Social Interaction - PSY00046H

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  • Department: Psychology
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

Social interactions are central to everyday life. We use them to learn, discuss ideas, collaborate, address conflict and cultivate relationships. But understanding their interdependent and dynamic nature presents a considerable challenge to psychology and neuroscience. This module explores this challenge in detail, examining how cognition, affect, physiology and behavior unfold during face-to-face interactions.

Module learning outcomes

  • Describe methods for assessing subjective experience, physiology and behavior during social interactions.
  • Provide examples of ways in which social cognition during an interaction differs from “offline” processing of social stimuli.
  • Discuss the role of interpersonal distance, interpersonal touch and chemosignaling during face-to-face interactions.
  • Describe emotional and stress contagion.
  • Discuss factors that influence performance and decision-making within groups.
  • Discuss important findings regarding behavioural and physiological synchrony.

Module content

  • Nonverbal communication
  • Mental state inferences
  • Physiological and behavioral synchrony
  • Group performance and decision-making
  • Intergroup relations

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled) 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled) 100

Module feedback

The marks on all assessed work will be provided on e-vision.

These marks will be accompanied by module feedback forms which will be circulated by e-mail.

Students will meet supervisors in wk 6 in AuT, SpT and wk 9 in SuT to discuss their marks.

Indicative reading

Sample Reading:

De Jaegher, H., Di Paolo, E., & Gallagher, S. (2010). Can social interaction constitute social cognition? Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(10), 441-447.

McCall, C. (2016). Mapping Social Interactions: The Science of Proxemics. In M. Wöhr Sören Krach (Eds.), Social Behavior from Rodents to Humans: Neural Foundations and Clinical Implications. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.

Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Reddy, V., Costall, A., Bente, G., Schlicht, T., & Vogeley, K. (2013). Toward a second-person neuroscience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(04), 393-414.

Woolley, A. W., Aggarwal, I., & Malone, T. W. (2015). Collective Intelligence and Group Performance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(6), 420-424.