Conclusion

This free course introduced you to a social psychology developed for a twenty-first century where grounds, it feels, are continuously shifting. Social, political, technological change is permanent and so is the requirement that we make sense of these ever-transforming situations. Social psychology, as introduced in this free course, is the science of making sense in a disciplined and systematic way of the various practices by which we in our everyday lives make sense of the world around us – as well as ourselves in the ever-transforming situations.

You therefore completed a number of activities which helped you understand the everyday sense-making occurring around you. You learned about the concepts of the frame and the symbol which are the essentials of sense-making. And you also saw how the perspective of sense-making can be applied to a classic study in social psychology.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course D360 Social psychology for the 21st century [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . You can find out more about The Open University courses and qualifications, tuition fees and funding options by visiting our online prospectus.