Psych 594: Graduate Seminar
Motivational Theories in Social Psychology
Winter 2006
Professor: David Sherman
Office: Psychology Building 3227
Phone: 893-2142
Email: david.sherman@psych.ucsb.edu
Office Hours: Monday, 12:00-1:00 PM, Wednesday 1:00-2:00 PM
Class: Mondays, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, Psychology 2201
Structure: The class will consist of discussion of the readings. Each week one student
will be the group discussion leader. The night before each class, students should e-mail
discussion questions and comments to the Professor and that week’s discussion leader.
01/09/06 Week 1: Introduction and Overview
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. Chp. 10. The consciousness of self (pp.
291-329).
Pittman, T. S. (1998). Motivation. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds). The
handbook of social psychology, Vol. 1 (4th ed.) (pp. 549-590). New York: McGraw-Hill.
01/16/06 Week 2: No Class, Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
01/23/06 Week 3: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivations
Lepper, M. R., & Henderlong, J. (2000). Turning “play” into “work” and “work” into
“play”: 25 years of research on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. In C. Sansone & J.
Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal
motivation and performance (pp. 257-307). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of
intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 6878.
Iyengar, S. S, & Lepper, M. R. (1999). Rethinking the value of choice: A cultural
perspective on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76,
349-366
Optional Reading:
Amabile, T. M. (2001). Beyond talent: John Irving and the passionate craft of creativity.
American Psychologist, 56, 333-336.
01/30/06 Week 4: Approach/Promotion and Avoidance/Prevention Motivations
Higgins, E. T. (1998). Promotion and prevention: Regulatory focus as a motivational
principle. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 30,
pp. 1-46). New York: Academic Press.
Elliot, A. J, & Mapes, R. R. (2005). Approach-avoidance motivation and self-concept
evaluation. In J. V. Wood & D. A. Stapel (Eds). On building, defending and regulating
the self: A psychological perspective (pp. 171-196). New York: Psychology Press.
Carver, C. S., Sutton, S. K., & Scheier, M. F. (2000). Action, emotion, and
personality: Emerging conceptual integration. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 26, 741–751.
Carver, C. S. & White, T. L. (1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and
affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319-333.
02/06/06 Week 5: Goals and Motivations
Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (2002). Nonconscious motivations: Their activation,
operation, and consequences. In A. Tesser, D. A. Stapel, Diederik, & J. V. Wood (Eds.)
Self and motivation: Emerging psychological perspectives (pp. 13-41). Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
Dweck, C. S. & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and
personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256-273.
Shah, J. Y., Friedman, R. & Kruglanski, A. W. (2002). Forgetting all else: On the
antecedents and consequences of goal shielding. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 83, 1261-1280.
Fishbach, A., Friedman, R. S. & Kruglanski, A. W. (2003). Leading us not unto
temptation: Momentary allurements elicit overriding goal activation. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 296-309.
02/13/06 Week 6: Motivated Social Cognition
Tetlock, P. E. & Levi, A. (1982). Attribution bias: On the inconclusiveness of the
cognition-motivation debate. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 68-88.
Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 480498.
Ditto, P. H., Scepansky, J. A., Munro, G. D., Apanovitch, A. M., & Lockhart, L. K.
(1998). Motivated sensitivity to preference-inconsistent information. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 53-69.
Jost, J.T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A.W., & Sulloway, F.J. (2003). Political conservatism
as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339-375.
Optional Readings:
Greenberg, J., & Jonas, E. (2003). Psychological motives and political orientation—The
left, the right, and the rigid: Comment on Jost et al. (2003). Psychological Bulletin, 129,
376-382.
Jost, J.T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A.W., & Sulloway, F.J. (2003). Exceptions that prove
the rule—Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideological
incongruities and political anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas (2003).
Psychological Bulletin, 129, 383-393.
02/20/06 Week 7: No Class, President’s Day Holiday
02/27/06 Week 8: Self-Enhancement and Self-Affirmation Motivations
Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (in press). The psychology of self-defense: Selfaffirmation theory. Chapter to appear in M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology.
Dunning, D. (2003). The zealous self-affirmer: How and why the self lurks so
pervasively behind social judgment. In S. J. Spencer et al. (Eds.), Motivated social
perception: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 9, pp. 45-72). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological
perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103,193–210.
Paulhus, D. L. (1998). Interpersonal and intrapsychic adaptiveness of trait selfenhancement: A mixed blessing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74,
1197-1208.
Taylor, S. E., Lerner, J., Sherman, D. K., Sage, R., & McDowell, N. (2003). Portrait of
the self-enhancer: Well-adjusted and well liked, or maladjusted and friendless? Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 165-176.
03/06/06 Week 9: Collective Self-Motivations
Hogg, M. A. (2005). The social identity perspective. In S. A. Wheelan (Ed.), The
handbook of group research and practice (pp. 133-157). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Correll, J., & Park, B. (2005). A model of the ingroup as a social resource. Personality
and Social Psychology Review, 9, 341-359
Sherman, D. K., & Kim, H. S. (2005). Is there an “I” in “team”? The role of the self in
group-serving judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 108-120.
Cohen, G. L., & Garcia, J. (2005). “I am us”: Negative stereotypes as collective threats.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 566-582.
03/13/06 Week 10: Functional perspectives on self-motivations
Leary, M. R. & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). The nature and function of self-esteem:
Sociometer theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.). Advances in experimental social psychology
(Vol. 32, pp. 1-62). New York: Academic Press.
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J. & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do
people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin,
130, 435-468.
Crocker, J., & Nuer, N. (2004). Do people really need self-esteem? Comment on
Pyszczynski et al. (2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130, 469– 472.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2004). Avoiding death or engaging life as accounts of
meaning and culture: Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004). Psychological Bulletin,
130, 473–477.
Leary, M. R. (2004). The function of self-esteem in terror management theory and
sociometer theory: Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004) Psychological Bulletin, 130,
478-482.
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J. & Schimel, J. (2004). Converging
toward an integrated theory of self-esteem: Reply to Crocker and Nuer (2004), Ryan and
Deci (2004), and Leary (2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130, 483-488.