Undergraduate Course: Emotions: social and neuroscience perspectives (PSYL10185)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | What are the functions of emotions? This course will provide students with a comprehensive survey of recent psychological and neuroscientific research related to the evolved social functionality of emotions. |
| Course description |
This course will provide students with an understanding of social and neuroscience perspectives on emotions and their functions. The module will introduce students to: the social functions of the emotions; evolutionary approaches to emotion; the expression and communication of emotions; the influence of culture on emotion; the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of social neuroscience; the ways in which brain imaging and patient-based neuropsychological studies can inform knowledge of the functions of emotion and theories of emotion; the neuroscience of basic emotions and emotion communication and understanding; the neuroscience of social emotions; the neuroscience of close interpersonal relationships.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should be studying Psychology as their degree major, and have completed at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
**Please note that upper level Psychology courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces.** These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Mid-term SAQs (take home paper): 30% - 4 x 250-word SAQs
Final (take-home paper): 70% - 4 x 250-word SAQs, 1 x 1,000-word integrative essay
All assessments will be take-home papers. |
| Feedback |
1. In class feedback exercises (e.g. quizzes) will be used to check understanding.
2. Opportunity to raise questions with Prof Lawrence during weekly in-class Q&A/discussion periods, as well as through online discussion board and office hours.
3. Students will take part in seminars, in which they are all expected to read key readings and engage in critical discussion about them. The students will receive oral feedback during the seminars (and everyone should benefit from this feedback)
4. A mid-course take-home paper (short answer questions) will give students formative and summative feedback on core knowledge |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of social and cultural perspectives on emotion.
- Demonstrate understanding of neuroscientific perspectives on emotion.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the benefits associated with a multi-level analysis of emotion processes.
- Critically analyse and evaluate research methods and findings from social, cultural and neuroscientific perspectives on emotion.
- Communicate clearly and concisely about theories, findings and methodological and conceptual issues related to emotion science.
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Reading List
Students on the course will primarily engage with the topics through reading the primary research literature. Indicative readings are provided below.
Adolphs, R. (2010). Emotion. Current Biology, 20, R549-R552.
Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (1999). Social functions of emotions at multiple levels of analysis. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 505-522.
Keltner, D., Sauter, D., Tracy, J., & Cowen, A. (2019). Emotional expression: Advances in basic emotion theory. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 43, 133-160.
Lindquist, K. A. (2013). Emotions emerge from more basic psychological ingredients: A modern psychological constructionist model. Emotion Review, 5, 356-368.
Mesquita, B., Boiger, M., & De Leersnyder, J. (2016). The cultural construction of emotions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 8, 31-36. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will encourage students to critically evaluate current theory and research in emotion science and its real-world application (research and inquiry; personal and intellectual autonomy); and to effectively communicate their knowledge and understanding of key issues in emotion science (communication) |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Andrew Lawrence
Tel:
Email: Andrew.D.Lawrence@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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