COURSE INFORMATION

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a study of individual behavior within the social environment. Topics may include socio-psychological processes, attitude formation and change, interpersonal relations, group processes, self, social cognition, and research methods. (PSYC 2319 is included in the Psychology Field of Study.)

• Credit Hours: 3
• Classroom Contact Hours per week: 3

COURSE RATIONALE

This will be a survey course that covers various aspects of social psychology. This course is designed to have the student explore what influences various social entities, structures, and concepts have had and continue to have on their lives and development.  Students will research, reflect on their own experience and discuss with their classmates the impact of social influence in their lives.

PREREQUISITE:  PSYC 2301 with a grade of C or better.

REQUIRED TEXTS/MATERIALS/SOFTWARE
Open Education Resource (OER) Principles of Social Psychology, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition, 2015.  (provided via a link in Blackboard)

Class Resources: HTTP://classroom.google.com  class code: vvkd8zm

To access Google Classroom, you will need your ACC Gmail (MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE LOGGED IN WITH ONLY YOU ACC GMAIL LOG OUT OF ALL OTHERS or OPEN A NEW WINDOW IN COGNITO MODE).

All current ACC students will have an Online Services User ID. If you are not sure what your User ID is, you can click the “What’s my User ID” link located just above the User ID and Password boxes. Your User ID cannot be changed.

ACC Gmail-

All ACC students are provided with an ACC Gmail account. This is the College's official way of communicating with you through email. Please be sure to activate your account and check it before each class meeting.  I can only communicate information about your class performance to your official ACC email.  Please be sure to activate your ACC Gmail account if you haven't already.  You will need this in order to complete and submit the homework and teamwork assignments.

https://acceid.austincc.edu/AccMAIL/accmail.pl

When sending email, please put "PSYC 2314" in the subject line.  This will prevent it from being filtered out as spam.  Finally, please save all documents in Rich Text Format (RTF) or in PDF format before attaching them and sending them in an email to me. You can also upload them to Google Docs and share them with me.  This will ensure that I will be able to read it.

Do not use the Blackboard Dropbox.  The Blackboard Dropbox does not notify me when you place documents in there.  Items left in the Dropbox may go ungraded. Blackboard will only be used in this course for midterm makeup or special testing accommodations. 

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY

This is an online course with all instruction delivered online through ACC’s Blackboard and Google Classroom sites. There will also be third party sites for specific assignments as well as research assignments.  The midterm and final exam will be taken at an ACC testing center or through a paid (by the student) proctor service.

DISTANCE EDUCATION

Although this is a distance learning course it is NOT “self-paced”.  There is a schedule and a timing as well as collaboration component.  We encourage students new to distance education to review the ACC Distance Education General Information available at https://online.austincc.edu/faq/

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Lower Division Academic Course Guide Manual:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

1. Define social psychology and related terminology.

2. Discuss the relationship between the person and the situation and its influence on attitudes, prejudice, aggression, prosocial behavior, and interpersonal relationships.

3. Describe the dynamics of group behavior in areas of social influence, such as altruism, conformity, obedience, deindividuation, leadership, intergroup relations, and conflict and cooperation.

4. Identify and evaluate the current and historical research, and research methods of social psychology, including ethical considerations.

5. Apply social psychological principles to real-world issues.

Program Level Student Learning Outcomes:

• Understand psychological concepts and be able to recognize them in real-world contexts.
• Acquire a basic understanding of major perspectives in the field.
• Gain an awareness of the breadth of the academic discipline of psychology.
• Understand the various research methods psychologists use and critically evaluate evidence.

Course Level Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Students will distinguish the use of terms in social psychology from the general use of the terms according to the textbook.
2. Students will research topics in social psychology and will cite their sources using APA format.
3. Students will reflect on personal examples of social psychology using terms from the text vocabulary.
4. Students will explore with their classmates their reactions to topics covered in the text.

Unit Level Student Learning Objectives

Unit 1: The Self in Social Psychology

• Students will identify the importance of the self in social psychology.
• Students will provide an example of the importance of the self in social psychology.

Unit 2: Social Affect, Persuasion and Behavior

• Students will explore how social affect relates to behavior.
• Students will illustrate how social persuasion relates to behavior.

Unit 3: Prosocial Behavior

• Students will describe the sources of prosocial behavior.
• Students will apply prosocial behavior to a personal example.

Unit 4: Antisocial Behavior

• Students will describe the sources of antisocial behavior.
• Students will describe how antisocial behavior applies to a personal example.

Unit 5: Group Dynamics

• Students will explore the sources of positive group interaction. 
• Students will describe how to improve group dynamics.

GRADING SYSTEM
This course is divided into 5 units each addressing a specific aspect of social psychology. Within each unit there will be a journal assignment, chapter readings from the textbook, and a vocabulary assignment. There will be a quiz over the chapter followed by a video lecture covering the parts of the chapters 40% or more of the class missed.  Then there will be research questions that will address the unit topic.  Students will then write a paper based on the unit topic.  Finally, students will post a response to the topic in the discussion forum and respond to other postings.  In addition, there will a semi-comprehensive midterm and a comprehensive final.

*You must complete at least 80% of the assignments in order to qualify for and “A” or a “B”.  In addition, you must earn at least 50% of the points for an assignment area to get ANY credit for those assignments.

Class Participation

All assignments have due dates.  The due date is the LAST AND FINAL date the work will be accepted.  Any work not completed by the due date will not be graded and the student will receive no points for that assignment.  It is important that you complete your work in time to allow for the discussion forums to work. The research questions are set to release after you have completed the quiz.  The paper assignment is set to release after you have completed the research questions. Your discussions will be based on your papers.  This is why it is crucial to not wait until the last moment to complete your assignments.

Withdrawal Policy

It is the responsibility of each student to ensure that his or her name is removed from the rolls should they decide to withdraw from the class.  The instructor does, however, reserve the right to drop a student should he or she feel it is necessary.  If a student decides to withdraw, he or she should also verify that the withdrawal is recorded before the Final Withdrawal Date.  The Final Withdrawal Date for this semester is Nov. 21, 2019.  The student is also strongly encouraged to keep any paperwork in case a problem arises.

Students are responsible for understanding the impact that withdrawal from a course may have on their financial aid, veterans’ benefits, and international student status.  Per state law, students enrolling for the first time in Fall 2007 or later at any public Texas college or university may not withdraw (receive a W) from more than six courses during their undergraduate college education. Some exemptions for good cause could allow a student to withdraw from a course without having it count toward this limit. Students are strongly encouraged to meet with an advisor when making decisions about course selection, course loads, and course withdrawals.”

Incompletes
Incompletes are rarely given and are only given on an individual basis under extreme circumstances.

COURSE OUTLINE/CALENDAR

The class schedule is available here.

COLLEGE POLICIES

College policies and student support information are available here.