Psychology 971: Sophomore Tutorial in Psychology
Spring Semester 2008
Time: 4:30-6:30pm
Location: 950 WJH
Website: Logon to Mycourses.harvard.edu
Instructor:
Andrew Scott Baron
Email: abaron@fas.harvard.edu
Office phone: 617-496-5361 (on campus extension, 6-5361)
Office address: 33 Kirkland St., Room 1568 William James Hall
Office hours: By appointment
Overview
Welcome to your sophomore tutorial! This tutorial may well be the smallest
psychology class you have at Harvard, and there will be little or no lectures. Rather, this
is a discussion-based seminar. The advantage of this format is that we will be able to
delve much more deeply into the topics we cover, and there will be ample opportunity to
influence the direction of the discussions. However, this format is only as good as our
preparation. As you will see in the course requirements (below), this means that
preparation and participation are key parts of this course and consequently of your grade.
If we all put in the time to come prepared, we will be rewarded with invigorating
discussions and we will get the maximum value from our time together!
Over the course of the semester we will explore topics on intergroup bias,
cognitive models of categorization, the psychology of academic performance, and
evolutionary theories of cognition. First, we will begin by exploring the unconscious
basis of bias in adults and their social and cognitive origins in children. We will examine
both behavioral and neurological evidence for such biases. Next, we will explore the
psychology of stereotypes with particular focus on the role of language and socialcomparison. We will then turn to social and cognitive models of categorization and
explore their implications for understanding the role of domain-specificity in cognition
(more on this will be discussed during the first class). We will then turn our attention to
understanding specific situational factors that affect performance in the classroom.
Finally, the last two classes will examine how considerations of the role of evolution in
shaping the mind can guide the empirical study of psychology.
A key element of psychology is its commitment to multiple levels of analysis. In
this class, we will consider the three most prominent levels:
The Brain – the biological foundation of all behavior, grounded in genetic and/or
neurological processes.
The Person - addresses the cognitive content of mental processes and behavior.
The Group - addresses the effects of the social surroundings, i.e. the effect of some
individuals on others.
It is important to remember that these levels of analyses are often separated for
ease of exposition and/or theoretical clarity, but in practice they overlap in complicated
ways. Deciding the ‘proper’ level of analysis for a given phenomenon will be one of our
continuing concerns this semester.
One final goal and perhaps biggest goal for this semester is to develop your
writing as a student of psychology. In addition to the weekly response papers and 3 short
essay assignments, this semester you will be responsible for developing and writing your
sophomore essay. The goal of the sophomore essay is to allow you to explore a topic of
your choice in more depth than was covered in class. If you are interested in focusing on
a topic not covered in class, please schedule an office appointment. This essay is a review
paper in which you will be responsible for doing your own research. Over the course of
the semester you will be responsible for turning in portions of the essay and can expect to
receive ample feedback from me each step of the way. Each portion will be graded and
heavily reviewed to help develop your writing skills. To facilitate the goal of developing
your writing as a student of psychology, we will discuss exemplary essays from past
years. More on this will be discussed during your first two classes.
Course Requirements
1. Attendance. Attendance is absolutely mandatory! In extreme circumstance (a
medical emergency, death of a family member), an excused absence will be
granted but a make-up paper summarizing the material for the week will be
required. If you cannot attend a class, contact me ahead of time to ask for
permission for it to be an excused absence (you will need a doctor's note or
evidence of emergency). Scheduling conflicts, performances, etc. do not
constitute emergency. In addition, please make every effort to come to class on
time as late arrivals disrupt the flow of the discussion. Please see me if you know
of any reason (such as a scheduling conflict) that will prevent you from arriving
on time. Barring an emergency, late arrivals are not excusable.
2. Preparation. All reading assignments, unless otherwise noted, are mandatory.
Please be sure to give yourself adequate time, as some readings are dense and/or
difficult, and sometimes more than one reading is required to get a handle on the
material. Beyond reading itself, you should be noting questions, points of
disagreement, and so on. More detailed guidance on reading in psychology will
be provided in our first class.
3. Ethical work. All written assignments must be your own work, unless otherwise
specified. Any portion of your writing which draws on an outside source must be
cited appropriately, following APA guidelines (5th edition). Failure to document
your sources or acknowledge collaboration is an ethical lapse that can have
serious consequences!
4. Respect. As a discussion-based seminar, a congenial atmosphere is essential.
This means being a respectful listener and voicing your own opinions and ideas
respectfully. The discussions will be most fruitful if we are all comfortable
exploring ideas and arguments that are not fully worked out—this means being
willing to take wrong turns! In psychology as in many other disciplines, finding
out that a line of argument is ultimately inadequate is a form of progress, as it
narrows the options we need consider. My hope is that this seminar will be a
forum for trying out new ideas and new ways of thinking, but to achieve that we
will have to establish an atmosphere of trust in which all students feel comfortable
participating and no students attempt to dominate the discussion.
Grading Policy
10% Participation. Note the comments about respect, above, and be sure to be
prepared for each class. Ideally, all students will be active participants and will receive
full credit for participation.
10% Presentation. Once per semester you will be responsible for presenting and
critically discussing a reading assignment. You will be graded on the quality of your
presentation and your ability to lead a discussion on that reading. More details on
presentation expectations will be provided in the first class.
10% Response Statements. Each week (excluding the first class) you will prepare a
series of critical responses to readings (guidelines to be distributed the first week), in
which you will critically engage the material for that week. These statements shouldn’t
be more than a paragraph. Once per semester you may opt out of your response paper
without penalty. These response papers are due electronically to me by 11:59pm the
Sunday evening before class. No late responses will be accepted.
30% 3 Short Essays. You will write three short essays (approximately 1000 words, 2
pages double-spaced) in which you will advance a critical argument related to the topic at
hand. More details and a full grading rubric will be distributed once we get underway.
However, these essays will be due by 11:59 on Thursday evenings so as not to interfere
with your preparation for class on Mondays.
40% Sophomore Essay
A minimum 15-page (double-spaced, with normal sized margins and fonts) research
paper will be due in the Undergraduate Office (WJH 218) by noon on Friday, May 14th,
2008. The minimum length of 15 pages does not include references or the title page.
This paper can be written on an approved topic of your choice, but should be related in
some transparent way to the research we cover in class this semester. The goal of this
assignment is to allow you to explore a topic of your choice in more depth than we
covered it in class as well as give you a chance to write and receive comments on a paper
requiring outside research.
Unlike most other papers you’ll write at Harvard, the Sophomore Essay is planned and
written in increments. Specifically, you will complete the following assignments:
Annotated Bibliography – 5%
Outline – 5%
Partial draft – 5%
First full draft – 10%
Final Draft - 15%
More specific information on topic selection, research expectations, and grading
will be given further into the semester.
With the exception of the final draft, written assignments are due by 11:59pm on
their due date (see below). Late assignments (those posted after 11:59 pm) will be
penalized 5% of the assignment’s credit per 24 hours late. I will not accept papers more
than four days (96 hours) late. All assignments should be e-mailed as Microsoft Word
documents, and assignments will be considered late if they are e-mail after the deadline –
even if only by a few minutes. Extensions may be granted at my discretion if you contact
me three full days in advance. Except in the most extraordinary and unforeseeable
circumstances, extensions will not be granted unless you obtain permission three days in
advance. Final sophomore essays cannot be handed in late.
Detailed Syllabus
Week of February 4th: Introductions
Introductions. Review syllabus, course requirements, and expectations.
Course materials to be distributed and discussed: Essay grading rubric, class presentation
guidelines, critical reading and thought question guidelines
Week of February 11th: Can we be prejudiced without knowing it?
This week we will focus on hidden prejudices with attention to how they are measured.
We will also talk about the capacity for and limitations of self-reflection.
2/15 Short Paper 1 Due
Banaji, M. (2001). Implicit attitudes can be measured. In H. L. Roediger, III, J. S. Nairne,
I. Neath & A. e. M. Surprenant (Eds.), The nature of remembering: Essays in honor
of Robert G. Crowder. (pp. 117-150 – {Individual}
Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996) Automaticity of social behavior: Direct
effects of trait construct and stereotype activation in action. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 71, 230-244. – {Individual}
Cunningham, W. A., Johnson, M. K., Raye, C. L., Gatenby, J. C., Gore, J. C., & Banaji,
M. R. (2004). Separable Neural Components in the Processing of Black and
White Faces. Psychological Science, 15(12), 806-813. – {Brain}
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled
components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5-18. –
{Individual}
Week of February 18th: Holiday – make-up TBA
This week we will focus on understanding how to write like a psychologist. This week
will be great preparation to help you get started with thinking about your sophomore
essay. We will also use this time to discuss your first Response Paper that was submitted
last week.
QALMRI appendix
Oppenheimer, D. M. (2006) “Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of
necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly” Applied Cognitive
Psychology 20: 139-156
Bem, D. J. (1995) “Writing a review article for psychological bulletin” Psychological
Bulletin 118(2): 172-177
Week of February 25th: Why Study Children? How Developmental Psychology
Makes a Difference to the Rest of the Field
This week we will focus on understanding how developmental studies can inform our
theories about the psychology of adults. In particular, we will focus on one particular
example from two weeks ago, unconscious prejudice, and will learn how data from
children have changed the way we think about this phenomenon.
2/28 Short Paper 2 Due
Rudman, L. A. (2004). Sources of implicit attitudes. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 13(2), 79-82. – {Group & Individual}
Baron, A. S., & Banaji, M. R. (2006). The Development of Implicit Attitudes: Evidence
of Race Evaluations from Ages 6 and 10 and Adulthood. Psychological Science,
17(1), 53-58. – {Individual}
Rutland, A., Cameron, L., Milne, A., & McGeorge, P. (2005). Social Norms and Self-
Presentation: Children's Implicit and Explicit Intergroup Attitudes. Child
Development, 76(2), 451-466. – {Group}
Banaji, M.R., Baron, A.S., Dunham, Y., & Olson, K. (2008). The development of
intergroup social cognition: Early emergence, implicit nature, and sensitivity to
group status. In Levy, S.R. & Killen, M. (Eds.), Intergroup attitudes and
relations in childhood through adulthood. pp. 197-236. Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press. – {Group & Individual}
Week of March 3rd: Language On Thought: Why Nouns and Verbs Matter
This week we will focus on understanding how language can affect our thought. We will
examine different cases that illustrate how the words we use affect how we reason about
physical objects including plants, animals, tools and people.
3/7 Research Topics Due
Gelman, S. A., & Heyman, G. D. (1999). Carrot-eaters and creature-believers: The
effects of lexicalization on children's inferences about social categories.
Psychological Science, 10(6), 489-493. – {Individual}
Heyman, G. D., & Gelman, S. A. (2000). Preschool children's use of novel predicates to
make inductive inferences about people. Cognitive Development, 15(3), 263-280.
– {Individual}
Gelman, S. A., & Markman, E. M. (1987). Young children's inductions from natural
kinds: The role of categories and appearances. Child Development, 58(6), 15321541. – {Individual}
Diesendruck, G., & haLevi, H. (2006). The Role of Language, Appearance, and Culture
in Children's Social Category-Based Induction. Child Development, 77(3), 539553.
Rothbart, M., Taylor, M., Semin, G. n. R., & Fiedler, K. (1992). Category labels and
social reality: Do we view social categories as natural kinds? In Language,
interaction and social cognition. – {Individual}
Week of March 10th: Love Thy Self
This week we will focus on understanding the unique role the concept of the self plays in
social psychology. In particular, we will focus on how the process of self-identification
affects who we like and dislike, how we treat other people, and even our ability to
accurately remember information.
3/13 Short Paper 3 Due
Patterson, M. M. and Bigler, R. S. (2006). Preschool children’s attention to
environmental messages about groups: social categorization and the origins of
intergroup bias. Child Development, 77, 847-860. – {Group}
Spielman, D. A. (2000). Young children, minimal groups, and dichotomous
categorization. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1433-1441. – {Group}
Tajfel, H. (2001). Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination. In Hogg, M.A. & Abrams,
D.: Intergroup relations: Essential readings (pp.178-187). Psychology Press. N
New York, NY. – {Group}
Brown, J. D., Dutton, K. A., & Cook, K. E. (2001). From the top down: Self-esteem and
self-evaluation. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 615-631. – {Brain & Group}
Week of March 17 th: The Psychology of Categorization
This week we will focus on understanding different models of how we form and reason
about categories. We will pay careful attention to the debate surrounding these models
of categorization with an emphasis on evaluating them in terms of their claims about the
role of cognition. Does thinking about plants and animals engage different mental
processes than thinking about automobiles or hammers? Answering this type of question
will be part of our goal this week.
3/21 Annotated Bibliography Due
Springer, K. & Keil, F.C. (1991). Early differentiation of causal mechanisms appropriate
to biological and nonbiological kinds. Child Development, 62 767-781. – {Individual &
Brain}
Gelman, S. A. (2004). Psychological essentialism in children. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 8(9), 404-409. – {Individual & Brain}
Hirschfeld, L. A. (1995). Do children have a theory of race? Cognition, 54(2), 209-252. –
{Individual & Brain}
Gil-White, F. J. (2001). Are ethnic groups biological 'species' to the human brain?
Essentialism in our cognition of some social categories. Current Anthropology, 42(4),
515-554. – {Individual & Brain}
Week of March 24th: Spring Break – No class
Week of March 31st: No Class
4/3 Outline Due
Week of April 8th: The Hidden Classroom: The Psychology of Academic
Performance
This week we will focus on understanding the often unseen side of classroom
performance. In particular, we will explore how messages and beliefs about effort and
ability can interfere with academic performance.
Grant, H., & Dweck, C. S. (2003). Clarifying Achievement Goals and Their Impact.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 541-553. – {Group &
Individual}
Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math
performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35(1), 4-28. – {Group
& Individual}
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test
performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 69(5), 797-811. – {Group & Individual}
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2003). Stereotype Lift. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 39(5), 456-467. – {Individual & Group}
4/12 (Note, this is a Friday) Partial Draft Due (5 pages of the essay)
Week of April 15th: What Makes Humans Special? Understanding the Role of
Evolution.
This week we will focus on understanding key proposals for the evolution of the mind.
What aspects of our thinking might be influenced by our evolutionary history? We will
focus on theories and data to learn how to critically evaluate these evolutionary models.
Cosmides, L. (1989). The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how
humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition, 31(3), 187-276. –
{Individual & Brain} – Read first 45 pages only (through the end of Part I).
Sperber, D., Girotto, V., Sterelny, K., & Fitness, J. (2003). Does the selection task detect
cheater-detection? In From mating to mentality: Evaluating evolutionary psychology.
(pp. 197-225): Psychology Press. – {Individual & Brain}
Nesse, R. M. (1964). An evolutionary perspective on psychiatry. Comprehensive
Psychiatry, 25(6), 575-580. – {Individual & Brain}. – {Individual & Group}
Week of April 22nd: Special session on psychopathology.
This week we will focus on understanding current themes within psychopathology
including schizophrenia and mood disorders.
4/25 Draft of Sophomore Essay Due
Hooley, J.M. & Campbell, C. (2002). Control and controllability: beliefs and behaviour
in high and low expressed emotion relatives. Psychological Medicine, 32, 1091-1099. –
{ Brain}
Tienari, P., Wynne, L.C., Sorri, A., Lahti, I., Laksy, K., Moring, J., Naarala, M.,
Nieminen, P., & Wahlberg, K. (2004). Genotype-environment interaction in
schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 184, 216-222. – { Brain}
Susser, E., Neugebauer, R., Hoek, H.W., Brown, A.S., Lin, S., Labovitz, D., & Gorman,
J.M. (1996). Schizophrenia after prenatal famine. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 25
31. – {Individual & Brain}
Week of April 29th: To Know Thyself is to Know Another. Or, is it?
This week we will focus on fMRI studies that investigate how people infer that other
people can have beliefs and desires that differ from their own. This process is called
Theory of Mind in the literature (or ToM). We will also discuss competing theories
concerning the nature of this important psychological process.
Saxe, R. (2005). Against simulation: The argument from error. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 9(4), 174-179. – {Individual & Brain}
Mitchell, J. P., Banaji, M. R., & Macrae, C. N. (2005). The Link between Social
Cognition and Self-referential Thought in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex. Journal of
Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(8), 1306-1315. – {Individual & Brain}
Saxe, R., Moran, J. M., Scholz, J., & Gabrieli, J. (2006). Overlapping and non
overlapping brain regions for theory of mind and self reflection in individual subjects.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1(3), 229-234. – {Individual & Brain}
Week of May 5th: Reading Period – No Class
5/14/07 - Sophomore essays are due to the undergraduate office (room 218 William
James Hall) by noon (12pm) on this day. Students must turn in *2 hard copies*
along with the course evaluation by this deadline in order to receive credit for the
class. No exceptions. An electronic copy of your final essay should be sent to me by
this deadline.