Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/Albright College/Psy406: Senior Seminar in Psychology (Fall 2013)/Course description
Senior Seminar in Psychology: Current Topics in Social Psychology
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In this seminar, readings and discussions will focus on current theories and research in the field of social psychology. Rather than offering a comprehensive overview of the field, this course will focus on exciting developments that have taken place in the field over the last decade. We will study social processes, such as self-esteem, biases in our thinking, and intergroup relations.
Psychological research doesn’t just exist within the walls of academia. It is frequently cited in the mass media, where both good and bad information can be found. In this course we will read work (mostly scholarly work) written by social psychologists, but we will also occasionally read reports in the popular media. For laypeople, another major source of information on psychology is Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. The quality and accuracy of Wikipedia entries depends on those who devote their time to editing the entries. Our class will take part in the Association for Psychological Science’s “Wikipedia Initiative” whose mission is “to deploy the power of Wikipedia to represent scientific psychology as fully and as accurately as possible and thereby to promote the free teaching of psychology worldwide.” Instead of writing a traditional research paper, students will create a scholarly Wikipedia entry on a topic in social psychology.
Students, please refer to the complete course syllabus for a list of readings and detailed descriptions of course assignments, policies and due dates.