Department of Social and Intercultural Psychology

The Department of Social Psychology and Intercultural Studies is responsible for teaching the two-semester social psychology course in the BA programme, conducting workshops and theses, and also for holding various interdisciplinary specialised seminars in the MA programme; it teaches the Interpersonal and Intercultural specialisation, and conducts research seminars and theses. In addition to the classical topics of social psychology - person perception, attitudes, decision-making processes, group processes, categorisation, prejudice and identity - the basic courses also focus on group dynamics, modern organisational psychology and cultural psychology. Seminars and practice classes will provide an opportunity for a more in-depth study of qualitative research methods, phenomenological approaches in psychology and philosophy, discourse analysis and narrative psychology, among others.

The Specialisation in Interpersonal and Intercultural Psychology is also offered by the Department. We continue to build on the strengths of Károli University's psychology training, its openness to practice, drawing on a positive psychology approach and drawing on systems-based applied social psychology. We focus on family processes, organisational development and social integration and community development. We aim to provide our graduates with knowledge and practical skills that can be applied in a wide range of areas of the social care system (e.g., as family support workers, social coaches), in organisational development (e.g., as HR workers, trainers), in the school-educational environment (educational counselling, school psychologists) and in dealing with social issues (e.g. community development, social integration). We provide the basis for further training in specialised psychology (e.g., clinical, counselling, school, work and organisational psychology) and our courses are also integrated with the ELTE doctoral school in addition to the doctoral training that KRE is planning to launch.

We also offer some courses in the MA program of Clinical and Health Psychology. These courses provide students with an introduction to the latest approaches in social psychology and offer in-depth, field-based empirical research on social problems relevant to psychology.

During the training, MA students can participate in individually designed communication skills development and various research workshops, as well as opt for optional 150-hour self-awareness groups led by trained and experienced external group therapists.

The research conducted by the faculty of the department covers the fields of application of social psychology from psychoanalysis to social policy, and we cooperate with several Hungarian research institutes - MTA TTK Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, MTA Sociological Research Institute, ELTE-TáTK, University of Debrecen Institute of Philosophy - and with foreign universities (University of Oslo, University of Turku).

Topics and workshops

Modified States of Consciousness Research Group

Workshop leader: Csaba Szummer PhD

Research interests: induced and spontaneously occurring altered states of consciousness in depth psychology, phenomenology, consciousness research and social psychology; neurological and psychopharmacological aspects of altered states of consciousness.

Emotion and Identity Workshop

Workshop leader: Paszkál Kiss PhD

We base our research on social identity theory and the role of emotions. Our current research emphasises the changing, temporal dimension of identity, with the crucial role of personal and socio-social factors. Members of the workshop conduct research in different fields: political psychology, sport psychology, professional socialisation, higher education research, youth research. The workshop is inter-university, although its members are mainly students of the Department of Social and Intercultural Psychology at the Institute of Psychology of KRE.

Narrative psychology workshop

Workshop leader: Tibor Pólya PhD

Researchers are looking at social and personal identity through stories. Other research topics include the social representation of historical events and the process of coming to terms with traumatic historical events. In addition, our research includes the narrative organisation of emotions and the development of automatic analysis procedures.

Intercultural workshop

Workshop leader: Ildikó Erdélyi, PhD

The research related to the workshop was supported by OTKA, NKFP, the Foundation for Public Education, the EU Framework Programme 6.

Department of Social and Intercultural Psychology

Head of Department

Csaba Summer, PhD

Annamária Dombi                             assistant lecturer

Csaba Szummer, PhD                        professor

Gergő Harsányi, PhD                         assistant professor

Ildikó Erdélyi, PhD                            Professor Emerita

István Csertő                                     assistant lecturer

Lilla Koltói, PhD                               assistant professor

Márta Fülöp, PhD                              professor

Paszkál Kiss, PhD                              associate professor, Head of Institute

Tibor Pólya, PhD                               associate professor