Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HCS6376
Term Spring 2010
Meetings Tuesdays 2:30 – 5:15 PM GR 4.208
Course Description
Overview of the social bases of behavior. Topics may include social cognition and self justification, biases in
judgment, attitudes and persuasion, conformity, compliance, and group dynamics, prejudice and stereotyping,
interpersonal attraction and relationships, aggression and altruism, cultural diversity, and applications relevant
to these aspects of the human experience. Special attention to research paradigms of interest to students
developing their own empirical work.
A “discussion question” is usually over several sentences long and can take many different formats: for
example, you can challenge or question methods, ponder the implications of the research presented, suggest a
connection to other research, or mention a specific question that you felt the readings raised but did not address.
You MUST justify your responses. Your questions should not duplicate questions asked by others. The purpose
of these questions is to show that you have read and reflected on the readings as well as to help structure our
discussion about each week’s topic. Your response for each week will be graded out of 5 points. There are 12
classes for responses, with the highest 10 scores averaged for your final grade.
During the course of the semester, you will also be in charge of leading discussion for class at least once. You
will sign up for a day in which you and one other classmate will be in charge of facilitating discussion. Your job
will be to briefly summarize the main points of the reading you signed up to present, and to print out and
organize the discussion posts from your classmates into several main themes for discussion. You will then use
this information to guide the discussion of the readings.
Late policy
Exams and papers are due at the BEGINNING of the class period, and they must be turned in proofread and
typed. After this, penalties are as follows:
Up to 24 hours late 10% deduction
24 to 48 hours late 25% deduction
Grades will also be lowered 10% for assignments that are not typed. FINAL VERSIONS OF PAPERS AND
EXAMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED MORE THAN 48 HOURS AFTER THE DUE DATE.
Extra credit
There will be no individualized extra credit given for this course.
Course website
New assignments, revisions to the syllabus, announcements, and your grades will be posted on the eLearning
site. You can access eLearning through a link on UTD’s main page. When the course site is set up by the
computer center, you will be notified via your UTD email address. You are then responsible for creating an
account on this site and for checking this site frequently (at least twice weekly) in order to remain aware of new
learning activities, announcements, etc. Make sure that you have a UTD email address on this account (see info
below on UTD email policy). Any email to students enrolled in this class will be sent through UTD email.
ACADEMIC CALENDAR
Week Date Topics Assignments Due
1 Jan 12 Introduction to social psychology
2 Jan 19 Self-concept and social comparison
3 Jan 26 Self and social judgment I: Heuristics and biases
4 Feb 2 Self and social judgment II: Awareness and motivated reasoning
5 Feb 9 Self-justification
6 Feb 16 Persuasion
7 Feb 23 Social influence: Obedience and compliance
8 Mar 2 The light side of groups I: Attraction Exam 1 Due
9 Mar 9 The light side of groups II: Relationships
10 Mar 16 SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS
11 Mar 23 The dark side of groups: Aggression
12 Mar 30 Discrimination and stereotyping I
13 Apr 6 Discrimination and stereotyping II
14 Apr 13 Prosocial psychology
15 Apr 20 Applications of social psychology
16 Apr 27 To be determined Exam 2 Due
Note: Your professor reserves the right to revise the schedule for pedagogical reasons.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Important Note: These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor. It is
your responsibility to keep track of changes in the schedule through eLearning and by attending class.
Introduction
The Self
Markus, H. R. & Kunda, Z. (1986). Stability and malleability of the self-concept. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 51, 858-866.
Crocker, J. & Knight, K. M. (2005). Contingencies of self-worth. Current Directions in Psychological Science,
14, 200-203.
Lyubomirsky, S. & Ross, L. (1997). Hedonic consequences of social comparison: A contrast of happy and
unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1141-1157.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124-
1131.
Pronin, E. (2008). How we see ourselves and how we see others. Science, 320, 1177-1180.
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. A. (2008). A mile in moccasins: How situational experience diminishes
dispositionalism in social inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 102-114.
February 2: Self and social judgment II: Awareness and motivated reasoning
Dunning, D., Johnson, K., Ehrlinger, J., & Kruger, J. (2003). Why people fail to recognize their own
incompetence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 83-87.
Bargh, J.A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct
and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230-244.
Balcetis, E., Dunning, D., & Miller, R. L. (2008). Do collectivists know themselves better than individualists?
Cross-cultural studies of the holier than thou phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95,
1252-1267.
Dunning, D., & Story, A. L. (1991). Depression, realism, and the overconfidence effect: Are the sadder wiser
when predicting future actions and events? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 521-532.
February 9: Self-justification
Egan, L. C., Santos, L. R., & Bloom, P. (2007). The origins of cognitive dissonance: Evidence from children
and monkeys. Psychological Science, 18, 978-983.
Lepper, M. R., Corpus, J. H., & Iyengar, S. S. (2005). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations in the
classroom: Age differences and academic correlates. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 184-196.
Strahan, E. J., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna. M. P. (2002). Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron
is hot. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 768-777.
Moses, L. J., & Baldwin, D. A. (2005). What can the study of cognitive development reveal about children’s
ability to appreciate and cope with advertising. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 24, 186-201.
Barden, J., & Petty, R. E. (2008). The mere perception of elaboration creates attitude certainty: Exploring the
thoughtfulness heuristic. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 489-509.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-
378.
Baumrind, D. (1964). Some thoughts on ethics of research. American Psychologist, 19, 421-423.
Griffin, A. M., & Langlois, J. H. (2006). Stereotype directionality and attractiveness stereotyping: Is beauty
good or is ugly bad? Social Cognition, 24, 187-206.
Rudman, L. A., & Heppen, J. B. (2003). Implicit romantic fantasies and women’s interest in personal power: A
Glass Slipper Effect? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1357-1370.
McNulty, J. K., O’Mara, E. M., & Karney, B. R. (2008). Benevolent cognitions as a strategy of relationship
maintenance: ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’… But it is not all small stuff. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 94, 631-646.
Wegner, D. M., Erber, R., & Raymond, P. (1991). Transactive memory in close relationships. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 923-929.
March 23: The dark side of groups: Aggression and not-so-positive group behaviors
Schulz-Hardt, S., Frey, D., Luthgens, C., & Moscovici, S. (2000). Biased information search in group decision
making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 655-669.
Diener, E., Fraser, S. C., & Beaman, A. L. (1976). Effects of deindividuation variables on stealing among
Halloween trick-or-treaters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 178-183.
Cacioppo, J. T., Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2009). Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of
loneliness in a large social network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 977-991.
Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., Wittenbrink, B., Sadler, M. S., & Keesee, T. (2007). Across the thin blue line:
Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 1006-
1023.
Dunham, Y., Baron, A. S., & Banaji, M. R. (2006). From American City to Japanese Village: A cross-cultural
investigation of implicit race attitudes. Child Development, 77, 1268-1281.
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African
Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.
Effron, D. E., Cameron, J. S., & Monin, B. (2009). Endorsing Obama licenses favoring Whites. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 590-593.
Hodson, G., Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2002). Processes in racial discrimination: Differential weighting
of conflicting information. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 460 – 471.
Galinsky, A. D., & Ku, G. (2004). The effects of perspective-taking on prejudice: The moderating role of self-
evaluation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 594 – 604.
Brown, C. S. & Bigler, R. S. (2005). Children’s perceptions of discrimination: A developmental model. Child
Development, 76, 533 – 553.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical
validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410 – 421.
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental
health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193 – 210.
Kahneman, D. Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2006). Would you be happier if you
were richer? A focusing illusion. Science, 312, 1908 – 1910.
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological
Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1 – 31.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2004). Does Psychology make a significant difference in our lives? American Psychologist,
59, 339 – 351.
Latimer, A. E., Rivers, S. E., Rench, T. A., Katulak, N. A., Hicks, A., Hodorowski, J. K., Higgins, E. T., &
Salovey, P. (2008). A field experiment testing the utility of regulatory fit messages for promoting physical
activity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 862-832.
Alexander, C. N., Langer, E. J., Newman, R. I., Chandler, H. M., & Davies, J. L. (1989). Transcendental
meditation, mindfulness, and longevity: An experimental study with the elderly. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 57, 950 – 964.
Cohen, G.L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-
psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307-1310.
Paluck, E. L. (2009). Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: A field experiment in
Rwanda. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 574 – 587.