Ever wonder why people do what they do? This course—which includes more than $1,000 of video and reading materials—offers some answers based on the latest research from social psychology. Students taking the course for a Certificate will also receive free membership in Social Psychology Network (SocialPsychology.org). COURSE DESCRIPTION FROM PROFESSOR PLOUS: Each of us is dealt a different hand in life, but we all face similar questions when it comes to human behavior: What leads us to like one person and dislike another? How do conflicts and prejudices develop, and how can they be reduced? Can psychological research help protect the environment, and if so, how? This course offers a brief introduction to classic and contemporary social psychology, covering topics such as decision making, persuasion, group behavior, personal attraction, and factors that promote health and well-being. Our focus will be on surprising, entertaining, and intriguing research findings that are easy to apply in daily life. The course will also draw from the websites of Social Psychology Network, the world's largest online community devoted to social psychology. I hope you'll join me for this course, have fun, and learn some useful information that enriches your life.
Lecture 1.2: Course Logistics: Some Rules of the Road
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From the course by Wesleyan University
Social Psychology
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From the lesson
WEEK 1: Social Perceptions and Misperceptions
This week's goals are to: (1) learn what social psychology is and why it's worth studying; (2) take a "snapshot" of your thinking at the start of the course; (3) see how perceptions of reality are psychologically constructed; and (4) witness the shocking speed at which social judgments are made.
Meet the Instructors
Scott PlousProfessor of Psychology; Executive Director, Social Psychology Network; recipient of the American Psychological Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching
Department of Psychology
Welcome back to Social Psychology.
In our last video, I introduced our wonderful teaching staff, discussed a few
unique aspects of the course, defined social psychology, and ended with a brief
demonstration of hindsight bias, or the "I knew it all along" effect.
In this video, I want to talk a little bit about how the course is structured,
and offer some rules of the road,
just to make sure that our journey together is a positive one,
like "Don't park on the yellow brick road!"
And in just a few minutes, I'll share some exciting news about a feature of our
course that I think you'll like.
But first, let's talk about how the course is structured.
Each week, we'll have a few lectures and related videos,
along with some assigned reading.
Sometimes the readings will focus on the same topic as the lectures, but
more often, they'll cover material beyond the lectures so that we get the broadest
possible coverage in the short amount of time that we have together.
When the lecture and readings do focus on the same topic,
the readings will typically be assigned after the lecture,
so it's important to follow the order of lectures and
readings given in the course syllabus, and of course, to keep up.
You'll get much, much more out of the course than if you skip around,
or if you do a reading before the lecture it's supposed to follow.
The course will have five different assignments.
The first, called the Random Assignment Assignment,
will step you through a brief tutorial on
random sampling and random assignment,
and then ask you to use the Randomizer form from Research Randomizer,
a Social Psychology Network partner site, to generate your own random sample and to
randomly assign individuals in the sample to one of several experimental conditions.
In the second assignment, those of you who join Social Psychology Network
will create your own page in the network and
receive feedback from other class members on the social impression you make.
What do other people think of you when they first see your page?
And how can you use psychology to improve the impression you make,
whether it's on employers, friends, romantic interests, and so forth?
For those of you who don't join the Network,
I'll offer a variation of the assignment in which you create a résumé, or
curriculum vitae, and get social feedback from other class members on that.
For the third assignment, all you need to do is post five times in the class
discussion forums—an assignment that some of you have already begun.
These posts can be questions, comments,
responses to other students, links to outside resources—really,
anything that contributes positively to your learning or the learning of others.
In the fourth assignment, you'll take a web-based
interview in which the system remembers every answer you give,
and asks you personalized questions about your diet and lifestyle choices.
The interactivity of this interview goes way beyond a regular web survey
to let you see what interview technology might look like in the future.
Finally, the Day of Compassion assignment challenges you to use social psychology
for the greater good by living 24 hours as compassionately as possible,
and asks you to reflect on certain aspects of the experience.
The assignment will be peer graded,
and here's where it gets interesting.
Students who complete at least four out of the five assignments,
receive a very high score on their Day of Compassion essay,
and make sure their account settings allow me to reach them
will be eligible for a Day of Compassion Award
as a kind of incentive to complete the course,
learn about social psychology, and use it for the good of society.
I'll describe the award in detail later in the course,
but let me just say a few words about it now.
The first time that the award was given, the winner was Balesh Jindal,
a wonderful soul from New Delhi,
India, whose Day of Compassion focused on preventing sexual abuse in her community,
and part of the award was an expense paid trip to Northern California
where she had the opportunity to personally meet the Dalai Lama—
a symbol of compassion to many people.
The meeting was sponsored by Stanford University's Center for
Compassion and Altruism Research and Education,
and the work was later immortalized
when Coursera decorated its building with a drawing they made of Balesh and
a quote from her about the Day of Compassion assignment.
The second time the award was given, it included free airplane tickets, food,
and accommodations to meet another world famous symbol of compassion:
anthropologist Jane Goodall, who joined me in presenting the award to Habi Zhang
from Chengdu, China, who used social psychology
to save a neighbor's child from being beaten,
and after taking this course,
decided to pursue a graduate degree in public policy.
This time around, the winner will receive a free trip to meet
another worldwide symbol of compassion,
with details on the person, date, and location to be determined.
We'll make every effort to choose a date
and a place that works for the winner,
or if that proves impossible, one of the ten
class members receiving Honorable Mention
will have a chance to take the trip.
So, you have a great opportunity to learn about social psychology and use it for
the good of others.
I'll say more about each of the assignments when the time comes.
The other part of the course
that's required for learners who want a certificate
is the final exam,
which will cover the readings, lectures, and other assigned videos.
The exam will include multiple choice and true-false questions,
and be machine graded so that you can see your score
right after submitting your answers.
If you purchase the course,
complete all five assignments,
and pass the final exam,
you'll earn a signed Course Certificate.
And if you complete some additional work
that I'll mention later in the course, you'll receive a certificate with honors!
Let's pause for a pop-up question, just to make sure this information is clear.
I'd also like to say a few words about communication.
Even though the course is too large for me or the teaching assistants to answer
email, we'll all be monitoring the discussion forums,
which is the best way to communicate with us and with each other.
Here's one way to think about it:
If even only one tenth of 1% of the class were to email me on any given day,
that would be over 100 email messages a day,
and I would soon be drowning in email. You'd never see me again!
So please be good to the teaching staff and
don't send us to the bottom of the sea, alright?
If you're tempted to email us, here's the image I want you to remember.
Okay, maybe that's a little silly, but
use the discussion forums; they are as important
to the course as the videos and the readings.
All I ask is that when you use the forums, you treat people considerately,
whether you're posting or you're responding to somebody else's post.
Please, no nastiness, no personal attacks, no profanity or ugly language,
and certainly, no hate speech, which would be grounds for removal from the course.
If someone writes something that's insensitive or off-base,
don't take the easy way out and open fire.
Instead, use the forums as an opportunity to help
and teach each other, to elevate the discussion.
In a letter to one of his students, Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn wrote
about the power of what he called "together action,"
and I think it fits very well with this course.
He wrote, "Together action is like washing potatoes.
When people wash potatoes in Korea, instead of washing them one a time,
they put them all in a tub full of water.
Then someone puts a stick in the tub and pushes it up and down, up and down.
This makes the potatoes rub against each other.
As they bump into each other, the hard crusty dirt falls off.
If you wash potatoes one at a time, it takes a long time to clean each one,
and only one potato gets clean at a time.
If they're all together, the potatoes clean each other."
I very much hope that in this course we all become potatoes
and learn from each other.
Two final notes before I end this video:
First, I want to emphasize that this course is not
intended to be a comprehensive or
even representative introduction to the field of social psychology.
Rather, it's one professor's perspective on the field,
focusing mainly on material that's useful, fun, and interesting,
and emphasizing classic studies that have laid a foundation for later research.
In other words, it's sort of like meeting a new person.
If you spend a few hours a week for a month or two,
you certainly get to know a lot about the person,
but you probably won't end up knowing every important thing about that person.
If you want a comprehensive introduction to social psychology, my best advice
would be to get a full length copy of David Myers' Social Psychology textbook,
which can be purchased as a new book, a used book, an e-book, or even rented.
Or, take a full length college or
university course in social psychology if you're able.
And throughout this course, I'll post suggestions for further reading and
viewing, and I hope that you'll do the same in our discussion forums.
The last thing that I wanted to mention
is that social psychology is not the same thing as clinical psychology, which is
the branch of psychology most directly focused on understanding, preventing,
and treating mental illness and other psychological problems.
So, if you have depression or other psychological difficulties,
my best recommendation would be to talk with a mental health professional,
for example, a clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist, a counselor,
a social worker, or if that's not possible, someone else whom you trust—
someone you feel is safe, supportive, and whose opinion you respect.
Social physiologists are not generally certified to provide therapy or
mental health advice, but all's not lost.
Social psychology can open the door to greater self-understanding,
and help improve social relationships, intergroup relations, group performance,
decision making, life satisfaction, and many other social aspects of life.
That's what we'll spend much of this course on.
But first, I want to give you a tour of Social Psychology Network,
and invite you to become a member.
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