Psychology 2070B-200 (blended)

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, techniques 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.

3 lecture hours, 0.5 course

 

2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor: Erin Heerey

Office: SSC 6322

Phone number: (519) 661-2111 ext. 86917

Office hours: By appointment only

Email: eheerey@uwo.ca

Teaching Assistant: Josh Patenaude

Office: SSC 6313

Office hours: Tuesdays, 11:00 – 13:00EST

Email: jpatena3@uwo.ca

 

CLASS WEBSITE

The course website will host all lecture content and is available at: https://owl.uwo.ca/

Students will also require the text and a MindTap subscription (bundled with the text).

 

TIME AND LOCATION OF LECTURES

Lecture: Thursdays, 11:30-13:30, Health Sciences Building (HSB) 40 + online content

 

CLASS FORMAT

Thursday classes: These classes will consist of a lecture on the weekly topic, focusing on specific issues that relate to social psychology.

Online content: Online content will include additional lecture material, deeper dives into specific content and critical reviews of course material.                                                                                   

If 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

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Marcus, H. R. (2017). Social Psychology, 10th Edition (Loose Leaf with MindTap). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning (https://bookstore.uwo.ca/textbook-search?campus=UWO&term=W2018B&courses%5B0%5D=200_UW/PSY2070B)

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 prejudice.

   4.1    STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES 

By the end of the term, students should have developed the following skills:

Learning Outcome

Learning Activity

Assessment

Depth and Breadth of Knowledge.

Understand ways in which social psychological processes occur in daily life, such as how people perceive themselves and others and how they interact with the surrounding environment

 

 

Lecture; Readings

 

Multiple choice exams; Class participation

Examine social psychology from an empirically-based, scholarly perspective, rather than from an intuitive or speculative perspective based solely on personal experience and observations

 

Lecture; Readings

Multiple choice exams; Class participation

Application of Knowledge.

Interpret social psychological situations in order to make predictions about behaviour

 

 

Lecture; Online content

 

Multiple choice exams; Class participation

Apply concepts and theories in social psychology to novel examples of behaviours and situations

 

Lecture; Online content

 

Multiple choice exams; Class participation

Application of Methodologies.

Explain the scientific study of social psychology to a non-academic/non-psychologist

 

 

Lecture; Online content

 

 

Multiple choice exams; Class participation

Awareness of Limits of Knowledge.

Identify and think critically about weakness in social psychology research methods

 

 

Lecture; Online content; SONA participation

 

 

Multiple choice exams; Class participation

 

5.0     EVALUATION

SYLLABUS QUIZ (1%)

All the procedural information about the class is contained in the syllabus. The instructor will review major points but it is your responsibility to read the syllabus (as posted to the OWL site) to ensure that you know what to expect for the class and marking. To reward you for engaging in this process, you will receive 1% of the course mark (2 points) if you achieve 80% or more on a short quiz assessing information you should have learned from the syllabus. If you do not take the quiz before the deadline or if you get less than 80%, you will receive 0% (0 points) for this item. This quiz must be completed by Thursday 24 January (17:00 or 5:00PM Eastern Standard Time). You may take the quiz only once and once you complete a question, you may not return to it. Late quizzes will receive 0%. Because you have two weeks to complete the quiz and because it is worth less than 10% of the course mark, there will be no accommodation for any reason. Note that the quiz site will be external to OWL so you must enter your student IDs and name correctly in order to receive credit. The syllabus quiz is open book (as is the case with any non-proctored quiz). However, you will have a maximum of 60 seconds to complete each item so please be sure that you have read the syllabus before beginning the quiz.

MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS (94%)

Course evaluation will consist of three multiple-choice examinations, worth a total of 94% of the final grade. Exam 1 (12%) will consist of 24 items. Exam 2 (24%) will comprise 48 multiple-choice questions. Exam 3 (58%) is worth 116 points (90 items); Exam 3 is cumulative. Exam items will assess a range of skills including general knowledge of course material, application of course material to real-world scenarios, interpretation of and critical thinking about social psychological findings and understanding of social psychology theories. The items will not be directly drawn from any test-bank. To prepare for the exams, please do your best to learn and understand the course content. Anything presented in any of the course materials may be tested on the exams. The midterms will take place during normal class time. The Exam 3 will occur during the final exam period in April. Because Exam 3 is cumulative, make-up exams will NOT be offered for Exams 1 and 2. A make-up exam will be offered for Exam 3. It will take place after the originally scheduled exam and the exact time/date will be announced once the final exam schedule has been released.

What to do if you need to miss an exam: You must seek accommodation with academic counselling by providing the course details, exam date and adequate documentation of your excuse (please do not pass excuse documentation to the course staff). If your accommodation is approved, you and the academic counsellor should contact me via email. If you miss Exam 1 and have an approved accommodation, I will assign you an Exam 1 score based on your grade on the Exam 3 questions that cover the same material as Exam 1. I will make a similar adjustment for Exam 2, again using the Exam 3 questions that cover the same material as those on Exam 2. If you miss both Exam 3 and the make-up exam as scheduled, assuming you have a valid accommodation, I will offer you the opportunity to take an incomplete grade. You may then complete the final exam for 2070B-200 when it is next offered (Winter 2019/2020), with the understanding that the course content, and therefore the final exam content, may shift and/or be updated during the intervening time period.

CLASS PARTICIPATION (5%)

Each class period (starting in week 2 but excluding weeks 5 and 10 – see schedule below), I will take attendance using the required MindTap App at a random point during the lecture. The app uses geo-location technology so, unless you are a very good hacker, you must be present in class to receive credit for that day. I will also post poll and quiz questions that will count toward your participation mark for a given day. To receive credit for a day, you must respond to the attendance form and at least 2 of the additional items. These additional items you will also answer/respond to using MindTap. There are a total of nine weeks in which I will take attendance. To receive 100% of the attendance mark, you must attend/participate during at least seven of these class periods (worth 10 points total; updated in the OWL gradebook every 2-3 weeks). This means that if you forget your connected device or miss class once or twice, you do not need to worry. Because you may skip the participation component of the class occasionally without penalty and because each missed class is worth less than 1% of the total grade, I will not accept any accommodations or excuses for absences.  

Please note that I do not adjust marks on the basis of need (e.g., because a certain mark is necessary to get into a particular academic program).

University regulations permit deadline extensions only for legitimate medical or compassionate reasons.

 

Extra Credit (OPTIONAL)

Because social psychology is an empirical discipline, participating in research is an excellent way to learn about the types of questions that social psychologists investigate. You may also be able to see some of the theories covered in the class in action in the laboratory. You will therefore have the opportunity to earn some extra credits toward your overall course grade by participating in research studies. These must be completed in the laboratory (online studies are not eligible for extra credit). These are the same studies in which first year students participate as part of Psychology 1000. In order to participate you will be given access to the SONA sign up system and you may choose any laboratory-based studies that you wish. To help make your participation more relevant to social psychology, a list of studies that are specifically within the domain of social psychology will be posted on the class website, however, you may complete any available research studies, as long as they are not online.

You will receive bonus credits added to your overall course grade for each study in which you participate, to a maximum of 2.0 credits. However, the bonus will only be added if you have achieved a passing course grade without any bonus credit – in other words before bonus credits are added you must get at least 50% on the exams/quizzes. Only if this condition is met will bonus credits be added. Laboratory-based studies will earn credits as follows: Studies coded as lasting less than 30 Min=0.25; Studies coded as lasting between 31 and 60 Min=0.5; Studies coded as lasting more than 60 Min=1.0 (NOTE: The maximum number of credits that you may earn from any one study is 1.0. You will not receive more than 1.0 credit for any study regardless of its length. Please also note that the “credits” associated with studies in SONA are for Psychology 1000 students only; those are not relevant to Psychology 2070B). Note that if you sign up for a study and then fail to attend, you will receive a penalty equal to the number of credits you would have received from that study, based on the credit assignments as noted above.

The SONA system will track the studies and I will be given the information at the end of the term in order to adjust your grade. This is an opportunity to earn extra credits and is not required as part of your normal grade, you will not lose any marks if you do not participate in studies. The maximum number of bonus credits you may earn is 2.0. For each credit you earn, you will receive an additional 3 points (1.5%) in the gradebook.

The opportunity to earn bonus marks ends at midnight the last day of classes in this term.

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

  • Syllabus Quiz (Online; 1%): Must be completed by Thursday 24 Jan 2019 (17:00 EST)
  • Exam 1 (Online – un-proctored; 12%): Must be completed during class time on Thursday 7 Feb 2019 (available 11:45am to 12:10pm EST)
  • Exam 2 (In Class – proctored; either online or pencil & paper [TBD]; 24%): Thursday, 14 March (12:00pm to 12:50pm EST) in HSB 40

Exam 3 (Proctored; standard final examination conditions apply; 58%): Date/Time/Location TBA. You will have two hours to complete this exam. 

7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

Week

DATE

TOPIC

READINGS

1

January 10

 

Introduction

Chapter 1

2

January 17

 

Methodology

 

Chapter 2

3

January 24

 

Social Self & Social Perception

Syllabus Quiz Due (Online)

Chapters 3 & 4

4

January 31

 

Stereotypes, Prejudice & Discrimination

 

Chapter 5

5

February 7

 

Exam 1 (Online) 11:45 to 12:10 (Tested Content: Weeks 1-3)

Attitudes (Online Lecture) – no in-class lecture this week

 

Chapter 6

6

February 14

 

Conformity & Group Processes

Chapter 7 & 8

7

February 21

 

Reading Week (no lecture)

 

8

February 28

 

Interpersonal Attraction & Relationships

 

Chapter 9

9

March 7

Prosocial Behaviour

 

Chapter 10

10

March 14

 

Exam 2 (In class) 12:00 to 12:50 in HSB 40 (Tested Content: Weeks 4-8)

 

 

11

March 21

 

Aggression

 

Chapter 11

12

March 28

 

Applied Social Psychology: Law & Business

 

Chapter 12 & 13

13

April 4

 

Applied Social Psychology: Health

Chapter 14

--

TBA

April 11-30

 

Exam 3 (Pencil & paper format) Final Exam Period (Tested content: Weeks 1-13)

 

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 the final exam. Devices allowed for the in-class midterm (Exam 2) will be announced in the class-period preceding the exam.

 

Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute lecture notes, wiki material, and other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without my written consent