Psychology In Action

Course Coordinator and Team: Gangmumei Kamei

Email of course coordinator: gangmumei[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim:

The main aim of this course is to understand the application of Psychology in our day to day life. The course will benefit students both with the major in Psychology as well as those from other courses. Since this course is applied based course, students will be exposed to the applications of Psychology in our daily life in many spheres such as sports, arts, law and governance, mass media etc. Literates will be drawn from different text books as well as from current issues published in magazines, newspapers, journals etc. This course will be taught by a single faculty and at times experts in specialized fields related to the course would be invited to make the students understand the deeper aspects of the subject.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Psychology In Action is an applied based course in which the theoretical concepts of psychology are put into action in different areas in which almost all of us encounter everyday. This course focuses mainly on the contemporary issues which make us think and apply our understanding of psychology in various fields. It gives an opportunity for the students to appreciate the application part of the textual knowledge already learnt in the classroom to the virtual world. It also aims to slowly shift from the traditional notion of “what” to “why and how” aspect so that the functional part could spark more interesting ideas and debates which would lead to the development of further research in psychology or other related fields. It will be mandatory for all students to take up a small project based on any one of the topic(s) mentioned in the course content so that they get the real feel of action part of psychology.

The contents of this course are:

Psychology and Mass Media: Role of psychologists in the era of advanced information technology and booming of mass media; impact of TV, internet and social media; entrepreneurship through e-commerce; distance learning through mass media; psychological consequences of mass media.

Psychology andHealth: Understanding the concept of health; role of psychologists in addressing health problems;importance of positive health and mental well being; factors influencing quality of life and happiness; stress and its impact on health; stress management; career opportunities in the area of health psychology.

Psychology and Terrorism: Concept and definition of Terrorism; root causes and impact of terrorism; terrorism in 21st century; understanding terrorist mind; psychological perspectives in understanding terrorism.

Psychology and Sports: Sports psychology and its concepts; role of sports psychologists; psychological interventions in improving performance of athletes and sports, individual and team excellence; approaches to the enhancement of athletic performance: barriers to athletic excellence; future directions in sports psychology.

Psychology and Education:Understanding education psychology; psychological principles underlying effective teaching-learning process; training for improving memory and better academic achievement; personality development and value education; use of psychological tests in educational institutions.

Psychology and Culture: Concepts and definitions of culture and cultural psychology; importance of culture and contributions to indigenous and cultural psychology; cross-cultural psychology; indigenous and traditional cultural practices; methods in understanding and doing research in culture.

Psychology and Environment: Environment, environmental pollution, biodiversity and ecological sustainability; psychological consequences of population explosion and high population density; impact of rapid scientific and technological growth on degradation of environment etc.

Psychology and Economic Development:Motivation and economic development; concept of entrepreneurship; characteristics of entrepreneurial behavior; promotion of youth and women in entrepreneurship; psychological impact of economic development.

Refererences:

Readings would be given to the students one week before the commencement of the class. Students would be given only a part/chapter for each module from selected book(s)/journal, magazine etc . Movie screening, video clips, audio recordings etc related to a particular module would be an ingredient part of the course. For reference, students might go through some of the books/journel given below.

• Bayne R. &Horton I. (2003). Applied Psychology: Current Issues and New Directions, Sage publications, First Edition
• Davey G. (2011). Applied Psychology,Wiley-Blackwell, First Edition
• Horgan J. (2005). The Psychology of Terrorism,Routledge Publication, First publication
• Mellalieu S.D. &Hanton S. (2010). Advances in Applied Sport Psychology: A Review, Routledge Publication, Second Edition
• Gyles D. (2008). Media Psychology,Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
• Kim U., Yang K.S.,&Hwang K.K. (2006). Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding people in context, Springer Publication
• Journal of Applied Psychology: Monthly publication by American Psychological Association (APA)

Tentative Assessment schedule with details of weightage