Psychology 400
Topics in Social and Personality Psychology:
Social Psychology and Social Change
Course Instructor / Professor Betsy Levy PaluckGreen Hall 2N5
Office hours TBA
Course Time and Location / Wednesdays 1:30-4:20
Green Hall 0N7
Course Description
This course explores how social psychological theory and research have been used in the interest of social change, and how social change has inspired theoretical or methodological developments in social psychology. To do so, it explores major ideas, theories, and findings of social psychology and their applied status. The course is organized around topics of social stasis and change, including conflict and peace, gender and sexuality, authority and legitimacy, identity and culture, environmental behavior, health, and economics.
Course Goals
This class is for students interested in the social science of social change—students are expected to engage with social psychological methods, statistics, and theories as well as substantive issues. By the end of the course, students will be able to: analyze historical and current trends in the application of social psychology to social change, identify the major social psychological ideas that have and have not been developed in the interest of social change, differentiate among different methodologies for investigating psychological insights into social change, and generate ideas for new interventions or evaluations based on social psychological insights into social change. (Use these skills in your final paper to ensure a successful finish to the course!)
Course Structure
This course is reading and writing intensive. Meetings will include presentations by the professor, by students, and class discussion. Students will sign up to be responsible for one week in the course when they will present to the class one of that week’s nonrequired readings. Students are expected to read all of the required readings and to post their (two page) reading response to the class website by 3pm the day before class. Weekly responses ensure students keep current, help the professor to anticipate confusions or questions for seminar discussion, and foster class community and discussion. (Note: weekly responses are not expected to be web postings that are “in conversation” with one another, in the style of a blog. Write your reading response as your own brief summary of and reactions to the week’s assigned readings.) Students have one grace week of their choice, i.e. they are allowed to skip one week of posting a reading response without grade penalty.
Assignments are spaced throughout the semester: weekly responses (40%), a midterm assignment in the service of your final paper (10%), and a final paper (30%). Class participation is 20% of the grade.
Meeting topics and assigned readings
*Required readings are starred; others are recommended, and will be presented by students who have chosen that week. Grading policies and specific instructions for assignments will be handed out on the first day of class, and available on the course website.
*This syllabus is a living document, and the readings are subject to change as we go along, so please keep checking Blackboard for each week’s assignment. Green means it is currently not posted on blackboard and will be shortly.
1. Social psychological theories, trends, and methods (February 6)
*Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. E. The person and the situation, 1991. Chapter 8.
*William R. Shadish, Thomas D. Cook, and Donald T. Campbell. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2002. Chap 1.
*Orwell, G. (1946). The Politics of the English Language.
2. Interventions and history of application in psychology (February 13)
*Lewin, K. (1948/2006). Resolving Social Conflicts & Field theory in Social Science. Selections.
*Wilson, T. D. The power of social psychological interventions. Science, 313, 2006, 1251-1252.
*Campbell, D.T. (1969). Reforms as experiments.
*RB Cialdini (2009). We have to break up. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
*Mortensen, C. R., & Cialdini, R. B. (2010). Full-cycle social psychology for theory and
application. Social and Personality Compass, 4, 53-63.
Kahneman, D. (2013). Forward to The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy, Ed. Eldar Shafir. Princeton Press.
Stoudt, B., Fox, M., & Fine, M. (2012). Contesting Privilege with Participatory Action Research. Journal of Social Issues, 68, p. 178—193.
3. Prejudice, conflict, and peace (February 20)
*Paluck, E.L. (2009). Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: A field experiment in Rwanda. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
*Ross, L. (2013). Psychological perspectives on disagreement and dispute resolution:
Lessons from the lab and the real world. In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Policy. Princeton University Press. Second half of paper
*Herek, G. (2007). Confronting Sexual Stigma and Prejudice: Theory and Practice. Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 63, No. 4, 2007, pp. 905—925.
Rokeach, M. Long-rang experimental modification of values, attitudes, and behavior. American Psychologist, 26, 1971, 453-459.
Kelman, H. C. (2012). Social psychology and the study of peace: Personal reflections. In: Tropp L The Oxford handbook of intergroup conflict. New York: Oxford University Press,. p. 361-372.
4. Gender and sexuality (February 27)
*Pratto, F., & Walker, A. (2004). The bases of gendered power. In Social Psychology of Gender.
*Brescoll, V., & E.L. Uhlmann. (2008). "Can an Angry Woman Get Ahead? Gender, Status Conferral, and Workplace Emotion Expression" Psychological Science, Vol. 19, 268-275.
*Diamond, Lisa M.; Pardo, Seth T.; Butterworth, Molly R. (2011). Transgender experience and identity. In Schwartz, Seth J. (Ed); Luyckx, Koen (Ed); Vignoles, Vivian L. (Ed), (2011). Handbook of identity theory and research (Vols 1 and 2). , (pp. 629-647).
Eagly, Alice H (2009). The his and hers of prosocial behavior: An examination of the social psychology of gender. American Psychologist, Vol 64(8), 644-658.
Marecek, J. (1995). Gender, Politics, and Psychology's Ways of Knowing. American Psychologist, 50, 162-163.
5. Authority, leadership, and legitimacy. (March 6)
*Kelman, H.C., & Hamilton, V.L. Crimes of obedience: Toward a social psychology of authority and responsibility. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [Final chapter]. Please focus on pp 321 - 338. I can review the beginning half of the chapter in class.
* Jost, J. T., & Hunyady, O. The psychology of system-justification and the palliative function of ideology. European Review of Social Psychology, 13, 2002, 111-153.
*Bowles, Hannah R., and Kathleen L. McGinn. "Claiming Authority: Negotiating Challenges for Women Leaders." Chap. 9 in The Psychology of Leadership: New Perspectives and Approaches, edited by D. Messick, and R. Kramer, 191–208. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Tyler, T.R. & Fagan, J. (2008). Why do people cooperate with the police? Ohio Journal of Criminal Law, 6, 231-275.
6. Crime, punishment, and justice (March 13: MIDTERM DUE)
*Alter, A., Darley, J. (2012). Behavioral Issues of Punishment, Retribution, and Deterrence. In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Policy. Princeton University Press.
*Wells, G. (2001). Police lineups: data, theory, and policy. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 7, 791-801.
*Eberhardt, J. L., Davies, P. G., Purdie-Vaughns, V. J., & Johnson, S. L. (2006). Looking deathworthy: Perceived stereotypicality of Black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes. Psychological Science, 17, 383-386.
Tyler, T.R (2006). Restorative justice and procedural justice. Journal of Social Issues, 62, 305-323.
Carlsmith, K.M., J.M. Darley & P.H. Robinson (2002). Why do we Punish? Deterrence and Just Deserts as Motives for Punishment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . 83, 1-16.
7. Identity, nationality, culture (March 27)
*Huo, Y., Smith, H., & Tyler, T. Superordinate identification, subgroup identification, and justice concerns: Is separatism the problem; is assimilation the answer? Psychological Science, 7, 1996, 40-45.
*Fine, M., & S.R. Sirin, (2007). Theorizing hyphenated selves: Researching youth development in and across contentious political contexts. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Vol 1(1), Nov 2007, 16-38.
*Adams, G. (2005). The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Enemyship in North American and West African worlds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 948-968.
Stephens, N. M., Hamedani, M. G., Markus, H. R., Bergsieker, H. B., & Eloul, L. (2009). Why did they “choose” to stay? Perspectives of Hurricane Katrina observers and survivors. Psychological Science, 20, 878-886. ~ WITH ~ Savani, K. S., Markus, H. R., Naidu, N. V. R., Kumar, S., & Berlia, N. (2010). What counts as a choice? U.S. Americans are more likely than Indians to construe actions as choices. Psychological Science, 21, 391-398.
8. Health (April 3)
*Pennebaker, J.W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8, 162-166.
*Dovidio, J. F., Penner, L. A., Albrecht, T. L., Norton, W. E., Gaertner, S. L., & Shelton, J. N. (2008). Disparities and distrust: The implications of psychological processes for understanding racial disparities in health and health care. Social Science & Medicine, 67, 478–486.
*Redelmeier, D. (2012). Behavioral Decision Science Applied to Health-Care Policy In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Policy. Princeton University Press.
Wansink, B (2012). Turning Mindless Eating into Healthy Eating. In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Policy. Princeton University Press.
Salovey, P., & Williams-Piehota, P. (2004). Field experiments in social psychology: Message framing and the promotion of health protective behaviors. American Behavioral Scientist, 47, 488-505.
Summerfield D., 1999. A critique of seven assumptions behind psychological trauma programmes in war-affected areas. Soc Sci Med. 1999 May;48(10):1449-62.
9. Environment: Changing behavior (April 10)
*Cialdini, R. B. Crafting normative messages to protect the environment. Current Directions in Psychological Science,12, 2003, 105-109.
*Goldstein, Cialdini, & Griskevicius (2008). A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels.
*Weber, E. (2012). Doing the Right Thing Willingly: Using the Insights of Behavioral Decision Research for Better Environmental Decisions. In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Policy. Princeton University Press.
Schultz, Nolan, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius (2007). The constructive, destructive,
and reconstructive power of social norms.
Allcott, H., & Mullainathan, S. (2010). Behavior and energy policy. Science, 327, 1204-1205.
10. Education: Methods, access, interventions (April 17)
*Fine, M. (2004) The power of the Brown v. Board of Education decision: Theorizing threats to sustainability. American Psychologist, Vol. 59, No. 6, 502–510.
*Cohen, G., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307-1310.
*Cohen, Steele, & Ross (1999). The mentor’s dilemma: Providing critical feedback across the racial divide.
Walton & Cohen (2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement.
Blackwell, Trzeniewski, & Dweck (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention.
11. Economics: Poverty, development and wealth (April 24)
*Bertrand, M., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. A behavioral economics view of poverty. American Economic Review, 94, 2004, 419-423.
*Dunn, E., Aknin, L., & Norton, M. Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319, 2008, 1687-1688.
*Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2012). Some consequences of having too little. Science, 338, 682-685.
Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2012). Decision Making and Policy in Contexts
of Poverty. In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Policy. Princeton University Press.
12. Wrap up (May 1)
Paper presentations and article TBD.
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