PSYCHOLOGY 496H
The Science of Prejudice Reduction
Spring,
2008; T-TR 3:30-4:45pm, Chav 109
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Instructor: |
Jeff Stone, Ph.D. |
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Office:
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436 Psychology Department |
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Office Hrs: |
Mon 1:30-4pm and by appointment |
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Phone:
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626-2438 |
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email: |
jeffs@u.arizona.edu |
Course
Overview
The
purpose of this course is to examine one of the most important questions facing
the world today: What
can be done to reduce prejudice?
Over 50 years of research in social psychology indicates that our daily
interactions with others are influenced by culturally specified negative
attitudes and beliefs that we all hold toward social groups and their
individual members. However, while
documenting the antecedents of prejudice, researchers have also identified over
25 strategies that effectively alter prejudiced attitudes, negative stereotypes
and discrimination. So why is
there still so much prejudice and discrimination in the world today? Addressing this question requires
understanding not only the roots of intergroup bias via the study of prejudice,
but also what social psychologists have learned about changing attitudes,
beliefs and behavior from the study of social influence and persuasion. The broad aim of this course is to
integrate the prejudice, social influence and persuasion literatures so that
students can formulate novel ideas about how to reduce the prevalence of
prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.
I
designed this course with four specific goals in mind: First, I want to improve your
understanding of how prejudice influences your day-to-day life and what might
be done to prevent or reduce it.
Second, I want you to experience first hand how social psychologists
generate and test hypotheses about intergroup bias, attitude and
behavior-change processes. Third, I
want to introduce you to some possible career directions that will utilize your
knowledge of social psychology and/or research methodology. The fourth goal of this course is to
have a lot of fun and stimulating discourse along the way to the first three
objectives.
The
course material will focus on how the social context determines the
relationship between negative attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. We will consider the following
questions: What is a prejudiced
attitude and how does it differ from a negative stereotype? When and how do prejudice attitudes and
beliefs influence our behavior?
How do we form intergroup biases and are they conscious or unconscious? Are you always thoughtful and rational
when you interact with an outgroup member? When are you most likely to act on egalitarian attitudes and
values? Can prejudiced attitudes
and beliefs be changed? Do these
changes occur best at the structural or interpersonal level? What can the targets of prejudice do to
reduce the biases directed at them during interaction with a prejudiced
individual? Answers to these and
other questions will be addressed in the readings, lectures, assignments and
the discussions we will have in class.
The
course is divided into two sections.
In the first section (up to Spring Break), we will examine classic and
contemporary theories of prejudice, attitudes, social influence and
persuasion. As a result, the
reading in the first section is somewhat heavy. The second section of the course (after Spring Break) will focus
primarily on conducting a group research project (see below). The readings and lectures will be
directed primarily toward facilitating your project.
Course
Format
This
course is designed to be a lecture/seminar for Psychology Majors in the
Honors Program who have had a lower division Social Psychology, Research
Methods and Statistics course.
It will differ from the lower division courses in two important
ways. First, because it is an
advanced course, I will only lecture each class meeting to reinforce the major
points of the readings. I hope we
will spend much of each class meeting discussing the material. To facilitate discussion, you need to
come to each class with questions, comments, or criticisms of the
readings. We are going to cover a fair
amount of material in a short amount of time.
Another
difference between this course and the lower division courses is that you will
be asked to do more than simply memorize the material. I believe Honors students in Psychology
at the 400 level should be able to conduct original research. Thus, in addition to demonstrating your
knowledge of the reading material, you will also be required to develop a
project that uses the course material in a new and creative manner.
Course pre-requisites: You must be enrolled in the Honors College to take this
course. Also, because of the
advanced and heavy emphasis on research in social psychology, you should have
completed the following courses:
INDV 101 or Introduction to Psychology (Psych 101), Research Methods
(Psych 290A or B), Statistics and Measurement (Psych 230), and Introduction to
Social Psychology (Psych 360). It
could be difficult to earn a letter grade of A in this course without having
passed these courses. See me if
you are taking any of these courses concurrently.
Course
Requirements
Your
grade in this course will be a function of your performance on take-home
midterm exams, paper assignments, participation in group presentations,
involvement in class assignments and discussions, and a final comprehensive
exam. The exams are designed to
measure how well you have learned the principles and concepts covered in the
readings. The format for each exam
will consist of short essay questions.
Completion of homework, participation in class assignments and
discussion will also be assessed.
As will be detailed below, your presentations and papers will be based
on a group project.
Grade
Summary:
Your final course grade will be a function of performance on the following:
|
Paper
Assignments (50 pts total) |
Exams
(70 pts total) |
|
The
Project Proposal Draft (10pts) |
2
Take-home Midterms (20pts Each) |
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The
Project Final Paper (40pts) |
Final
Comprehensive Exam (30pts) |
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Group
Project Assignments (30 pts total) |
Class
Assignments (20 pts total) |
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2
Group Presentations (10pts Each) |
Methods
Homework Assignment (10pts) |
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2
Group Participation Evals (5 Pts Each) |
Class
Participation (10pts) |
The total points possible are 170. I will distribute grades based on the
percentage of total points earned (i.e., everyone can get an A!):
|
A
=> 153 or 90% of the total pts |
C
=> 119 or 70% of the total pts |
E
=< 101 or 59% of the total pts |
|
B
=> 136 or 80% of the total pts |
D
=> 102 or 60% of the total pts |
|
Absences
and makeups: ** Please note that
there will be no extra credit, make-up exams or paper extensions offered in
this course. Be
sure you can make the date for each exam, group presentation, and paper
assignment before you decide to take this course.
Weekly
Readings
The
core readings for the course will come from one textbook and from book chapters
and articles available online at the course D2L site.
Required Textbook: Persuasion: Psychological Insights and Perspectives
by Brock & Green (2004) 2nd edition
Course
D2L Website:
The course D2L
website provides several resources to help you in this class. Most importantly, you will find many of
the electronic copies of the readings.
You will also find the syllabus, test scores, outlines for some
lectures, and materials to use for the research project. For those unfamiliar with D2L:
How do I log in to
D2L?
How
do I see my courses in D2L?
What
if I can't log into D2L?
Click on the Report a Problem tab on http://help.d2l.arizona.edu
and complete the form with as much detail as possible, explaining the problem
you are having.
A few additional issues:
All
holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for
those students who show affiliation with that particular religion. Also, all absences pre-approved by the
UA Dean of Students (or Dean's designee) will be honored.
Policies
regarding expected classroom behavior:
Please turn off your cell phone when in class. Laptops are encouraged for note taking but must be silenced
during class.
Classroom
policies against plagiarism will be covered in a separate handout. However, students are encouraged to
review the University Student Code of Academic Integrity policies against
plagiarism found at http://studpubs.web.arizona.edu/policies/cacaint.htm
Students
are also encouraged to review the policies against threatening behavior by
students: http://policy.web.arizona.edu/~policy/threaten.shtml
You
are hereby notified that some students may deem some course content
offensive. I will always try to
warn you when I think this is possible, but I may not always know when a topic
or other material is offensive to you.
Please let me know if that was the case.
Students
with special needs who are registered with the S.A.L.T. Center
(http://www.salt.arizona.edu/) or the Disability Resource Center
(http://drc.arizona.edu/) must submit appropriate documentation to me if they
are requesting special accommodations.
I will do the best I can to grant your request.
All
information contained in this course syllabus, other than the grade and absence
policies, may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice, as deemed appropriate
by me.
The class will be divided randomly into small
groups to accomplish a collaborative research project. The purpose of the project is to design
an experiment to test the effectiveness of a prejudice reduction strategy. The study must be based on the
psychological principles of prejudice, social influence and persuasion covered
in the course. Each group will
present their study to the class, collect data to test their hypothesis,
analyze their data using SPSS, and write papers about their project. Aspects of the project will be graded
collectively (e.g., the group presentations) and individually (e.g.,
contribution to the project, the paper assignments).
The
research groups are intended to function like a research lab. They will be formed sometime during the
first month of class and should meet outside of class in addition to the
scheduled in-class meeting times.
You should take time to become acquainted, choose a name for your group,
and begin discussing ideas for your project.
The project should be ambitious but feasible
within the scope of this class.
Whereas you will not have access to the Psychology Department Subject
Pool, there are a number of ways to collect data on and off campus. I would encourage the groups to pick a
topic that all members find interesting. This may take a few meetings to negotiate--welcome to life
in a research lab group!
Once each group has a topic and a hypothesis,
the next task will be to give the first presentation to the rest of the
class. The presentations will
provide an opportunity for everyone to hear and discuss the various
projects. Each group member
is expected to present some aspect of the project. The presentations will demonstrate how well your group, as a
whole, understands the course material and is able to apply it to your
topic. Most groups will modify
their project after they receive "helpful" comments from the class
and me. As is often the case in
the real world, each group member will receive a grade based on the overall
groupÕs presentation.
For the proposal draft writing assignment,
each group member will write a 4-page
double-spaced summary of his or her group's project. The paper will be written as a research
proposal and should include a brief review of the theory and research relevant
to your topic, a clear statement of the hypothesized results, and a brief
description of the methods and procedures. The proposal draft will be due one week after the
first group presentations and it will be evaluated individually.
The group's next goal will be to conduct the
proposed experiment to test the hypothesis. You will collect data and then analyze and interpret the
results of the study. We will
conduct workshops to show you how to enter and analyze your data using SPSS,
which is available for free on computers around campus. Each group will present their final
project and results of their research to the class during the final weeks of
the semester. As before, each
group member will receive points based on the entire groupÕs presentation.
Finally, each group member will write his or her
own final paper describing the theoretical background, hypothesis
tested, methods, results, and a discussion of what the results mean. This paper will be written in APA style
and should include tables and/or figures to illustrate the results of the
study. The length of this paper
must be 12 pages minimum to 17 pages
maximum (including everything!) and
will be due during finals week. It
will be evaluated individually.
Social Loafing: To discourage social loafing you will
have the opportunity to tell me how much effort each person in your group has
put forth toward the group project.
You will get to rate the effort of each group member after each group
presentation. This provides
some individual accountability in that if one or more members are not helping
the group carry out the project, the group will be allowed to impact the social
loafer's course grade.
After the groups are formed I will distribute
handouts that detail what to focus on in your papers and presentations and some
guidelines to follow in your research (e.g., ethics).
Tentative Course Calendar
Note: B&G =
Brock & Green text;
D2L = Electronic PDF File
|
Date |
Topic |
Readings & Assignments |
|
Jan
17 |
Course Overview And Introduction. |
None |
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Jan 22 |
The Psychology Of Prejudice **Get
Homework Assignment Due 1/29 |
D2L:
Introduction to Prejudice by Nelson D2L:
Jordan & Zanna chpt on how to read a journal article |
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Jan
24 |
What Is A Prejudiced Attitude And How Do We
Study It? |
B&G:
Attitude Measurement by Fabrigar et al D2L:
Rudman paper on implicit attitudes |
|
Jan 29 |
Research Methodology |
D2L:
Appendix A from Zimbardo & Leippe **Methodology homework due for classroom exercise |
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Jan
31 & Feb 5 |
The Origins Of Prejudice |
D2L:
Origins and maintenance of prejudice and stereotypes by Nelson D2L:
Solomon et al. paper on TMT processes D2L:
Blair paper on malleability of implicit processes |
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Feb 7 |
SPSP
Conference- No Class |
Meet
with your group to start developing a project |
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Feb
12 |
Attitude-Behavior Relationship |
B&G:
Acting As We Feel by Fazio et al. |
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Feb
14 |
Prejudice-Discrimination Relationship |
D2L:
Dovidio implicit/explicit behavior paper D2L:
Hebl gay discrimination paper |
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Feb 19 |
Prejudice Reduction: The TEM Model |
B&G:
Changing Prejudice by Devine et al. D2L:
Whitehead et al. TEM paper Take-home
midterm1 due in class |
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Feb
21 |
Interpersonal Influence Strategies |
B&G:
Interpersonal Influence by Cialdini et al. D2L:
Hebl et al. norms reduce prej paper |
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Feb
26 |
Self-Persuasion I: Cognitive Dissonance |
D2L: Stone & Fernandez book chapter |
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Feb
28 |
Using Cognitive Dissonance To Reduce Prejudice |
D2L:
Monteith et al. self-regulation paper D2L:
Son Hing et al. hypocrisy paper |
|
Mar
4 |
Other Active Strategies |
D2L:
Vescio et al. perspective taking paper D2L:
Neir Recategorization paper |
|
Mar
6 |
Process Models Of Persuasion |
B&G:
To Think Or Not To Think by Petty et al. |
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Mar
11 |
Reducing Prejudice Via Persuasion |
D2L:
Petty et al. paper on stigma and persuasion D2L:
Czopp & Monteith paper on confrontation |
Mar
13
|
Mandatory
In Class Group Meetings |
Take-home
midterm2 due in class and brief report on your project to me |
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Mar 18,20 |
Spring
Break—No Class!! |
|
|
Mar 25 |
Mandatory
In Class Group Meetings |
Brief
report on your project to me |
|
Mar 27, Apr 1
& 3 |
Group
Proposal Presentations |
prepare;
group evals due |
|
Apr 8 |
Turn
In Paper And Data Collection |
Proposal
Drafts Due |
|
April
10 |
Data Collection—Run Your Study! |
None |
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Apr
15 |
Data Analysis I: Design & Analysis |
D2L:
TBA |
|
April 17 |
Data
Analysis II: Intro To SPSS |
Psychology
Rm 128 from 3:50-5pm |
Apr
22
|
Data
Analysis III: Using SPSS |
Psychology
Rm 128 from 3:50-5pm |
Apr 24, 29 & May 1
|
Final
Group Presentations |
prepare |
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May
6 |
Last Class: Is Prejudice Inevitable? |
D2L:
TBA |
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May 15 |
Final
Cumulative Exam 2-4pm |
Final
paper & final group evals due |