Teaching code

4S006099

Credits

3

Coordinator

Lorenzo Avanzi

Language

Italian

Moodle Seminars 0

The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide students with the notions necessary to understand how individuals interact with their work environment. In particular themes such as work-related stress and safety in workplaces will be highlighted. Furthermore, prevention and safety communication items will be presented in a sociological perspective.

Program

Module 1: Sociology of culture and communication. The course will focus on the sociological analysis of risk, security and risk communication concepts. Different theoretical perspectives on the risk society and on safety as a social construction will be presented; some examples of communication and social perception of risk will be analyzed.
Topics covered in the course:
• Analysis from a sociological point of view of the concepts of risk, security and risk communication.
• Introduction to the concepts of information, interaction and communication.
• Analysis of direct and mediated communication processes.
• The concept of risk society and the change of the concept of risk in the light of sociological theory.
• Presentation of the theme of security and freedom as elements of the organizational culture of a company.
• Dynamics of social acceptance of risk.
• The concept of security as a social construction.
• Analysis of specific examples of communication and risk perception from a sociological perspective.
• Exercises in class with limited sociological investigations related to the application of safety rules and violations; to the social perception of risk.

Module 2: Psychology of work and organization. The course gives an introduction to the major theoretical approaches, to the psychosocial risk factors, and to the evaluation and the interventions on the work-related stress. The issues concern the methodology of psychosocial research, with particular regard to research in work psychology and its links to the workers’ health and safety.
Topics covered in the course will are:
First, a methodological introduction in order to introduce students to the scientific study of working behaviors and attitudes;
Second, course will focus on work-related stress as an emerging phenomenon.
In particular, the course will be divided in this way:
1. Introduction to the psychosocial research methodology:
- What is it and how to set up a research design
- Experiments, quasi-experiments, observation, case studies, archival research, survey
- The problem of measurement in psychology
- Nominal, ordinal and cardinal variables
2. Work-related stress:
- Definition of the stress process: a brief historical review
- Description of the antecedents and consequences of the stress phenomenon
- Impact of personal factors
- Role of theoretical models
- How to set up an evaluation of work-related stress
- Notes on prevention.

Bibliography

Examination Methods

Written exam, on both books and slides.