Psychology of Behavioural Change - PSY00055H

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Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

Why do people give to charity? How can we get people to recycle more? Among animal species humans are particularly social, cooperative, and helpful -- but individuals and societies can also find it difficult to change their behaviors in ways that benefit everyone. What kinds of social processes can lead individuals to change how they act? What processes can lead to behaviors staying the same within a society -- even if many people would rather things be different? In this course we will cover topics focusing on such processes. In groups, students will (1) apply these ideas to develop a proposal about how to change behavior in a real world context of their choice, (2) design an experiment to test this proposal, and (3) present this work.

Module learning outcomes

• Discuss different psychological theories of why behavioral change occurs.
• Comment on why behavioral change might not occur.
• Describe the social processes that can influence individuals’ behavior.
• Give an account of how these processes might lead to behavioral change in a real-world context.
• Propose an intervention to change a real world behaviour.

Module content

• Perceived Susceptibility to disease, and the Health Belief Model
• Perceived Barriers, Self-Efficacy, and Social Cognitive Theory
• Behavioural Intentions, and the Theory of Planned Behaviour
• Customs and Descriptive Norms
• Social Norms and Pluralistic Ignorance
• Laboratory studies of prosocial behaviour
• Real-world and natural experiments
• Intervention strategies for behaviour change

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

Marks will be available through e:vision

Indicative reading

To Be Confirmed