Prof. Bertram F. Malle
The course is organized as a lecture-seminar hybrid. One day of each week I will give an introductory lecture on a major topic; the other day we will have a seminar discussion on the articles you read on this topic.
The course covers new, sometimes brand-new research and brings you close to hot issues and debates in social psychology. The readings are challenging because they are written for the scientific community. However, they will be understandable and fascinating if you are motivated to tackle them, and the introductory lectures will help you get the necessary background to do so.
This course has PSY 302, 303, and 456 (or a comparable social psychology course) as prerequisites.
Course Organization
Note: Because I will be at a conference January 3–9, I will not be available during this first week of the quarter. Gale Pearce will be holding the sessions on Jan 5 and Jan 7.
Course Format. Each Thursday I will give an introductory lecture on a new topic, reviewing concepts, methodologies, and classic research findings and offering brief comments on the articles to be read for Tuesday, the Discussion session. Each student then has time over the weekend to read the articles. On Monday students get together with their "reading group" and develop questions and issues relevant to the articles. Each Tuesday we begin the session with groups presenting to the whole class the issues and questions they identified. These presentations then set the agenda for the discussion. The face-to-face discussion can be continued on the web, on a "Motet conference page."
Reading Groups are formed during the first week of class. Each group will be composed of 4-5 students. Please sign up for the reading groups on Tuesday Jan 5 and Thursday Jan 7. Each week a group speaker is responsible for organizing the Monday meeting, taking notes, and presenting the questions and issues to the whole class on Tuesday.
Grade. Your grade consists of (1) your reliable presence in class (100 points), (2) your contributions to the reading group (100 points), (3) your contributions to the class sessions, especially on Tuesdays (300 points), (4) a writing contribution (300 points), and (5) a take-home final (200 points). You can earn extra credit (50 points) by preparing minutes of one discussion section.
Writing contribution. You will write three reaction papers of about 2-3 pages each. In these papers, you explore one topic or article of our readings in detail, make suggestions for new research, or discuss an article we did not read.
All papers should be peer-edited (by members of your reading group) and revised before turned in for grading. There will be a separate handout on tips for writing, peer-editing, and dates for turning in reaction papers. .
The Course web page (http://www.uoregon.edu/~bfmalle/410.html) contains lecture handouts, discussion minutes, information on the writing contribution, and links to relevant resources.
Schedule and Readings
Tue Jan 5: Introduction and Overview, Administrative Issues
Thu Jan 7: [1] The Affective Power of the Self-Concept: Introduction
Tue Jan 12: Discussion
Malle, B. F., & Horowitz, L. M. (1995). The puzzle of negative self-views: An explanation using the schema concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 470-484.
Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366-375.
Alicke, M. D., LoSchiavo, F. M., Zerbst, J., & Zhang, S. (1997). The person who out performs me is a genius: Maintaining perceived competence in upward social comparison. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 781-789.
Bushman, B. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998). Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 219-229.
Thu Jan 14: [2] The Self as Reference in Judgments of Others: Introduction
Tue Jan 19: Discussion
Catrambone, R. & Markus, H. (1987). The role of self-schemas in going beyond the information given. Social Cognition, 5, 349-368.
Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The "false-consensus effect": An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279-301.
Gordon, R. M. (1992). The simulation theory: Objections and misconceptions. Mind and Language, 7, 11-34.
Houston, D. A. (1990). Empathy and the self: Cognitive and emotional influences on the evaluation of negative affect in others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59,859-868.
Thu Jan 21: [3] Connecting Self to Other — Rapport and Empathy: Introduction
Tue Jan 26: Discussion
Levenson, R. W., & Ruef, A. M. (1997). Physiological aspects of emotional knowledge and rapport. In W. Ickes (Ed.), Empathic accuracy (pp. 44-72). New York: Guilford.
Klein, K. J. K., & Hodges, S. (1998). Gender differences and motivation in empathic accuracy: When it pays to understand. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Oregon
Rogers, C. (1975). Empathic: An unappreciated way of being. The Counseling Psychologist, 5, 2-10.
Thu Jan 28:[4] Self-Other Connections in Relationships: Introduction
Tue Feb 2: Discussion
Davis, M. H., Conklin, L., Smith, A., & Luce, C. (1996). Effect of perspective taking on the cognitive representation of persons: A merging of self and other. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 713-726.
Aron, A., Aron, E. N., Tudor, M., & Nelson, G. (1991). Close relationships as including other in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 241-253.
Simpson, J. A., Ickes, W., & Blackstone, T. (1995). When the head protects the heart: Empathic accuracy in dating relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 629-641.
Thu Feb 4: [5] Satellites of the self: Introduction
Tue Feb 9: Discussion
Hass, G. H. (1984). Perspective taking and self-awareness: Drawing an E on your forehead. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 788-798.
Pearce, G. (1998). Social feedback on personality: Responses to peer and family comments. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Oregon.
Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226-244.
Thu Feb 11:[6] Personality judgments and their limits: Introduction
Tue Feb 16: Discussion
Funder, D. C., Kolar, D. C., Blackman, M. C. (1995). Agreement among judges of personality: Interpersonal relations, similarity, and acquaintanceship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 656-672.
Swann, W. B., & Gill, M.J. (1997). Confidence and accuracy in person perception: Do we know what we think we know about our relationship partners? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 747-757.
Hayes, A. F., & Dunning, D. (1997). Construal processes and trait ambiguity: Implications for self-peer agreement in personality judgment. avid. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 664-677.
Thu Feb 18:[7] Perceiving behavior: Intentionality and intentions: Introduction
Tue Feb 23: Discussion
Malle, B. F., & Knobe, J. (1997). The folk concept of intentionality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 101-121.
Mele, A. (1998). Acting intentionally: Probing folk notions. To appear in B. F. Malle, L. J. Moses, & D. A. Baldwin (Eds.), Intentionality: A key to human understanding. Book in preparation.
Wellman, H. M. (1993). Early understanding of mind: The normal case. In S. Baron-Cohen, H.Tager-Flusberg, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism (pp. 10-39). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Sarfati, Y., Besche, C., & Widlocher, D. (1996). Attribution of intentions to others in people with schizophrenia: a non-verbal exploration with comic strips. Schizophrenia Research, 25, 199-209.
Thu Feb 25:[8] How People Explain Behavior: Introduction
Tue Mar 2: Discussion
Malle, B. F. (in press). How people explain behavior. A new theoretical framework. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 23-48.
O’Laughlin, M, &. Malle, B. F. (1998). How People Explain Actions Performed by Groups and Individuals. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Oregon.
Thu Mar 4: [9] Actor-Observer Differences: Introduction
Tue Mar 9: Discussion
Robins, R. W., Spranca, M. D., & Mendelsohn, G. A. (1996). The actor-observer effect revisited: Effects of individual differences and repeated social interactions on actor and observer attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 375-389.
Malle, B. F., & Knobe, J. (1997b). Which behaviors do people explain? A basic actor-observer asymmetry. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 288-304.
Andersen, S. M., Glassman, N. S., & Gold, D. A. (1998). Mental representations of the self, significant others, and nonsignificant others: Structure and processing of private and public aspects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 845-861.
Barr, C. L., & Kleck, R. E. (1995). Self-other perception of the intensity of facial expressions of emotion: Do we know what we show? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 608-618.
Thu Mar 11: Favorites, Ideas, and Conclusions
Tue Mar 16: ** No Meeting **