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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSY360)
Fall, 2010
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ProfessorIsbellClass Time: Tues/Thurs, 1:00 - 2:15 p.m.
Office: 630 Tobin HallClass Location: Bartlett 65
Phone: 545-5960
E-mail:
Office Hours: by appointment
Graduate Teaching Assistants:
Mike ParkerRamila Usoof
Office: 633 Tobin HallOffice: 633 Tobin Hall
E-mail: mail:
Office Hours: Wed.,10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.Office Hours: Tues/Thurs, 12-1 p.m.
Head Undergraduate Teaching Assistants: Corinne Golash and Brian Hubbard
Office: 645 Tobin Hall
Office hours: to be announced on SPARK
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Team: Stephanie Eng, Janaka Fonseka, Amy Zara Glenn, Joceyln Gordon, Letisha Harris, Erica Kendall, Alexandra Kozak
Office: 645 Tobin Hall
Office Hours: to be announced on SPARK
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COURSE DESCRIPTION
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The goal of social psychology is to understand and explain how our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. At the heart of social psychology is the recognition that our responses are greatly influenced by social situations and are not simply the product of our individual personalities.
This course will provide you with an overview of research and theory in social psychology. Topics to be studied include social perception, social cognition and information processing, attitudes and persuasion, stereotyping and discrimination, social influence and group behavior, romantic relationships, aggressive behavior, and helping behavior. Throughout the course, there will be strong emphases on (1) research methodology and (2) the application of social psychological research to your everyday lives. In order for you to fully appreciate research and be able to differentiate good research from bad research, it is important that you are able to critically evaluate it. This ability will be useful to you in your everyday life in numerous ways, particularly as you are constantly bombarded with the results of research in the media.
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COURSE READING
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The following book is required for this course (and is available at the Textbook Annex):
Franzoi, Stephen L. (2008). Social Psychology (Fifth Edition). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
**This textbook is $160 new and $120 used (at the Textbook Annex), but you may be able to find the book online for less. You may also use the international/world edition, which you can sometimes find online for considerably less money ($50-70). And – you can rent the textbook as well (for about $55!). Some information about these last two options is on our SPARK website. Note that the textbook is also on reserve at the library.
Course Packet. In addition to the required book, a course packet is required and can be purchased at the Textbook Annex (for $28). This packet contains (1) skeleton outlines of the lectures, along with space so that you can take notes, and (2) class and home activities. The lecture outlines should help you to follow the lectures and organize your notes and also should reduce the amount of writing that you have to do during the lectures. This should allow you to be more attentive in class and participate more actively. You are expected to bring the course packet to each class. The course packet is NOT designed to be a replacement for attending lectures. If you rely on this packet for this purpose, you will do poorly in the course.
*Note: Some students may learn more effectively by taking all notes on their own rather than adding their notes to those in the note packet. This is certainly encouraged if you believe that taking all notes yourself is more beneficial to you; however you still need the course packet in order to have all of the class and homework activities, and you should still bring it to class each day so that you will have access to these activities.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADES
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*** You may earn up to 230 points in this course through exams and activities,and up to an additional8 points if you complete extra credit.***
1.Exams. Three multiple-choice exams will be given and each exam will be worth 60 points of your final course grade. The exams will be non-cumulative and will take place during the regularly scheduled class times. The exams will cover all material discussed in class (including all lectures, demonstrations, films, activities, etc.) and in the assigned reading.
Makeup Exams. Makeup exams for specific sections of the course will NOT be given. If you miss an exam for ANY REASON you will be required to take a comprehensive final exam (multiple choice), which will include material from the entire course. This exam will take place during finals week at the regularly scheduled final exam time slot.
Final Exam Option. Students who are not absent for any of the three in-class exams have the option of taking the final in an effort to increase their grade. If your score on the final is better than your score on one of the previous exams, then your final exam score will be substituted for your lowest previous score. Taking the final exam optionally cannot hurt your grade, but it may help your grade.
2.Activity Points (for in-class and homework activities). Your course packet contains a large number of course activities. You will complete some of these in class and some outside of class. Some of the activities will be collected and count toward your grade and others will not. You will find out more information about this throughout the semester. More activities are included in the course packet than we will have time to complete and not all activities will be worth points. Each activity will be worth a maximum of 3 points and you will have at least 20 opportunities to earn graded activity points – to earn a maximum of 50 points. If you complete and turn in at least 16 activities, you will earn up to 48 points (depending on your performance on graded activities) and receive two bonus points. You automatically forfeit the two bonus points if you turn in fewer than 16 activities. If you complete more than 16 activities,I will count the 16 activities with the highest points toward your final grade. ** Late activities will NEVER be accepted under ANY circumstances. You MUST be in class to have any chance of getting points for the in-class activities. Take-home activities will be collected in the next class after they are assigned.
3.Extra Credit. You may earn up to a TOTAL of 8 extra credit points! You may do this by (1) participating in psychological research, or (2) writing an 8page typed paper analyzing the social psychological theories and content present in a book by Dr. Seuss. (Additional instructions will be provided later.) You can choose either of these opportunities, but if you plan to do the paper, you need to notify me of this decision in writing (email) by Thursday, September 21, 2010. You DO NOT need to notify me if you plan to participate in experiments for extra credit. Once you have selected one of these extra credit options, you will NOT be permitted to change to the other option later in the semester.
Participation in Research. You will earn 1 point for each research credit that you earn. For more information about how to participate in studies and to sign up on SONA, please visit the following website (which is also posted on SPARK): Read this information carefully if you plan to participate in research experiments. Please note that the last day to complete research studies is December 2nd(at 11:59 pm) and the last day to make any changes to your research participation record is December 9th (11:59 pm). No exceptions will be made to these dates under any circumstances!
THERE IS NO OTHER EXTRA-CREDIT AVAILABLE IN THIS COURSE!!!
4.Grade Disputes. Exam grades and activity points will be posted on SPARK throughout the semester. If you believe that there is a grading error on your exam or activity, you must bring it to our attention in writingwithin one week of the date that exam grades are posted or within one week of the date that the activity points are posted. In your written note, you must describe why you think there is an error.
5.Final Course Grades. Final grades will be determined using the following grading scale:
A216 points and higherC170-176 points
A-207-215 points C-161-169 points
B+200-206 pointsD+154-160 points
B193-199 pointsD147-153 points
B-184-192 pointsFBelow 147 points
C+177-183 points
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ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION
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- Lectures. Class attendance is strongly encouraged. It will be extremely difficult to earn a good grade in this course if you do not attend the lectures. In the lectures, I will elaborate on concepts from the reading, introduce new material, conduct demonstrations, show videos, and lead class discussions. In addition, we will complete a number of activities during class to illustrate course concepts. The lectures are intended to supplement the readings and I will not simply review what is discussed in the assigned readings. The exams will be based on all of this material, so regular attendance at the lectures will help you to earn a higher grade in the course. If you do miss class, you will need to obtain the notes for that day. It is your responsibility to find out about any information presented during class, including announcements, new material presented in class, assignments, etc. To facilitate this, you should write down the names and contact information for three people in this class. These are the people you should contact when you miss class if you need notes or need to know if there are any changes to the course syllabus, activities, etc. The TAs will not give out copies of their notes.
NameEmailPhone
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- Readings. We will sometimes discuss the readings in class, so please read the material before coming to lecture. This will not only allow you to participate in class more actively, but it will allow you to ask questions about the material at the time it is discussed.
- Participation. Class participation is a critical part of learning and is stronglyencouraged. I expect that you will all become active participants in class demonstrations, class discussions, small group discussions and any other activities that we do in class. Learning about Social Psychology is fun and interesting, and it will be more fun if you participate actively!!
- Studying. You should expect to devote approximately nine hours a week to reading, reviewing and studying material for this course. It will take most students several hours to read each chapter carefully and you should plan to read each chapter at least twice. You need to be able to define terms/concepts, distinguish them from other similar terms/concepts, and apply your knowledge to new examples described in exam questions. You will need to understand (and remember) findings and theoretical interpretations of studies that are discussed in the readings and in class. I strongly urge you to utilize the on-line student learning center on the web. This learning center includes practice quizzes and other helpful information for each chapter of the textbook. These on-line resources are intended to supplement the lectures and textbook and are not intended to replace them. Exclusive reliance on the on-line student learning center is insufficient for learning the course material and may result in less than satisfactory exam performance. The web page address is:
- Cheating and Plagiarism. Cheating is not fair to honest students, is counter to the purpose of the university, and is not in your best interest. Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students who cheat or plagiarize material in this course will be severely penalized. In cases of cheating and plagiarism, students may receive an F in the course. In addition, the University Academic Honesty Board will be notified and a note indicating your academic dishonesty will be permanently placed on your transcript. This will be particularly detrimental to you if you intend to apply to graduate school, law school, medical school, etc. All students are expected to adhere scrupulously to the University policy concerning academic honesty. For more information on the University’s academic honesty policy, check this web site:
Cheating. We take several measures to prevent and detect cheating. Several different forms of the exams will be constructed and people with the same forms will not be seated together. We encourage students who observe others cheating to notify one of us (a graduate TA or the professor). We undertake statistical analyses of suspected cheating cases in order to establish the odds that similar patterns of answers could occur by chance. If you are found to be cheating on any exams, you will immediately receive an F in the course. Cheating is bad for everyone, so just don’t do it.
Plagiarism. When reading over the university web page on academic dishonesty, please pay particularly close attention to the description of plagiarism. When doing your in-class and take-home activities, do not copy information directly from anywhere (including a web page) without quoting the information and providing the source. In addition, do not paraphrase someone else’s work and submit it as your own. Finally, do not complete your activities in collaboration with other students (unless I have explicitly stated that you may). Such “collaboration” will not be tolerated and will be severely penalized. All students involved in copying an activity from another student (or allowing another student to copy an activity) will immediately receive a zero on the activity (which may NOT be dropped) and an additional 25 point deduction in their total number of course points. If copying from another student or allowing another student to copy an activity occurs a second time, involved students will immediately receive an F in the course. Copying information from other sources will be penalized similarly.
- Students with Disabilities. Students with documented disabilities who need special arrangements in this course should speak to me immediately.
COURSE TOPICS AND SCHEDULE
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DATETOPICREADING______
Sept. 7 (Tues.)Introduction and Overview of CourseChapter 1
Sept. 9 (Thurs.)Scientific Research Methods IChapter 2
Sept. 14 (Tues.)Scientific Research Methods II
Sept. 16 (Thurs.)The Self IChapter 3
Sept. 21 (Tues.)The Self II
Sept. 23(Thurs.)Social Cognition Person Perception I Chapter 4
Sept. 28 (Tues.)Social Cognition Person Perception II
Sept. 30 (Thurs.)Social Cognition Person Perception III
REVIEW FOR EXAM 1, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Oct. 5 (Tues.)EXAM 1
Oct. 7 (Thurs.)Attitudes Persuasion IChapter 5
Oct. 12 (Tuesday)NO CLASS! MONDAY SCHEDULE!
Oct. 14(Thurs.)Attitudes Persuasion II
Oct. 19 (Tues.)Attitudes Persuasion III
Oct. 21 (Thurs.)Stereotyping, Prejudice, & Discrimination IChapter 6
Oct. 26 (Tues.)Stereotyping, Prejudice, & Discrimination II
Oct. 28 (Thurs.)Social Influence IChapter 7
Nov. 2 (Tues.) Social Influence II
REVIEW FOR EXAM 2, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Nov. 4 (Thurs.)EXAM 2
Nov. 9 (Tues.)Group Behavior IChapter 8
Nov. 10 (Wed.)Group Behavior II
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DATETOPICREADING______
Nov. 11 (Thurs.)NO CLASS! VETERAN’S DAY!!
Nov. 16 (Tues.) Interpersonal AttractionChapter 9
Nov. 18 (Thurs.)Romantic Relationships Chapter 10
Nov. 23 (Tues.)Aggression IChapter 11
Nov. 25 (Thurs.)NO CLASS! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Nov. 30 (Tues.)Aggression II
Dec. 2 (Thurs.) Helping Behavior IChapter 12
** Last day to complete SONA Research
Studies for Extra Credit!!
Dec. 7 (Tues.)Helping Behavior II
REVIEW FOR EXAM 3, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Dec. 9 (Thurs.)EXAM 3
** Last day to make changes to your SONA Research
Participation record!!
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The COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM will be scheduled during the final exam period. The exam is:
REQUIRED for students who missed an exam for any reason.
OPTIONAL for students who have taken all four previous exams.
The date and time of the final exam will be announced in class as soon as it is available. ______
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