Sociology 2234E: Social Psychology

UWO, Section 650 (on-line)Summer 2012 (Revised)

Prof. Tom Murphy

Phone/Voice Mail 661-2111, ext. 85145 Email: trmurphy@uwo.ca

Important: Unless you have the prerequisites for this course (either Soc. 1020 or 1021) or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you will be removed from this courseand it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive noadjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have thenecessary prerequisites. Please note that Soc 2233E is an anti-requisite.

Course Objectives:

This course will beexploring social

psychology in itsvarious dimensions,

with particular attention beingpaid to relevant social psychological features of Canadian society. We will,over the course of the summer, gain abetter understanding of verbal andnon-verbal modes of communication, the formation of attitudes--both posi-tive and prejudicial, the development

of the self and how that is expressedthrough personal and cultural identities,the nature of love and loneliness,compliance and obedience, aggression and violence, cooperation and conflict,and how to win friends and influencepeople. The subject matter of socialpsychology lends itself to a highdegree of interactive discussion,which, being an on-line course, willoccur primarily through theDiscussion Board.

Evaluation:

Discussion Board Mini-Essays, 1st term (3 x 5%) 15%*Discussion Board Mini-Essays, 2nd term (3 x 5%) 15%*Discussion Board replies participation 1st term 5%Discussion Board replies participation 2 term 5%nd

Midterm Exam (80-90 M/C questions) June 16th 25%Final exam (80-90 M/C questions) Exam Period 35%

* Details on both Mini-essay postings and on-line replies participation are available on the courseWeb-CT site.

The Discussion (Mini-Essay) Board

This is a designated essay course, but rather than put all of your efforts into writing one ortwo big essays, I have found that students learn much more by writing a series of small essays ona number of topics. This is particularly effective for an on-line course because it gives yousomething to work on as you are learning the material. I have also found that doing a number ofmini-essays improves students’ exam marks. It also creates a forum for discussion with yourfellow students about the material which also enhances learning, and makes the course moreinteractive.

There will be 4 mini-essay topics per term (as defined in this syllabus) to choose from,and you must do a minimum of 3 in each term. If you do all 4 in each term, your best 3 markswill be used. You cannot carry mini-essays over to the second term. Each term is markedseparately.

You will be required to submit each mini-essay to Turnitin.com, and you must do soat the same time as you post your mini-essay to the Discussion Board. The time stamp on theDiscussion Board will be used to assess whether a mini-essay is submitted on time, but it will notbe marked unless it also is submitted to Turnitin.com. The Turnitin submission page is built intoWeb-CT and is no more complicated than sending an e-mail attachment.

You will also be expected to make a minimum of 5 replies to each of the mini-essaysof your fellow students, including replying to the one topic you may not have written on ineach term. That is, you need to post 20 replies per term (or 40 in total). A reply is consideredto be a least a paragraph response to what another person has written, and each reply must beunique.

Rules of discussion will be posted on the Board, but the expectation is that everyone willbe respectful of others. No flaming, no foul language, no personal attacks, and no sexism orracism please.

To access the Discussion Board, please click on the Discussions which you will see onthe left column. For each mini-essay, please carefully note the deadlines, and what is required todo that particular topic.

Textbooks Some additional articlesare posted on the Web-CTsite.

The main text on your left isauthored by Elliott Aronsonet. al. This is the 4th

Canadian edition. TheReader on the right is editedby Wayne Lesko, and this isthe 7 edition. th

Steps to Success in this Course

In the general course outline which follows, the dates are provided as aguide to help you organize your studies. Every day is utilized, without respect toweekends, holidays, or religious observances. Since this is not a classroombased course, you are free to organize your time according to your schedule,but beware: getting behind is dangerous. Most people who fail this course doso because they do not keep up with the course as we move along.

If you have not taken an on-line course before (or even if you have), pleasefollow these steps to success:

1. Allocate at least an hour per day, every day, to the readings. The Aronsontextbook is 500 pages, and we cover all of it. There is another 300 pages orreadings assigned in Lesko. That’s 800 pages in total. There are roughly 80 days inthe course. So that works out to about 10 pages per day, starting the first day of thecourse. Ten pages is easy if you do it daily. If you don’t start for another week,you will already be 70 pages behind and it is hard to catch up.

2. Allocate at least 4 hours per week for writing the mini-essays and the replies toothers. If you want to do well on the mini-essays, they cannot be thrown togetherat the last minute. They should be written with care, well edited, with goodspelling and grammar, and meet the requirements of the assignment.

3. Always submit your work on time. There is a 10% late penalty per day for latework. (Just to be clear, the mini-essays are marked out of 10. The first day late,you lose 1 point, the second, 2 points, etc.). This is a needless loss of marks. Thereare no extensions except for documented compassionate or health reasons.

4. You can get a perfect 10 out of 10 simply by submitting a minimum of fiveunique replies to each of the 8 mini-essay topics. So long as you are responding towhat has been written, and are making a thoughtful contribution to the debate, youwill get full credit for the reply. Again, you must do so by the deadlines set. Thereare no extensions.

5. Check into the Web-CT site daily. I frequently post announcements there, andthis is my main mechanism for communicating with you collectively. There is alsoa place on the discussion board where you can have open discussion with eachother.

6. If you need help, ask. I will be available though e-mail, and if you live in theLondon area, I would be happy to set up an appointment to see you on campus.

General Course Outline

Lecture outlines, video clips, and other Web based readings and material will be available through the course

WebCT site. Aronson refers to Social Psychology. Lesko refers to the reader, Readings in Social Psychology.

First Term

Unit 1. May 7-9 Introduction and Overview: First ImpressionsAronson, Preface and About the Authors; Lesko, A Note to the Reader

Unit 2. May 10-13: Understanding Social Psychology: Influences and Construals

Aronson, Ch. 1; Lesko, Articles 4 & 5

Unit 3. May 14-16: Doing Social Psychology I: Theories and MethodsAronson, Ch. 2 (28-40); Lesko, Articles 1 & 3

Unit 4. May 17-20: Doing Social Psychology II: Experiments and TechniquesAronson, Ch. 2 (41-55); Lesko, Article 2

Unit 5. May 21-23: Cognition, Schemas, and HeuristicsAronson, Ch. 3; Lesko, Article 7 & 8

Unit 6. May 24-27: Language and Communication: Non Verbal and VerbalAronson, Ch. 4 (89-100); Lesko, Article 6

Unit 7. May 28-30 Attributions and ImpressionsAronson, Ch. 4 (100-123); Lesko, Article 9

Unit 8. May 31-3: Understanding Our SelfAronson, Ch. 5 (125-141); Lesko, Articles 13 & 14

Unit 9. June 4-6: Self-Evaluation and Self-EsteemAronson, Ch. 5 (141 -151); Lesko, Article 15

Unit 10. June 7-10: Attitudes and Attitude ChangeAronson, Ch. 6 (153-163); Lesko, Articles 10 & 11

Unit 11. June 11-12: Cognitive DissonanceAronson, Ch. 6 (174-189-173 ); Lesko, Article 12

Unit 12. Jun 13-14: Persuasion and PropagandaAronson, Ch. 6, 163-173; WebCT* (Understanding Propaganda link)

Midterm Exam: Saturday, June 16

Second Term

Unit 13. June 18-20: ConformityAronson, Ch. 7 (191-216); Lesko, Article 27

Unit 14. June 21-24: Compliance and ObedienceAronson, Ch. 7 (216-229); Lesko, Articles 25 & 26, Web CT: Jerry Burger (Replicating Milgram)

Unit 15. June 25-27: The Nature of Groups, Leadership and Decision MakingAronson, Ch. 8; Lesko, Articles 34 & 36

Unit 16. June 28-30: Social Psychology of Justice and the LawAronson, Action 3 (467-500); Lesko, Articles 40, 41, & 42

Unit 17. July 2-4: Prejudice and Discrimination Aronson, Ch. 12; Lesko, Articles 16 & 18

Unit 18: July 5-18: Falling in LoveAronson, Ch. 9 (265-285); Lesko, Articles 19 & 20WebCT* Berger and Kellner (Social Construction of Marriage)

Unit 19: July 9-11: Falling Out of LoveAronson, Ch. 9 (285-303); Lesko, Articles 22 & 23WebCT* Diane Vaughn (Coupling and Uncoupling)

Unit 20: July 12-15: Aggression (Anti-social behaviour)Aronson, Ch. 11; Lesko, Articles 31 & 33

Unit 21: July 16-18: Altruism (Pro-social behaviour)Aronson, Ch. 10; Lesko, Articles 29 & 30

Unit 22: July 19-22: Social Psychology of Health and IllnessAronson, Action 1 (436-465); Lesko, Articles 43& 44

Unit 23: July 23-25: Social Psychology of the EnvironmentAronson, Action 2 (419-433)

July 26-July 29: Review and Exam Preparation

Final Exam Period: July 30 -August 2 th

This on-line class has one key rule:

People are sacred; ideas are not.My goal is to create a safe space on-line where all ideas can be discussed

respectfully.

Important University Regulations which you should be familiar with:

Laptops (this and the regulation below do not apply on-line)Laptops are permitted in class at the discretion of the professor for note taking or any otherpurpose approved by the professor. If, however, they are used for personal purposes duringclass time (Facebook, e-mail, web surfing, gaming, etc.) the privilege of using laptops may bewithdrawn. Using laptops is a privilege, not a right.

Cellphones, Blackberries, and similar devices Cellphones , Blackberries, and similar devices, must be turned OFF (not just vibrate) duringclasses unless specific permission is sought for emergency purposes in a given class. Textmessaging and Twittering are not permitted during class.

PlagiarismStudents must write their essays and assignments and WebCT postings in their own words.Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledgetheir debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such asfootnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy inthe Western Academic Calendar).

Plagiarism CheckingAll required papers, including WebCT postings, may be subject to submission for textualsimilarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University.All papers submitted will be included as source documents in the reference database for thepurpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of theservice is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of WesternOntario and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com).

Scantron ExamsComputer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission forsimilarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns thatmay indicate cheating.

Missed Exams and Late AssignmentsYou should understand that academic accommodation will not be granted automatically onrequest. If, due to medical illness, you cannot write a test or exam, or submit an assignment bythe due date, it is your responsibility to follow the University’s new “Policy on Accommodationfor Medical Illness”. This policy can be accessed at:http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf

Compassionate GroundsIn case of the serious illness of a family member, inform your instructor as soon as possible andsubmit a medical certificate from the family member's physician to your home faculty’sAcademic Counselling office.

In case of a death of a family member, inform your instructor as soon as possible and submit acopy of the newspaper notice, death certificate or documentation provided by the funeraldirector to your home faculty’s Academic Counselling office.

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 661-2111 x 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

Social Science