Psychology 2070A-650 (online)
Social Psychology
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
An introduction to the theories, methods, findings, and problems encountered in the study of people as social beings.
Antirequisites: Psychology 2720A/B, 2780E
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Corey Isaacs
Office: SSC 7440
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: cisaacs3@uwo.caIf you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.
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 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Fehr, B., & Akert, R. M. (2017). Social Psychology, Sixth Canadian Edition. Toronto: Pearson
NOTE: Online access to the REVEL etextbook is required to complete the Online Quizzes portion of the course. The looseleaf copy of the textbook is optional and NOT sufficient for this course.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course students should have an understanding of the basic theories, methods, and findings in various areas of social psychology. The topics include attitudes, conformity, aggression, helping behaviour, social relations, social cognition, and prejudice4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, the successful student should be able to:
- Identify key concepts, principles and overarching themes in social psychology.
- Interpret and critically evaluate social psychological research.
- Apply psychological principles to the understanding of everyday problems.
- Communicate accurately, clearly, and logically, in a way that would be broadly understandable to a non-specialist audience.
- Recognize the limits of one’s own knowledge and knowledge in the field of psychology and how this might influence the analysis and interpretations of broader issues.
Work collaboratively with others to achieve a goal.
5.0 EVALUATION
Student evaluation will be based on two exams, weekly chapter quizzes, and online discussions.
|
Component |
% of final grade |
|
Chapter Quizzes |
10% |
|
Online Discussions |
10% |
|
Midterm Exam |
40% |
|
Final Exam |
40% |
5.1 CHAPTER QUIZZES
The textbook for this course (i.e., REVEL Social Psychology) is an online, interactive etextbook, and includes quizzes as part of every chapter. These quizzes are worth 10% of your course grade, based on your best 10 of 11 quiz grades.
The quizzes must be completed by 11:59 pm on the Saturday of the week in which we cover the chapter, and each quiz will be available online two weeks prior to its deadline.
5.2 ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
There will be four online discussions throughout the course, and you will be required to participate in three of the four discussions to earn the Participation component of your course grade.
Your forum grades will be earned based on the quantity and quality of your contributions to these discussions. A successful student in online education is one who takes an active role in the learning process. You are therefore encouraged to participate actively in the discussions to enhance your learning experience throughout the course.
Discussions will be graded for the quality and content of your contribution. Examples of quality posts include:
- providing additional information to the discussion
- elaborating on previous comments from others
- presenting explanations of concepts or methods to help fellow students
- presenting reasons for or against a topic in a persuasive fashion
- sharing your own personal experiences that relate to the topic
- providing a URL and explanation for a topic you researched on the Internet
For each discussion, you will be assigned a grade out of 4 based on your discussion posts. Grades will be assigned as follows:
0 = Incomplete (no posting, question not answered)
1 = Unsatisfactory (minimal contribution, few if any responses to other students)
2 = Satisfactory (discussion topic addressed, minimal contribution to discussion)
3 = Excellent (posting meets all criteria, provides a valuable contribution to discussion)
4 = Outstanding (posting(s) go beyond basic requirements, present additional information from outside the textbook, and interact well with the other students)
Each discussion will be open for seven days, from 12:05 am on Sunday until 11:55 pm the following Saturday (see 7.0 Course Schedule). Once the discussion closes, no more posts can be made. Please post early in the week to avoid last-minute problems, and always back up your work (screenshots of your forum posts are ideal), as “technical difficulties” is NOT an acceptable excuse for missing a discussion deadline.
5.3 EXAMS
Students must complete two exams consisting of multiple-choice questions. The exams are NOT cumulative. See the Course Schedule below for the list of topics and readings covered on each exam.
All exams will be closed-book—no books, notes, cell phones, or aids of any type will be allowed. Please bring a couple of pencils, a good eraser, a watch, and your student identification to the examinations. It is recommended that you do NOT bring items such as laptops, backpacks, textbooks, notes, etc. with you to examinations. At the beginning of every examination, you will be asked to place all such items in a common area in the exam room and neither the instructor nor Western can be responsible for theft, damage, or loss of such items.
5.4 MAKE-UP EXAMS
Tests must be written on the scheduled dates unless you have a legitimate excuse recognized by the university administration. Valid reasons include medical or compassionate reasons, and must be substantiated by proper documentation (e.g., a medical certificate, which will be verified by an Academic Counselor in your Faculty). A student who misses a regularly scheduled exam for other reasons, or who cannot justify a claim, will be assigned a grade of zero for the exam.
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows Western's grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
The Midterm Exam is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27th at 9:00 - 11:00 am and will cover Units 1 - 6 (textbook chapters 1 - 6 and the accompanying OWL modules.
The Final Exam will be held during the December exam period Dec 10-21 (date and time to be announced on the course website) and will cover textbook chapters 7 - 12 and the accompanying online notes.
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
|
Dates |
Chapter |
Topic |
|
Sept. 9 - 15 |
Chapter 1 |
Introduction to Social Psychology |
|
Sept. 16 - 22 |
Chapter 2 |
Methodology: How Social |
|
Sept. 23 - 29 |
Chapter 3 |
Social Cognition: How We |
|
Sept. 30 - Oct. 6 |
Chapter 4 |
Social Perception: How We |
|
Oct. 7 - 13 |
READING WEEK |
|
|
Oct. 14 - 20 |
Chapter 5 |
Self-Knowledge and the |
|
Oct. 21 - 27 |
Chapter 6 |
Attitudes and Attitude Change |
|
Oct. 27, 2018 |
MIDTERM EXAM (Chapters 1 - 6) |
|
|
Oct. 28 - Nov. 3 |
Chapter 7 |
Conformity: Influencing Others |
|
Nov. 4 - 10 |
Chapter 8 |
Group Processes: |
|
Nov. 11 - 17 |
Chapter 9 |
Interpersonal Attraction: From |
|
Nov. 18 - 24 |
Chapter 10 |
Prosocial Behaviour: |
|
Nov. 25 - Dec. 1 |
Chapter 11 |
Aggression: Why Do We |
|
Dec. 2 - 8 |
Chapter 12 |
Prejudice: Causes and Cures |
|
December (TBA Dec 10-21) |
FINAL EXAM (Chapters 7 - 12) |
|
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?Command=showCategory&PolicyCategoryID=1&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2018 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
