrave, pp87 106

Course Description

Interpersonal relations constitute the cement of society. What does it mean to be a sibling, a friend, a spouse or a lover? Why do we make kin out of strangers? Every time two persons have a face-to-face interaction and adjust their behavior to one another, the result is a relationship. But how are Facebook, Twitter and other social networks changing the way we relate to each other? This course examines social relations from an cross-cultural perspective. We will explore social relations in the American and other cultures, how these relations contribute to the reproduction of society, and how they are being affected by contemporary social, cultural and technological changes.

 Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  
• Describe the basic characteristics of social relations and their significance for society and culture
  
• Describe the cultural variations in social relations
  
• Analyse the cultural assumptions about social relations
  

Course Content

• Course Introduction
  
• Gift Exchange: The Morality of Social Ties
  
• Kinship: The Basic Social Ties
  
•  Marriage
  
• Other Forms of Relatedness
  
• Fictive Kinship
  
• Friends and Acquaintances
  
• Love, Intimacy and Sex
  
• Sociality: Conviviality and Predation
  
• Patrons and Clients
  
• Gender and Social Relations
  
• Social Relations as Social Capital
  
• Social Relations, Social Media and Technology
  
• Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods: Fraternities, Sororities
  

Compulsory Reading Materials

• Andrew Keenan and Ali Shiri: Sociability and Social Interaction on Social Networking Websites. Library Review 58(6):438-450. 2009
  
•  Rachel A. Elphiston and Patricia Noller: Time to Face It! Facebook Intrusion and the Implications for Romantic Jealously and Relationship Satisfaction. Cyber psychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 14(11):631-635. 2011

Optional Reading Materials

• Robert D. Putnam: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster. 2000 (Ch. 3: Civic Participation).
  
• Mayfair Mei-hui Yang: Gifts, Favors and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press. 1994 (Ch. 3: The “Art” in Guanxixue: Ethics, Tactics, and Etiquette)