PSYCHOLOGY
205 - SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Spring, 2019
5th Period, MWF, Room E-117 SMAC
Instructor:
Frank T.
McAndrew E-131 SMC, Ext. 7525 e-mail: fmcandre@knox.edu.
Textbook: Social
Psychology, 13th Ed., by David G.
Myers & Jean M Twenge.
ISBN: 978-1-260-39711-6 (Bound Edition)
ISBN: 978-1-259-91104-0 (Loose Leaf Edition)
Psychology
Department Writing Policy
Psychology
Department Web Page
Implicit
Association Test (IAT)
Encyclopedia
of
Social Psychology
Social
Psychology
Network
Resources
for Teaching Social Psychology
GOALS
OF
THE COURSE:
Psych 205 (Social
Psychology) is a lower level class that assumes that you have already
taken Psychology 100. This is a broad survey of the field of social
psychology, including such topics as attitude change, interpersonal
attraction, social cognition, and aggression. In this class you
will be studying a textbook and reading four scientific journal
articles. You will complete a series of four written assignments
based upon the journal articles. Your learning will be assessed
by the quality of your written work and by a series of four
examinations. Every course that you take is designed to
help you acquire knowledge and skills. This course will help you
achieve the following departmental learning goals:
1) Apply the scientific method to studying the mind, the brain, and
behavior.
2) Understand the basic theoretical approaches and classic empirical
findings of psychology.
3) Effectively communicate with clear, grammatically-correct writing.
The written assignments address goals #2 & #3 above. The
textbook reading and lectures address goals #1 & #2; the exams are
designed to assess how well you have achieved the first two learning
goals.
TOPICS
& CHAPTERS
Introduction
to Social Psychology & its Research Methods (Chapter 1)
The Self
& Personality (Chapter 2)
Social Perception & Cognition
(Chapter 3)
TEST #1 (Friday, April 5)
Attitude
Formation and Change (Chapters 4 & 7)
Prejudice
& Discrimination (Chapter 9 and
pages 401-415)
TEST #2
(Monday, April 22)
Conformity & Obedience
(Chapter 6)
Sex,
Love, & Attraction (Chapter 11 & pp. 135-137)
Helping Behavior (Chapter 12)
TEST #3
(Wednesday, May 8)
Aggression
(Chapter 10)
Territoriality (pdf)
Group
Behavior (Chapter 8)
TEST #4 (Wednesday, May 22)
Your
final grade will be based upon the percentage of total possible points
that you accumulate on the four tests and on four short written
assignments that you will be handing in. Test questions will
be based on both textbook and lecture
materials. No makeup tests will be given without prior permission and a
very good excuse.
Letter
Grades for the course will be assigned as follows:
A
= 93-100%
A- = 90-92%
B+ = 88-89%
B = 83-87%
B- = 80-82%
C+ =
78-79%
C = 73-77%
C- = 70-72%
D+ = 68-69%
D = 63-67%
D- = 60-61%
F = Need I say more?
The
Written Projects:
The written projects will acquaint you with
the way in which social psychologists conduct research and communicate
their results to each other. Journal articles are the primary way
in which psychologists share the results of their research with each
other, and as you progress into higher level psychology courses, you
will spend more time learning about research through these primary
sources. Scientific journal articles are difficult to read if you
have not encountered them before, and it is the goal of the written
assignments in this class to get you acquainted with this type of
reading and to give you practice with interpreting journal
articles. In each assignment, you will read about a social
psychology experiment in an article published in a professional
psychology journal. You will answer a series of short
questions about each article and summarize the “take-home message” from
the article in one clear sentence written in everyday language.
The articles that you read can be downloaded from the class web page,
and the instructions for writing each assignment will be given to you
in class. Each assignment will be worth TEN POINTS toward your
final grade in the course.
PARTICIPATION
IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
By
participating in research projects being conducted in our deprtment,
you can earn bonus points (extra credit). You are free to
particpate in as many studies as you like, and you will earn one point
for each half hour that you participate in. However, no one
will earn
more
than 6 points through research participation. If you
volunteer to
participate in an experiment and fail to show up, one point will be
DEDUCTED from your grade.
To
see the powerpoint slides that were
used in the lectures for this course, click on the picture of the
overhead projector.
