Rationale: A knowledge of cognitive, social and applied psychology is necessary for good design practice. Purpose: The purpose of the module is to introduce psychological concepts and theories to design students as they pertain to designing with and for others - this encompasses cognition, perception and executive function/processing; as well as social and interpersonal psychological processes. Finally, this will be demonstrated through study and analysis of applied psychological and design research.

This is a project-centred module designed around small teams working on the design and evaluation of projects which are rooted in cognitive and social psychological principles. This will help them to learn about (in the cognitive section of the module) memory systems, thinking and reasoning, problem solving, decision making and creativity as well as examples of applications of the contribution of these processes in understanding real-life applied situations (e.g. driving; food choices; navigating the environment; etc.) In the social psychological section of the module, students will focus on: social cognition, attribution and social explanation, attitudes and attitude change, self and identity, social relations and prosocial behaviour, group processes and social influence (e.g. inter-group behaviour and conformity), and communication including computer-mediated communication.

On successful completion of the module, the student will be able to: 1. Describe the memory systems and understand how they are involved in design processes and product interactions; 2. Explain thinking and reasoning and their fallacies, included how they are implicated in user experience; 3. Describe and critically evaluate the contribution of cognitive psychology in explaining real-life situations, and describe how design may ameliorate these situations; 4. Describe key theories that try to explain human social behaviour, and evaluate those theories in the light of available evidence from applied design studies; 5. Explain evidence on a variety of social psychological processes such as communication, developing relationships, forming and changing attitudes, group dynamics, and be able to apply this to their own design practice; 6. Describe some of the key features of human social cognition, and understand how this may be implicated in participatory and co-design; 7. Evaluate explanations of human aggression and altruism that are commonly offered, and extrapolate these and similar concepts to examples of unethical design.

On successful completion of the module, the student will be able to: 1. Appreciate the complexity of working with and designing for a full spectrum of human experience and ability; 2. Develop a sensitivity towards individual differences in applying psychological theories and concepts to their own design practice; 3. Criticise approaches to user experience design which do not take up-to-date, valid, reliable psychological evidence into account; 4. Offer ethical alternatives to product, system and service designs which have historically exploited cognitive and social weaknesses.

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This module will be taught over 12 weeks, and will consist of a 1 hour lecture with a 1 hour studio/lab component where students will operationalise the knowledge from the lecture. The lecture will also necessitate students to undertake private study, individually or in groups. Each lecture will be accompanied by a short reading list of peer-reviewed academic papers which will be 1) classic or well-recognised texts, or 2) recently published research. Moreover, the theories and concepts introduced in lectures will be exemplified with recent developments and applied psychological research. The module will contribute towards students gaining Graduate Attributes in the following ways: Knowledgeable: Students will expand their knowledge of Product Design and Technology to encompass basic and applied research in psychology; they will also develop their capacity for critical thinking and confidence in applying knowledge from these new areas to their own developing design practices. Proactive: Students will augment their existing skills in a new direction by understanding more fully how their domain impacts upon their colleagues, participants, users as well as society, economies and the environment; moreover, they will be urged to use this new knowledge to enact change in their future practice. Articulate: Students will be required to evaluate evidence from multiple sources such as academic journals, reports and case studies, and will be asked to articulate these new bases of knowledge in dialogue with their existing understandings of contemporary design culture. Moreover, their verbal and written skills will be tested via assignments and weekly informal studio presentations. Creative: Students will already be well acquainted with creative methods, techniques, and ideation processes, but here will be able to augment these skills with an understanding of psychological theories and concepts. They will be able to apply this to their own abilities and experiences, but will also find new applications for these skills in new understandings of other individuals and groups. Collaborative: This module will feature a strong collaborative element with group projects that allow students to test and try out their new working understandings of psychological processes by operationalising them in interdisciplinary projects which bring the two domains together. Responsible: This module will have a strong focus on understanding psychology in order to create systems, services and products which help to build fairer, healthier and more sustainable futures. In particular, students will be introduced to approaches to applied psychology which highlight positive and strength-based techniques rather than deficit-led approaches.