Entry requirements
Only open to master’s students in Psychology with specialisation Social and Organisational Psychology.
Description
The psychology of intergroup relations, the psychology of ‘us versus them’, is a cornerstone of social psychology, and finds important applications both within social psychology (e.g., improving interethnic relations) and organisational psychology (e.g., mergers).
In this course, we will review state-of-the-art developments in theory and research on intergroup relations, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. By reading ‘classic’ papers on these topics, as well as studying recent publications, students will gain advanced knowledge of a range of theoretical perspectives, including interdependence, social identity, self-categorization and socio-cognitive theories.
By means of debate assignments, students will learn to look from different theoretical perspectives at a single problem, and will practice the oral presentation of their views. By means of review assignments, students will learn to develop a critical look on available scientific knowledge. By means of policy recommendation assignments students will learn to apply theory on inter-group relations to practical problems, and to “pitch” their solution to the problem. The course is concluded with an exam.
This course will be offered twice during the academic year.
Course objectives
Upon completion of the course, students will have:
Learned about the diverse perspectives on intergroup relations;
Developed a critical look on theory and research on inter-group relations; and
Developed and “pitched” applications of theory on intergroup relations to tackle specific societal problems.
Timetable
For the timetable of this course please refer to MyTimetable
Registration
Education
Students must register themselves for all course components (lectures, tutorials and practicals) they wish to follow. You can register up to 5 days prior to the start of the course.
Exams
You must register for each exam in My Studymap at least 10 days before the exam date. You cannot take an exam without a valid registration in My Studymap. Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.
Exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure.
Mode of instruction
5 three-hour seminars
Attendance at the seminar meetings is mandatory. See Brightspace for more information.
Assessment method
The final grade is based on:
Rated oral presentations and written assignments (debate, reviews, policy recommendations; 50%),
An written exam comprising multiple-choice questions and one essay question (50%) about the central readings that are discussed in class as part of the debate, review, and policy-recommendation assignments (but excluding the additional readings for the debate assignment)
You will be informed about the method of inspection and feedback of the examination via Brightspace in due course.
The Institute of Psychology follows the policy of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to systematically check student papers for plagiarism with the help of software. All students are required to take and pass the Scientific Integrity Test with a score of 100% in order to learn about the practice of integrity in scientific writing. Students are given access to the quiz via a module on Brightspace. Disciplinary measures will be taken when fraud is detected. Students are expected to be familiar with and understand the implications of this fraud policy.
Reading list
The literature for this course will consist of a series of about 15 chapters and research articles (covering both the “classics” and more recent developments), e.g.:
Sherif, M. (1956). Experiments in group conflict. Scientific American, 195, 54-58.
Scheepers, D., & Ellemers, N. (2019). Social identity theory. In K. Sassenberg and M. Vliek (Eds.), Social psychology in action: Evidence‐based interventions from theory to practice (pp. 129-143). New York: Springer.
Gaertner, S. L., Dovidio, J. F., & Bachman, B. (1996). Revisiting the contact hypothesis: The induction of a common ingroup identity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 271-290.
Giessner, S. R., Ullrich, J., & van Dick, R. (2012). A social identity analysis of mergers and acquisitions. In D. Faulkner, S. Teerikangas, and R. J. Joseph (Eds.), The Handbook of Mergers and Acquisitions. Oxford University Press.
Major, B., & Eliezer, D. (2010). Attributions to discrimination as a self-protective strategy: Evaluating the evidence. In C. Sedikides and M. Alicke (Eds.) Handbook of self-enhancement and self-protection (pp 320-337). New York: Guilford.
Word, C. O., Zanna, M. P., & Cooper, J., (1974). The nonverbal mediation of self-fulfilling prophecies in interracial interaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 109–120.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5–18.
Contact information
Dr. Daan Scheepers scheepersdt@fsw.leidenuniv.nl