PSYCHOLOGY 360 --
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Fall, 2007; T & Th,
11:00am-12:15pm, ILC 130
|
Instructor: |
Jeff
Stone, Ph.D. |
|
Office: |
436
Psychology Department |
|
Office
Hrs: |
Tues
1pm-4pm and by appointment |
|
Phone: |
626-2438 |
|
email: |
jeffs@email.arizona.edu |
|
Assistant: |
Chad
Forbes |
|
Office: |
416
Psychology Department |
|
Office
Hrs: |
Tues,
10-11a; Weds, 1-3pm, and by appointment |
|
Phone |
626-3873 |
|
email: |
cforbes@email.arizona.edu |
Required
Text: Social
Psychology
by Brehm, Kassin & Fein (6th edition)
Course
Description: This course offers a broad introduction
to social psychology, the scientific study of human social influence and
interaction. We will explore the
various ways people think about, affect, and relate to one another. The course will cover topics such as
the social self-concept, social judgment, attitudes, persuasion, conformity,
aggression, helping behavior, prejudice, and interpersonal relationships. The goals of this course are to (a) improve
your understanding of social psychological explanations for social influence
and interaction and to (b) improve your understanding of the research
methodologies commonly used to understand social influence and
interaction.
Course
Format: We will meet twice a week for a 1 hour
and 15 minute lecture and I will assume that you have completed the reading
assigned for each class meeting.
The lectures will focus on central themes in the assigned reading but I
will usually introduce new topics not covered in the readings. Films, videos, class demonstrations and
discussions will supplement the lectures.
Because you will be responsible for knowing theory and research not
covered in the reading material, it's a good idea to attend every lecture. Be sure to get notes from a classmate
if you miss a class.
Course
Website: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jeffs/psy360/360home.html. The course website provides several
resources to help you conquer this class.
You will find the syllabus, study guides, test scores, an outline for each
lecture, and a link to the supplemental readings and extra-credit web blog (see
below). I strongly recommend you
read the study guide and lecture outline before lecture and bring them with you
to each class.
Weekly
Readings: The
core readings for the course will come from one textbook and from short
articles available on electronic reserves. Most of the reading will come from the Brehm, Kassin &
Fein textbook (available in the U of A bookstore). The supplemental short papers are required and available online. You can access them for reading and/or
printing at the course polis website.
You will need the
program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the articles. It is available for free from Adobe and
you can download it from the electronic reserve site.
To access the
supplemental readings, click on the "POLIS Private Reserves" link on
the course polis page. On the next
page, type in the password "social" and click on the
ŇOKÓ button. The next page will show
a list, alphabetized by the authorŐs last name, of all the readings for this
semester. To access a specific
reading, click on "get the file" and it will load the pdf file onto
your computer. You can then read
it or print it out. Let us know if
you have questions or if there are problems using the ER site.
Study
Guides: The textbook, readings
and lectures contain a large amount of information about social
psychology. In order to help you
focus on the most important information—the definitions, facts
and concepts that will appear on the exams--I have created a study guide
for each exam. The study guide for
each exam will be posted on the course website and you should start to complete
it right away. Whereas they are
designed to reduce the amount of information you are responsible for, they
still require several hours to answer all the questions. The exams will exclusively focus on
your knowledge of the materials that are on the study guide.
Exams: There will be 3 midterm exams
during the semester. Each is worth
40pts and will be multiple-choice in format. I will provide a study guide for each exam to emphasize the
key reading and lecture material.
The study guide for each exam can be printed from the course
website.
The
final exam is worth 80pts and it will be cumulative with an
emphasis on the material covered in the last quarter of the course. It will also be a multiple-choice
format.
Missed
exams: I will not give make-up exams to
anyone without medical or legal documentation for his or her absence (e.g., a
jury duty summons, etc). In
addition, the following regulations and procedures apply:
1. In order to receive a makeup exam, you
must present your documentation to the teaching assistant no less than 24 hours
before the exam is scheduled to begin for the class.
2. Each student will only be allowed to
take one make-up exam during the semester.
3. Make up exams must be completed within
5 days of the missed exam date.
**Students
who fail to meet any of the above criteria will not be given a makeup
exam. Be sure you can attend class
on the scheduled exam dates before deciding to take this course!
Extra
Credit Blogs: You can earn up to 8
extra credit points in the class by participating in the online course web
blog. The web blog is discussion site where
students can post responses to thought questions, tell personal (but anonymous)
stories related to the course material, and discuss the course material with
the instructor and other students.
The blog for this course is designed to give you additional
opportunities to earn extra points toward your final grade by discussing the
course material.
There
will be 4 opportunities to blog for extra credit during the semester, one for
each "section" (or exam) in the course. At the start of each section of the course, one set of blog
questions will be posted on the blog site. You can log onto the blog site and submit answers to ONE of
the question sets using a personal 5 digit ID number. You can earn a total of 2 points for an accurate, full
response to the set of questions you choose to answer. There are some important rules
to follow so you get all your points:
1: Responses that do not fully or
correctly use the course material to address the questions, or represent an obvious
duplication of the responses posted by another student, will receive less than
two points. I am not kidding about
this.
2: If you lose points because your use of
the course material was inaccurate, consider it a personal invitation for you
to attend office hours so we can discuss the relevant concepts, research,
etc. Naturally, you have the
option to decline the invitation and revisit the material on your own time
(highly advised).
3: You can only earn points for a blog
response while it is posted on the blog site. The blog questions will disappear by 10am on the day of the
exam and no responses will be accepted after that time. Thus, if you want all 8 extra credit
points, you need to respond to the blog questions before each and every exam
(including the final).
4: A full set of instructions and
guidelines for using the course web blog will be available to download from the
course web blog site. You must
read the guidelines before you submit your first response.
Grading: Your grade in this class will be based on the
following point system:
|
|
3 Midterm Exams |
120pts |
|
|
Final Exam |
80pts |
|
|
Total Points |
------ 200pts |
Your
final course grade will be a function of performance on three midterm exams
(40points each) and performance on a final cumulative exam (80points). The total points possible is 200. I will distribute letter grades based
on the total points earned out of the total of 200 (i.e., everyone can get an
A!). Grades will be assigned based
on the following point totals:
|
A = 200 - 180 total
pts |
C = 159 - 140 total
pts |
E = 119 - 0 total pts |
|
B = 179 - 160 total
pts |
D = 139 - 120 total
pts |
|
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: No electronic devices will be allowed during exams. During lectures, please turn off your
cell phone and mute the sound if you bring a laptop. Also please be respectful of your neighbors by not talking
or visiting during lectures.
Any
form of academic dishonesty, including cheating,
fabrication, and plagiarism, will be handled according to University
procedures. Students are encouraged to review the University Student Code of
Academic Integrity policies found at http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/
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 you 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 personally. Please let me know in an email 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.
Schedule of Lectures
and Readings for Fall 2007
Chpt = Brehm et al.
Textbook, S = Supplemental Paper
|
Date |
Lecture # |
Topic |
Reading
material covered |
|
8/21 |
- |
Course Introduction and Syllabus |
-- |
|
8/23 |
1 |
Foundations Of Social Psychology |
Chpt
1 |
|
8/28 |
2 |
Methods in Social Psychology |
Chpt
2: |
|
8/30 |
3 |
The Social Self |
Chpt
3 pp 54-68; S1: Fryberg paper |
|
9/4 |
4 |
Self-Esteem and Self-Serving Biases |
Chpt
3: pp 69-91; S2: Solomon paper |
|
9/6 |
5 |
Attributions About Others |
Chpt
4: pp 95-116 |
|
9/11 |
6 |
Social Judgments |
Chpt
4: pp 116-129 |
|
9/13 |
- |
Midterm Exam 1 |
Review!** |
|
9/18 |
7 |
Attitudes and Behavior |
Chpt
6: pp 185-194; S3: Rudman paper |
|
9/20,
25 |
8, 9 |
Persuasion |
Chpt
6: pp. 194-213 |
|
9/27,
10/2 |
10, 11 |
Behavioral influences on attitudes |
Chpt
6: pp 213 –223; S4:
Aronson paper |
|
10/4 |
12 |
Conformity and Compliance |
Chpt
7: pp 227-248; S5: Cialdini
paper |
|
10/9 |
13 |
Obedience To Authority |
Chpt
7: pp 248-259 |
|
10/11 |
- |
Midterm Exam 2 |
Review! |
|
10/16,
18 |
14, 15 |
Aggression |
Chpt
11 |
|
10/23 |
16 |
Stereotyping |
Chpt
5: pp. 133-150; S6: Stone paper |
|
10/25 |
17 |
Prejudice |
Chpt
5: pp. 150-157; S7:
Fiske paper |
|
10/30 |
18 |
Discrimination |
Chpt
5: pp. 157-170 |
|
11/1 |
19 |
Stigma |
Chpt
5: pp. 171-176; S8: Johns paper |
|
11/6 |
20 |
Reducing Intergroup Conflict |
Chpt
5: pp 176-180 |
|
11/8 |
- |
Midterm Exam 3 |
Review! |
|
11/13 |
21 |
Group Processes |
Chpt
8: pp 263-280; 294-302 |
|
11/15 |
22 |
Attraction To Others |
Chpt
9: pp. 307-328 |
|
11/20 |
23 |
Love And Close Relationships |
Chpt
9: pp. 328-347; S9: Mehl paper |
|
11/22 |
- |
Thanksgiving—No Class |
|
|
11/27 |
24 |
Helping Behavior |
Chpt
10 |
|
11/29 |
25 |
Applications to Health & Law |
Chpt
12: pp443-466 Chpt
14: pp513-545 |
|
12/4 |
26 |
Course Summary & Evaluations |
-- |
|
12/13 |
- |
Cumulative Final Exam 11am-1pm |
Review! |
**Review
sessions for the exams will be scheduled as space and time permits