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The Social Psychology of Global Health

Module description

This module provides an opportunity to apply concepts from social psychology (and other fields) to health issues particularly prevalent in the ‘global south’. The module will focus on how social and structural forces impact on individuals’ health and wellbeing, and how people, individually and collectively may come together to resist and address these. While focused on social psychology, the module will draw on other fields of research including community psychology, sociology, and ‘global public health’. This module will draw heavily from research focused on the ‘global south’ but the concepts and ideas are applicable to community and social challenges everywhere.

Teaching will be a mixture of lectures, group work and individual work.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to enable you to apply your understandings of social psychology to real world challenges experienced by many people in the ‘global south’ in an area of work often termed ‘global public health’. Drawing on social psychological theories, as well as theories from other branches of psychology and ‘global public health’ we will apply these ideas to understand a range of health problems (e.g. HIV/AIDS, violence against women, poor mental health) and see how these tools and theories can help us understand the underlying causes of these health issues. In addition, we will apply theory to understand how individuals and groups can come together to address health issues, and the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. We will use a mixture of lectures, small group debates, and group work, to learn these skills. The module will be relevant to those of you who are thinking of applying psychology outside of formal clinical practice, focused on addressing community and social change or working internationally. 

Through attending the weekly seminars and completing the assessments, you will further develop the following academic and professional skills:

• Audience awareness (presenting ideas effectively in multiple formats and to different audiences, persuading others of the importance and relevance of your views, responding positively and effectively to questions)
• Problem solving (developing own ideas with confidence, identifying and using appropriate sources of information, selectively collecting and collating appropriate information)
• Managing structure (identifying key demands of the task, setting clearly defined goals, conceptualising central issues within the task, developing strategies to ensure individual and group progress)
• Time management (managing time effectively individually and within a group), and
• Collaboration (respecting the views and values of others, taking initiative and leading others, supporting others in their work, maintaining group cohesiveness and purpose).

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Describe how different social psychological theories can be applied to global health challenges
• 2. Describe how social psychological concepts and theories can be applied to understand processes of social change in interventions
• 3. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current examples of behaviour change programmes and provide theoretically informed suggestions about how these might be improved

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Acquire detailed, systematic and comprehensive knowledge within the discipline, with in-depth specialisation at the forefront of the discipline in certain areas, and demonstrate advanced critical understanding of this knowledge and of the limits and provisional nature of this knowledge
• 5. Address systematically complex problems at an advanced level which may be framed within unpredictable contexts, think critically, creatively and independently, and fully appreciate the complexities of the issues
• 6. Understand and apply essential principles in designing novel research, and critically evaluate and analyse empirical evidence, and assess the reliability of empirical evidence using a range of defined techniques at an advanced level

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Interact effectively and supportively within a learning group context
• 8. Manage your own learning using the full range of resources of the discipline and with minimum guidance
• 9. Engage effectively in debate in a professional manner and produce detailed and coherent written work
• 10. Communicate effectively to different audiences
• 11. Select and manage information, and to undertake competently study tasks with minimum guidance
• 12. Manage time effectively to meet deadlines

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, an example of an overall structure is as follows:

The syllabus will be split into two broad sections.

The first half will look at a range of health challenges experienced in the global south and how psychological concepts and theories can support our understanding of these. Health issues likely to be covered would include HIV/AIDS, violence against women and mental health.

The second half of the module will focus on understanding interventions to address poor health, their evaluation and how and why they may work (or not).

While drawing on social psychology, the module will also bring in theories and concepts from other areas of work, including critical social psychology and community and liberation psychology, as well as from the field, termed ‘global public health’.  

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Two assessments are required for this module. Where you have been referred/deferred in the examination you will have the opportunity to take a second examination in the August/September re-assessment period. Where you have been referred/deferred in the essay you will be required to resubmit the essay. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%; deferred marks are not capped.

Please refer to the TQA section on Referral/Deferral: https://as.exeter.ac.uk/academic-policy-standards/tqa-manual/aph/consequenceoffailure/

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Gibbs et al (2021) Stepping Stones and Creating Futures: A group?based approach to addressing violence against women through working with men. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 78(1) 26-37: https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23293
• Campbell, C. & Jovchelovitch (2001) Health, Community and Development: towards a social psychology of participation. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 10(4), 255-270. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1099-1298(200007/08)10:4%3C255::AID-CASP582%3E3.0.CO;2-M

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Nil

Key words search

international health; participation; community development; social change