Social Psychology

This course will introduce you to the sociological study of social psychology. Sociological social psychology aims to understand how we as human beings make sense of ourselves, others, and the social world. There are several sociological perspectives on social psychology; we will focus primarily on symbolic interactionism. We will study a number of different aspects of social life, including perspective, reality, language and meaning, minds, selves and identities, interaction and social order, and broader conceptions of social behavior and relationships. The course should provide working answers to the following questions: 1. What is social psychology, from a sociological perspective? What is symbolic interactionism? Why are symbolic interactionists concerned with the psychology of people? 2. What methods do symbolic interactionists use to study the social world? 3. How do people construct an understanding of reality and the social world? 4. How do symbolic interactionists theorize the relationship between individuals and society? 5. How do symbolic interactionists explain social order, and in particular its negotiated qualities?