Lutsky, Psychology, Social Cognition Lab

Psychology 259: Social Cognition Laboratory

Neil Lutsky, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology, Carleton College
Olin 111, x4379, e-mail: nlutsky@carleton.edu

Lab Assistant: Addie Honeycutt (honeycua)

Psychology 259 is intended to introduce you to general issues in research in social cognition and to selected examples of the phenomena social psychologists study, the research questions they pose, and the research methods they employ. Its means is to give you hands-on experience designing, executing, and reporting empirical studies in social cognition. The list of topics and readings below indicates what in social cognition we will be exploring. The requirements for this two-credit course include the following: attendance at laboratory sessions; completion in a timely matter of assigned readings; participation as researchers in the design and execution of course projects; and preparation of two laboratory reports, one in the form of a poster and the other in the form of a paper.

Laboratory Topic, Activity, and Reading Schedule:

Th 4/3 Course Overview; Ethical and Design Issues in Social Cognition Research; Automatic Social Cognition.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
T 4/8 Social Comparison and Self Perception Laboratory; Reading Research Critically.

Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Savitsky, K. (2000). The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one's own actions and appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 211-222.

Kruger, J. (1999). Lake Wobegon be gone! The "below-average effect" and the egocentric nature of comparative ability judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 221-232.
Th 4/10 Individual Differences in Social Cognition; Assessing Cognitive Constructs via Self Report; Data Analysis and Correlational Design.

Ostrom, T. M., Bond, C. F., Krosnick, J. A., & Sedikides, C. (1994). Attitude scales: How we measure the unmeasurable. In S. Shavitt & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Persuasion: Psychological insights and perspectives, pp. 15-42.
T 4/15 Social Comparison and Self Perception Laboratory (continued); Modeling Cognitive Processes.
Th 4/17 Social Comparison and Self Perception Laboratory (continued); Writing a Research Paper and Creating a Research Poster.
T 4/22 Person Perception Laboratory.

Berry, D. S., & Zebrowitz-McArthur, L. (1988). What's in a face? Facial maturity and the attribution of responsibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 23-33.

Borkenau, P., & Liebler, A. (1992). Trait inferences: Sources of validity at zero acquaintance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 645-657.
Th 4/24 Person Perception Laboratory (continued).
T 4/29 Correspondent Inference Laboratory.
http://www.acad.carleton.edu/curricular/PSYC/classes/psych110_Lutsky/RMII/

Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. A. (2008). A mile in moccasins: How situational experience diminishes dispositionism in social inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 102-114.

Allison, S. T., Mackie, D. M., Muller, M. M., & Worth, L. T. (1993). Sequential correspondence biases and perceptions of change: The Castro studies revisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 151-157.
Th 5/1 Correspondent Inference Laboratory (continued).
T 5/6 Correspondent Inference Laboratory (continued).
Th 5/8 Social Attitudes Laboratory.

Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (2006). Essentializing differences between men and women. Psychological Science, 17, 129-135.
T 5/13 Social Attitudes Laboratory (continued).
Th 5/15 Social Attitudes Laboratory (continued).
T 5/20 Social Attitudes Laboratory (continued).
Th 5/22 Laboratory Posters and Papers.
T 5/27 Laboratory Posters and Papers.
Th 5/29 Laboratory Posters and Papers.
T 6/3 Presentations.

April 2, 2008