Psychology (PSYC) 420

Description

This seminar course examines theories and research results pertaining to the structures (self, person, role, and event schemas) and processes (expectations, attributions, and inferences) underlying self and person perception.

Objectives

• To define what social cognition is and to identify the main events that influenced its development.
• To learn about the main theoretical orientations, concepts, and researchers in social cognition.
• To understand bidirectional influences in social cognition—i.e., the effects of the person's cognitive processes on social perception and behavior, and the effects of social interactions on cognitive processes.
• To increase students' awareness of their own self and social cognitions.
• To uncover the practical (e.g., interpersonal, political) implications of theoretical research.
• To develop students' ability to orally present research results in a coherent, dynamic, and systematic fashion.

College-wide Learning Outcomes

The course “Social Cognition” provides opportunities to develop some of the Mount Royal College-wide learning outcomes. Particular emphasis will be put on Information Retrieval and Evaluation (through the production of a term paper, which will require finding research results in the scientific literature), Thinking (through establishing links between key concepts such as self-perception and other-perception), and Communication (through the analysis and oral presentation of recent scientific articles).

Pedagogical method

This seminar alternates lectures with students’ presentations of articles. The instructor first provides students with information on a general topic in social cognition (e.g., attribution, social schemas; self-awareness); this is accomplished with lectures, informal surveys, and demonstrations. Then students are asked to present recent articles pertinent to the topic where they should integrate the information, put each article into perspective, be critical, and establish conceptual links. The instructor's main task then is to stimulate and guide exchanges of ideas. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions and debates.

Structure and Content

Introduction

• Definition and themes; basic principles; historical background.

Attribution

• Heider's naive psychology; Jones & Davis' theory of correspondent inferences; Kelley's covariation theory; Bem's self-perception theory; Weiner's motivational theory; basic principles of causation and additional mechanisms; errors and biases: fundamental error, actor-observer effect, false consensus effect, self-serving biases, responsibility/blame; individual differences.
• Presentation of recent articles, e.g., gender subtypes and harasser attributions; attributional complexity; stereotyping and overconfident social prediction; mood, heuristics and stereotyping.

Social Schemas

• Definition and origins; schema construction: prototypes and exemplars; content and types of schemas; activation of schemas; schema maintenance and change; motivation and schema use; individual differences.
• Presentation of recent articles, e.g., political judgments; racial stereotypes; inhibition and activation of stereotypes; target expectancies and social information processing.

Self-awareness (SA):

• Definitions: self, consciousness, SA, self-concept, self-esteem, subjective experience, etc. Duval & Wicklund's theory; SA vs. self-consciousness; measures and experimental manipulations; effects and consequences of SA; antecedents of SA. SA in animals and children: operationalizations and self-recognition; Theory-of-Mind. Cognitive processes involved in SA; SA and self-destruction; neurophysiological basis of SA.
• Presentation of recent articles, e.g., private speech, brain-imaging studies of SA; mental imagery; self-rumination.

Social inference

• Gathering, sampling and integrating information; conjunction error; illusory correlation; decision-framing effects; motivated inference; representativeness, availability and simulation heuristics; anchoring and adjustment.
• Presentation of recent articles, e.g., impression formation and management; linguistic bases of inferences; knowledge activation and inferences.

Attitudes

• Definition and background; how do we form attitudes? Functions of attitudes; attitude and behavior; cognitive dissonance; cultural differences in need for consistency.
• Presentation of recent articles, e.g., beliefs about mental processes and attitude change; beliefs and depression; actual and ideal body image; motivational resonance model.

Other topics

• Presentation of various uncovered themes: Video games, narcissism and aggression; self-complexity; social cognition in relationships; relationship closeness.

Conclusion

• Summary; what is missing and how to fill the gaps; future of social cognition research.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on the basis of two exams (total value of 40%), one term-paper (30%), oral presentations of articles (20%), and their active participation in class (10%).

• Two exams will cover all the material explored during the semester. Exams will be made up of multiple choice questions, short answer questions and essay questions. The term-paper will consist of a 10-page review of literature on any topic pertinent to social cognition but not systematically covered in class. The topics chosen by students will have to be approved beforehand. The bibliography should contain between 10 and 15 recent scientific references, and the paper should be written in basic APA format style (see MRC website at http://library.mtroyal.ca/indexhelp.htm).
• Students will be asked to orally present articles chosen by the instructor. Approximately twenty articles will be analyzed; thus, if twenty students are enrolled, each student will present one different article; if ten students are enrolled, each student will present two articles—and so forth. Each presentation should last approximately 20 minutes; the student's task will be to convey the main idea of a given paper in a dynamic and clear fashion.
• Students' active participation in class discussions (and their attendance) will be evaluated.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.