Download PSYC 1016 Social Psychology - Description

BARTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
COURSE SYLLABUS
SPRING 2006
I.
GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION
Course Number:
PSYC 1016
Course Title:
Social Psychology
Credit Hours:
3
Prerequisite:
PSYC 1000 General Psychology with a grade of C or better
Division and Discipline: Liberal Arts and Sciences/Psychology
Course Description:
This course will be concerned with the forces on individual
and group behavior in social situations. Topics will include the creation of attitudes and
prejudice, persuasion and conformity, obedience to authority, group decision making,
theories of aggression and altruism, social cognition and perception, and interpersonal
attraction.
II.
CLASSROOM POLICY
Students and faculty of Barton Community College constitute a special community engaged
in the process of education. The college assumes that its students and faculty will
demonstrate a code of personal honor that is based upon courtesy, integrity, common sense,
and respect for others both within and outside the classroom.
The College reserves the right to suspend a student for conduct that is detrimental to the
College’s educational endeavors as outlined in the College Catalog.
Plagiarism on any academic endeavors at Barton Community College will not be tolerated.
Learn the rules of, and avoid instances of, intentional or unintentional plagiarism.
Anyone seeking an accommodation under provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act
should notify Student Support Services.
III.
COURSE AS VIEWED IN THE TOTAL CURRICULUM
While often confused with sociology, social psychology offers a unique perspective different
from either sociology (by its focus on the individual) or mainstream psychological thought
(because it emphasizes the power of the situation). Because of this unique perspective, a
course in social psychology has much to offer psychology majors, sociology majors, business
majors, and all who seek to understand and appreciate the complexity of human behavior.
IV.
ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING/COURSE OUTCOMES
Barton Community College is committed to the assessment of student learning and to quality
education. Assessment activities provide a means to develop an understanding of how
students learn, what they know, and what they can do with their knowledge. Results from
these various activities guide Barton, as a learning college, in finding ways to improve
student learning.
Once this course is successfully completed, the student should:
1. Have an appreciation of how social psychologists conduct scientific experiments; and
how experimental results are used to develop theories.
2. Have an understanding of how social beliefs are formed and sustained.
3. Have achieved a greater understanding of such social behaviors as conformity,
persuasion, altruism, aggression, attraction, prejudice, and conflict.
4. Appreciate the application of social psychology to such situations as the therapeutic
situation, the courtroom; law, business, and health.
V.
COURSE COMPETENCIES
1. Define social psychology. Identify the kinds of questions that social psychologists try to
answer.
2. Explain how social psychology differs from sociology and other fields of psychology.
Explain how social psychology findings may be distinguished from common sense.
3. Describe the early origins of social psychology. State the field up until 1950. Identify
when the field of social psychology became a separate field of study, who the founders
are considered to be, and the incident that inspired interest in and shaped the field of
social psychology. Explain the contributions made by Allprot, Sherif, and Lewin.
4. Distinguish between social psychology perspectives that emphasize “hot” versus “cold”
approaches to understanding human behavior. Define social cognition. Summarize the
increasing effort in social psychology to develop an international and multicultural
perspective.
5. Explain the utility of learning about research methods in social psychology. Describe the
process of generating ideas in social psychology, searching the relevant literature, and
developing hypotheses. Distinguish between hypothesis and a theory, and between
applied and basic research.
6. Explain the usefulness of surveys. Define random sampling, and explain its importance.
7. Contrast correlation research with descriptive research. Define the correlation coefficient,
and explain what it means to say that two variables are negatively correlated, positively
correlated, or uncorrelated. Summarize the advantages and important disadvantages and
an important disadvantage of co relational research.
8. Explain the importance of control and random assignment in experimental research.
Differentiate random sampling from random assignment, and laboratory experiments
from field experiments.
9. Define the following terms associated with experimental research: independent variable,
dependent variable, control group, and experimental group.
10. Discuss the function of ethics in social psychological research. Describe the roles of
institutional review boards, informed consent, and debriefing in protecting the welfare of
human participants.
11. Identify which animals are capable of recognizing themselves, and the age when selfrecognition occurs in humans. Explain the role of self-recognition and the role of others
in the development of the self-concept. Distinguish between sources of self-concept and
components of self-concept.
12. Describe self-perception theory, and explain how it can be used to understand emotion,
behavior, and motivation. Define the over justification effect, compare and contract
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and identify factors that can influence the effect of
extrinsic factors on intrinsic motivation.
13. Summarize social comparison theory, identifying when people tend to engage in social
comparison and with whom they tend to compare themselves. Explain the two-factor
theory of emotion. Identify situations in which social context does not influence
interpretation of unclear emotional states.
14. Explain how our self-concept influences our memories.
15. Identify four ways that people strive for self-enhancement and discuss the implications of
self-enhancement for mental health.
16. Describe self-presentation. Compare and contrast strategic self-presentation and selfverification.
17. Define social perception.
18. Describe the impact of appearance on people’s perceptions of others.
19. Explain how people use nonverbal cues to judge others. Identify the six “primary”
emotions. Summarize the research concerning perception of angry faces. Discuss the
roles of other nonverbal cues, including body language, eye contact, and touch.
20. Describe people’s ability to detect deception. Contract the channels of communication
that are most likely to reveal that someone is lying with the channels that perceivers
typically try to use to detect deception.
21. Define dispositions and attributes. Distinguish between personal and situational
attributes.
22. Describe cognitive heuristics in general and the availability heuristic in particular.
Explain how the availability heuristic can give rise to the false-consensus effect. Describe
the base-rate fallacy. Define counterfactual thinking and identify when it is likely to
occur
23. Define the fundamental attribution error. Describe the factors that make the Fundamental
attribution error less likely to occur.
24. Explain how attribution biases may stem from motivational factors, such as the desire to
take more credit for success than for failure. Define what is meant by the “belief in a just
world.”
25. Define implicit personality theory. Explain how people’s implicit personality theories
affect their impressions of other people. Describe the effects of central traits and the
primacy effect on these impressions.
26. Define the confirmation bias. Describe how belief perseverance, confirmatory hypothesis
testing, and the self-fulfilling prophecy can each contribute to this bias and identify which
factors can reduce the likelihood that these effects will occur.
27. Define discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes. Explain the different mechanisms by
which stereotypes from. Describe social categorization and the ingroup/outgroup
distinction. Discuss advantages and disadvantages of social categorization. Delineate
sociocultural and motivational factors that can influence social categorization.
28. Describe how stereotypes distort perceptions of individuals.
29. Describe how the mechanisms of illusory correlations, attributional processes, subtyping,
and confirmation biases help perpetuate stereotypes.
30. Describe the Robbers Cave study and explain the significance of its results.
31. Explain realistic conflict theory and relative deprivation.
32. Describe way in which gender stereotypes are strengthened and maintained. Describe the
impact of the media on gender stereotyping and explain social role theory. Explain
whether sex discrimination currently exists and, if so, in what way.
33. Explain modern racism and describe procedures that can be used to uncover it.
34. Explain the contact hypothesis and identify the conditions that enable intergroup contact
to reduce prejudice.
35. Describe how attitudes are defined and how they are measured. Address both self-report
and covert techniques.
36. Discuss how attitudes are related to behaviors. Explain what types of attitudes are most
likely to predict behavior, and under what circumstances.
37. Define the peripheral and central routes to persuasion, and explain their differences.
Describe how persuasion differs in the two routes. Explain how self-esteem and
intelligence are related to persuasion. Identify factors that influence which route of
processing is chosen.
38. Explain how the source of a persuasive message affects whether people are likely to be
persuaded by the message.
39. Explain how the content of a message can affect whether people are persuaded by it.
Compare primacy and recency effects. Describe how both the cognitive and emotional
contents of a message affect its persuasiveness.
40. 40. Explain how characteristics of the audience can moderate the extent to which it is
persuaded by a message. Describe how forewarning and inoculating the audience may
affect levels of persuasion.
41. Explain the elements of the classic version of cognitive dissonance theory.
42. Define social influence. Define, compare, and contrast conformity, compliance, and
obedience.
43. Compare normative with informational influence and public with private conformity.
44. Identify and explain each of the factors that have been shown to affect levels of
conformity, including group size, awareness of norms, having al ally, age, sex, and
cultural influences. identify factors that distinguish collectivistic from individualistic
cultures.
45. Differentiate between majority and minority influence. Explain how to account for the
effects of minority influence, and how majorities and minorities exert pressure to effect
people’s behavior.
46. Define and explain the sequential request strategies known as the foot-in-the door
technique, low-balling, the door-in-the fact technique, and the that’s-not-all technique.
Explain why each works. Address how to resist these strategies
47. Explain blind obedience. Describe the procedures used in Milgram’s research on
obedience to authority. Compare the predictions made about how participants would
behave to what actually happened. Summarize how each of the following affected levels
of obedience in the study: participants (e.g., their sex, personality), authority figure (e.g.,
his or her prestige, presence), proximity of victim, and experimental procedure (e.g., the
roles of responsibility and gradual escalation).
48. Distinguish between a group and a collective. Explain how the presence of others affects
people’s performance on easy and hard tasks, and how Zajonc accounts for these effects.
Describe three alternative accounts for this phenomenon
49. Describe how working with others on a task affects people’s productivity. Identify factors
that can reduce the likelihood that people will engage in social loafing. Explain how the
presence of others can lead to increased arousal and social facilitation or decreased
arousal and social loafing, depending of whether each member of the group is evaluated
separately, or the group is evaluated as a whole.
50. Define deindividuation. Explain how being in a crown can lead people to engage in
destructive behaviors. Describe how environmental cues and a sense of identity can affect
this process.
51. Describe group polarization and delineate the processes that can create it.
52. Define groupthink. Describe its antecedents, behavioral symptoms, and consequences.
Explicate recent work on groupthink addressing the role of cohesiveness and personality
of group members. Address how groupthink can be prevented.
53. Explain how GRIT, negotiating, and finding common ground can lead to the reduction of
group conflict. Distinguish between an arbitrator and a mediator.
54. Explain the need to belong. Describe social anxiety and the need for affiliation. Address
the relationship between affiliation and stress.
55. Summarize the social difficulties of shyness and loneliness.
56. Explain the role of rewards in interpersonal attraction. Describe the role of familiarity in
attraction, making reference to the proximity and mere exposure effects.
57. Discuss reasons for people’s bias toward beauty. Describe the what-is-beautiful-is-good
stereotype and why it endures. Explain the benefits and costs of beauty.
58. Explain the influence of similarity and dissimilarity on attractiveness. Describe the
matching and complementarity hypotheses. Discuss the role of reciprocity in
relationships.
59. Define intimate relationships and explain how they develop.
60. Explain social exchange theory. Describe the influence of comparison level, comparison
level alternative, and investment on perceptions of and commitment to relationships.
Explain equity theory.
61. Summarize different approaches to classifying love. Describe Lee’s love styles,
Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, and Hatfield’s distinction between passionate and
companionate love.
62. Discuss differences between the sexes regarding sexuality. Define jealousy, and address
the influences of gender on jealousy and reactions to jealousy.
63. Explain how evolutionary theory accounts for helping behaviors.
64. Compare and contrast egoistic and altruistic motives for helping. Explain the empathyaltruism hypothesis. Identify the factor that helps reveal whether egoistic or altruistic
motives are present. Delineate why a distinction between types of motives is important.
Discuss how external rewards can influence helping.
65. Explain how being in a group of people affects the likelihood that helping behavior will
occur. Also explain how being in a group affects the ability of people to notice whether
help is needed, to interpret an ambiguous helping situation, and to take responsibility for
helping. Identify additional factors that influence the helping behavior of individuals in a
group. Define the “bystander effect.”
66. Explain how the interaction between the person in need and the helper affects helping.
Identify how similarity, closeness, and gender affect helping.
67. Explain why help is sometimes seen as threatening and sometimes seen as supportive by
those receiving it. Describe the situations in which people are most likely as well as least
likely to seek help from others.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
INSTRUCTOR'S EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS IN CLASS
TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER REQUIRED MATERIALS
REFERENCES
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS
COURSE OUTLINE