COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1) The course will provide an overview of several core issues at the intersection of the fields of social cognition and judgment and decision making. This review of this literature is intended to provide a background that will be useful to participants in their own research and possible teaching within related areas of psychology.

2) The course will provide the opportunity for an in-depth examination of specific issues related to the construction of attitudes and beliefs. It is hoped that these opportunities will lead participants to pursue new research questions that either directly stem from the course content, or are related to their other research interests.

3) The course will provide a forum to engage in activities critical to field of psychology: the generation, presentation and discussion of ideas.

COURSE READINGS:
Readings include recent articles and some classics, and are mostly drawn from social cognition and judgment/decision making sources. There is no textbook for the course. Required readings (noted with an "*") are to be read by everyone before the seminar meets. Related readings are suggested but not required, and additional related readings may be suggested throughout the course, by other seminar members or the instructor. Master copies of readings can be obtained in the Psychology Department Faculty/Graduate Student Lounge. In addition, full references are provided for all the readings, so you may read them in the original journal or book if you wish.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1) Class participation: This course is a seminar, thus class participation is extremely important. All participants are expected to read each required reading prior to class and be prepared to discuss it fully. In particular, participants should try to go beyond the information provided in the readings, raising new questions, critiquing methodology, and making connections to other readings.

As a formal contribution to each discussion, each week participants should prepare either a set of questions prompted by the readings that they would like to discuss OR an outline of an experiment to test some idea prompted by the readings. The goal of this assignment is to promote high level discussion of the current week's readings and time will be set aside each week to go over the questions or outlines. However, participants are also encouraged to bring in questions or ideas about previous weeks' material. (If I deem preparation of the questions or experiment outlines as too minimal, participants may be asked to submit written versions of their contributions prior to seminar meetings.)

Because attendance is a prerequisite of in-class participation, please attend. If you know in advance that you must miss a class, I would appreciate it if you let me know. I anticipate many interesting ideas and contributions to come from you-- the seminar participants--and thus your absence affects the quality of other participants' experience in the seminar.

2) Leading Discussion: Although you should always be prepared to contribute to the class, each seminar participant will be asked to lead discussion (probably twice during the quarter, depending on the number of participants). It is up to you how you lead discussion, but your facilitation should go beyond summarizing the readings. Possible ideas include (but are not limited to!) linking the week's readings to another area of psychology (either within social psychology or not--for some weeks, I have noted a related topic to the main theme of the week's readings), applying the readings to a "real life" context or problem, raising unasked and unanswered questions (and suggesting possible answers), or identifying emergent frameworks or recurrent themes. You may pick one of the routes, or combine two or more. Ideally, issues from previous class meetings can also be integrated into later class discussions. The discussion leader should bring some additional "expertise" to the discussion, by doing extra reading, having previous experience with the topic, and/or providing additional illustrations of the points he or she wishes to make. If you use additional readings, it would be very helpful if you could bring a list of the references for the class.

3) Research paper: Each student will write a final paper that will be due at a date during finals week to be announced. There are two possible formats for this paper:

a. You may write an introduction and methods section for an empirical study (or series of studies). If it is not explicitly clear from the theory outlined in your introduction, you should also provide expected results. I encourage students to use this option as a way to develop a viable research project that can actually be conducted. OR
b. You may write a literature review or theoretical paper about a topic related to the class. The lit review should be a Psychological Bulletin type paper of an area not previously reviewed; the theoretical paper should be Psychological Review type paper, outlining a novel theoretical interpretation of pre-existing literature.

Whichever format you pick, a description outlining what you plan to do for your paper (about a page or two) is due in class the week of May 19. I encourage you to discuss your ideas about your paper with me at any point. Time will be reserved during the last class meeting for each seminar participant to present his or her paper topic. Each of you will read and provide feedback on the paper of another seminar participant and thus, each of you will be given feedback that you should consider incorporating into your final draft. The final paper (either format) should be written in APA style.

GRADING:
The course may be taken graded or pass/no-pass. In order to pass the course, each separate component (participation, presentation, and paper) must be at a passing level (non-compensatory model). If you take the course for a grade, your paper will be 60% of your grade and participation (weekly in-class contributions, plus presentation) will be 40% of your grade.

OTHER DETAILS:
As listed in the bulletin, registration for the seminar requires the instructor's permission. Psychology Department graduate students are automatically eligible. If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make arrangements to meet with me soon. Please request that the Counselor for Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability.

COURSE SCHEDULE:
This schedule will be adhered to as closely as possible. Should changes occur, you will be notified.

* Denotes CORE reading. Other articles are related reading.

Week I. Organizational Meeting

Week II. Belief Beginnings