Syllabus

Title
5574 Business Psychology I
Instructors
Univ.Prof. Dr. Susann Fiedler, Mag. Anna Wucherer
Contact details
susann.fiedler@wu.ac.at; anna.wucherer@wu.ac.at
Type
PI
Weekly hours
2
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
02/22/24 to 02/25/24
Registration via LPIS
Notes to the course
Subject(s) Bachelor Programs
Specialization in Business Administration Course II - Decision Sciences: Game Theory, Psychology, and Data Analysis
Course II - Decision Sciences: Game Theory, Psychology, and Data Analysis
Course II - Decision Sciences: Game Theory, Psychology, and Data Analysis
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Monday 03/04/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.003
Monday 03/11/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.003
Monday 03/18/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.003
Friday 03/22/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.002
Monday 04/08/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.003
Monday 04/15/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.003
Monday 04/22/24 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM D5.1.003
Friday 04/26/24 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM D5.0.001

On this page:

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Contents

Areas that will be covered in the course: 

  • Methods to Investigate Individual-level Attitudes & Behavior 
      • Hypotheses Development & Theory Testing
      • Counterfactuals, Correlation & Causality
      • Research Designs in Psychological Investigation
  • Attitude Development & Perception
      • Differences Between Preferences & Attitudes
      • Components, the Origin & Types of Attitudes
      • Attitudes as a Predictor for Behaviour
  • Memory & Learning
      • Processes of Memory Storage and Encoding
      • Improving Memory Performance
      • Mechanisms of Forgetting
  • Motivation & Incentives
      • Motivation as a Concept: Personal & Situational Factors, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
      • Prosocial Motivation and Its Benefits
      • Motivation in Competitive & Collaborative Environments
  • Group structure & Processes
      • Importance of Groups in our Society
      • Composition & Function of Groups
      • Impact of Groups on Individual Performance & Decision-Making
  • Interpersonal Communication & Conflict
      • Aggression & Conflict in Group Settings
      • Escalating Conflicts and Promoting Prosocial Behaviour
      • Social Dilemma
  • Leadership Behavior & Power
      • Leadership in the Work Context
      • Exploring Behavior of Successful Leaders & Overcoming Stereotypes
      • Dark Side of Leadership & the Abuse of Power
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Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, you should be able to:

  • demonstrate a basic comprehension of a wide set of psychological constructs,
  • understanding the underlying mechanisms guiding behavior,
  • systematically analyze individual and group behavior,
  • critically evaluate empirical evidence,
  • develop first ideas on how to investigate human behavior in order to tailor effective organizations.
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Attendance requirements

Full attendance is expected for all lectures and experiments. Students are allowed to miss a maximum of 20%. If you cannot attend a lecture due to exceptional/unforeseeable circumstances, please contact the lecturer.

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Teaching/learning method(s)

Each class will last about 3 hours during which students will participate in classroom experiments and case studies to experience the just learned mechanisms hands-on. Homework assignments will consist of take-home quizzes and tests to consolidate the newly learned constructs. The course will heavily rely on feedback and short quizzes in class to foster participation and involvement with the presented material.

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Assessment

Assignments (2 x 25%)

Two assignments will be marked in written form. Those two assignments are to be hand-in by all students of the course. They will be announced by the lecturer.

Final exam (50%)

The final exam will cover the entire course. The exam will include questions testing your theoretical knowledge as well as questions calling for an application of the course content to practice examples.

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Readings

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

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Other

There is no prescribed/required textbook, because pricing for textbooks is outrageous and all the necessary information can also be found online in various forms. However, the textbooks that come closest to this course in terms of content and level are:

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Sommers, S. R. (2020). Social psychology. Pearson Education India.

Smith, E. R., Mackie, D. M., & Claypool, H. M. (2015). Social psychology 4th ed.

Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. T. (2015). Cognitive Psychology: A Student‘s Handbook. Psychology Press: Hove.

Last edited: 2023-09-28



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