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Social Neuroscience (994C8)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

Social Neuroscience is concerned with how people recognise, understand and interact with each other in social settings. It aims to understand these processes in terms of fundamental cognitive and neural mechanisms that reside in the brain that have been shaped by both individual experience and evolutionary history.

Topics covered include: the evolution of social intelligence and culture; neuroscience of emotion; recognising faces and bodies; empathy and simulation theories; 'mentalising' and autism; cooperation and altruism; self and identity; prejudice; anti-social behavior; neuroscience of morality; and the development of social behaviour. Although many of these concepts have been explored in detail by social psychology, the methods of cognitive neuroscience brings a fresh insight into these issues.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.