PSYC362

Description

Section information text: This capstone seminar provides students with an overview of theoretical perspectives on stigmatization and its connection to important social issues. This course also focuses on communicating psychological research on stigma to broader audiences via student development of podcast (digital audio) episodes. The course begins with a review and discussion of perspectives on the origin and function of stigma. Each week, we will consider a different social issue (e.g., obesity, substance use, mental illness, racial equality, and others) and discuss how stigma research informs these issues. Throughout the semester, students will listen to relevant podcasts on these issues and identify strategies for developing a 'PSYcast' episode, which are student-led podcast episodes that discuss a social issue from a psychological lens using stigma research. Students will be encouraged to grapple with challenging topics through discourse and experiential activities. Graduate students will not complete a podcast at the end of the semester, rather, they will complete a weekly response reading for the week as outlined by bullet point 3 in the course requirements. Graduate students will also be responsible for listening to student submitted audio clips and determining on a yes/no basis if the audio clips adequately capture the key findings of the weekly readings. The final product for graduate students will be a 15-20 page review paper or a 15-20 page research proposal on a stigma intervention that addresses a current social issue.