• How does the self-concept influence social behavior?
• How do people form impressions of each other and make sense of human behavior?
• How do social situations influence human thinking and behavior?
• What are the roots of aggression, stereotypes, and prejudice?
• What factors govern attraction and relationships?

In this course you will learn about research and theories in social psychology that help answer these questions. More important, you will learn to think carefully about important social phenomena, and thus about yourself and other people.

Expect to work hard in this course. This is not a threat but a promise. In return for your work you will gain excitement about social psychology, insights into the complexities of social behavior, and increased self-awareness of the mechanisms that guide your own behavior and experience.

1. The course has a moderate amount of reading assignments, but the assignments are demanding. Most of the articles are taken from the prime research journals of the field and will challenge your understanding of both theory and methodology. It is essential that you keep up with the readings in order to benefit from the lectures, contribute to seminars, succeed in exams, and write creative and thoughtful papers.
2. To facilitate your understanding of the readings, you will be part of a reading group. The groups get together to exchange ideas about the readings and prepare questions and statements for each upcoming seminar session. The group can also work together on exam preparations.
3. In addition to thinking and talking about social phenomena, you will also write about the topics of this course. Papers are due in the 5^th, 8^th, and 11^th week of the course, and you will have a chance to practice good writing by means of a peer-editing process for the first two papers.
4. The course encourages active use of electronic resources. A variety of material is posted on the course web page <http://www.uoregon.edu/~bfmalle/456.html>, including this syllabus, lecture handouts, tips on writing papers, questions and answers emerging during the term, and links to web resources. I encourage the use of Email throughout the term to complement in-person communication during office hours.

To bring everybody up to speed, an early assignment consists of

• activating your Email account,
• exploring the course web page,
• acquiring the class reader,
• reading the schedule and other web resource pages, and
• sending me Email describing (a) what you did and found on the web page and (b) who you are, where you are from, and what you expect from the class.

This assignment is due Monday, Oct. 7.

Electronic assignment	40 points
Reading group, seminar participation	150 points
Midterm exam	200 points
Final exam	250 points
3 papers	3 x 100 points
2 x editing	2 x 30 points

The translation of points into grades will be approximately as follows: A > 900 points, B > 750, C > 650, D > 550.

Exams

Both exams cover material from the lectures, the web resources, the course reader, and the seminar discussions. The exam will contain multiple-choice items and short-answer questions. (See Schedule for exam dates.)

If you know you are not able to complete an exam at the scheduled time (e.g., collegiate athletes’ away games), you must talk to me before the exam date. In case of unforeseen events such as illness or death of a close relative, special arrangements can be made if documentation is provided. No other exceptions will be made.

I do not tolerate any form of cheating and have failed students who have cheated in the past (e.g., copied somebody else’s paper).

Good papers can come in many forms. You may offer a critique of an article you read, a proposal for a new experiment, an application of a principle, a theoretical analysis of an everyday phenomenon, a description of an inconsistency in the literature, or a policy proposal to solve a societal problem. What they have in common is that you are the researcher, the theoretician, the social critic, the policy maker – I want your own perspective, not just a summary of material or readings covered in class. However, your contribution must be well argued. You cannot simply make a claim or speculate without backing it up with arguments, examples, data, or literature sources. Personal experience can contribute to a good paper, but it must be part of a well-constructed argument. A personal story cannot stand on its own; but it can be the starting point or a major illustration of a psychological thesis or argument. If you are in doubt whether an idea you have for a paper is appropriate, talk to me.

The best papers from past years are posted on the course web page. If you write a particularly good paper, I may ask your permission to add it to this collection.

Because good writing requires feedback from others and multiple drafts, the reaction papers are subject to a peer-editing system (see below). The first draft of each paper is brought to class on the due date and gets picked up by another student who edits the paper for clarity and quality of writing. Then the author gets the paper back, revises it, and turns in a final draft (along with the first one, to document the progress made) for grading.

Editing. Clear writing teaches clear thinking. Unfortunately, term papers are often written in a hurry and are packed with redundancy and platitudes, just to meet the page minimum. Also, many creative ideas go unappreciated because they are drowned in muddled language.

An excellent way to learn to write well is by reading and critiquing other people’s writing. From the "editor’s" viewpoint, unclear presentation, inelegant form, and inconsequential thinking are spotted at once – probably because editors, unlike writers, are not in love with the written product. During the first and second round of papers, your paper will be read by one other student – the editor of your paper; likewise, you will read someone else’s paper and be that author’s editor.

As an author, you should be as clear as possible so your editor has something to work with. As an editor, you should be as constructive as possible, so your author can improve his or her initial draft.

Your editing must cover all levels: from the main message of the paper to the clarity of an argument, to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Your editing – and of course your writing – must follow the guidelines in The writer’s brief handbook, by Rosa and Eschholz (available at the U of O Bookstore). Help with style and grammar is also available on the course web page.

Editing someone else’s paper is a required part of your first and second paper assignments. You also receive separate points for editing (up to 30 points for each of the two papers you edit).

At the beginning of each seminar session, one group will be picked at random to start off the discussion with a small number of important questions that arose from the readings. However, all other groups also have opportunities to contribute questions, issues, or position statements. Groups also contribute a small project to the special seminar session on Violence Today (which has no assigned readings).

To monitor group activities, a group leader and a deputy are elected by each group during the first week. They report to me (via email) about group meetings. These weekly reports should document meeting attendance and describe what activities the group was engaged in.

The first emailed report is due Monday, October 7. Thus, you have to meet at least briefly with your group this week to exchange schedules, find a meeting time, and elect your leader and deputy, who then send me an Email about these first activities.

Each student can earn up to 150 points for group participation. These points are based (a) on the group’s activities as a whole, (b) on each individual student’s group attendance and contribution (as judged by all other members of the group), and (c) on each individual student’s discussion contributions during lecture and seminars.