380 Journal Information - Section 012 and 013

One of your requirements for the 380 discussion section is to keep a journal throughout the semester. The purposes of this journal are:
* to stimulate thought about the material during days when you are not in class
* to point out the relevance of social psychology to everyday life
* to provide a starting point for discussion section each week

You are required to write one journal entry each week from 1/18 (Week 3) until 4/6 (Week 14), for a total of 10 entries by the end of the term.

Guidelines

Every week before discussion section meets, you should look at the list of topics at the of the instructions. For each week there is listed a general topic based on the readings from the syllabus. Your assignment is to choose a specific aspect of that general topic and to write about how it relates to a recent event in your life. For example, Week #5 has the topic heading of attribution, so you might decide to write about gender differences in attributional style, the Fundamental Attribution Error, etc. Specific topic suggestions (attached) for each week are listed to help you, but you are by no means limited by them. You may select any process, phenomenon, theory, or psychological tendency that is relevant to the general topic (attribution in this case). The textbook and material covered in lecture will be helpful in generating ideas for you to write about.

The body of each entry should begin with a description of an event or interaction in your life in four or five sentences. A page-long story about how you spent your weekend is too long, and one line reading, "I went out with my friends" is insufficient. You should pick a specific event or interaction and describe it in enough detail so that your subsequent discussion will make sense to someone who was not there. Next you should describe how the specific topic you have chosen is relevant to this event. Sample Entry 1 (at the end of the instructions) provides a good example of an interaction summary followed by a discussion of its relevance to the Fundamental Attribution Error.

Your discussion should address some (but not necessarily all) of the following questions:

* How can the psychological phenomenon you have chosen be seen in this interaction?
* How does your current awareness of this psychological phenomenon change the way you interpret what happened during this event?
* If you (or others) had been aware of social psychological research about this phenomenon during the event, how might the outcome of the interaction have been changed?
* How will your learning about this phenomenon influence your attitudes/behavior/perceptions in the future?
* What questions do you now have after considering the event in light of psychological theory?
* What type of experiment(s) might help address these issues?

You can also discuss an event that seems to be inconsistent with the topic you have chosen to write about. Sample Entry 2 (at the end of the instructions) provides a good example of a discussion of a situation that seems like it could have led to the Fundamental Attribution Error, but didnít. In such cases, you might also want to consider the following questions:

* How was this interaction inconsistent with the theory or phenomenon you have chosen?
* Why do you think the outcome of this interaction seems to be inconsistent with the phenomenon you chose?
* What aspects of the situation, if changed, would have resulted in a less surprising outcome?
* What type of experiment(s) might help answer these questions?

Format

Each entry should have the last 6 digits of your Social Security number on it, as well as your section number and the week number. The top of your entry should list the general topic for the week and the specific phenomenon you have chosen. Entries should be typed or written legibly, spellchecked, and absolutely no more than one page each. One shorter paragraph summarizing the event and one longer paragraph of discussion is a good model to follow. Each entry should be on its own page, and you need to store the pages in a folder or binder. Bring this binder with you to discussion section every week.

Grading
Your journal will contribute to your grade for section participation (10% of your total grade). First, you might be asked to share a journal entry with other students in a small group, or you might be asked to choose an entry to read aloud to the whole section. Also, at any time, I may collect your journals and make sure that there is an entry for every week. Persons that do not have all of their entries will lose 1 point per missing entry. Lastly, your journals will be collected near the end of the term on 4/6. At that point, journals with less than 10 entries will be penalized a full grade (e.g., from A- to B-) for each entry that is missing, and the late penalties outlined in the syllabus will also apply to journals turned in after the end of section on 4/6. Your complete journal will then be given a letter grade based on the following criteria:
* how well you demonstrate comprehension of the psychological concepts you discuss
* your ability to analyze theories and phenomena by answering the questions on this handout (or other relevant and interesting questions)
* the effort and creativity used in relating personal events to what we are studying

NOTE: Your journals will also be collected on 1/27, when I will read your first two entries and return written comments and suggestions to you. They will not be graded at this point.

Final Remarks
* "Nothing relevant happened to me this week" is not an excuse for not writing. You can always write about something that happened to you previously or about something that happened to someone you know. If all else fails, watch any TV sitcom for a half-hour and youíre bound to find good material to write about. My personal recommendation is Ally McBeal, Star Trek, or anything on PBS.
* Try to write about events that you are comfortable discussing. If asked to read an entry aloud, you can always choose not to because it is personal, but sharing these events with others is an important part of the assignment. And keep in mind that you need to turn in all 11 entries at the end of the term to be graded, so even though you use an ID# instead of your name, at least one person (me) will be reading them at some point.
* You must keep your entries in order in a folder or binder. Do not plan on stapling them together at the last minute-- they need to be easily accessible during discussion section.
* Make sure the topic you choose is specific and interesting enough to be useful to you and to others. Something like "this interaction is relevant because I made an attribution" is not informative or very sophisticated. Writing "in this interaction I made a self-serving attribution that allowed me to maintain high self-esteem" conveys more information, deals with a more specific phenomenon, and is more interesting to read.

Sample 380 Journal Entry #1

ID #: 02-8639
Section: 005

Week: 5
General Topic: Attribution
Specific Topic: Fundamental Attribution Error

Last week I went to the Ticketmaster at the Briarwood Mall to buy tickets to see the Yankees play at Tiger Stadium. I told the woman there that I wanted four seats as close to the Yankeesí dugout as possible, but she told me she could only search for tickets by price range. So I said the $20 seats would be fine. She then told me they had four seats in leftfield together for $20 each. When I reminded her that I wanted to sit near the dugout, she got all irritated and said she could only do a computer search for the best available seats remaining. I kept trying to get the seats I wanted, but she insisted I would have to buy tickets at the Stadium if I wanted specific seats. I left the mall cursing under my breath about what an unhelpful, brain-dead sales clerk this woman was.
In retrospect, I fell victim to the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). I attributed her unwillingness to give me the seats I wanted to stable personality characteristics, which led me to view this woman as unfriendly and incompetent. I never considered the situational factors that might have influenced her behavior. This woman was clearly being forced to use an outdated computer program that restricted what she could do and how she could search for tickets. This probably led many customers, like myself, to become agitated with her. I imagine such a work environment would lead most people to be rather ornery and to appear unhelpful. My main focus was on getting tickets, so I wasnít motivated to make careful attributions about her behavior. In a situation where accurate impression formation was more important, I might have been less likely to use a cognitive shortcut and fall victim to the FAE. The funny thing is, even though I now realize I committed the FAE, I still have a hard time convincing myself that this woman wasnít less friendly and less intelligent than your average person.

Sample 380 Journal Entry #2

ID #: 02-8639
Section: 012

Week: 5
General Topic: Attribution
Specific Topic: Fundamental Attribution Error

My girlfriend took the LSAT this morning so I told her I would take her out to eat to celebrate finishing the test. I didnít bother making a reservation because I wasnít sure when we were going to go. I picked her up at 6:45, but when I got there she was mad because she said I had told her Iíd get her at 6:00. Then, when we got to the restaurant, there was a two-hour wait, and every other place on Main Street was just as crowded. I could tell she was pretty mad at me, and she didnít make much conversation during dinner once we finally sat down. After I dropped her back at her place, I thought to myself that it probably hadnít been a good idea to take her out since I knew sheíd be tired and in a bad mood after the test.
I made a situational attribution for my girlfriendís behavior, which means I didnít fall victim to the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). If I had shown the FAE, I wouldíve attributed her bad mood and irritability to her personality, not to the pressure she was under to do well on the test and the fatigue she must have felt after taking it. Maybe the FAE is less likely to occur when you know a person well. When you make attributions for the behavior of someone you just met, itís often easiest to assume their acts result from their personality. If I had been on a blind date, maybe I wouldíve made the FAE in explaining my dateís behavior. But Iíve known my girlfriend for almost a year, and Iíve seen her in several different situations, so I know that her moods change depending on situational factors. It would be interesting to do an experiment where you ask some people to make attributions about a person they had never met before, and others to make attributions about a close friend. Iíd bet that the FAE is less likely when you make attributions for a close other, just like itís less likely when you try to account for your own behavior.

Schedule of Topics

DATE	TOPIC	SUGGESTED TOPICS
Jan 13	Introduction/Research Methods	No journal entry
Jan 20	Social Cognition/Priming	heuristics, schemas, automatic processing
Jan 27	Impression Formation/Attribution	thought accessibility, self-fulfilling prophecy, FAE, actor/observer effect, cultural differences
January 27	First 2 journal entries are due in section. They will not be graded.
Feb 10	Self/Self-esteem	social-comparison, misattribution, self-handicapping
Feb 17	Attitudes&Persuasion/Cognitive Dissonance	persuasion, attitude change, reactance
Feb 24	Social Influence/Compliance	obedience, minority influence, foot-in-the-door technique
Feb 29 - March 2	Spring Break
March 9	Conformity & Obedience	Milgram studies
March 16	Group Processes & Influence	social facilitation, deindividuation, group polarization
March 23	Stereotyping & Prejudice	Stereotype threat, modern racism
March 30	Attraction&Relationships/ Evolutionary Theories	"what is beautiful is good," mere exposure, role of similarity equity theory, different types of love, social exchange
April 6	Aggression/Pro-Social Behavior	altruism, effects of mood, kin selection
April 6	All 10 journal entries are due in section