CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
28 830 672
Fall 2012
Kent Harber
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY AT NEWARK
Define These Fields
Wrigley Field
W.C. Fields
Strawberry Field
Sally Field
Developmental Psychology
Cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal
changes, over lifespan
Cognitive Psychology
Learning, memory, and reasoning
Physiological Psychology
Molecular, neurological, hormonal, and
cortical bases of psychology
Social Psychology
???????
Domains of Social Psychology
Theoretical
Cog. Dissonance
Attribution
Self Affirmation
Terror Management
Sub-Domains
Social Cognition
Emotions
Social Develop.
Social Neuroscience
Group Processes
Intergroup Relations
Applied
Education
Health
Environmental
Occupational
NOTES:
1.
This is NOT an exhaustive list of all domains and all
domain-related topics.
2.
Areas intersect: Emotion & Health, Dissonance & the
Self & Prejudice, e.g.
Phenomena and
Interesting Problems
Classic
The Self
Obedience
Bystander Behavior
Prejudice
Contemporary
Social Support
Ostracism
Embodiment
Autonomy
Stereotype Threat
How are Humans Like Other Mammals?
Emotional Beings
* Have core set of emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust
* Emotions closely tied to behavior
Social Beings
* Depend on others, and others depend on us: No se vive sin amore
* Exploit and are exploited by others
What Are Core and Unique Human Qualities?
Time Perspective
Self Consciousness
Theory of Mind
* Other people are self conscious
* Other people have selves
Social Psychology:
The internal experience and interpersonal
behavior of self-aware social beings.
Whitey Herzog’s “Theory of Mind”
A slick way to out-figure someone is to get them
to figure you’ve figured how they figured. Then
when they’ve figured you’ve figured how they
figured they’ve figured, you can figure a way to
out figure how they figured you figured.
Class Agenda
Dynamic Bases of Social Psychology
Motives, Drives, Emotions
Unconscious processes
Drive Toward Meaning
Social Perception
Freud
Lewin
The Self
Is there a self?
What is the self?
What does the self do?
Wllm. James
G.H. Mead
Class Topics
PART 1: The Dynamics of Mental Lives
1. Gestalt Psychology & Kurt Lewin
2. Psychodynamic Theory
3. Social Development
4. Emotion, Vision, and Judgment
5. Emotion and Judgment
6. Emotion and Cognition
7. Emotion Management
8. Attribution Theory
Class Topics
PART 2: The Self
9. The Self—Classic and Philosophical Approaches
10. The Self and the Collective
11. Cognitive Dissonance and Self-Affirmation
12. Self Theory: Contemporary Issues
13. Culture and the Self
14. Existential Social Psychology
Class Structure
Seminar Format
My Role: Introduce topics, overview
Discussants: Prepare set of discussion topics, lead discussion
All are expected to join in discussion
Grading
Discussion Summaries and Questions:
Quizzes
Attendance/Participation
Take-home Final
30%
30%
05%
35%
Class Assignments & Materials
Assignments
Discussion Questions: 6 ques. per reading (3-4 for short reads), plus brief
(1 page) outline. Bring copies for all participants.
Quizzes: Mainly multiple choice, about 15 questions each.
Attendance/Participation: Be prepared to answer presenters’ questions.
Final Exam: Essay questions, take home.
Materials
Reader: Master available at front office. Charge = printing costs.
Powerpoint Slides: Available on my Web page
http://psychology.rutgers.edu/~kharber
What Do You See? What Would Wundt See?
Wilhelm Wundt
(1832-1920)
What Do You See? What Would Wundt See?
Historical Roots of Positivism
Devine Right of Kings
Sectarian violence, 30 Years War
Religious oppression, Inquisition
Stifling of intellectual freedom, e.g., Galileo
Galileo Galilei
1564-1642
Gestalt Psychology
1. Revolt from then-dominant empirical psychology: Behaviorism,
Associationism, Structuralism
2. Alternative to Psychoanalytic Theory
3. Early psychology suffers theoretical psoriasis: too dry or too flakey.
Lewin: “What could be observed reliably is socially
meaningless, and what is socially meaningful could not be
observed reliably.”
4. Gestalt insight on apparent motion makes mental lives empirically
accessible.
Telephone lines from train
Phi Phenomenon
The Phi Phenomena:
An Insight Leading to Gestalt Leading to Insight
http://www.yorku.ca/eye/balls.htm
Gestalt's "Cheerful" Revolution
Mental events are legitimate objects of study
Whole range of human experience open for scientific investigation
Example: Insight
1. Behaviorists say all learning is trial and error
2. Gestaltists say it can be instantaneous--reorganizing of field
3. Sultan the ape, a stick, and a bananna
4. Learning is hypothesis driven
What Dominates Perception:
Prior Learning or Novel Structure?
Gestalt Demonstrations on Vision Influence Social Psychology Theory
Hering Illusion: Context Affects Perception
What’s The Story?
Point: Perception driven by context, i.e., the entire field.
Social Perception Governed By Same Laws As Physical Perception
How do these visual phenomena relate to social judgment?
X
X
X
X
X
X
Similarity
Similarity
Proximity
OO
OO
OO
OO
OO
OO
O O O O O O
Objective Set
(Once a pattern is detected, it persists.)
Vision (and Problem-Solving) Is Constructive:
Organize the Field, and All the Pieces Make Sense
1. Once you “see the dog” you can even see the missing piece.
2. Insight and learning:
Learning ≠ locating a missing piece
Learning = “reorganizing the field”
3. Once you “see the dog” it is very hard to NOT see the dog. Why?
What does that say about human consciousness?
Insight and Problem Solving
=
≠
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sudden transition from helplessness to mastery
Quick, smooth performance once insight grasped
Retention of insight-gained knowledge
Transfer of insight to new situations
Lesson for teachers: Present the whole field, not just a stream of facts.
The Drive Toward Meaning
Kuleshov Effect
(Lev Kuleshov, 1899-1970)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr
CPqoFwp5k&feature=related
Heider & Simmel, 1944
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
wp8ebj_yRI4
To see or not to see, that is the question…
Charlie Chaplin, City Lights, 1931
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRmcvJzVMw4&feature=related
Gestalt Psychology Discussion Questions
1.
Gestaltists say that rat in maze looks random, but it's b/c rat can't see entire maze.
The Gestaltists therefore saw problem from rat's point of view. How might this
relate to social judgment? That is, how we judge the “odd” behaviors of others?
2.
Our ability to organize things into meaningful wholes is clearly helpful. Is it ever
unhelpful? How?
3.
People see animals and faces in cloud formations, and religious figures in tortillas.
Do Gestalt principles help explain this?
4.
How might the Kuleshov effect relate to psychological problems, like paranoia?
5.
Is the “self” a gestalt? Can’t people define themselves in terms of their “parts” (i.e.,
interests, family, skills, etc.)?
6.
Does the Gestalt notion that people see things purposefully rather than randomly
relate to problems of social perception, like stereotypes or prejudice?
7.
Gestalt provides appealing metaphors for social psychology—but are these really
anything more than metaphors? What scientific use do that have, if any?