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Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2016 12:30:20 -0600
From: Jon Mueller <jfmueller@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: socialpsy-teach@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [socialpsy-teach] TSP Newsletter - Vol. 16, No. 3
Teaching Social Psychology Newsletter
Vol. 16, No. 3
November 30, 2016
________________________________________________________
the e-mail newsletter accompanying the
Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology
website at
http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/crow
________________________________________________________
Activities and Exercises
Attitudes & Behavior/The Self: Why do so many mistrust scientific
findings?
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/teaching-current-directions-in-psychological-science-33#distrust
In many cases because it conflicts with a person's worldview. This
article from subscriber David
Myers suggests some activities you can conduct with your students around
this idea.
Attitudes & Behavior/Persuasion: Does Trump simply share attitudes or
also amplify them?
http://www.talkpsych.com/talk-psych-blog/2016/11/9/does-donald-trump-merely-express-widely-shared-attitudes-or-
also-amplify-them
This good question is asked by subscriber David Myers. It is framed well
to serve as a discussion
starter in your classes.
Attitudes & Behavior/Persuasion: When does repetition of misinformation
become fact?
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/teaching-current-directions-in-psychological-science-33#fiction
A good discussion of this question along with some class activities -- by
the way, Russia has a
larger surface area than Pluto.
Methods: Review of independent and dependent variables
https://community.macmillan.com/community/the-psychology-community/blog/2016/11/25/a-twitter-experiment-provide
s-iv-and-dv-practice-for-your-students
A very interesting example to use
Persuasion: "How effective are you at influencing customers?"
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/10/how-to-influence-customers.html
Here is a good article from subscriber Robert Cialdini which describes
techniques he refers to as
pre-suasion. Several scenarios illustrating these ideas are included
that can be used with
students.
Class Assignments
Helping: #FeedtheDeed
http://teachpsych.org/E-xcellence-in-Teaching-Blog/4394183
Interesting project in which students are randomly assigned to perform
a good deed for a stranger or a
family member/friend.
Examples
Persuasion: Reciprocity
http://creative.theonion.com/ads/onion-ring/article/study-giving-away-ldquoi-votedrdquo-burger-instead
-of-sticker-would-increase-voter-turnout-by-80
An amusing example from The Onion
Topic Resources
Attitudes & Behavior/Social Judgment: How did U.S. economic confidence
dramatically surge/depress in
just two weeks time?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/197474/economic-confidence-surges-election.aspx?g_source=Economy&g_medium=lead&g_cam
paign=tiles
Oh yes, there was a presidential election in between. Amazing how
Republican and Democrat
confidence judgments of our current economy changed so quickly.
Attitudes & Behavior/Social Judgment: "Why are some of us better at
handling contradictory
information?"
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/25/why-are-some-of-us-are-better-at-handling-contradictory-information-than-o
thers/
Attraction & Relationships: "How our partners make us great"
http://www.scienceofrelationships.com/home/2016/11/14/a-sidekick-for-self-actualization-how-our-partners-make-u
s-g.html
This research identifies some variables in our partners which might
predict our well being.
Attraction & Relatioships: The psychology of eye contact
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/28/the-psychology-of-eye-contact-digested/
A good review of some of the research
Conflict & Peacemaking: Ingroup-congruent behavior less memorable than
ingroup-incongruent behavior
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/15/in-group-infamy-why-your-team-are-unlikely-to-forget-if-you-let-them-down/
According to this research, we remember when you violate our ingroup
expectations. "That was
stupid!"
Conformity: "Milgram's obedience study: A contentious classic
reinterpreted"
http://top.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/14/0098628316677644.abstract
This article describes the contrast between how Milgram's study is often
presented in textbooks
versus what recent reinterpretations are saying.
Conformity: Why do we call people stupid?
http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2016/10/the-sociology-of-calling-other-people-stupid.html
This interesting essay suggests that one reason may be to enforce norms.
"You're stupid" means you
are acting outside acceptable behavior, and I am signalling that you
should return to the fold.
Gender & Culture: Lightbulb genius? Men. Nurturing the seed genius?
Women.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/whats-the-big-idea-how-gender-influences-perceptions-of
-genius.html#.WD3nJpKIRrN
Our language to describe genius reveals our gendered perceptions of it.
Helping: Helping is tiring
https://hbr.org/2016/09/research-yes-being-helpful-is-tiring?cm_sp=Article-_-Links-_-Text%20Size
http://www.talkpsych.com/talk-psych-blog/2016/11/3/super-grit
It can drain your cognitive and emotional resources. In fact, I had a
couple more resources to
point you to, but i just.... I added the second link, in which
subscriber David Myers describes
some examples of super grit, to see if it might energize you instead.
That's a good empirical
question: Does hearing about someone else's super grit energize or
deflate us? How did you feel
after reading the super grit article? Your students?
Persuasion: Gender roles and apologies
http://keenetrial.com/blog/2016/11/10/simple-jury-persuasion-when-does-your-client-need-to-go-beyond-apology/
This blog entry reports on some research and advice that suggests that
apologies are more
"successful" if they are gender congruent. For example, a man's apology
is more accepted if he
takes responsibility, because that is what men do.
Persuasion: "How partisan is fake news?"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3142412/windows/just-how-partisan-is-facebooks-fake-news-we-tested-it.html
A very interesting test of this question from PCWorld
Persuasion: Does repetition produce "truth"?
https://mindhacks.com/2016/11/11/how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth/
This research attempts to investigate that question by repeating known
and unknown truths.
Prejudice: Institutional discrimination
http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2016/11/institutional-discrimination-an-inadequate-concept.html
This essay suggests that we might be misusing this important term.
Prejudice: Americans still really dislike atheists
http://keenetrial.com/blog/2016/11/28/its-late-in-2016-and-we-still-neither-like-nor-trust-atheists/
According to this latest survey, the "good" news for atheists is that
Muslims caught up with them.
Psychology in the Courtroom: #1 rated new TV show in U.S.? Jury consultant
"Bull"
http://jurylaw.typepad.com/deliberations/2016/11/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-.html
This real-life jury consultant reflects on the problems with the TV
portrayal of a character many of
your students might watch. I know, crazy right? After TV is spot-on
with its portrayal of every
other group in society, this would be the one it gets wrong!
Psychology in the Courtroom: Contaminated forensic evidence is unreliable
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/whether-eyewitness-memory-or-dna-contaminated-forensic-evidence-is
-unreliable#.WD3kOpKIRrN
Psychology in the Courtroom/Social Judgment: "Face-matching is harder than we
realised"
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/22/bad-news-for-passport-control-face-matching-is-harder-than-we-realised/
Hey, I'm not stupid; it's a British spelling. Anyway, it is not easy to
compare a person's live
face and a picture of that person. Ask an eyewitness or a passport
checker.
Social Judgment: Two priming replications coming
http://tinyurl.com/jd2sqhu
Good fodder for discussion in your courses
The Self: "We have an unfortunate tendency to assume we're morally
superior"
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/14/we-have-an-unfortunate-tendency-to-assume-were-morally-superior-to-others/
Morally superior? You people are stupid!
Technology in Teaching
Audio
Methods: "Can we trust psychological studies?"
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/07/episode-8-can-we-trust-psychological-studies/
A podcast from Research Digest
Video
Social Judgment/The Self: Self-disparagement, confirmation bias, ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DHJrswOKw
Amusing Saturday Night Live clip that illustrates multiple concepts
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How Do You ... ?
Ever wonder how your fellow social psych instructors handle a certain
topic or issue in their
courses? Then send me your "How Do You..?" question and I will try and
post it here. If I get some
answers I will post them in the following issue.
Request Line is Open!
Yes, I take requests; in fact, I encourage them. Are there particular
types of resources you would
like examples of? Particular topics you are interested in? Teaching tips?
Technology tips? I want to
tailor this newsletter to your needs. So, please feel free to send me
your requests, suggestions,
comments and resources. Send them directly to me (jfmueller@xxxxxxxxxx)
or by replying to this
message.
________________________________________________________
The Teaching Social Psychology Newsletter is published monthly (hopefully) by
Jon Mueller
Professor of Psychology
30 North Brainard St.
North Central College
Naperville, IL 60540
jfmueller@xxxxxxxxxx
http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu
Copyright, Jon Mueller 2001-2016.
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===============
Jon Mueller
Professor of Psychology
North Central College
30 N. Brainard St.
Naperville, IL 60540
voice: (630)-637-5329
fax: (630)-637-5121
jfmueller@xxxxxxxxxx
http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu
