Bridging Social Psychology

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/P_MBRIDGI

Course Objective

The central goal of this course is threefold. First, the course provides a comprehensive overview of the various views regarding the benefits of bridging social psychology. Second, the course addresses various theoretical issues and societal problems that call for transdisciplinary approaches. Third, the course focuses on theoretical and analytical skills, using assignments in which students write theoretical reviews on an “timely” topic advancing strong (theoretical) analysis and resulting in inspiring and novel take-home messages for the scientist -
- and ideally for society as well. The course also includes an exchange about career development.

Course Content

Social psychology may be regarded as the science of social phenomena, and as such is meaningfully linked to several other fields of psychology and disciplines beyond psychology. Given its breadth and location within the scientific landscape, the potential of social psychology to bridge with other fields and disciplines is increasingly recognized. Such bridging may bring about theoretical benefits (e.g., contributing to an overarching theory), including methodological benefits (e.g., contributing to convergent measurement), and societal benefits (e. g., contributing to knowledge that helps us understand and potentially solve a societal problem). The central goal of this course is threefold. First, the course provides a comprehensive overview of the various views regarding the benefits of bridging social psychology. Second, the course addresses various theoretical issues and societal problems that call for transdisciplinary approaches. Third, the course focuses on theoretical and analytical skills, using assignments in which students write theoretical reviews on an “timely” topic advancing strong (theoretical) analysis and resulting in inspiring and novel take-home messages for the scientist -
- and ideally for society as well. The course also includes an exchange on career development within (social) psychology and behavioural science. There are more and more journals in Psychology and other disciplines that focus on theoretical or empirical reviews, such as Current Directions in Psychological Science, Current Opinion in Psychology, Perspectives on Psychological Science, or Social and Personality Psychology Compass. The goal is to write such an article. Examples of topics are aggression, helping, volunteering, suicide, empathy, fairness, trust, revenge, forgiveness, religion, individualism in society, hate, hostility, extremism, radicalization, refugee support, functions of sport, self-correction in groups, psychology of crises, or any topic that is bound to be interesting to a broader audience – or simply, the interested, scientifically oriented layperson.

Teaching Methods

We have four-hour sessions which are mandatory. Each session has a specific focus, such as benefits of transdisciplinary approaches, how to reason and write essays, career advice, and preparation for the future. Some of the sessions will include guest speakers from ministries, consultancy, academia within or beyond the Netherlands.

Method of Assessment

Essays and presentations

Literature

- Various articles.