Social Psychology Syllabus Spring 2021 PDF

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Social Psych Syllabus, Spring 2021

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SYLLABUS Social Psychology (APSY-UE 13-001) SPRING 2018 Class meetings: Tuesdays & Thursdays 2.00-3.15 pm Class Location: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/91797524821

Professor: Rezarta Bilali, Ph.D Email: [email protected] Office hours: Thursdays, 3.30 - 5.00 pm EST @ https://nyu.zoom.us/j/94636636196 Course Assistants Name: Vivi Kawas Email: [email protected] Office hours: Tuesdays, 9.00-11.00am EST Name: Page Spears Email: [email protected] Office hours: Wednesdays, 1.00-3.00pm EST Name: Brian Spitzer Email: [email protected] Office hours: Mondays, 11.00am-1.00pm EST

Course Description This course provides students with an overview of core themes within the field of social psychology. Social psychology illustrates how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by social situations and the real or imagined presence of others (including parents, peers, authorities, and groups). Through an exploration of both broad theories and specific research studies, we will examine how people are influenced by their social environments, how they interact with each other, and how they perceive and respond to their social environment. We cover a wide range of topics, including conformity and obedience, social cognition, attitudes and persuasion, self and identity, interpersonal relations, prejudice and intergroup relations, and aggression and prosocial behavior. Course Objectives The primary objective of the course is to help you gain familiarity with understanding of social psychological theories, methods, and applications. By the end of this course, you will leave with an ability to interpret and evaluate social psychological research, as well as a rich understanding of how social environments and social interactions shape people’s thoughts,

Social Psych Syllabus, Spring 2021

attitudes, and behaviors – insights that can carry over into your everyday lives. Upon completion of the course, you should be able to identify and explain the basic tenets of major social psychological theories of human behavior, and apply these theories to an understanding of social phenomena in everyday life. Course Readings All readings required in this course will come from the required textbook, listed below. Each week, you will read one chapter from this textbook (see course outline on the last page of this syllabus). It is recommended that you complete the reading of the assigned chapter shortly before, or soon after the class covering the assigned chapter. This will help you to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and research studies discussed in lecture. Required textbook: Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., & Sommers, S. R. (2019). Social psychology (10th Edition). New York: Pearson. How to access your textbook? Your course is participating in the Follett Access program. This is an NYU Bookstore initiative that delivers required course materials digitally at the lowest possible price. The book for this course Social Psychology by Aronson will cost $69.50, a $165.50 savings over the new hardcopy price. It will be delivered digitally through the REVEL platform. The cost of the book will be added as a “book charge” to your bursar bill around the third or fourth week of classes. To access our book: Step 1. Follow this link: https://console.pearson.com/enrollment/eaowwu Step 2. You will be routed to your course material screen. Click REDEEM the access code. Step 3. You will need to sign into your Pearson account. If you have a Pearson account, enter your username and password. Otherwise, create a new account. Step 4. Select the option to enter access code: RVSASP-MILLI-WORRY-BRUTE-MAINT-VOTES DO NOT PURCHASE ACCESS OR JOIN THE TRIAL PERIOD!

If you decide not to use this digital edition you can opt-out of the program. The deadline for opting out is February 12th. The link to opt out of the program is: https://includedcp.follett.com/2015 The textbook’s associated REVEL website provides you with audio and e-text versions of the chapters, as well as other supplemental materials, including

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videos, sample test questions, summaries, etc. I encourage you to make use of this resource as you study for your exams.

Course Logistics NYU Classes – This is where you can find everything that you need to know about this class!! All the information and communications regarding this course will be posted in NYU Classes site, available through NYU Global Home. You can access the NYU Classes using your NYU NetId and password. Do let us know if you do not know how to get to NYUClasses and we will help you. You will find here recordings of the lectures, instructions for assignments, handouts, grades, announcements. You are responsible to keep track of the announcements and materials posted.

Course Assignments The primary goals of the course assignments are to encourage students to think deeply about the course material, and to provide opportunities to apply social psychological knowledge to social issues. The lectures will not only cover the material in your readings, but will also supplement and extend that material. Attendance (10%) Attendance consists of attending class lectures either synchronously or asynchronously, and attending recitation sessions. Attending Class: You are highly encouraged to attend class synchronously on a regular basis and to take notes in-class as well. To join class follow this link : https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/91797524821 or go to the ZOOM tab in NYUClasses. While you are encouraged to attend, synchronous attendance is not mandatory. You can also participate asynchronously. If you decide to participate asynchronously for the whole or a part of semester, or if you simply can’t come to class one day (i.e., illness, religious holiday, competing responsibilities), you can view the recording of the lecture within a week of posting. For your attendance to count, you need to post a comment with a reflection or a question in the comment section of the video under media gallery. Doing so will mark you as “present” for the day. Recitation Sessions: This course has 5 recitation sessions that meet weekly for 50 mins/session. Each student is required to sign up for one of these recitation sessions. All recitation sessions are led by our course

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assistants. Students are required to attend at least 1 recitation session per month (i.e., 4 times during the course of the semester). Although participation in all the recitation sessions is not required, it is strongly encouraged and it will be awarded extra credits. Specifically, your attendance efforts in recitation will be rewarded by converting your total attendance percentage (beyond the 4 required attendances) to a score between 0-1, which then is added to your final grade. 

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Recitations are a complement to lecture both supporting and enhancing your learning of the material. Whereas lecture is large and lots of information is covered, recitations are smaller giving you ample opportunity for individualized engagement and more open interchange of ideas. Recitation is a safe space in which to ask clarification on concepts, facts, and processes gone over during lecture or in your readings that might be unclear to you. In recitations, you will review for exams; get clarification and personalized feedback on homeworks before turning them in for a grade. This is also a great place to test your understanding of the material. Course assistants will clarify any questions that you have about that week’s homework assignment.

• To optimize learning during recitations, we recommend the following: Prepare: list questions you have from lectures based off of your notes. Do the same with homework reading. Communicate: if you have a great deal of questions, email your recitation leader to ask what is feasible to cover, or if you should set up 1:1 time to go over questions apart from recitation. Participate: engage actively with the material, other classmates, and the recitation leader during recitation. Don’t be afraid to suggest concepts or problems to go over; don't hesitate to answer questions the recitation leader poses. Follow up: if recitation presents even more confusion for any reason, get in touch with your recitation leader after class or through email to schedule 1:1 time to go over your questions. In-Class Exams (75%). Three multiple-choice exams will be given over the course of the semester on the following dates. Each exam will be administered during class time on the dates identified in the calendar. Students will be completing the exams online.

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These “during semester” exams will be non-cumulative, meaning that they will only test students’ knowledge of material from each of the three main sections of the course, as noted in the course outline (provided at the end of this syllabus). The exams will assess students’ knowledge and understanding of material from lectures and assigned readings. Students will be given a study guide before each exam, and the recitation sessions in the week prior to each exam will serve as review sessions. Students will be given one hour to complete each exam. The exams are equally weighted to constitute 25% of your final grade each (total of 75%). The exams are administered online, therefore there is no direct monitoring of students while taking the exam. Because of this, it is possible that some students might think it would be easy to get away without studying for the exams, because they could just look up the information they need while taking each exam. However, the multiple-choice questions are designed in a way that it minimizes the ability for students to perform well on the exams if they are not prepared. First, the number of questions in the exam is such that the students will not have enough time to look up the information in the book or lectures; second, most of the questions involve application of the understanding of the concepts, which means that students won’t be able to find the answer in the book in a short time. Make-Up Exams. Make-up exams for students who cannot attend the inclass exam due to time zone difference, or students who have a strong justification for missing the exam (e.g., religious holiday) will be provided on the morning of the Friday of the week on which the exam is scheduled. Optional Final. One optional final exam will be offered at the end of the class during the final exam period. This exam will be cumulative, such that it will test students on their knowledge of course material from throughout the entire semester. Students who complete all three exams during the academic semester will be able to choose whether to take the cumulative final exam in an effort to improve their overall course grade. If a student’s score on the final exam is better than their score on one of the three prior exams, the final exam score will be substituted for their lowest prior exam score. If the grade of the final optional exam is lower than the grade of the in-class exam that you want to replace, then I will take the average of these two exams. If for some (good) reason a student has missed one of the 3 exams and its make-up during the semester, then they might be eligible to complete this exam as a make-up for the missed exam during the term. For all students, the final exam will take place during finals week at the regularly scheduled final exam time slot (to be determined). More

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information about the scheduled time for the final exam will be shared with students once it is available on NYU CLASSES. Homework Assignments (15%): Three homework assignments will make up 15% of your grade (5% each). You have the choice of completing 3 out of 9 homework assignments. It is highly recommended that, at the start of the semester, students review the due dates for homework assignments alongside the due dates and requirements for all their courses, so that they can determine how best to budget their time and manage workload. You can find all homework assignments in a word document under the “Resources” tab in NYU Classes. In addition, each week’s assignment will become available every week under the “Assignment” tab. Each homework should be at least one full page, and no longer than two full pages (typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font). Homework assignments must be completed and submitted electronically via NYU Classes by 5:00p.m. (US Eastern Time) on Friday of the week they are assigned for. Grading of homework assignments. Each homework assignment will be worth up to 5 points. Students will receive 2 points for simply doing the “exercise” described in the homework assignment sheet, and preparing and submitting a written response about it by the due date. One (1) additional point will be added if the homework is completed with care (e.g., it is well-written and well-structured, within the length limit, etc.). Students will receive 2 additional points based on the degree to which the homework demonstrates a good understanding of the course material and covers all the requirements of the assignment. Discussion of homework assignments during recitation. Our course assistants will use part of the time during the recitation sessions to go over the homework assignments and answer any questions that you might have prior to your submissions. Extra Credits. Opportunities to earn extra credits will be provided during the semester. Grading for the Course Each assignment will contribute proportionately to students’ final grades in the following way: Points 1. Exams (3 exams, 25% each) 2. Homework (3 HWs 5% each) 3. Class attendance (10%)

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4. Extra point through recitation attendance

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1 TOTAL:

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Students will be assigned a final letter grade for the course on the following basis: A AB+ B BC+ C CD+ D F

95 – 102 90 – 94.99 87 – 89.99 83 – 86.99 80 – 82.99 77 – 79.99 73 – 76.99 70 – 72.99 67 – 69.99 63 – 66.99 < 62.99

Policy on Submitting Late Work. Late submissions are not accepted. All written work is due at the time specified in the syllabus. All assignments should be submitted via NYU Classes. Accommodations and Assistance 

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Any student attending NYU who needs an accommodation due to a chronic, psychological, visual, mobility and/or learning disability, or is Deaf or Hard of Hearing should register with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212 998-4980, 240 Greene Street, www.nyu.edu/csd. In addition, do not hesitate to reach out to the professor for additional help. Any student who is experiencing mental or emotional distress is urged to contact their advisor for support and/or contact NYU’s Health & Wellness Center directly at (212) 443-9999 https://www.nyu.edu/students/health-and-wellness/counselingservices.html Furthermore, please notify the professor if you are comfortable doing so. This will enable her to provide any resources that she might possess. Any student who has difficulty accessing food to eat every day, or who lacks a safe and stable place to live, and believes this might affect their performance in the course, is urged to contact their advisor for support. Furthermore, please notify the professor if you are comfortable doing so. This will enable her to provide any resources that she might possess. CAN I GET EXTRA HELP? Yes! Always feel free to stop by any of our offices hours or request an appointment for another time. Recitations are meant to support your learning, so that is a great place to bring up questions. If

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you have a question, it is quite likely that another student will have the same question. Don’t hesitate to reach out! Academic Integrity It is expected that students will maintain the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity in completing assignments for this course. Acts of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. All students are expected to adhere closely to the University policy concerning academic honesty. Read NYU Steinhardt’s statement of academic integrity here: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/000/908/Statement%20on %20Academic%20Integrity%209.10.07.pdf Failure to uphold this policy will result in a grade of 0% for the corresponding exam/assignment, which will be averaged into the final grade. Cheating and plagiarism are not fair to honest students and go against the ethics of the university. Cheating may involve a variety of activities, from copying someone else’s responses to questions on an exam, to allowing another student to take an exam in your place, to using notes during a closed-book exam, to having someone else complete your homework assignments, among others. We will be taking several measures to prevent and detect cheating in this course. In addition to several other strategies, we may conduct statistical analyses of suspected cheating cases to test the odds that similar patterns of responses to exam questions across students could reasonably occur by chance. Students who copy or complete another student’s homework assignment (or who allow another student to copy or complete their assignment) will immediately receive 0 points on the assignment in question and will be at risk for additional penalties that will harm their overall course grade. COURSE POLICIES, ETIQUETTE AND HOW TO THRIVE IN THIS CLASS We also wish to share some guidelines and ground rules for online discussions. It is incumbent upon all of us—students and members of the teaching team alike—to create an engaging and respectful learning environment as we interact with each other online. To this end, our expectations for online communication are that everyone will: 

be considerate and courteous in relating to others—as we will discuss later in the semester, it becomes all too easy to respond in a rude manner when we feel distanced from a situation or removed from others; please treat others with as much consideration and respect as you would wish to receive from others.

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ask questions rather than make assumptions—it is a common tendency for us to assume that others share our understanding of others’ intentions and behavior, but what we assume may not be accurate; if you have questions about someone else’s intentions or behavior, please ask for clarification rather than presume you know what meaning they intended. please remember the online communication developed for this course is part of our educational and instructional practice, and we therefore request that you refrain from using internet slang, memes, gifs, or other forms of informal expression.

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CLASS SCHEDULE Date Thu 1/28

Thu 2/4 Tue 2/9 Thu 2/11

Topic Introductions. Course Logistics Introducing Social Psychology Methods Methods Social Cognition

Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Tue 2/16

Social Cognition

Chapter 3

Thu 2/18 Tue 2/23 Thu 2/25

Legislative Day: NO CLASS Social Perception Chapter 4 Homework 2 due by 5.00pm on Social Perception Chapter 4 2/26 The Self Chapter 5 Homework 3 due The Need to Justify Chapter 6 by 5.00pm on 3/5 Actions EXAM 1: Chapters 1-5

Tue 2/2

Tue 3/2 Thu 3/4 Tue 3/9 Thu 3/11

Reading Syllabus Chapter 1

Chapter 6

Tue 3/16 Thu 3/18

The Need to Justify Actions Attitudes Attitudes

Tue 3/23 Thu 3/25

Conformity Conformity

Chapter 8 Chapter 8

Tue 3/30 Thu 4/1 Tue 4/6

Tue 4/13 Thu 4/15

Group Processes Interpersonal Attraction Interpe...