Module manager: Madeleine Pownall
Email: M.V.Pownall@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
BSc Psychology or MPsyc, BSc Advanced Psychology or BA Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Thought, or BSs Psychology with Education programme entry requirements.
This module is not approved as a discovery module
Feminist psychologists provide an alternative perspective on mainstream social psychology, critically advocating for issues such as gender roles, intersectionality, activism, and creative approaches to research. In this module, we will cover a broad range of feminist social psychology topics, engage in critical and interactive discussions and debates, and consider how psychology content can inform activism and policy.
This module will introduce students to a critical feminist perspective on social psychology. This will include tackling big issues, including gender roles, relationships, identity, and objectification. This module also covers wider topics such as research methodologies, reflexivity, and social activism.
Students will be able to:
1. Show an understanding of feminist approaches to social psychology
2. Show an appreciation of feminist social psychology research methodologies and epistemologies
3. Critically evaluate social psychology from a feminist scholarship perspective
4. Write a policy briefing
5. Apply psychology content to real world contexts
The module will focus on the following topics over an 11-week semester:
1. Introduction to feminist social psychology
2. Research methodologies in feminist social psychology
3. Identity and intersectionality
4. Historical and conceptual issues in mainstream social psychology
5. Reflection time (assessment preparation – no lecture/seminar) Reading week
6. Prejudice, stereotyping, and objectification (assessment 1 is due)
7. Writing a policy brief (assessment preparation)
8. Constructions of gender
9. Communication and language
10. Roles and relationships
11. Scholarship-activism in feminist social psychology (assessment 2 is due)
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group learning | 10 | 1.5 | 15 |
| Lecture | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Independent online learning hours | 20 | ||
| Private study hours | 105 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 25 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 150 | ||
Independent reading (2 hours per week x 10 weeks ) = 20 hours
Independent research and responding to online discussion boards: (2 hours per week x 10 weeks) = 20 hours
Research proposal group presentation (assessment 1): 30 hours
Policy brief (assessment 2): 35 hours
Note: Week 5 is a reflection week with no teaching
To support assessment 1 (research proposal group presentation), the interactive 1.5-hour session in Week 2 will include formative activities that will develop students’ skills for the group presentation, including discussing key studies in social psychology from a feminist perspective (LO1), collectively designing research questions (LO2, LO3), critical evaluation of a published social psychology paper, and group discussion.
To support assessment 2 (policy brief), students will engage in formative activities throughout their weekly 1.5 group sessions across the module, including critiquing real policy briefs from a feminist perspective (requiring LO1 and LO2) discussing the links between research and policy (LO4), and reflecting on how psychology content can be applied to real world contexts (LO5).
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Group Project | Research proposal group presentation | 30 |
| Assignment | Students will write a 2,000 word policy brief on a topic or issue of their choice | 70 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
All assessment components must be completed to a passable standard. However, each component can be resat individually without resitting the whole module.
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team