Psychology   

Since its very inception, television has been a controversial medium. While it provides news, educational opportunities, entertainment, and fosters social connections, it has also been blamed for sedentary lifestyles, reduced attention spans, consumerism, and promoting violence. In this course we’ll explore the influence that television has had using theories and research from the fields of Social Psychology and Media Studies. We’ll consider how the medium has both affected and reflected societal trends by examining TV programming across the decades and will focus on its effects on our attitudes, behavior, and psychological well-being. 

Social Psychology is the scientific study of how our attitudes, emotions, and behavior can be influenced by the presence of others. In this introduction to the field, we’ll focus on topics like the importance of social norms that govern much of our behavior and interesting cross-cultural differences in those norms. We’ll also discuss how attitudes are formed and learn about various persuasion tactics used by advertising and sales professionals. Finally, we’ll cover classic topics from social psychology such as conformity, obedience to authority, interpersonal attraction, aggression, and pro-social behavior.

A significant percentage of the world’s population lives with the threats posed by various natural hazards. In this course we’ll explore the causes and effects of natural events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, and the places most likely to experience them. We’ll also look at reasons why people choose to live in risky places and some of the factors that affect their perceptions of risk and their likelihood of preparing for potential disasters. Finally, we’ll address some of the social and psychological reactions of disaster victims and factors that can help in recovering from such traumatic events.