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Theory and Research in Social Psychology

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Theory and Research in Social Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY 431

Spring, 2007

GLENN D. REEDER - INSTRUCTOR

Description

In a classic essay on the history of social psychology, Gordon Allport (1968) defined social psychology as a discipline that uses scientific methods to "understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others". There are at least two notable aspects to this definition. First, social psychologists use the scientific method to study social behavior. The preferred method is the experiment, done in the lab or in an applied setting. This method includes the manipulation of independent variables and control of extraneous variables. Correlational methods employing surveys, systematic observations, and archival data (public records) also make important contributions to the field.

A second noteworthy aspect of Allport's definition is that it stresses interdependence. To put it simply, social psychologists are interested in how the individual is influenced by other people. If you are sitting alone in a room working on a jigsaw puzzle, there are aspects of your behavior that are relevant to many areas of psychology. For example you may be trying to distinguish certain colors from others (perception), remembering particular strategies that you have used in the past (learning and memory), or becoming depressed by your lack of progress (personality). But should another person suddenly enter the room, your thoughts, feelings, and behavior may be systematically altered. You might form an impression of the intruder, reflect on your level of ability, or possibly ask for help (if the puzzle is particularly exasperating). These unique reactions fall within the domain of social psychology. The major aim of the course is to allow students to gain a sophisticated understanding of current theory and research in this field.

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy places an emphasis on active learning. Rather than passively absorbing lectures delivered by the instructor, students in this class will be actively involved in the process of thinking and solving problems. If you decide to take the class, you should expect to do a significant amount of reading and writing, participate actively in class discussions, and occasionally lead the class in discussion.

If you wish to talk about any aspect of the course, or social psychology in general, please feel free to drop by my office at 409 DeGarmo. Office hours are on MWF 11-11:50. You can phone me at 438-7140. My E-mail address is gdreeder@ilstu.edu. Finally, and most important, if there is any way that I can make this course a better learning experience for you, please let me know right away. Any student in need of a special accommodation should contact 438-5853 (voice) or 438-8620 (TDD).

Readings

When choosing articles, I have kept three goals in mind. First, I included some time-honored classics to give you a sense of how great minds framed some of the original social psychological questions. Each section of the course typically begins with a consideration of historical perspectives. Second, I wanted some cutting-edge, "hot off the presses" reviews and chapters to capture the current excitement of the field. Finally, I included some empirical papers to give you a flavor for how the research is actually conducted. The readings will be available on E-Reserve at Milner Library: Go to the ISU Milner Library home page, click “find course reserves”, find my name under the list of instructors, click “search”, and the list of readings should appear on the screen for you to download to your computer.

Assignments

Grades will be derived from four sources: 1) a Midterm Exam, 2) a Final Exam, 3) Timely completion of notes to Focus Questions, and 4) a Term paper.

Midterm Exam. The midterm exam will occur on Wednesday, March 7th. The exam will be based on the Focus Questions previously assigned. Specifically, four of the Focus Questions assigned during the first half of the course will appear on the exam. Students will be required to answer three of these questions. Scores on the Midterm will range between zero and 100.

Final Exam. The final exam will occur at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 7th. The questions for the Final Exam will be based on the Focus Questions assigned after the Midterm. The manner of selecting questions and the grading scale will be the same as that for the Midterm.

Notes to Focus Questions . You are expected to read all of the assigned articles. Each week there will be two or three Focus Questions. The questions will be multifaceted, broad, integrative, and contain several parts. A question may correspond to aspects of one of the articles assigned or it may require you to relate concepts from several different articles. My hope is that these questions will focus your attention and encourage you to analyze the important issues. Your assignment is to respond to each of these questions. You may do so in any written fashion you choose. But please devote a page or two of notes to each question. Then make a Xerox of your notes, staple them, and hand them in on Monday of each week. Note that the NFQs will be due at the beginning of the week devoted to the discussion of those issues. The advantage of this schedule is that the class members will have completed the readings prior to the discussion. This schedule not only fosters better discussion, it also provides you with an opportunity to update your NFQs based on the class discussion.

In my grading of the NFQs, a score of 50 points will be given to students who turn in all the assignments (in class) on the days that they are due. A score of 45 points will be awarded to those who fail to turn in 1 or 2 NFQs. A score of 40 points will be given to those who fail to turn in 3 or 4 NFQs. A score of 35 points will be given to those who fail to turn in 5 or 6 NFQs. Zero points will be given to students who fail to turn in seven or more NFQs. If you know you must miss class for some reason, drop off your NFQs before class in my mail box, or send them along with a classmate.

Term Paper . Each student will write a 10 -20 page paper for the class. The paper will be due on Monday, April 16th. The paper and accompanying references must be typed and follow APA stylistic conventions. The topic of the paper should be related to the reading list for the course. I recommend that you discuss the topic of your paper with the instructor before beginning. The papers may take one of three possible forms: 1) a Research Proposal, 2) a Review of the Literature in a selected area, or 3) an Application Paper. The Research Proposal will be considered the most challenging of the alternatives and will be graded corresponding to this degree of difficulty (You can make some mistakes and still earn a top score). In the Research Proposal, the student should propose an original research study. This should include an Introduction to the research topic (citing and interpreting relevant literature, laying out a theoretical rationale for the proposed study, including a statement of how the proposed study would extend past research in the area, and offering a tentative hypothesis or prediction), a Method section, and a brief Results/Discussion section on what the results would add to our understanding of your research topic. In the Review paper, the student will review and organize the literature in a research area. The review articles that appear in the journal, Psychological Bulletin, serve as models for this type of paper. Finally, the Application Paper should be a thought piece in which the literature in social psychology is brought to bear on a particular aspect of real life. For example, you might discuss how biases in social decision-making and attribution (such as the self-fulfilling prophecy) could influence the decisions made by teachers in the classroom. In all three types of papers, you are encouraged to integrate literature from social psychology with literatures or research problems from other sub-disciplines (e.g. school psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, clinical, counseling, etc.). But be sure that at least one third of your references are from social psychological sources. Papers will be graded on a zero to 100 point scale.

Facilitation of Class Discussions . At the beginning of the semester, we will divide the class sessions up among the class participants. In this way each student will be responsible for facilitating the discussion on specified weeks during the semester. At the beginning of most classes, the Instructor will summarize the readings for approximately 30 minutes. This will NOT take the form of a lecture, requiring that you take notes. Instead, it will be designed to highlight a few important ideas and set the stage for the discussion to follow. The facilitator will be expected to be an "expert" on the Focus Questions for that week. The facilitator will be expected to help answer the Focus Questions (and other questions that arise during the discussion), and encourage wide participation in the discussion by providing structure, suggesting provocative interpretations, new directions, etc. I will not be grading your contributions as a facilitator, but I will give you some feedback on your strengths and weaknesses if you ask. If you fail to perform a Facilitation Assignment by not showing up or failing to make any effort, there will be a five point penalty to your grade. My hope is that these discussions will lead to broad and creative answers to our Focus Questions. In addition, you should gain some leadership experience in the facilitation of small group discussions.

Final Grade

There are a maximum of 350 points to be earned in the class. For grading purposes, 315 to 350 points will correspond to an "A" grade. Scores in the 280 to 314 range will correspond to a "B". Scores in the 245 to 279 range will correspond to a "C". Scores between 210 and 244 will comprise the "D" range, and scores below 210 will result in a grade of "F" for the course.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Dates Topics

January 17 Orientation

January 22/24 Methods

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Brewer, M. B (1998). Experimentation in social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.) Handbook of social psychology, (4th edition, Vol. 1, pp. 99-142). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Tashiro, T., & Mortensen, L. (2006). Translational research: How social psychology can improve psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 61, 959-966.

January 29/31 Impression Formation and Attribution

Ash, S. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258-290.

Reeder, G. D. (in press). Positive/negative asymmetry. In R. Baumeister and K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social psychology. Sage Publications.

Krull, D. S., & Erickson, D. J. (1995). Inferential hopscotch: How people draw social inferences from behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4, 35-38.

Knowles, E. D., Morris, M. W., Chiu, C., & Hong, Y. (2001). Culture and the process of person perception. Evidence of automaticity among East-Asians in correcting for situational influences on behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1344-1356.

February 5/7 Automaticity

Bargh, J. A. & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462-479.

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54, 493-503.

February 12/14 Political Attitudes, Power, and Perspective-Taking

Jost, J. T. (2006). The end of the end of ideology. American Psychologist, 61, 651-670.

Reeder, G. D., Pryor, J. B., Wohl, M. J. A., & Griswell, M. L. (2005). On attributing negative motives to others who disagree with our opinions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1498-1510.

Galinski, A. D., Magee, J. C., Inesi, M. E., & Gruenfeld, D. H. (2006). Power and perspectives not taken. Psychological Science, 17, 1068-1074.

February 19/21 Stereotyping and Prejudice I

Fiske, S. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 357-414). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Inzlicht, M., & Ben-Zeev, T. (2000). A threatening intellectual environment: Why females are susceptible to experiencing problem-solving deficits in the presence of males. Psychological Science, 11, 365-371.

February 26/28 Stereotyping and Prejudice II

Crandall, C. S., & Eshleman, A. (2003). A justification-suppression model of expression and experience of prejudice. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 414-446.

Aboud, F. E. , & Levy, S. R. (2000). Interventions to reduce prejudice and discrimination in children and adolescents. In S. Oskamp (Ed.) Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 269-293). Mahwah, N.J: Erlbaum

March 5 Self

Crocker, J. & Park, L. E. (2004). The costly pursuit of self-esteem. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 392-414.

March 7 Midterm Exam

March 12/14 Spring Break!

March 19/21 The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D., & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 656-666.

Hugenberg, K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2003). Facing prejudice: Implicit prejudice and the perception of facial threat. Psychological Science, 14, 640-643.

Rosenthal, R. (1994). Interpersonal expectancy effects: A 30-year perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 176-179.

March 26/28 Gender

Deaux, K., & Lafrance, M. (1998). Gender. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 788-827). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Spelke, E. S. (2005). Sex differences in intrinsic aptitude for mathematics and science?: A critical review. American Psychologist, 60, 950-958.

April 2/4 Close Relationships 1

Clark, M. S., & Pataki, S. P. (1995). Interpersonal processes influencing attraction and relationships. In A. Tesser (Ed.), Advanced social psychology (pp. 283-331). Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill.

Gottman, J., & Silver, N. (1994). Marriage styles: the good, the bad, and the volatile. In M. H. David (Ed.) Annual editions 00/01. Guilford, Conn: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.

April 9/11 Close Relationships 2

Erber, R., & Erber, M. W. (2001). Attachment. In R. Erber and M. W. Wang

Intimate relationships: Issues, theories, and research. (pp. 128-141). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Erber, R., & Erber, M. W. (2001). Sexuality. In R. Erber and M. W. Wang

Intimate relationships: Issues, theories, and research (pp. 142-160). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 573-590.

April 16 Term Paper Due

April 16/18 Aggression

Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002). Human Aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 27-51.

Olweus, D. (1995). Bullying or peer abuse at school: Facts and intervention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 196-200.

April 23/25 Culture

Gelfand, M. J., Nishii, L. H., & Raver, J. L. (2006). On the nature and importance of cultural tightness-looseness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1225-1244.

Wang, Q. (2006). Culture and the development of self-knowledge. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 182-187.

April 30/May 2 Evolutionary Social Psychology

Buss, D. M., & Kenrick, D. T. (1998). Evolutionary social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 982-1026). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Buss, D. M., Larsen, R. J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.

May 7at 1pm. Final Exam