CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 28 830 672 Fall 2012 Kent Harber DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY...
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Transcript of CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 28 830 672 Fall 2012 Kent Harber DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY...
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
28 830 672
Fall 2012
Kent Harber
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY AT NEWARK
Define These Fields
Developmental Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Physiological Psychology
Social Psychology
Cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal changes, over lifespan
Learning, memory, and reasoning
Molecular, neurological, hormonal, and cortical bases of psychology
???????
Wrigley Field W.C. Fields Strawberry Field Sally Field
Domains of Social Psychology
Theoretical Sub-Domains Applied
Phenomena and Interesting Problems
Cog. DissonanceAttributionSelf AffirmationTerror Management
ClassicThe SelfObedience Bystander BehaviorPrejudice
ContemporarySocial SupportOstracismEmbodimentAutonomyStereotype Threat
Social CognitionEmotionsSocial Develop.Social NeuroscienceGroup ProcessesIntergroup Relations
EducationHealthEnvironmentalOccupational
NOTES:
1.This is NOT an exhaustive list of all domains and all domain-related topics.
2.Areas intersect: Emotion & Health, Dissonance & the Self & Prejudice, e.g.
How are Humans Like Other Mammals?
Emotional Beings
* Have core set of emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust
* Emotions closely tied to behavior
Social Beings
* Depend on others, and others depend on us: No se vive sin amore
* Exploit and are exploited by others
What Are Core and Unique Human Qualities?Time Perspective
Self Consciousness
Theory of Mind
* Other people are self conscious
* Other people have selves
Social Psychology:
The internal experience and interpersonal behavior of self-aware social beings.
Whitey Herzog’s “Theory of Mind”
A slick way to out-figure someone is to get them to figure you’ve figured how they figured. Then when they’ve figured you’ve figured how they figured they’ve figured, you can figure a way to out figure how they figured you figured.
Class Agenda
Dynamic Bases of Social Psychology
Motives, Drives, Emotions
Unconscious processes
Drive Toward Meaning
Social Perception
The Self
Is there a self?
What is the self?
What does the self do?
Freud Lewin
Wllm. James G.H. Mead
Class Topics
PART 1: The Dynamics of Mental Lives
1. Gestalt Psychology & Kurt Lewin
2. Psychodynamic Theory
3. Social Development
4. Emotion, Vision, and Judgment
5. Emotion and Judgment
6. Emotion and Cognition
7. Emotion Management
8. Attribution Theory
Class Topics
PART 2: The Self
9. The Self—Classic and Philosophical Approaches
10. The Self and the Collective
11. Cognitive Dissonance and Self-Affirmation
12. Self Theory: Contemporary Issues
13. Culture and the Self
14. Existential Social Psychology
Class StructureSeminar Format
My Role: Introduce topics, overview Discussants: Prepare set of discussion topics, lead discussion All are expected to join in discussion
Grading
Discussion Summaries and Questions: 30%Quizzes 30%Attendance/Participation 05%
Take-home Final 35%
Class Assignments & Materials
Materials
Reader: Master available at front office. Charge = printing costs.
Powerpoint Slides: Available on my Web pagehttp://psychology.rutgers.edu/~kharber
Assignments
Discussion Questions: 6 ques. per reading (3-4 for short reads), plus brief (1 page) outline. Bring copies for all participants.
Quizzes: Mainly multiple choice, about 15 questions each.
Attendance/Participation: Be prepared to answer presenters’ questions.
Final Exam: Essay questions, take home.
What Do You See? What Would Wundt See?
Wilhelm Wundt(1832-1920)
What Do You See? What Would Wundt See?
Historical Roots of Positivism
Devine Right of Kings
Sectarian violence, 30 Years War
Religious oppression, Inquisition
Stifling of intellectual freedom, e.g., Galileo
Galileo Galilei1564-1642
Gestalt Psychology1. Revolt from then-dominant empirical psychology: Behaviorism, Associationism, Structuralism
2. Alternative to Psychoanalytic Theory
3. Early psychology suffers theoretical psoriasis: too dry or too flakey.
Lewin: “What could be observed reliably is socially meaningless, and what is socially meaningful could not be observed reliably.”
4. Gestalt insight on apparent motion makes mental lives empirically accessible.
Telephone lines from train
Phi Phenomenon
The Phi Phenomena: An Insight Leading to Gestalt Leading to Insight
http://www.yorku.ca/eye/balls.htm
Gestalt's "Cheerful" Revolution
Mental events are legitimate objects of study
Whole range of human experience open for scientific investigation
Example: Insight
1. Behaviorists say all learning is trial and error
2. Gestaltists say it can be instantaneous--reorganizing of field
3. Sultan the ape, a stick, and a bananna
4. Learning is hypothesis driven
What Dominates Perception:
Prior Learning or Novel Structure?
Hering Illusion: Context Affects Perception
Gestalt Demonstrations on Vision Influence Social Psychology Theory
What’s The Story?
Point: Perception driven by context, i.e., the entire field.
Similarity
Proximity
OO OO OO
O O O O O O
O O O O O O
Objective Set
X
XX
XX
X
Similarity
Social Perception Governed By Same Laws As Physical Perception
(Once a pattern is detected, it persists.)
How do these visual phenomena relate to social judgment?
Vision (and Problem-Solving) Is Constructive: Organize the Field, and All the Pieces Make Sense
1. Once you “see the dog” you can even see the missing piece.
2. Insight and learning: Learning ≠ locating a missing piece Learning = “reorganizing the field”
3. Once you “see the dog” it is very hard to NOT see the dog. Why? What does that say about human consciousness?
1. Sudden transition from helplessness to mastery2. Quick, smooth performance once insight grasped3. Retention of insight-gained knowledge4. Transfer of insight to new situations
Lesson for teachers: Present the whole field, not just a stream of facts.
Insight and Problem Solving
=
≠
The Drive Toward Meaning
Heider & Simmel, 1944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grCPqoFwp5k&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp8ebj_yRI4
Kuleshov Effect (Lev Kuleshov, 1899-1970)
To see or not to see, that is the question…
Charlie Chaplin, City Lights, 1931
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRmcvJzVMw4&feature=related
Gestalt Psychology Discussion Questions1. Gestaltists say that rat in maze looks random, but it's b/c rat can't see entire maze.
The Gestaltists therefore saw problem from rat's point of view. How might this relate to social judgment? That is, how we judge the “odd” behaviors of others?
2. Our ability to organize things into meaningful wholes is clearly helpful. Is it ever unhelpful? How?
3. People see animals and faces in cloud formations, and religious figures in tortillas. Do Gestalt principles help explain this?
4. How might the Kuleshov effect relate to psychological problems, like paranoia?
5. Is the “self” a gestalt? Can’t people define themselves in terms of their “parts” (i.e., interests, family, skills, etc.)?
6. Does the Gestalt notion that people see things purposefully rather than randomly relate to problems of social perception, like stereotypes or prejudice?
7. Gestalt provides appealing metaphors for social psychology—but are these really anything more than metaphors? What scientific use do that have, if any?