Core course in Social psychology:
Psychology 385P (Unique: 44970)
Fall, 2006: Monday, Seay 3.250, 2:00-5:00 PM
Instructor: Bill Swann, Seay 3.106, 471-3859. SWANN@PSY.UTEXAS.EDU
Office hours Monday 5:00-6:30 or by appointment
This course will provide a graduate-level introduction to theory driven, experimental
analysis of human social cognition and social behavior. Topics will include conformity and
compliance, attitudes and persuasion, person perception and attribution, stereotypes, the
self, relationships, and the role of culture. The goal of the course is to convey an
understanding of theory in contemporary social psychology. Although applications of those
theories will be discussed, they will not be emphasized nor will they be analyzed
systematically. Course enrollment will be extremely limited and graduate students in the
Department of Psychology will be given preferential admission.
September 11—Video: “Discovering Psychology #19: Power of the situation” (Lecture
1: Overview of Social-personality psychology)
September 18--Conformity and compliance (Lecture 2: Obedience and rebellion).
Asch, S. E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 193, 31-35.
Sherif, M. (1956). Experiments in group conflict. Scientific American, 195, 54-58.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 67, 371-378.
Darley, J. M., & Latane, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of
responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377-383.
September 25--Attribution theory (Lecture 3: Categorization, attribution, & culture)
Nisbett, R. E; Schachter, S. (1966).The cognitive manipulation of pain. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 2, 227-236.
Ross, L., Amabile, T. M., & Steinmetz, J. L. (1977). Social roles, social control, and biases
in social perception processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 485-494.
Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995). The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin
117, 21-38.
Gilbert, D. (1991). How mental systems believe. American Psychologist, 46, 107-119.
October 2--Social Cognition (Lecture 4: Models of accuracy in person perception)
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty. Science, 185, 11241131.
Swann, W. B., Jr. (1984). The quest for accuracy in person perception: A matter of
pragmatics. Psychological Review, 91, 457-477.
Loftus, E. F., & Klinger, M. R. (1992). Is the unconscious smart or dumb? American
Psychologist, 47, 761-765.
Dijksterhuis, A., & Aarts, H. (2003). On wildebeests and humans: The preferential
detection of negative stimuli. Psychological Science, 14, 14-18.
October 9—Attitudes-behavior, behavior-attitude, and attitude change (Lecture 5:
Structure and measurement of attitudes)
LaPierre, R. T. (1934). Attitudes vs. Actions. Social Forces, 13, 230-237.
Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210.
Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American
Psychologist, 35, 151-175.
Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-Reports: How the questions shape the answers. American
Psychologist, 54, 93-105.
Ferguson, M. J., & Bargh, J. A. (2004). Liking is for doing: the effects of goal pursuit on
automatic evaluation. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 87, 557-572.
October 16-- Persuasion (Lecture 6: Subliminal techniques and brainwashing)
Leventhal, H., Singer, R. & Jones, S. (1965). Effects of fear and specificity of
recommendation upon attitudes and behavior. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,
37, 2098-2109.
Cialdini, R. (1995). Principles and techniques of social influence. In A. Tesser (Ed.)
Advanced social psychology (256-281). McGraw-Hill, New York.
Schwarz, N. (2004). Meta-cognitive experiences in consumer judgment and decisionmaking. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14, 332-348.
October 23
Exam 1 5-8 PM, Seay 2.122.
October 30-- Language and Social communication (Guest lecture by Jamie
Pennebaker: language, social processes, and health)
Freud, S. (1958). Remembering, Repeating and Working through. In J Strachey (Ed.), The
Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 12, pp. 147-156. London:
Hogarth (original work published in 1914).
Pennebaker, J.W. & Graybeal, A. (2001). Patterns of natural language use: Disclosure,
personality, and social integration. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 90-93.
Chung, C.K. & Pennebaker, J.W. (in press). The psychological function of function words.
In K. Fiedler (Ed), Social communication. New York: Psychology Press.
November 6--Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (Lecture 7: Nature of
stereotypes; Targets of stereotypes)
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chapter
7: Racial and ethnic differences , 165-176).
Fox, R. (1992). Prejudice and the unfinished mind: A new look at an old failing.
Psychological Inquiry, 3, 137-152.
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance
of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.
Josephs, R. A., Sellers, J. G., Newman, M. L., & Mehta, P.H. The Mismatch Effect: When
Testosterone and Status are at Odds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90,
999-1013.
November 13--Nature and consequences of self-knowledge (Lecture 9: Identity fusion
in an uncertain world)
Nisbett, R.E., & Wilson, T.D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on
mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.
Kihlstrom, J.F., Beer, J.S., & Klein, S.B. (2003). Self and identity as memory. In M.R.
Leary & J. Tangney (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 68-90). New York: Guilford
Press.
Olsen, M. & Fazio, R. ( in press). Reporting Tendencies Underlie Discrepancies Between
Implicit and Explicit Measures of Self-Esteem. Psychological Science.
Swann, W. B., Jr. Chang-Schneider, C. & McClarty, K. (in press) Do our self-views
matter? Self-concept and self-esteem in everyday life. American Psychologist.
November 20--Close relationships (Lecture 10: Berscheid’s theory of emotion)
Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L. Rubenstein, A., Larson, A. Hallam, M. & Smoot, M.
(2000). The myths of beauty: a meta-analytic and theoretical review, 126, 390-423.
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure:
Is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology
Review, 8, 364-382.
Hart, J. Shaver, P. R., Goldenberg, J. L. (2005). Attachment, Self-Esteem, Worldviews, and
Terror Management : Evidence for a Tripartite Security System. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 88, 999-1013.
Rusbult, Caryl E.; Buunk, Bram P. (1993). Commitment processes in close relationships:
An interdependence analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 175204.
November 27--Motivation in close relationships (Lecture 11: Future of Ilusions)
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well being: Some social psychological
contributions to a theory of mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
Wegner, D. M., Lane, J. D., & Dimitri, S. (1994). The allure of secret relationships. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 287-300.
Robins & Beer (2001). Positive illusions about the self: Short-term benefits and long-term
costs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 340-352.
Swann, W. B., Jr. Chang-Schneider, C., & Angulo, S. (in press). Self-verification in
relationships as an adaptive process. J. Wood, A. Tesser & J. Holmes (Eds.) Self and
Relationships, Psychology Press: New York.
December 4--Culture and social psychology (Lecture 12: Some caveats and social
psychology’s future)
Markus, H.R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition,
emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of
thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108, 291-310.
Fiske, A. P. (2002). Using individualism and collectivism to compare cultures: A critique
of the validity and measurement of the constructs. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 78-88.
Seyle, D. C. & Newman, M. L. (in press). A House Divided? The Psychology of Red and
Blue America. American Psychologist.
Final Exam (During finals period—tentatively Dec 15)
Discussion Questions
Each class will consist of a lecture (approximately one hour) and a discussion period
(approximately 1.5 hours). Each student will prepare for the discussion period by doing
all the readings and preparing 2 or 3 questions. The discussion questions are so named
because they should tend to promote discussion. Although there are no hard and fast
rules for formulating questions, my experience has told me that the most successful
questions are integrative (i.e., they ask the respondent to relate ideas in different readings
to one another). These questions are extremely influential determinants of the success of
the class and your class participation grade; please spend some time on them.
After preparing your questions, please send them to your classmates who have been
designated class leaders for that week (also cc them to me) by 4 PM on Sunday. A sheet
will be circulated the first day of class for you to sign up for the discussions you desire to
lead; EVERYONE MUST SIGN UP TO LEAD AT LEAST 2 DISCUSSIONS but no
more than 3 people can sign up for a given week. The class leaders for each week will
compile the questions into a meaningful discussion format (i.e. by common topic, by
author, or by whatever way they find to be a relevant, engaging, and coherent way to
discuss all of the material for that week and they will also orchestrate the discussion.
Failure to send your questions will lower your class participation grade 1 point (1% of
your total grade) for each incident.
Exams
Students will write two essay exams, a mid-term and final. The final exam will not be
cumulative. A few days before each exam, I will hand out the 4 exam questions as well as 4
questions that won't be on the exam. Students will have the option of preparing their
responses in advance, with the knowledge that half of the questions will not be on the
actual exam. Because you will have prior time to access all of your notes and readings in
preparing for the actual exam questions, the exam itself will be closed-book, closed notes.
Grading scheme
Final grades will be determined in the following manner:
20%
Discussion questions, summaries, and class participation
40%
Exam 1
40%
Exam 2
Note: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic
accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the
Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641.
Readings are available at Paradigm on 24th street just west of Guadalupe, 472-7986