Course Schedule and Reading Assignments

Jan 27, 29: Introduction: Nature and logic of research in social psychology; the publication process; publication trends.

 

Handout for manuscript reviews + examples.

Assignment of first critical review, due Feb. 10.

 

Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Aversive racism and selection decisions: 1989 and 1999. Psychological Science, 11, 315-319.

 

Tesser, A., & Bau, J. J. (2002). Social psychology: Who we are and what we do. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 72-85.

 

Sherman, R. C., Buddie, A. M., Dragan, K. L., End, C. M., & Finney, L. J. (1999). Twenty years of PSPB: Trends in content, design, and analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 177-187.

 

Eichorn, D. H., & Van den Bos, G. R. (1985). Dissemination of scientific and professional knowledge: Journal publication within the APA. American Psychologist, 40, 1309-1316.

 

Sternberg, R. J., Hojjat, M., Brigockas, M. G., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1997). Getting in: Criteria for acceptance of manuscripts in Psychological Bulletin, 1993–1996. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 321-323.

 

Eisenberg, N., Thompson, M. S., Augir, S., & Stanley, E. H. (2002). “Getting in” revisited: An analysis of manuscript characteristics, reviewers’ ratings, and acceptance of manuscripts in Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 997-1004.

 

* Petty, R. E., Fleming, M. A., & Fabrigar, L. R. (1999). The review process at PSPB: Correlates of interreviewer agreement and manuscript acceptance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 188-203.


 

Feb. 3, 5: The Science Social Psychology: Theory and hypotheses; progress in social psychology.

 

Singleton, R. A., Jr., & Straits, B. C. (1999). Approaches to social research (3rd Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 4: Elements of research design.

 

Platt, J. R. (1964). Strong inference. Science, 146, 347-353.

 

Gergen, K. J. (1973). Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 309-320.

 

Wallach, L., & Wallach, M. (1994). Gergen versus the mainstream: Are hypotheses in social psychology subject to empirical test? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 233-242.

 

Kruglanski, A. W. (2001). That “vision thing”: The state of theory in social and personality psychology at the edge of the new millennium. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 871-875.


      Markus, H. R. (2004). A social psychological model of behavior. Dialogue, 19, 1-4.


 

Feb. 10, 12: Experimental vs. Correlational Designs I: Testing causal relations in laboratory experiments: The question of internal and external validity.


      Discussion of first critical review.

Assignment of second critical review, due Feb 24.

 

Cronbach, L. J. (1957). The two disciplines of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 12, 671-684.

 

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D.,, & Brewer, M. B. (1998). Experimentation in social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th Ed., Vol. 1, pp. 91-142). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

 

Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (1963). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research on teaching. In N.L. Gage (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 171-246). Chicago: Rand McNally.

 

Weber, S. J., & Cook, T. D. (1972). Subject effects in laboratory research: An examination of subject roles, demand characteristics, and valid inference. Psychological Bulletin, 77, 273-295.

 

Taylor, K. M., & Shepperd, J. A. (1966). Probing suspicion among participants in deception research. American Psychologist, 51, 886-887.


Feb. 17, 19: Limitations of Traditional Laboratory Research

 

McGuire, W. J. (1973). The yin and yang of progress in social psychology: Seven koan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 446-456.

 

Swann, W. B., Jr., & Seyle, C. (2005). Personality psychology’s comeback and its emerging symbiosis with social psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 155-165.

 

Jaffe, E. (2005). How random is that? Students are convenient research subjects but they’re not a simple sample. APS Observer, 18, 18-30.

 

Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (1997). External validity of “trivial” experiments: The case of laboratory aggression. Review of General Psychology, 1, 19-41.

 

Rozin, P. (2001). Social psychology and science: Some lessons from Solomon Asch. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 2-14.

 

Wells, G. L., & Windschitl, P. D. (1999). Stimulus sampling and social psychological experimentation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1115-1125.


 

Feb. 24, 26: Experimental vs. Correlational Designs: II. Testing causal relations with correlational data.

 

Discussion of second critical review.

      Assignment of third critical review, due Mar. 10.

 

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.

 

Kenny, D. A. (2003). Mediation and Moderation. Website articles, available at: http://users.rcn.com/dakenny/mediate.htm

            http://users.rcn.com/dakenny/moderation.htm

 

Spencer, S. J., Zanna, M. P., & Fong, G. T. (2005). Establishing a causal chain: Why experiments are often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 845-851.

 

Breckler, S. J. (1984).  Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1191-1205.

 

Rutter, M. (2007). Procedding from observed correlation to causal inference. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 377-395.


Mar. 3, 5: Reliability and Validity of Psychological Measures.

 

John, O. P., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2000). Measurement: Reliability, construct validation, and scale construction. In H. T. Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 339-369). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

 

Paulhus, D. L. (1991). Measurement and control of response bias. In J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver, & L. S. Wrightsman (Eds., pp. 17-59), Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes. San Diego: Academic Press.

 

Take the implicit association test: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.jsp

 

Cunningham, W. A., Preacher, K. J., & Banaji, M. R. (2001). Implicit attitude measures: Consistency, stability, and convergent validity. Psychological Science, 12, 163-170.

 

Blanton, H., & Jaccard, J. (2006). Arbitrary Metrics in Psychology. American Psychologist, 61, 27-41.

 

Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Sriram, N. (2006). Consequential Validity of the Implicit Association Test : Comment on. American Psychologist, 61, 56-61.

 

Blanton, H., & Jaccard, J. (2006). Arbitrary Metrics Redux. American Psychologist, 61, 62-71.

 

Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2004). Reducing the influence of extrapersonal associations on the Implicit Association Test: Personalizing the IAT. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 653-667.


 

Mar. 10, 12:   Research in Naturalistic Settings and Surveys


       Discussion of third critical review.

 

Reis, H. T., & Gable, S. L. (2000). Event-sampling and other methods for studying everyday experience. In H. T. Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 190-222). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

 

Visser, P. S., Krosnick, J. A., & Lavrakas, P. J. (2000). Survey research. In H. T. Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 223-252). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

 

Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers. American Psychologist, 54, 93-105.

 

Tourangeau, R., & Yan, T. (2007). Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 859-883.


 

Mar. 17, 19:   Spring Break



Mar. 24, Apr. 26: Using Statistics to Test Theories in Social Psychology

 

Meehl, P. E. (1967). Theory testing in psychology and physics: A methodological paradox. Philosophy of Science, 34, 103-115.

 

Lykken, D. T. (1968). Statistical significance in psychological research. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 151-159.

 

Cohen, J. (1994). The earth is round (p < .05). American Psychologist, 49, 997-1003.

 

Killeen, P. R. (2005). An alternative to null-hypothesis significance tests. Psychological Science, 16, 345-353.

 

*Comments and rejoinder regarding Killeen’s article. Psychological Science, 16, 1002-1012.

 

Friedman, H. (1968). Magnitude of experimental effect and a table for its rapid estimation. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 245-251.

 

Wilkinson, L. (1999). Statistical methods in psychology journals: Guidelines and explanations. American Psychologist, 54, 894-604.



Mar. 31, Apr. 2: Evaluation Research and Meta-Analyses

 

Rossi, P. H., Lipsey, M. W., & Freeman, H. E. (2004). Evaluation: A systematic approach. London: Sage. Chs. 1, 7, 8, and 9.

 

Johnson, B. T., & Boynton, M. H. (2008). Cumulating evidence about the social animal:Meta-analysis in social-personality psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 817-841.

 

Richard, F. D., Bond, C. F. Jr., & Stokes-Zoota, J. J. (2003). Once hundred years of social psychology quantitatively described. General Review of Psychology, 7, 331-363.

 

Sandberg, T., & Conner, M. (2008). Anticipated regret as an additional predictor in the theory of planned behavior: A meta-analysis. British Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 589-606.

 

Malle, B. F. (2006). The actor-observer asymmetry in attribution: A (surprising) meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 895-919.

 

*Cohn, L. D., & Becker, B. J. (2003). How meta-analysis increases statistical power. Psychological Methods, 8, 243-253.



Apr. 7, 9: Ethics in Research and Publication / Writing up and Presenting Empirical Research

 

Dawes, R. M (1994). House of cards: Psychology and psychotherapy built on myth. New York: The Free Press. Chapter 8: New age psychology (pp. 229-251).

 

Aronson, E., Ellsworth, P. C., Carlsmith, J. M., & Gonzales, M. H. (1990). Methods of research in social psychology (2nd ed., Chapter 3, pp. 83-113). New York: McGraw-Hill.

 

American Psychological Association (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060-1073.

 

Sharpe, D., Adair, J. G., & Roese, N. J. (1992). Twenty years of deception research: A decline in subjects' trust? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 585-590.

 

Bem, D. J. (1987). Writing the empirical journal article. In M. P. Zanna & J. M. Darley (Eds.) The compleat academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (pp. 171-201). New York: Random House.

 

Sternberg, R. J. (1992). How to win acceptances by psychology journals: 21 tips for better writing. APS Observer, September 1992.


      Handout on how to give a talk (by Susan Fiske)

 

Reference source: Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (2001) (5th Ed.). Washington: APA.



Apr. 14, 16: Presentation and Discussion of Research Proposals.


Apr. 21: No Class – Monday Class Schedule


Apr. 23, 28, 30, May 5, 7, 12: Presentation and Discussion of Research Proposals.