Course Syllabus

The Social Brain - The Neuropsychology of Social Behaviors

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Image result for social brain

Semester & Location:

Fall 2017 - DIS Copenhagen

Type & Credits:

Elective Course - 3 credits

Major Disciplines:

Neuroscience and psychology

Faculty Members:

Lone Vesterager Martinus

Program Director:

Carla Caetano - cca@dis.dk 

Program Assistant: Collin Shampine - cas@dis.dk 
Time & Place:

Tuesdays, 14.50-17.45

V10-A32


Description of Course

Prerequisites: One semester of neuroscience, physiological psychology, or biological psychology at university level.

Human beings are inherently social creatures, yet relatively little attention has been paid to social influences on the brain. The primary goal of this course will be to begin to explore social influences on the nervous system, including the neural basis of social interaction, and the neural basis of beliefs about our social world.  Contributions from social psychology and social neuroscience will be addressed and emphasis will be placed on analysis of primary literature investigating social, environmental, and cultural influences on human brain processes.  

Topics include: Evolution of the ‘social’ brain, the relationship of emotions, cognition and social behavior, theory of mind, the role of empathy and the social self.

Learning Objectives

  • To distinguish between the foci of social psychology and social neuroscience, as well as to understand how the disciplines complement and differ from each other

  • To learn how to analytically address topics within these fields in both written and verbal formats

  • To critically evaluate research within social neuroscience and consider applications in other contexts

Faculty

Instructor:

Lone Vesterager Martinus

M.A., Clinical Psychology (University of Aarhus, 1993). Licensed clinical psychologist (1996). Has worked as a psychologist and neuropsychologist both in private practice and rehabilitation centers (1993-2009). Head of educational and teaching department, Center for Rehabilitation of Brain Injury (University of Copenhagen, 2009 - present). External Lecturer, Institute of Nordic Studies and Linguistics and Department of Psychology (University of Copenhagen, 2010 - present). Guest lecturer at DIS 2000-2012. With DIS since 2012.

Email: lone.vesterager@cfh.ku.dk

Readings

Required Textbook (Available in DIS Library):

As this course draws on both social psychology and social neuroscience, materials will be provided from both disciplines:

  • Social Psychology Textbook: Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (Eds.). (2012). Introduction to Social Psychology: A European Perspective (5th ed.). London: Blackwell.

  • Social Neuroscience Textbook: Ward (2012): The Students Guide to Neuroscience. Hove: Psychology Press

 Required Articles and Other Media on Canvas:

  • Journal Articles: Journal articles are on Canvas for each class.

  • Additional material will be added to Canvas during the semester if needed.

Reading List 

  • Bartels and Zeki (2004): The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. Neuroimage 21(3): pp. 1155-1166

  • Carter, E. J. and Pelphrey, K. A. (2008): Friend or for? Brain systems involved in the perception of dynamic signals og menacing and friendly social approaches. Social Neuroscience 3(2): pp. 151-163

  • Chiao et al. (2010): Dynamic cultural influences on neural representations of the self. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(1): pp. 1–11

  • Dovidio, J. et al. (2008): Social Psychology and Neuroscience: Strange Bedfellows or a Healthy Marriage? Group Processes Intergroup Relations 11: pp. 247-263

  • Edelson, M. et al. (2011): Following the crowd: brain substrates of long-term memory conformity. Science, 1(333): pp. 108-111

  • Harenski et al. (2008): Gender differences in neural mechanisms underlying moral sensitivity. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neuroscience, 3(4): pp 313-321

  • Harris, L.T. and Fiske, S.T. (2006): Dehumanizing the lowest of the low:

  • Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (Eds.). (5th edition, 2012). Introduction to Social Psychology: A European Perspective (4th ed.). London: Blackwell.

  • Keltner, D. and Haidt, J. (1999): Social functions of emotions at four levels of analysis

  • Neuroimaging responses to extreme outgroups. Volume 17(10): pp. 847-853

  • Schulte-Ruther et al. (2008): Gender differences in brain networks supporting empathy. Neuroimage, 42: pp. 393-403

  • Vogeley, K. and Fink, G. R. (2003): Neural correlates of the first-person-perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7: pp. 38-42

Field Studies

Field studies serve to complement your course work by placing you in other contexts than class in order to compare, extend and rethink what has been (or will be) read and discussed in class.

Wednesday, October 18th 13.00-17.00

We are going to investigate the tension between empathy and obedience by watching the 2015-movie “Experimenter” - a biopic about the strong-willed social psychologist Stanley Milgram and his controversial “Obedience to Authority”-experiments in 1961, that tested the willingness of ordinary humans to obey an authority figure while administering electric shocks to strangers.

 

Wednesday, December 6th 8.30-12.30

Your primary presentation group needs to investigate the reasons for people turning evil, e.g. being able to torture, mutilate and – ultimately – murder other human beings. Your findings will be counterbalanced by your parallel investigation of the altruistic nature of man. Your observations will be presented as a collage to your professor and your fellow students in the following class.

 

Guest Lecturers

Klaus Nielsen, M.A., Philosophy, Ph.D Candidate

Tuesday, October 17th

  • The social and neuroscience perspectives on empathy and Theory of Mind

 

Approach to Teaching

This course will be a combination of lectures, discussions, “hands-on”-experiences - and small surprises in order to keep the neurons firing throughout the duration of this afternoon class J

As such, the classes are also very much dialogue-oriented and will focus on student participation in various forms.

 

Expectations of the Students

  • Reading must be done prior to the class session

  • Since class participation is a major component of the course, you will need to be present and participating to receive full credit.

  • Classroom etiquettes include being respectful of one anothers opinions, listen to others and enter a dialogue in a constructive manner

 

Evaluation

What work will they be doing in the class, and how will you evaluate it?  What will you value in their work? What are your expectations of their work?  What will be rewarded, and what will not be rewarded? This leads to the grading breakdown.

Grading

Assignment

Percent

Attendance and participation

15%

Primary group presentation

15%

Field studies

10%

Midterm examination

15%

Individual paper

20%

Final examination

25%

Total

100%

To be eligible for a passing grade in this class you must complete all of the assigned work.

 

Attendance and participation (15%):

Since class participation is a major component of the course, you will need to be present and participating to receive full credit.

Class participation is to be understood as:

  • critically evaluating the model/hypotheses suggested in readings
  • asking relevant questions that show understanding of the material – with tentative considerations/conclusions
  • being prepared for class and be ready to answer questions when asked
  • discussing implications as regards practical application and/or future research considerations
  • preparing and asking relevant questions pertaining to the presentation of articles by primary groups (see Primary Group Presentation below)

 

Discussion questions:

Each group of students not presenting must write out one discussion question/topic for each reading. This must be posted on forum no later than 7pm the night before class. Late submissions will result in grade deduction. Each group must have a tentative answer ready for the question posed for class, based on readings/reflective considerations.

 

Primary group presentation (15%):

See Canvas for grading matrix

Groups of approx. 4-5 students will be presenting a paper in class (10 min.), after which there will be a 10 min. discussion with the rest of the class, answering prepared questions (see Discussion Questions below)

Contents:

  • Introduction of the key issues of the paper
  • Method employed to investigate issue/-s
  • Identification and discussion of the key findings from the study
  • Critique of methods and potentially of the findings
  • Implications of findings as pertaining to research, practical applications etc.

 

Field Study (10%):

Due: Wednesday, October 18th 13.00-17.00

We are going to investigate the tension between empathy and obedience by watching the 2015-movie “Experimenter” - a biopic about the strong-willed social psychologist Stanley Milgram and his controversial “Obedience to Authority”-experiments in 1961, that tested the willingness of ordinary humans to obey an authority figure while administering electric chocks to strangers.

 

Due: Wednesday, December 6th 8.30-12.30

Your primary presentation group needs to investigate the reasons for people turning evil, e.g. being able to torture, mutilate and – ultimately – murder other human beings. Your findings will be counterbalanced by your parallel investigation of the altruistic nature of man. Your observations will be presented as a collage to your professor and your fellow students in the following class.

 

Midterm Exam (15%):

Tuesday, October 17th

Multiple choice and short answers based on class readings and discussions. One essay question.

 

Individual Paper (20%):

Sunday, November 12th

5 pages excluding title page and reference; all in APA-style

  • Introduction: contextualize the topic/selected issue from the syllabus that you would like to explore and your reason for doing so. Present issues as a question or questions you would like to answer
  • Summary of article (1 page max.): include (a) introduction of the key issues from the article, (b) method employed to investigate issue/s, (c) identification and discussion of key findings from the study (d) critique of method, findings and (e) implications of findings (research, practical application)
  • Research: (a) refer to a minimum of 2 articles: 1 article of empirical research, and 1 article that can be research or theory based, (b) critically analyze these articles in relation to the topic in regards of similarities/differences/additional perspectives.
  • Conclusion: end the paper by considering whether your articles have (a) any relations to real life/clinical/current social issues, (b) any connections with other issues raised in class and (c) additional perspectives/synthesis of ideas etc.

 

Final Exam (25%):

Date: TBA

Multiple choice and short answer based on class readings, and discussions. One essay question.

Disability and Resource Statement  

Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the Office of Academic Support (acadsupp@dis.dk) to coordinate this.  In order to receive accommodations, students should inform the instructor of approved DIS accommodations within the first two weeks of classes.

Policies

Attendance

You are expected to attend all classes, guest lectures, workshops and field studies. If you must miss a class for religious holidays, medical reasons, or other valid reasons, you must let us know as far in advance as possible of the absence and obtain information about the work you must do to keep up in class. If you miss a class for any other reason (sudden illness, family emergency, etc.), you should get in touch with us as soon as possible and arrange to make up the work missed.

If you miss multiple classes the Director of Teaching and Learning, and the Director of Student Affairs will be notified and they will follow-up with you to make sure that all is well.  Absence will jeopardize your grade and your standing at DIS.  Allowances will be made in cases of illness, but in the case of multiple absences you will need to provide a doctor’s note.

Academic Honesty

DIS expects that students abide by the highest standards of intellectual honesty in all academic work. DIS assumes that all students do their own work and credit all work or thought taken from others. Academic dishonesty will result in a final course grade of “F” and can result in dismissal. The students’ home universities will be notified. DIS reserves the right to request that written student assignments be turned in electronic form for submission to plagiarism detection software. See the Academic Handbook for more information, or ask your instructor if you have questions.

Policy on late papers: There will be no extensions. Any exceptions must be accompanied by prior notification.

Policy for students who arrive late to class: Your grade will be deducted for unexcused absences and lack of participation.  Also, remember to be in class on time!

Policy for the use of laptops or phones in class: Laptops are not allowed to be open in the classroom unless agreed upon for specified tasks such as article reading and/or for discussion purposes.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due