Psychology 226: S O C I A L  P S Y C H O L O G Y

Instructor

Gordon Bear. Office: G438. Phone: 684-7754. E-mail: gbear@ramapo.edu. Office hours: MR 4:45–6:00.

Goals of the Course

• To acquaint you with the methods of inquiry, the theories, and the discoveries of contemporary social psychology.
• To encourage you to think critically and learn autonomously. In working toward this goal, we will discuss common errors in thinking and methodological problems in research.
• To increase your awareness and your understanding of the social phenomena that occur in your daily life. Forming a first impression of another person, liking or loving someone, helping a stranger, changing one of your opinions or persuading others to change theirs, giving in to group pressure or resisting it – these are some of the human experiences that social psychology illuminates. As you become more sensitive to such experiences and acquire knowledge that you can bring to bear on them, you will find your daily life richer.

Content of Our Course

The topics we will cover are named in a general way on the Outline and Calendar (a separate page). For more detailed information, see the table of contents in our text. Our topics are standard for this course as it is offered by departments of psychology across North America.

Text Books

• Douglas T. Kenrick, Steven L. Neuberg, & Robert B. Cialdini, Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999). A new text, authoritative and well-organized.
• Angela Bryan, Study Guide (Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1999). For each chapter in our text, this book offers an outline, objectives for your studying, key ideas, four kinds of self-test with answers, and questions for thought. I fervently recommend the study guide. To earn a respectable grade in our course, you may need to use it conscientiously.

Our meetings will be devoted to lectures, discussions, demonstrations, videos, and tests. They will also provide opportunities for you to ask questions and offer comments. I will not directly penalize you for missing class, nor will I take attendance, but I hope you will make every effort to attend every meeting. Examinations will cover the information treated in our meetings.

Class Attendance

If you decide to join this course, I hope you will be a good citizen and accept the responsibilities that you bear to your classmates and to your professor: responsibilities to prepare for our meetings, to attend them faithfully, and to participate through comments, questions, and answers. If you're going to miss a meeting, call me beforehand at 684-7754. If you can’t call before the meeting, call as soon as possible afterwards. I’ll help you keep up with the class.

If you miss two classes in a row without contacting me, I will assume that you have dropped the course. Should you then reappear, I will decline to help you catch up.

Examinations

Examinations will occur as scheduled on the Course Calendar and will count for 60% of your grade. For each chapter covered on a test, you are welcome to consult an 8½ x 11 sheet of notes written in your own hand (not typed, word-processed, or photocopied). You may write on both sides of the sheet.

If you miss a test for a valid, verified reason, you may make it up at our last meeting. If your reason is invalid or unverified, your score for the test will be zero.

In accord with the policy of the School of Science, our course will end with a comprehensive (cumulative) final examination covering all material treated during the semester.

Explanatory Essays

Following the schedule on our Course Calendar, I will ask you to write four essays in which you explain an experience of yours by means of the concepts and principles that we have studied. You may rewrite your essays to improve them and raise the grades they merit. The essays will require no library work, and they can be brief, just three or four pages long. Each will count for 10% of your grade.

Grading Policies

• A failing average on the examinations will not be offset by a higher average on the essays. If you don't earn at least a D average on the tests covering our text and at least a D average on the tests covering our meetings, you won't pass our course, no matter how good your essays are.
• If your tests and essays put you on the border between two letter grades, I will award the higher grade if you rewrote any of your essays.
• I do not grade on the curve, so there is no limit to the number of A’s - or F's - that the class can earn.
• Competent but undistinguished work that meets all requirements merits a C, which is thus an entirely respectable mark. Work that is deficient in comparison to the standard for the C earns a D or lower. Work that is better earns a B or higher. Because the B+ and the A- are available for meritorious accomplishments, the A is reserved for extraordinary achievements.

This is a three-credit course of academic study offered at a four-year college of liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies. The reading assignments total 536 pages, about 36 pages a week. The study guide will help you learn the text, but it will add to the time required for our course. Because the text is not unusually difficult, and because the study guide is available, I will not devote class time to spoon-feeding you the text - though I will be glad to answer specific questions about anything you find unclear. If you've become dependent on teaching that goes over everything in class, you'll have to learn how to learn from a textbook to succeed in this course.

To earn even a C in our course, you must do all the readings and hear all the lectures (or get notes on them), and on detailed examinations you must demonstrate mastery of at least the basic points of the readings and the lectures. This course will require about five hours of homework a week (about an hour a day) - even more if your academic skills are weak.

Special Needs

To arrange accommodations for a documented disability, speak with me privately. I’ll be glad to help you.

Policy on Decorum in the Classroom

Everyone in this class has the right to study social psychology with me in an atmosphere free of distraction from the day’s lessons. Everyone therefore has a duty to maintain decorum and keep our classroom quiet and civil. A student who disrupts a meeting invites eviction by the campus police and discipline by the Dean of Students.

Presumptions of This Course

I have planned our course in detail, as you can see on the Calendar of Assignments. My planning rests on the following suppositions:

• You read at the college level. It is unwise to enroll in this course if you have not completed at least one college-level English course.
• You write at the college level. It is unwise to enroll in this course if you have not completed at least one college-level English course..
• You will devote at least five hours of homework per week to our course. It is unwise to enroll in this course if you cannot schedule at least this much time for reading our text and writing your essays. (Every other course of yours should also get at least five hours of homework each week—more for a 4-credit offering.)
• You will attend every meeting, listening carefully, asking and answering questions, participating in our discussions, and taking detailed notes.
• You will strive to master our material. Beware of overconfidence. Don’t aim low! This course is very likely more difficult than you think. Disasters befalls students who put in only feeble effort in the expectation that it will suffice to earn them a C in this course.

If the college closes on a day we were supposed to meet, we will nonetheless stay on this schedule for our remaining meetings.

• If a test was scheduled for the missed meeting, it will occur at our next meeting.
• If a test was scheduled for the meeting following the one that we miss, the test will occur as scheduled.
• If an essay was due at the missed meeting, the essay must be turned in at your professor's office (G440) by 6 p.m. on the next day the college is open (probably the following day). If you can't get to the college to submit your essay, fax it to Gordon Bear at 201 684-7637 or 684-7508. If postmarked on the new due date, it will count as timely.

To arrange accommodations for a documented disability, speak with me privately. I’ll be glad to help you.

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So please remember: Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the academic buildings, stairwells and lavatories included.