Psychology 80556: Contemporary Social Psychology

Psychology 80556: Contemporary Issues in Social Psychology

SUNY New Paltz

Fall 2K

W 3:30-6:20 pm

Professor: Glenn Geher

* Office: WSB 203 i

* Office hours:

Mondays, 2-4; Tuesdays, 12:20-1:50; Thursdays, 3:30-5;

And by appointment.

* Office phone number: TBD

* Home phone number: TBD

* E-mail: geherg@matrix.newpaltz.edu

* Web address: http://www.newpaltz.edu/~geherg/

Required reading materials:

• Ross, L., & Nisbett, R.E. (1991). The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill.

• Brehm, S.S. (1992). Intimate Relationships. New York: McGraw Hill.

Additional reading materials:

During the course, you will read and discuss relevant primary readings. Specific articles for each class period are assigned in the course calendar for this syllabus; you can obtain these articles via the university’s electronic reserve system (in theory …). Also, you will read and incorporate journal articles in your primary paper assignment; fun!

Course Objectives:

Welcome to Contemporary Issues in Social Psychology! This course is designed to provide you with a sophisticated general understanding of the different areas that comprise social psychology. Areas to be examined include social perception, attribution theory, situationism in social psychology, the historical underpinnings of social psychology, the (often stormy) relationship between social psychology and personality psychology, and more! Further, considerable time will be given to research and theory in social psychology that focus specifically on intimate relationships.

Objective 1: Exposure to content.

One major objective is for you to learn much of the general content of the different topics addressed. For instance, at the end of the term, you should know what social psychological research suggests about behavioral consistency in terms of both reality and perceptions. If all goes according to plan, you should walk away from this course with a detailed understanding of social psychology in general and of social psychological research on intimate relationships specifically. You will also become very familiar with the specific content of the topic you choose for your research project.

To expose you to a thoughtful take on the discipline of social psychology as a whole, you will read Ross and Nisbett’s (1991) The Person and the Situation. While this book is pretty thick reading, it is a high-impact book that captures the fundamental ideas of social psychology as well as any book does. Expect to find yourself taking issue with many of the ideas Ross and Nisbett present. To expose you to an overview of social psychological work pertinent to interpersonal relationships, you will read Sharon Brehm’s (1992) classic: Intimate Relationships. Additionally, you will read several classic primary articles in the field of social psychology.

Objective 2: Development of writing skills.

Several writing assignments will be given across the semester. For some of these assignments, you will have the option of incorporating my comments and rewriting your work. In my experience, I have found this process of rewriting to be the single most important practice in developing students’ writing skills. At the end of the semester, your abilities (a) to articulate your ideas in writing and (b) to write like a psychologist will, hopefully, have improved noticeably.

Objective 3: Development of oral presentation skills.

Class time will primarily be discussion-based. This format should allow you to develop your ability to verbally present your ideas. Also, during the semester, you will give three (ungraded) oral presentations. These experiences should help you to speak clearly, convincingly, and comfortably in group situations.

Objective 4: Learn to think like a social psychologist.

Regardless of the specific content addressed by social psychologists, the way that social psychologists ask questions and design research is, in and of itself, an important part of the discipline. Toward this end, you will be exposed to much of the primary research in social psychology. Further, twice during the semester, you will summarize (both in written and oral formats) current primary research articles in the field. Most importantly, the main assignment in this course is a research proposal; working on this proposal should give you a first-hand experience regarding what it is like to think like a social psychologist.

Course Requirements:

1. Empirical Article Presentations: Twice during the semester, you will present a summary of a current (from no earlier than 1995) empirical article on some topic of social psychology that is pertinent to one of the topics being discussed in class. The dates of presentations will be determined the first day of class. For instance, if you are to present on September 13, you can choose a current empirical article dealing with either (a) interpersonal attraction or (b) the power of the situation. For example, by using Psychinfo, you might turn up the article:

Rowatt, W.C., Cunningham, M.R., & Druen, P. B. (1999). Lying to get a date: The effect of facial physical attractiveness on the willingness to deceive prospective dating partners. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 16, 209-223.

During the final part of each class period, selected students will present methodology and findings from articles relating to topics for that assigned date.

HINT: You might want to choose an article that relates to the topic you will choose for your paper in this course.

A. 2 oral article presentations (5 points each; pass(100%)/no-pass(0%)). During your presentation, you will describe the main points of the article you have chosen. As such, you should outline the:

a. main question being addressed by the research

b. methods used to test the hypotheses

c. results (simply, what do the findings suggest about the hypotheses)

Further, you should bring up questions or concerns you have about any aspect of the article.

Further, to make the course more interesting, you should do at least one of the following during your presentation:

1. Present overhead transparencies summarizing important points of the article (e.g., specific results).

2. Hand out questionnaires and/or stimuli used in the research; this practice will allow people to comment specifically on the actual research.

3. Design an in-class activity intended to replicate some finding from the study using the students in class as participants. If you choose this option, you are required to discuss the activity with me beforehand to ensure that the activity meets the exempt status of the university IRB protocol.

Additionally, you need to Xerox a copy of the abstract for each student in the class and hand these out before your presentation.

B. Written summary of articles (5 points each; graded; due the date of your presentation). You need to summarize the main points of the article you choose (in no more than one page). You should also offer some commentary speaking to both the relevance of the article and your opinion of the article.

* You may hand in a rewrite of this assignment after it is handed back; your grade can only improve. Rewrites are due exactly one week after the paper is initially handed back. You are required to hand in the initial paper with my comments.

2. Paper assignment: Research Proposal in Social Psychology.

The paper for this course will be a social psychological research proposal outlining a study you would potentially like to conduct in the field. This paper will include an extensive literature review on your topic. Basically, you need to choose a specific question related to social psychology. Then you need to review literature that relates to that question and come up with a unique study that would elaborate on the research in that area of social psychology. Your paper needs to be in APA format.

For instance, you may be curious about whether it is true that “opposites attract” (i.e., people choose partners whose characteristics complement their own). A great deal of research has addressed this particular topic. You would need to find out what that research has found in addition to how that research has been organized. Next, importantly, you would need to find some unique question that has not been addressed in that existing literature; this question would serve as the impetus for your research.

You should organize your paper into different sections including a title page, an abstract, a literature review, an introduction to the proposed research (where you provide a rationale for the research you would conduct; importantly, this rationale needs to be set in the context of previous research), a proposed method section, a “planned analyses” section where you summarize expected findings, a discussion, and references section.

Your paper will include the following five steps:

A. General Topic (5 points; pass(100%)/no-pass(0%)).

In a few sentences, describe a SPECIFIC area of social psychology that your research will address.

For instance, in the above example, you would hand in something like the following:

Topic: Whether opposites really attract.

I am interested in whether social psychological research supports the idea that, when it comes to mate selection, opposites attract. Also, does choosing a partner who is very dissimilar from oneself lead to unhappiness in relationships? After finding what previous researchers have found on this topic, I will come up with a research question to elaborate on the previous research.

B. Reference list (5 points; graded).

You need to provide a reference list IN APA FORMAT including at least 15 articles that you are likely to include in your review. Importantly, sources need to be from scientific journals or books; NOT THE INTERNET. It should look something like this (but with references pertaining to YOUR topic):

References

Ainsworth, M.D.S., Blehar, M.C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Aron, R. (1974). Relationships with opposite-sexed parents and mate choice. Human Relations, 27, 17-24.

Brown, J.D. (1986). Evaluations of self and others: Self-enhancement biases in social judgments. Social Cognition, 4(4), 353-376.

Buss, D. (1988). The evolution of human intrasexual competition: Tactics of mate attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(4), 616-628.

Cattell, R.B., & Nesselroade, J.R. (1967). Likeness and completeness theories examined by 16 personality factor measures on stably and unstably married couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7, 351-361.

... etc.

C. Brief Paper Proposal (in Abstract form) (10 points; graded).

This paper will basically be a “proposal for your proposal.” Here you need to describe how your paper will be organized in addition to the primary question that your research will address. Hopefully, after you have examined the literature associated with your topic, you should have a sense of a study you would like to design. Here you need to briefly summarize the nature of the research that will be proposed (in addition to how it relates to some extant research). The abstract should be ONE LONG PARAGRAPH (no longer than a page). Your abstract should serve as a brief description of your paper.

D. Draft (10 points; pass(100%)/no-pass(0%)).

This draft of the paper should be a relatively complete attempt at the paper assignment (approximately 15 pages including cover page and references). The further along the paper is, the more useful my feedback will be.

E. Final paper (30 points; graded).

You MUST include the rough draft with my comments in addition to the final paper. To be considered an ‘A’ paper, the paper must be completely in APA format, clearly written, well-thought out, free of standard grammatical errors, and it must clearly reflect comments I made on your draft.

3. Five Essays (3 points each; 15 points total; graded).

In this syllabus are essay questions associated with each chapter that you will read from both Brehm (1992) and Ross and Nisbett (1991). There are 16 essay questions total. You are required to write and hand in 5 of these 16 essays; choose essays that strike you as particularly interesting. Essays are due the day that the readings with which they correspond are due. For instance, if you choose to write an essay on Brehm’s chapter 1, which we will discuss in class on 9-6, be sure to hand in that essay at the beginning of that class period. The essays you choose are totally up to you -- but: BE WARNED, you are also responsible for budgeting your essays so that you do not find yourself in the position of not having done enough when it is too late. These assignments exist in lieu of any examinations.

4. Paper presentation (5 points; pass(100%)/no-pass(0%)).

During one of the last two weeks, you will be asked to give an oral summary of your paper for this course. Presentations should be, approximately, between 15 and 30 minutes. This assignment is designed to provide you with important experience in presenting your ideas to others; you will not be graded on this assignment (i.e., simply giving a presentation will provide you with full credit).

As with your empirical article presentations, you should do at least one of the following during your presentation:

1. Present overhead transparencies summarizing important points (e.g., specific expected results).

2. Hand out questionnaires and/or stimuli that would be used in the research; this practice will allow people to comment specifically on the actual research.

3. Design an in-class activity intended to replicate some expected finding from the study using the students in class as participants. If you choose this option, you are required to discuss the activity with me beforehand to ensure that the activity meets the exempt status of the university IRB protocol.

Grading: Grades for all assignments will be on a scale from 0 to 100. The following equation will be used to determine your final grade:

* Final grade =

(Empirical Article Presentation1 (oral half) * .05) +

(Empirical Article Presentation1 (write-up) * .05) +

(Empirical Article Presentation2 (oral half) * .05) +

(Empirical Article Presentation2 (write-up) * .05) +

(Essay1 * .03)+

(Essay2 * .03)+

(Essay3 * .03)+

(Essay4 * .03)+

(Essay5 * .03)+

(Paper Topic * .05) +

(Reference list * .05) +

(Abstract * .10) +

(Draft * .10) +

(Paper * .30) +

(Paper Presentation * .05)

Your final grade will be on a scale from 0 to 100. Final grades will be converted to letter grades using the following criteria:

94 - 100 = A

90 - 93 = A-

87 - 89 = B+

84 - 86 = B

80 - 83 = B-

77 - 79 = C+

74 - 76 = C

70 - 73 = C-

67 - 69 = D+

64 - 66 = D

60 - 63 = D-

Below 60 = F

Course Calendar (Assignments)

Date Topic

8-30 Welcome to Class: General overview of Social Psychology and Interpersonal Relations.

9-6 DUE: General Topic, essays, and article summaries.

A. Overview of issues surrounding

relationships today.

B. General issues surrounding the

person/situation.

C. Article Presentations.