9.70 | Spring 2013 | Undergraduate

Social Psychology

Calendar

Weekly study group meeting minutes are due one day in advance of each class. The study group responsible for facilitating the lecture is indicated. The midterm formative and summative evaluations are due one day after Lecture 7.

LEC # UNITS # TOPICS KEY DATES
Phase 1 – Didactic Orientation
1 1.1 Welcome. A Definition of the situation; start of the 9.70/13 collaborative learning system lifecycle; individuals and groups (selves and societies); human systems: levels and aspects of organization and development; singular and plural persons in contexts; sets and settings; housekeeping.  
2 1.2

The Science Of Social Psychology And Vice-Versa I. What is Social Psychology?

Social psychology as a science; Paradigm 1: The Modern scientific approach: Substantive, procedural and ethical issues.

Meeting minutes due
3 1.3 The Science Of Social Psychology And Vice-Versa II. Paradigm 2: An alternative “Human Systems” approach; substantive, ethical and methodological issues; what is participatory action research? Are paradigms 1 and 2 mutually exclusive or partly complementary? Meeting minutes due
Phase 2 – Collaborative Inquiry
4 2.1 Persons-In-Contexts I: Families as human social systems: Anorexia Nervosa in social context; Demonstration: Participatory action research: Diagnosis and treatment of psychosomatic disorders in adolescence

Meeting minutes due

Study group 1 facilitates

5 2.2 Persons-In-Contexts II: Self and society; group norms; conformity and deviance; obedience

Meeting minutes due

Study group 2 facilitates

6 2.3 Meaning and Power I: The social construction of reality. Media, mass communication, propaganda, and persuasion. Corporate personhood? What is going on when “conglomerations of Capital” come to be legally entitled to rights that the founders intended to constitutionally guarantee to some, but not all, natural persons?

Meeting minutes due

Study group 3 facilitates

7 2.4 Meaning, and Power II: The social construction of reality II; social cognition, affect and action in human systems: Interacting beliefs, values and practices at individual and collective levels of organization and development

Meeting minutes due

Study group 4 facilitates

Midterm evaluations due

8 2.5 Us And Them I: Justifying ourselves & judging others; reification; attribution; self-justification

Meeting minutes due

Study group 5 facilitates

9 2.6 Us And Them II: Defining and dealing with aggression and violence; The medicalization of deviance; naming and taming: “The power to give names and enforce definitions.”

Meeting minutes due

Study group 6 facilitates

10 2.7 Who is / are “We” I: What is “human nature?” Prejudice and discrimination: Are the causes “in our genes?” Can they be overcome?

Meeting minutes due

Study group 7 facilitates

11 2.8 Who is / are “We” II: Positive attitudes and actions toward humanity and nature; liking, loving and interpersonal sensitivity; what is “humanecological sustainability?” Who needs it? Is it attainable? Meeting minutes due
Phase 3 Final Projects
12 3.1 I. (Forming / Storming): Identifying and organizing end-of-term project(s); refining evaluation criteria  
13 3.2 II. (Storming / Norming): Working on projects; finalizing production and distribution of evaluation forms  
14 3.3 III. (Performing): Presenting project findings; completing / submitting evaluations and filing final grades; concluding the 9.70 / 11 collaborative learning system lifecycle Final evaluations / grades due

Course Info

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Spring 2013
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