Psychology 2720A-650

Introduction to 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, findings, methods, and problems encountered in the study of people as social beings. Emphasis will be placed on experimental research, conducted both in the laboratory and in the field. Content areas include: attitudes and social cognition, social interaction and influence, group processes and applications of social psychology.

Antirequisites: Psychology 2070A/B, 2712F/G, 2780E, the former 170

Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if this course has an antirequisite that you have previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in this one.

Prerequisite: At least 60% in a 1000 level Psychology course

            0.5 course

Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.


2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor: Joel Armstrong                    

Email: jarmst53@uwo.ca

Office: SSC 6333

Office Hours: By appointment

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

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Fehr, B., & Akert, R. M. (2013). Social Psychology (5th Canadian edition). Pearson Education Canada, Inc.

Online notes and discussion board available on OWL (https://owl.uwo.ca/portal)

Please note that we will cover only 11 of the 12 chapters in the text. Chapter 1 and Chapters 3-6 will be covered before the midterm exam, and Chapters 7-12 will be covered before the final exam. The final exam is not cumulative; that is, you are not responsible on the final exam for material from Chapter 1 or Chapters 3-6. We will not cover Chapter 2 or the three Social Psychology in Action chapters in either exam (and you are not responsible for the material).

You should be proceeding through the chapters at the rate of approximately one chapter per week. There will be a discussion board on the course website, which will list a new question each week for students to comment on. There will be a total of 10 discussions. You are expected to participate in these discussions regularly, and a portion of your grade will reflect participation in the discussion (see Evaluation below). You should offer your thoughts on the posted issue and comment on other students’ contributions. Please do NOT post any derogatory, sarcastic, or demeaning comments about other students or their postings.

Online notes will be available for each chapter to be covered in the textbook. Until the midterm exam, you will have access only to the notes accompanying Chapters 1-6. The remaining set of online notes (for

Chapters 7-12) will be available on the website after the midterm exam is completed. The online notes for a given chapter will be available to you by the Monday of the week pertaining to that chapter (see

Recommended Course Progression Schedule below). In the online notes for every chapter, you will find several links to websites that contain related information and videos. You are NOT responsible for these links on the exams; they are provided only for interest. I hope, however, that you will visit some or all of them.


4.0    COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course will survey basic theory and research in social psychology. You will discover what social psychology is and what social psychologists do. Not only will you learn the basic content of social psychology, but the course should teach you to think critically about such everyday issues as: Does violence in the media affect the amount of violence in society? Why do bystanders to an emergency often fail to help the victim? What are the causes of prejudice? The social psychological perspective helps us to frame questions in a testable way, suggests how we might go about finding out answers, and requires us to evaluate the validity of our proposed answers. Because people are inherently social beings, you will hopefully recognize the applicability of social psychological concepts to your everyday life and can use these ideas to better your own life and the lives of those around you

5.0     EVALUATION


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 the University of Western Ontario 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

Please note that grades cannot be adjusted on the basis of need (e.g., because a certain mark is required to get into a program).

5.1 Grade Breakdown

40% - Midterm Exam

40% - Final Exam

20% - Online Discussions

5.2 Online Discussion Boards (20%)

There will be a discussion board on the course website. A total of 10 questions about issues related to the textbook chapters will be posted on the discussion board, one each week. Students are expected to participate in all of these discussions, both by posting their own thoughts or observations and by commenting constructively on other students’ comments. 20% of your grade will be assigned based on the quantity and quality of your contributions to these discussions. In the Discussion area of the course, you, as a student, can interact with your classmates to explore questions and comments related to the content of this course. A successful student in online education is one who takes an active role in the learning process. You are therefore encouraged to participate in the discussion to enhance your learning experience throughout the course.

The discussions will be graded for the quality and content of your contributions. 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; and

-       providing a URL and explanation for an area you researched on the Internet.

A new discussion question will be posted each Monday at 11:00 a.m. These discussion questions will be related to one of the textbook chapters. The discussion will be open until the following Sunday at 11:59 p.m.  Although you are only required to make one posting that responds to each discussion question, you are strongly encouraged to respond to other students’ postings in addition to replying to students who have responded to your post.

For each discussion, you will be assigned a grade out of 2 based upon your discussion. Grades will be assigned as follows:

0 = Incomplete (no posting, question not answered)

1 = Satisfactory (question answered fully, contributes to discussion)

2 = Excellent (posting(s) go beyond basic requirements, present additional information from outside the textbook, and interact well with the other students)

 

5.3 Bonus Discussion

Students will have the option of completing a bonus discussion during the final week of the course (March 30-April 5).  It will be marked the same as the previous discussions and, if completed, will cancel out the lowest previous discussion mark. 

5.4 Examinations (Midterm 40%, Final 40%)

There will be two examinations in the course, each worth 40% of the final mark. Each exam will consist of 60 multiple choice questions. As noted above, the midterm exam will cover Chapters 1, 3-6, and the final exam will cover Chapters 7-12. Thus, the final exam is not cumulative. You are responsible for the textbook material and the online notes for the relevant chapters for each exam.

The first exam will be on Saturday, June 18th, 2016 (time and location TBA). The final exam will take place between August 2 and August 5. The dates and times of the two exams will be confirmed on the course homepage as soon as they are available. Grades will be posted on the website approximately two weeks after each exam (I must wait to receive some examinations from locations outside London).

5.5 Make-Up Exams

Tests must be written on the scheduled dates unless you have a legitimate excuse recognized by the university administration. Valid excuses include medical or compassionate reasons, and must be substantiated by the proper documentation (e.g., a medical certificate, which will be verified by an Academic Counselor in your Faculty, i.e., Science, Social Science, Arts, etc.). A student who misses a regularly scheduled exam for other reasons, or who cannot justify a claim, will be assigned a 0 for the exam.

6.0  TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

Midterm Exam: Saturday, June 18th, 2016 (time and location TBA)

Final Exam: TBA

The exact dates and times for the two course exams will be posted on the course homepage (OWL powered by Sakai) as soon as they are available.                              

7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

Week

Date

Chapter

Topic

Discussion

1

May 9-15

Chapter 1

Introduction to Social Psychology

Topic 1

2

May 16-22

Chapter 3

Social Cognition: How we Think about the Social World

Topic 2

3

May 23-29

Chapter 4

Social Perception: How we Come to Understand Other People

Topic 3

4

May 30-June 5

Chapter 5

Self-Knowledge and the Need to Maintain Self-Esteem

Topic 4

5

June 6-12

Chapter 6

Attitudes and Attitude Change

Topic 5

6

June 13-19

Midterm

June 18

Chapters 1, 3-6

No discussion

7

June 20-26

Chapter 7

Conformity: Influencing Others

Topic 6

8

June 27-July 3

Chapter 8

Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups

Topic 7

9

July 4-10

Chapter 9

Interpersonal Attraction: From First Impressions to Close Relationships

Topic 8

10

July 11-17

Chapter 10

Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help?

Topic 9

11

July 18-24

Chapter 11

Aggression: Why We Hurt Other People

Topic 10

12

July 25-31

Chapter 12

Prejudice: Causes and Cures

Bonus Topic

13

August 2-5 

Final Exam Period

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

The University of Western Ontario’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2015/pg117.html

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
- 2015 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during exams.