Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Fundamentals of Social Psychology Syllabus - Mumbai University 2026
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Syllabus for Fundamentals of Social Psychology
Practise with the Semester 4 past papers. They are from the old syllabus, so check each topic against this one.
Module 1: Social Psychology and Its Cognitive Foundation
- a Social Psychology: What it is and is not?
- b Social Cognition
- i Heuristics: How we employ simple rules in social Cognition
- ii Schemas: Mental framework for organizing social information Potential Sources of Errors in Social Cognition: Why total rationality is rarer than you think
- c Social Perception
- i Attribution: Understanding the causes of behaviour
- ii Impression Formation and Management: Combining information about others
Module 2: Attitude, Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination
- a Attitude -
- i How attitude develops?
- ii When and why do attitude influence behaviour?
- iii Science of Persuasion: How attitudes are changed?
- iv Cognitive Dissonance: What is it? How do we manage it?
- b Stereotypes: The Nature and the origins of stereotyping
- c Prejudice & Discrimination:
- i Feelings towards social groups and techniques for countering the effects of prejudice.
- ii Discrimination- Prejudice in action.
Module 3: Social Dynamics in Interpersonal Relationships
- A Prosocial Behavior- Why people help? Motives for prosocial behaviour Responding to an Emergency – will bystander help?
- B Aggression- Perspectives on Aggression: In search of roots of violence Causes of Human Aggression: Social, cultural, personal and situational
- C Prevention and Control of Aggression: Some Useful Techniques
Module 4: Group Processes and Social Influence
- A Groups and Individuals- Groups: When we join and when we leave Effects of Presence of Others from Task Performance to Behaviour in Crowds
- B Decision Making by Groups: How it occurs and the pitfalls it faces -
- C Social Influence - Conformity: How groups and norms influence our behaviour Compliance: To ask – sometimes – is to receive Obedience to Authority – Would you harm someone if ordered to do so?
Text Books
- 1 Branscombe, N. R. & Baron, R. A., Adapted by Preeti Kapur (2017). Social Psychology, (14th Ed.). New Delhi: Pearson Education; Indian reprint.
- 2 Myers, D. G. (2013). Social psychology (11th ed.). NY: McGraw Hill Education.