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Part II
Paper guide for the academic year 2013-2014
Psy 1 – Social Psychology
Paper Contacts
Course Organiser: Dr. Alex Kogan, [email protected]
Paper Group: Dr. Alex Kogan, [email protected]
Dr. Juliet Foster, [email protected]
Dr. Roberto Gutierrez, [email protected]
Dr. Wendy Hardeman, [email protected]
Professor Brian Little, [email protected]
Dr. Felix Naughton, [email protected]
Ms. Helena Rubinstein, [email protected]
Dr. Simone Schnall, [email protected]
Dr. Theodora Zarkadi, [email protected]
Dr. Gillian Sandstrom, [email protected]
Outline of the Course
Aims and Objectives
- To introduce students to a range of research and theories in classic and contemporary social
psychology.
- To develop an understanding of central debates within the discipline.
- To develop intellectual skills in the critical analysis of social psychological theories and in the
evaluation of empirical research.
- To develop oral and written communication skills through discussion in supervision and essay
writing.
- To develop IT skills through the use of on-line bibliographies and word-processing.
Course content
This paper aims to provide students with a sound knowledge of classic and contemporary social
psychology and the main areas of debate within the discipline. It builds on the foundation
established in the psychology teaching in Part I (where students are introduced to the core social
psychological concern about the relation between the individual and the social world), and
prepares students for advanced work in social psychology in Part IIB. The first series of lectures
are chiefly situate social psychology theoretically, methodologically and historically. A number
of lectures cover central themes within social psychology, including Emotion, Attitudes and
Personality. Different approaches to social psychological phenomena are also considered, with
lectures on Social Cognition and Sociocultural Approaches. Interpersonal relationships are also
considered, as are group-level phenomena, including theories of Social Identity; Pro-social
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behavior is also covered. The course ends with some considerations of how psychology, and
social psychology can be applied, with a focus on Aging and Health Psychology.
Mode of teaching
The paper is taught by means of lectures and supervisions.
Mode of assessment
The paper is examined by one three-hour unseen examination. Students should pay particular
attention to the fact that the paper is divided into two sections. Section A contains questions
relating to Emotion, Personality and the Self. Section B contains questions on the remainder of
the course. Students are required to answer 3 questions, including at least one taken from each
section of the paper.
Examiners’ Report from 2013
The Examiners report from last year is copied below for your information.
Forty-two candidates took PSY1 at Part IIA, and eleven at Part IIB. In addition, several students
taking NST Part II answered questions set by the PSY1 lecturers as part of their papers.
In general, performance in this paper was good: in Part IIA, examiners awarded 14 Firsts, 58
2:1s, and 12 2:2s. At Part IIB, examiners awarded no Firsts, 18 2:1s and 4 2:2s. No student
received a Third.
All questions were attempted by at least one student, though there was sizeable variability in the
popularity of the specific questions. In Section A, question 2b (Are there basic emotions) was by
far the most popular with 34 students choosing to answer it. In Section B, questions 6 (What are
the main processes proposed by Social Identity Theory) and 7a (To what extent are stereotypes
unavoidable) were most popular among students, though there were also sizeable number of
students answering questions 10 (Do social representations precede social identities) and 11
(Assess the evidence for the claim that oxytocin is the love hormone). The most popular
questions had relatively high averages; the questions with the lowest averages tended to be
answered by few students, although there were also some very good answers to the less popular
questions. In particular, question 1 (role of sex in relationship satisfaction) had the lowest
average at a 58.8, with only 6 students attempting the question. The answers for this question
tended to heavily rely on alternatives to sex for promoting relationship quality rather discussion
of the literature on sex itself. This was in general a theme for weaker answers: students
attempted to fit in knowledge from a related topic to make up for gap in knowledge on the
primary topic of an essay.
By large, students relied on very similar materials to answer the questions—typically the core
theories/studies taught in lectures. For example, in answering Question 2b on basic emotions,
most students relied on citing the facial recognition studies by Ekman, the critiques of these
studies by Russell, and some discussion of prototype theory approaches to emotions and
dimensional approaches to emotions. While these theories/perspectives certainly provide
coverage of the question and often resulted in good answers, the best answers went beyond what
was taught in lectures and showed a deeper understanding of the literature. For instance, some
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students incorporated findings from the neuroscience literature on emotion processing. What
was key to the success of these students, however, is doing both: covering the canonical
literature (Ekman, Russell, prototype theory) and then also going beyond in the second half of
the essay.
NST students in general struggled with the essays. This in part is likely due to exam structure—
PPS students were aware that they could reasonably expect a question for virtually every topic
taught, while NST students could only expect a small handful of questions, and thus had to
prepare for any possibility. In general, the NST answers were shorter, had less empirical
materials referenced as support, and stuck very closely to the lectures, showing less expansion
beyond what was taught.
Aleksandr Kogan
Juliet Foster
July 2013
Lecture Locations and Time
Michaelmas: Tues from 2-3 and Weds 12-1, 8 weeks starting 15 Oct, in Arts School Room C
Lent: Monday from 2-3 and Weds 12-1, 8 weeks starting 20 Jan, in Arts School Room C
Lecture Timetable
Lecture No. Subject Lecturer
MICHAELMAS
TERM
1 (Wk1) 15 Oct Introduction to PSY1: Difficulties and
Methods of Studying People
Dr Alex Kogan
2; 16 Oct History of Social Psychology Dr Juliet Foster
3 (Wk2) 22 Oct Evolutionary/Biological Approaches Dr Alex Kogan
4; 23 Oct Major Theories Dr Alex Kogan
5 (Wk 3) 29 Oct Emotion Dr Alex Kogan
6; 30 Oct Emotion Dr Alex Kogan
7 (Wk4) 5 Nov Morality Dr Alex Kogan
8; 6 Nov Social Cognition Dr Simone Schnall
9 (Wk 5) 12 Nov Social Cognition Dr Simone Schnall
10 ; 13 Nov Social Cognition Dr Dora Zarkadi
11 (Wk 6) 19
Nov
Sociocultural approaches in Social
Psychology
Dr Juliet Foster
12; 20 Nov Sociocultural approaches in Social
Psychology
Dr Juliet Foster
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13 (Wk 7) 26
Nov
Sociocultural approaches in Social
Psychology
Dr Juliet Foster
14; 27 Nov Intergroup behaviour Dr Roberto Gutierrez
15 (Wk 8) 3 Dec Intergroup behaviour Dr Roberto Gutierrez
16; 4 Dec Intergroup behaviour Dr Roberto Gutierrez
LENT TERM
17 (Wk 1) 20 Jan Attitudes Dr Felix Naughton
18; 22 Jan Attitudes Dr Felix Naughton
19 (Wk 2) 27 Jan Pro-social behaviour and altruism Dr Alex Kogan
20; 29 Jan Pro-social behaviour and altruism Dr Alex Kogan
21 (Wk 3) 3 Feb Well-being Dr Alex Kogan
22; 5 Feb Well-being Dr Alex Kogan
23 (Wk 4) 10 Feb Personality and motivation Professor Brian Little
24; 12 Feb Personality and motivation Professor Brian Little
25 (Wk 5) 17 Feb Personality and motivation Professor Brian Little
26; 19 Feb The self Dr Gillian Sandstrom
27 (Wk 6) 24 Feb The self Dr Gillian Sandstrom
28; 26 Feb The self Dr Gillian Sandstrom
29 (Wk 7) 3
March
The social psychology of aging Ms Helena Rubinstein
30; 5 March Applications: Health psychology Dr Wendy Hardeman and
others
31 (Wk 8) 10
Mar
Applications: Health psychology Dr Wendy Hardeman and
others
32; 12 Mar Applications: Health psychology Dr Wendy Hardeman and
others
Supervision Arrangements
Supervision is essential for this paper and students should expect to cover 6-7 topics from across
the paper. If a student’s Director of Studies has not already made supervision arrangements for
this paper, supervisors will be allocated by the Course Organiser after the first lecture of
Michaelmas term. Thus, it is essential that all students taking this paper attend the introductory
lecture on 15 October. If a student has a compelling reason for not attending this lecture, he/she
should contact Dr Kogan to give notice of his/her intention to take the paper and wish to have a
supervisor.
Readings
Each lecturer on the course provides readings relevant to the particular topics that he or she
covers. These are presented below. Individual lecturers and supervisors as appropriate may
provide additional, more specialised references.
General Background Reading
The following lists provide general introductions to social psychology, reference texts and
methodological texts. These are meant to provide a background and help you to orient yourself
within the field. It is strongly recommended that you go beyond these texts and read some
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primary texts and key studies. A list of readers with primary texts is listed below, and each of the
lecturers on the course provide details of other key texts. A useful portal to social psychology on
the Internet is provided by the Social Psychology Network at: www.socialpsychology.org.
Introductory Texts
Aronson, E. (2008). The Social Animal (10th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
Baron, R. A., Branscombe, N. R., & Byrne, D. (2009). Social Psychology (12th ed.). Boston,
MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2010). Social Psychology and Human Nature (2nd ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Fraser, C., Burchell, B., Hay, D. and Duveen, G. (2001). Introducing Social Psychology.
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gilovich, T., Keltner, D., & Nisbett, R. (2010). Social Psychology (2nd ed.). New York: W. W.
Norton.
Hodgetts, D, Drew, N., Sonn, C., Stolte, O., Nikora, L. W. and Curtis, C. (2010) Social
Psychology and Everyday Life. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hogg, M.A., & Vaughan, G.M. (2002). Social psychology: An introduction (3rd edn.). Prentice
Hall.
Kassin, S. M., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2010). Social Psychology (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Houghton Mifflin.
Kenrick, D. T., Neuberg, S. L., & Cialdini, R. B. (2010). Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction
(5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Smith, J.A., Harré, R. and Van Langenhove, L (1995) Rethinking Psychology. London: Sage.
Taylor, S. E., Peplau, A. L., & Sears, D. O. (2006). Social Psychology (12th ed.). Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Reference Books and Annual Series
Gilbert, D. T., Fiske, S. T., & Lindzey, G. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of Social Psychology (5th
ed.). New York: Wiley.
Tajfel, H. (Ed). (1984). The social dimension (volumes 1 & 2). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press and Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
Hewstone, M., Manstead, A. S. R., & Stroebe, W. (Eds.). (1997). The Blackwell Reader in
Social Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Kruglanski, A. W., & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.). (2007). Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic
Principles (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Zanna, M., & Olson, J. M. (Eds.). (2010). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol.
43). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Research Methods in Social Psychology
Dooley, D. (2001). Social Research Methods (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Flick, U. (2009) An Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods (4th
ed.). London: Sage.
Korn, J. H. (1997). Illusions of Reality: A History of Deception in Social Psychology. Albany,
NY: SUNY Press.
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McKenna, R. J. (1995). The Undergraduate Researcher’s Handbook: Creative Experimentation
in Social Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Sansone, C., Morf, C. C., & Panter, A. T. (2003). The Sage Handbook of Methods in Social
Psychology. London: Sage.
Bordens, K. S., & Abbott, B. B. (2010). Research Design and Methods: A Process Approach (8th
ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Rosenthal, R., & Rosnow, R. L. (2008). Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data
Analysis (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Willig, C. (2008) Introducting Qualitative Research in Social Psychology. Maidenhead: Open
University Press.
Willig, C. and Stainton-Rogers, W. (2009) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in
Psychology. London: Sage
Readings in Classic and Contemporary Social Psychology
Hewstone, M., Manstead, A. S. R., & Stroebe, W. (Eds.). (1997). The Blackwell Reader in
Social Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Murphy, J., John, M., & Brown, H. (1984). Dialogues and debates in social psychology. Hove,
Sussex: LEA Publishers.
Coats, E. J., & Feldman, R. S. (Eds.) (1998). Classic and Contemporary Readings in Social
Psychology (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Ellyson, S. L., & Halberstadt, A. G. (1994). Explorations in Social Psychology: Readings and
Research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Halberstadt, A. G., & Ellyson, S. L. (1990). Social Psychology: Readings from The First
Century. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Holstein, J. A. & Gubrium, J. F. (2003). Inner lives and social worlds: Readings in social
psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kruglanski, A. W., & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.) (2003). Social Psychology: A General Reader. New
York: Psychology Press.
Krupat, E. (1999). Psychology is Social: Readings and Conversations in Social Psychology (4th
ed.). Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Lesko, W. A. (2000). Readings in Social Psychology: General, Classic, and Contemporary
Selections (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Peplau, L. A., & Taylor, S. E. (1997). Sociocultural Perspectives in Social Psychology: Current
Readings. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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Michaelmas term
1) Introduction, Methods, and Difficulties of Studying the Human Mind - Dr Alex Kogan
In our introduction, we will focus on three major questions. What is social psychology? What are
the tools that we use to study the human mind within the field? What are challenges the
researchers face in attempting to understand how people function? Through these questions, the
goal is for students to become critical consumers of psychological theories and findings, their
limitations and implications, and understand broadly the degree to which we can apply findings
from social psychology to daily living. We will also discuss a new movement within the field at
self-reflection and correction.
Essay Topics
1) Does social psychology study the individual or groups? What implications does this
have for the ecological fallacy and application of research findings to one’s own life?
2) What are the major difficulties in studying the human mind that social psychologist
face?
3) “Most published research findings are false.” Discuss.
Readings
Bones, A. K. (in press). We knew the future all along: Scientific a priori hypothesizing is much
more accurate than other forms of precognition. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Cohen, J. (1990). Things I have learned (so far). American Psychologist, 45(12), 1304-1312.
Ioannidis, J.P. (2005) Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS
Medicine, 2(8), e124.
John, L. K., Loewenstein, G., & Prelec, D. (2012). Measuring the prevalence of questionable
research practices with incentives for truth-telling. Psychological Science.
Simmons, J., Nelson, L., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed
flexibility in data collection and analysis allow presenting anything as significant.
Psychological Science, 22, 1359–1366.
2) The History of Social Psychology - Dr Juliet Foster
Psychology is a diverse discipline. However, there is also considerable diversity in the
philosophy and methods found in the sub-discipline of social psychology. Much of this diversity
can be better understood if we consider the historical context of the development of social
psychology, what has been referred to as the ‘long past and the short history’ of its development.
Inescapable within this development are important questions of epistemology and of research
methods: what have psychologists believed should be the focus of their discipline, how have they
understood (and even constructed) these objects, and how have they aimed to study them?
Essay Topics
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1) Is there one social psychology, or are there many social psychologies?
2) ‘The history of social psychology is irrelevant. What matters is where we are now.’
Discuss
3) Is it right to suggest that ‘the social’ has been written out of social psychology?
Readings
Billig, M. (2011) Writing social psychology: fictional things and unpopulated texts. British
Journal of Social Psychology 50 4-20.
Danziger, K. (2000) Making Social Psychology experimental: a conceptual history, 1920-1970.
Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences 36(4) 329-347
Danziger, K. (1990) Constructing the Subject: historical origins of psychological research.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Farr, R.M. (1991) The long past and the short history of social psychology. European Journal of
Social Psychology 21(5) 371-380.
*Farr, R.M. (1996) The Roots of Modern Social Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell
*Fraser, C. (2001)) The Nature of Social Psychology. In C. Fraser and B. Burchell (Eds.)
Introducing Social Psychology.
Greenwood, J.D. (2004) The Disappearance of the Social in American Social Psychology.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hogg, M. and Vaughan, G. (2002) Social Psychology. Chapter One.
Jahoda, G. (2007) The History of Social Psychology: from the Eighteenth Century enlightenment
to the Second World War. Cambridge: CUP
Lubek, I. (ed.) (2000). Re-engaging the history of social psychology. (Special Issue) Journal of
the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 36(4).
*Moscovici, S. (1972) Society and theory in social psychology. In J. Israel and H. Tajfel (Eds.)
The context of social psychology: a critical assessment. London: Academic Press.
Moscovici, S. and Marková, I. (2006) The Making of Modern Social Psychology: the hidden
story of how an international social science was created. Cambridge: Polity.
Samelson, F. (2000) Whig and Anti-Whig Histories – and other curiosities of social psychology.
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 36(4) 499-506.
Stringer, P. (1990) Prefacing Social Psychology: a textbook example. In I. Parker and J. Shotter
(Eds) Deconstructing Social Psychology. London: Routledge.
Van Langenhove, L. (1995) The theoretical foundations of experimental psychology and its
alternatives. In J. Smith, R. Harré and L. Van Langenhove (Eds) Rethinking Psychology.
London: Sage.
*Zittoun, T., Gillespie, A. & Cornish, F. (2009). Fragmentation or differentiation: Questioning
the crisis in psychology. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 43, 104-115.
3) Evolution, Culture, Biology, and Major Theories in Social Psychology- Dr Alex Kogan
Social psychology covers an amazingly diverse and rich number of topics. Sometimes, this
diversity can feel completely disconnected from one another. In these two lectures, the aim is to
provide a framework for contextualizing many theories and empirical findings within social
psychology. The focus will be on presenting “meta-theories”, or theoretical tenets that are
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repeated across many different areas of psychology. In particular, we will focus on (a) biological
and cultural evolutionary frameworks, (b) underlying biological models and approaches, and (c)
approach/avoidance motivational theory and dual-process accounts of reasoning.
Essay Topics
1) What is the evidence for a dual-process model of reasoning?
2) How are processes in biological and cultural evolution similar/different? What empirical
data can be used to understand these frameworks?
3) What are three different aspects of human biology that are important in behavior?
Provide empirical data for each.
Readings
Buss, D., Abbott, M., Angleitner, A., Asherian, A., Biaggio, A., Blanco-Villasenor, A., … Yang,
K.-S. (1990). International Preferences in Selecting Mates A Study of 37 Cultures. Journal
of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 21(1), 5–47.
Carver, C. S., Sutton, S. K., & Scheier, M. F. (2000). Action, Emotion, and Personality:
Emerging Conceptual Integration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(6), 741–
751. doi:10.1177/0146167200268008
De Moor, M. H. M., Costa, P. T., Terracciano, A., Krueger, R. F., de Geus, E. J. C., Toshiko, T.,
… Derringer, J. (2012). Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for personality.
Molecular Psychiatry, 17(3), 337–49. doi:10.1038/mp.2010.128
Evans, J. S. B. T. (2003). In two minds: Dual-process accounts of reasoning. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 7(10), 454–459. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.08.012
Heine, S. J. (2010). Cultural Psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindsay (Eds.), Handbook
of Social Psychology (5th ed., pp. 1423–1464). New York: McGraw Hill.
Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2007). Dual inheritance theory: The evolution of human cultural
capacities and cultural evolution. In R. Dunbar & L. Barrett (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of
Evolutionary Psychology (pp. 555–570). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Impett, E. A., Gable, S. L., & Peplau, L. A. (2005). Giving up and giving in: the costs and
benefits of daily sacrifice in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 89(3), 327–344.
Kahneman, D. (2003). A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality.
American Psychologist, 58(9), 697–720. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.58.9.697
Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Social cognitive neuroscience. In G. L. D. Gilbert, S. Fiske (Ed.),
Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed., pp. 143–193). New York: McGraw Hill.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion,
and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253.
Neuberg, S. L., Kendrick, D. T., & Schaller, M. (2010). Evolutionary Social Psychology. In S. T.
Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lidszey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed., pp.
761–796). NY: McGraw Hill.
Richerson, P. (2010). Gene-culture coevolution in the age of genomics. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 107, 8985–8992. doi:10.1073/pnas.0914631107
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4) Emotions and Morality - Dr Alex Kogan
Emotions imbue virtually every aspect of human life, often guiding our behaviors and thoughts.
Yet what precisely an emotion is still produces multiple answers from researchers and lay
people. In these lectures, we will examine multiple perspectives on emotions, including (a)
universality of emotional expression, (b) prototype perspective on emotion, and (c) core
appraisal model of emotions. We will also examine in which ways emotions (and emotional
expression) are universal and culturally variable. Finally, we will discuss the study of morality,
focusing on the transition from a Kantian perspective (one grounded in reason being the major
driving force behind morality) to a Humean perspective (one predicated on the centrality of
emotions in guiding morality).
Essay Topics
1) What do social psychologists believe are the basic properties of emotions? How does
empirical data support and contradict this perspective?
2) How are emotions both universal and culturally-variable?
3) Discuss the Kohlberg perspective on morality and its major critiques. How have these
critiques been addressed with more recent perspectives on morality?
Readings
Barrett, L. F., Mesquita, B., Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2007). The experience of emotion.
Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 373-403.
Bersoff, D. M., & Miller, J. G. (1993). Culture, context, and the development of moral
accountability judgments. Developmental Psychology, 29(4), 664-676.
*Clore, G.L. (2009). Affect as Information. In D. Sander & K. Scherer (Eds). The Oxford
Companion to Emotion and the Affective Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clore, G. L., & Ortony, A. (1991). What more is there to emotion concepts than prototypes?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(1), 48-50.
Eisenberg, N. (2000). Emotion, regulation, and moral development. Annual Review of
Psychology, 51, 665-697.
*Ekman, P. (1994). Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: A reply to Russell’s
mistaken critique. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 268-287.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Smith, C. A. (1988). From appraisal to emotion: Differences among
unpleasant feelings. Motivation and Emotion, 12(3), 271-302.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Smith, C. A. (1988). Shades of joy: Patterns of appraisal differentiating
pleasant emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 2(4), 301-331.
*Fehr, B., & Russell, J. A. (1984). Concept of emotion viewed from a prototype perspective.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(3), 464-486.
Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions. Review of General Psychology, 2,
300-319.
*Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-
and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218-226.
Frijda, N. H. (1993). The place of appraisal in emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 357-387.
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Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010). Compassion: An evolutionary analysis
and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 351-374.
Greene, J., & Haidt, J. (2002). How (and where) does moral judgment work? Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 6, 517-523.
*Haidt, J . (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral
judgment. Psychological Review. 108, 814-834.
Haidt, J. (2003). The moral emotions. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith
(Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 852-870). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316, 998-1002.
Haidt, J. (2008). Morality. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 65-72.
Haidt, J., Koller, S., & Dias, M. (1993). Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your
dog? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 613-628.
Horberg, E. J., Oveis, C., & Keltner, D. (2011). Emotions as moral amplifiers: An appraisal
tendency approach to the influences of distinct emotions upon moral judgment. Emotion
Review, 3, 237-244.
Horberg, E. J., Oveis, C., Keltner, D., & Cohen, A. B. (2009). Disgust and the moralization of
purity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 963-976.
Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (1999). Social functions of emotions at four levels of analysis. Cognition
and Emotion, 13,
505-522.
*Keltner, D., & Lerner, J. S. (2010). Emotion. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindsay
(Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (5th ed.; pp. 312-347). New York: McGraw
Hill.
Lerner, J. S., Han, S., & Keltner, D. (2007). Feelings and consumer decision making: Extending
the appraisal-tendency framework. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17, 184-187.
Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2000). Beyond valence: Toward a model of emotion specific
influences on judgment and choice.
Cognition and Emotion, 14, 473-493.
Lerner, J., & Keltner, D. (2001). Fear, anger and risk. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 81, 146-159
Miller, J. G. (1994). Cultural diversity in the morality of caring: Individually oriented versus
duty-based interpersonal moral codes. Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of
Comparative Social Science, 28(1), 3-39.
Miller, J. G. (1997). Understanding the role of worldviews in morality. Human Development,
40(6), 350-354.
*Miller, J. G., & Bersoff, D. M. (1994). Cultural influences on the moral status of reciprocity and
the discounting of endogenous motivation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
20(5), 592-602.
*Miller, J. G., & Bersoff, D. M. (1992). Culture and moral judgment: How are conflicts between
justice and interpersonal responsibilities resolved? Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 62(4), 541-554.
*Miller, J. G., Bersoff, D. M., & Harwood, R. L. (1990). Perceptions of social responsibilities in
india and in the united states: Moral imperatives or personal decisions? Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 58(1), 33-47.
Miller, J. G., & Luthar, S. (1989). Issues of interpersonal responsibility and accountability: A
comparison of indians and americans moral judgments. Social Cognition, 7(3), 237-261.
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Oveis, C., Horberg, E. J., & Keltner, D. (2010). Compassion, pride, and social intuitions of self-
other similarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 618-630.
Parkinson, B. (1997). Untangling the appraisal-emotion connection. Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 1, 62-79.
Russell, J. A. (1991). In defense of a prototype approach to emotion concepts. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 60(1), 37-47.
*Russell, J. A. (1994). Is there universal recognition of emotion from facial expressions? A
review of the cross-cultural studies. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 102-141.
Russell, J. A. (1995). Facial expressions of emotion: What lies beyond minimal universality?
Psychological Bulletin, 118, 379-391.
*Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (2003). Mood as information: 20 years later. Psychological
Inquiry, 14(3-4), 296-303.
*Shaver, P., Schwartz, J., Kirson, D., & OConnor, C. (1987). Emotion knowledge: Further
exploration of a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(6),
1061-1086.
Smith, C. A., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1987). Patterns of appraisal and emotion related to taking an
exam. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 475-488.
*Smith, C. A., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1985). Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 48(4), 813-838.
Storbeck, J., & Clore, G. L. (2008). Affective arousal as information: How affective arousal
influences judgments, learning, and memory. Social and Personality Psychology
Compass, 2(5), 1824-1843.
Vasquez, K., Keltner, D., Ebenbach, D. H., & Banaszynski, T. L. (2001). Cultural variation and
similarity in moral rhetorics:
Voices from the Philippines and United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,
32, 93-120
5) Social Cognition - Dr Simone Schnall and Dr Dora Zarkadi
Social cognition concerns how we make sense of other people and their behaviour, and how our
own thought processes can be influenced by various social and motivational processes. Often we
are confronted by a conflict between attempting to understand and represent states in the world
accurately, but at the same time, not wanting to, or not being able to, exert too much time and
effort. Thus, for better or worse, people often see the social world with varying degrees of
accuracy. Topics include dual process theories, stereotype and prejudice, cognitive dissonance
and various biases and heuristics.
Essay Topics
1) Does everybody hold stereotypes?
2) People often use their own views and beliefs as a starting point whey trying to make
sense of others. Why can this be problematic?
3) Is it adaptive to use heuristics?
Page 13
Readings
Especially recommended are the following specialized textbooks:
Kunda, Z. (1999). Social cognition: Making sense of people. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press. Chapters 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9.
Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (2008). Social cognition: From brains to culture. New York:
McGraw Hill. Chapters 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12.
These general social psychology textbooks also have good overview chapters:
Aronson, E. (2008). The Social Animal (10th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Chapters 4
and 7. Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2010). Social Psychology and Human Nature (2nd ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. Chapter 5.
Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (2008) (Eds). Introduction to social psychology: A
European Perspective. Blackwell Publishers. Chapters 3 and 4.
Supplementary Readings:
Bargh, J. A. (1994). The four horsemen of automaticity: Awareness, efficiency, intention, and
control in social cognition. In R. S. Wyer, Jr., & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social
cognition (2nd ed., pp. 1-40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of
trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 71, 230-244.
Bodenhausen, G. V., Kramer, G. P., & Susser, K. (1994). Happiness and stereotypic thinking in
social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 621-632.
Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2002). The police officer’s dilemma: Using
ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 83, 1314-1329.
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 44-50.
Fein,S., & Spencer, S. J. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through
derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,73, 31-44.
Gilbert, D. T., Pelham, B. W., & Krull, D. S. (1988). On cognitive busyness: When person
perceivers meet persons perceived. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54,
733-740.
Gilovich, T., Vallone, R., & Tversky, A. (1985). The hot hand in basketball: On the
misperception of random sequences. Cognitive Psychology, 17, 295-314.
Macrae, C. N., Bodenhausen, G. V., Milne, A. B., & Jetten, J. (1994). Out of mind but back in
sight: Stereotypes on the rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,74, 578-
589.
Plous, S. (1993). The psychology of judgment and decision making. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some
consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 64, 243-256.
Page 14
Rosenthal, R. & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the class-room: Teacher expectations and
student intellectual development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in
social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology,13, 279-301.
Schkade, D. A., & Kahneman, D. (1998). Does living in California make people happy? A
focusing illusion in judgments of life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 9, 341-346.
Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and
happiness. Caravan Books.
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice.
Science, 211, 453-458.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases.
Science, 185, 1124-1131.
Wegner, D., M., & Erber, R. (1992). The hyperaccessibility of suppressed thoughts. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 903-912.
Wittenbrink, B., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (1997). Evidence of prejudice at the implicit level and
its relationship with questionnaire measures. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology,72, 262-274.
Word, C. O., Zanna, M. P., & Cooper, J. (1974). The nonverbal mediation of self-fulfilling
prophecies in interracial interaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 109-
120.
6) Socio-cultural Approaches to Social Psychology - Dr Juliet Foster
A number of approaches have developed within social psychology in recent years that aim to
examine the relationship between individuals, social groups, societies and broader culture.
Central to all of these is the idea that there is a reciprocal, or mutually co-constructive
relationship between individual and society. Some of these theories will be examined in more
depth. In particular, we will look at social representations theory, and also on theories of the
dialogical self.
Essay Topics
1) What concerns about social psychology are sociocultural approaches trying to address?
Discuss with reference to at least two approaches.
2) How do social representations relate to identity?
3) How can we study social representations?
Readings
*Bauer, M., & Gaskell, G. (1999). Towards a paradigm for research on social representations.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 29(2), 163-186.
Bauer MW and G Gaskell (2008) Social representations theory: a progressive research
programme for Social Psychology, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38, 4,
335-354.
Deaux, K. and Philogène, G. (2001) Representations of the Social. Oxford: Blackwell. Part III.
Page 15
Doise, W. (1986). Levels of Explanation in Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Duveen, G. M., and Lloyd, B. (1986). The significance of social identity. British Journal of
Social Psychology, 26, 219-230.
Duveen, G. M., & Lloyd, B. (1990). Introduction. In G. Duveen & B. Lloyd (Eds.), Social
Representations and the Development of Knowledge . Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
*Duveen, G. M. (2000). Introduction: the power of ideas. In S. Moscovici (Ed.), Social
Representations: explorations in social psychology (pp. 1-17). Cambridge: Polity Press.
*Duveen, G.M. (2001) Social Representations. In C. Fraser and B.Burchell (Eds.) Introducing
Social Psychology. (pp. 268-289) Cambridge: Polity Press.
Duveen, G. M. (2001). Representations, identities, resistance. In K. Deaux & G. Philogene
(Eds.), Representations of the Social: bridging theoretical traditions . Oxford: Blackwell.
Duveen, G.M. (2007) Culture and Social Representations. In J. Valsiner and A. Rosa (Eds.) The
Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology. Cambridge: CUP
Farr, R.M. (1993) Theory and method in the study of social representations. In G. Breakwell and
D. Canter (Eds.) Empirical Approaches to Social Representations. Oxford: OUP.
*Flick, U. and Foster, J.L.H. (2008) Social Representations. In C. Willig and W. Stainton-Rogers
(Eds.) The Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. London: Sage.
Foster, J. L. H. (2003). Representational projects and interacting forms of knowledge. Journal
for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33(3), 231-244.
Foster, J.L.H. (2011) Reflections on Bauer and Gaskell’s ‘Towards a Paradigm for Research in
Social Representations’. Papers on Social Representations - Special Issue on A Half
Century Of Social Representations: Discussion On Some Recommended Papers 20 23.1-
23.12.
Gergen, K. (2001) Social Construction in Context. London: Sage. Part I.
Gillespie, A. (2006) Becoming Other: from social interaction to self-reflection. Greenwich,
Conneticut: IAP.
Gillespie, A. (2008). Social representations, alternative representations and semantic barriers
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 38, 4, 376-391.
*Hermans, H.J.M. (2001) The dialogical self: toward a theory of personal and cultural
positioning. Culture and Psychology 7(3) 243-281.
Howarth, C., Foster, J., & Dorrer, N. (2004). Exploring the potential of the theory of social
representations in community-based health research - and vice versa? Journal of Health
Psychology, 9(2), 229-243.
Howarth, C. and Voelklein, C. (2005) 'A review of controversies about social representations
theory - a British debate.' Culture and Psychology 11, no. 4, pp. 431454.
Jahoda, G. (1988). Critical notes and reflections on 'social representations'. European Journal of
Social Psychology, 18, 195-209.
Jovchelovitch, S. (1996) In Defense of Representations. Journal for the Theory of Social
Behaviour 26, 2: 121-135.
Jovchelovitch, S. and Gervais, M.C. (1999) Social representations of Health and Illness: The
case of the Chinese community in England. Journal of Community and Applied Social
Psychology, 9: 247-260.
Page 16
*Marková, I. (2007) Social Identities and social representations: how are they related? In G.
Maloney and I. Walker (Eds) Social Representations and Identity: Content, Process and
Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Whole book is also useful.
Mead, G.H (1934) Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mead, G.H. (1982) The Individual and the Social Self: Unpublished Essays by G. H. Mead. Ed.
by David L. Miller. University of Chicago
*Moscovici, S. (1984). The phenomenon of social representations. In R. M. Farr & S. Moscovici
(Eds.), Social Representations (pp. 3-69). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Also
appears in S. Moscovici (2000) Social Representations. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Moscovici, S. (1998). The history and actuality of social representations. In U. Flick (Ed.), The
Psychology of the Social (pp. 209-247). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moscovici, S. (2008) Psychoanalysis: its image and its public. Cambridge: Polity Press.
*Valsiner, J. (2007) Culture in Minds and Societies: foundations of cultural psychology.
Especially Chapter 3.
*Valsiner, J. (2003). Beyond social representations: A theory of enablement. Papers on social
Representations 12, 7.1-7.16
Wagner, W. and Hayes, N. (2005) Everyday Discourse and Common Sense: The Theory of
Social Representations. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Chapter 11.
7) Attitudes - Dr Felix Naughton
The study of attitudes in psychology spans almost a century. However, there is still little
consensus as to what attitudes are, how they are formed and to what extent they determine our
behaviour. Furthermore, recent interest in “implicit” attitudes, those considered to reflect
automatic associations that we are not usually consciously aware of, has sparked new debates
about how “explicit” and “implicit” attitudes are related and how each contribute to our
behaviour. In these two sessions we will explore what attitudes are, looking at their dimensions,
measurement, predictive ability and how open they are to modification.
Essay Topics
1) What is an attitude? In what way are attitudes fundamental to social psychology?
2) When do attitudes predict behaviour?
3) Why have studies looking at concordance between implicit and explicit attitudes found
only weak or null associations?
Readings
*Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2005). The influence of attitudes on behavior. In D. Albarracín et al
(eds) (2005).
* Bohner, G., & Dickel, N. (2011). Attitudes and attitude change. Annual Review of Psychology,
62 391-417.
*Crano, W. D., & Prislin, R. (2006). Attitudes and persuasion. Annual Review of Psychology,
57, 345-374.
Ajzen, I. (2001) Nature & operation of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 27-58.
Page 17
Albarracin, D., B. T. Johnson, et al. (2005). The handbook of attitudes. Mahwah, N.J., Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Eagly, A. H. (1992). Uneven progress: Social psychology and the study of attitudes. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 693-710.
Erwin, P. (2001). Attitudes and persuasion. Hove, Psychology Press.
Fazio, R. H. and R. E. Petty (2007). Attitudes : their structure, function, and consequences. New
York, Psychology Press.
Festinger, L. (1962). Cognitive dissonance. Scientific American, 207(4), 93-107.
Garwonski, B. (Ed.). (2007). What is an attitude? Social Cognition, 25(5), 573-760.
Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and
stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102, 4-27.
Kraus, S. J. (1995). Attitudes and the prediction of behavior: A meta-analysis of the empirical
literature. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 58-75.
Payne, B.K., Burkley, M.A., & Stokes, M.B. (2008). Why do implicit and explicit attitude tests
diverge? The role of structural fit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(1),
16-31.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L.
Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205).
New York: Academic Press.
Roberts, C. and R. Jowell (2008). Attitude measurement. Los Angeles ; London, Sage.
Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior.
Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(3), 220-247.
Sutton, S. (1998). Predicting and explaining intentions and behavior: How well are we doing?
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 1317-1338.
Page 18
Lent Term
8) Intergroup Relations and Social Identity - Dr Roberto Gutierrez
People spend a large amount of time in groups of very different types. From a very close
group in which all the members know each other (e.g., a family), to a large collection of people
that only get together for a brief period of time (e.g., a psychology conference); the notion of
group is common to all situations. The influence of groups is clear and prevalent: Do you behave
the same in private as you do in a group? Do you behave the same in every group? The very
nature of what a group is, how to best define it and who belongs to the group are complex social
problems. Some of the most prevalent problems in society (for example, prejudice,
discrimination, inequality, aggression) can be trace to the existence of groups and the importance
of groups for the individuals. These lectures will focus on the effects that groups have on
individuals and how individuals have effects on others when we are in groups. Some of the
problems mentioned before (and others) will be reviewed, as well as some possible solutions.
Essay Topics
1. Outline the similarities and differences between conformity and obedience
2. Describe the main processes of Social Identity Theory
3. Discuss the conditions needed to reduce prejudice according to the contact hypothesis
Readings
Bond, C. F., & Titus, L. J. (1983). Social facilitation: a meta-analysis of 241 studies.
Psychological bulletin, 94(2), 265.
Brewer, M. B. (2003). Optimal distinctiveness, social identity, and the self. Handbook of self and
identity, 480–491.
Brown, R. (1988). Group processes: Dynamics within and between groups. Basil Blackwell.
Brown, R. (2011). Prejudice: Its social psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
Crisp, R. J., & Turner, R. N. (2009). Can imagined interactions produce positive perceptions?:
Reducing prejudice through simulated social contact. American Psychologist, 64(4), 231.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human relations, 7(2), 117–140.
Forsyth, D. R. (2009). Group dynamics. Cengage Brain.
Hogg, M. A., & Vaughan. (2011). Social psychology. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall.
Lemyre, L., & Smith, P. M. (1985). Intergroup discrimination and self-esteem in the minimal
group paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 660.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 67(4), 371.
Milgram, S. (2009). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. Harper Collins.
Otten, S. (2012). Minimal Group Paradigm. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2005). Allport’s intergroup contact hypothesis: Its history and
influence. On the nature of prejudice, 262–277.
Page 19
Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2008). How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta-
analytic tests of three mediators. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(6), 922–934.
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A
personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of personality and
social psychology, 67(4), 741.
Sherif, M. (1961). The Robbers Cave experiment: Intergroup conflict and cooperation. Wesleyan
University Press.
Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W. (1961). Intergroup conflict
and cooperation: The Robbers Cave experiment (Vol. 10). University Book Exchange
Norman, OK.
Sidanius, J. (2001). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression.
Cambridge University Press.
Steiner, I. D. (1972). Group processes and group productivity. New York: Academic.
Suls, J. E., & Wheeler, L. E. (2000). Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research.
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Tajfel, H. (1978). Social categorization, social identity and social comparison. Differentiation
between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations, 61–76.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The social
psychology of intergroup relations, 33, 47.
Tropp, L. R., & Pettigrew, T. F. (2005). Relationships between intergroup contact and prejudice
among minority and majority status groups. Psychological Science, 16(12), 951–957.
Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987a).
Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Basil Blackwell.
Wright, S. C., & Baray, G. (2012). 11 Models of social change in social psychology: collective
action or prejudice reduction? Conflict or harmony? Beyond Prejudice: Extending the
Social Psychology of Conflict, Inequality and Social Change, 225.
9) Prosocial Behavior- Dr Alex Kogan
Prosociality—kindness, altruism, and cooperation—are vital glues to healthy societal
functioning. However, debate continues on why people engage in selfless acts. In these lectures,
we will explore the factors that influence people to behave with kindness and cooperation. We
will in particular review literature from the sociocultural appraisals, values, and emotions
(SAVE) framework of prosociality.
Essay Topics
1) Choose three components of the SAVE framework? Provide empirical evidence for
each.
2) “Oxytocin is the love hormone”. Why is this not true? Use evidence from both studies
of oxytocin in the blood (blood plasma and/or oxytocin spray studies) and the
oxytocin receptor gene.
Page 20
Readings
Aknin, L. B., Barrington-Leigh, C. P., Dunn, E. W., Helliwell, J. F., Burns, J., Biswas-Diener,
R., Kemeza, I., Nyende, P., Ashton-James, C. E., & Norton, M. I. (2013). Prosocial
spending and well-being: Cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(4), 635-652.
Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes
happiness. Science, 319, 1687-1688.
Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2003). The nature of human altruism. Nature, 425(6960), 785–91.
doi:10.1038/nature02043
Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2004). Social norms and human cooperation. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 8(4), 185–90. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.007
Fehr, E., & Gächter, S. (2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415(6868), 137–40.
doi:10.1038/415137a
Feinberg, M., Willer, R., Stellar, J., & Keltner, D. (2012). The virtues of gossip: Reputational
information sharing as prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
102(5), 1015–30. doi:10.1037/a0026650
Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2010). Cooperative behavior cascades in human social
networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 107(12), 5334–8. doi:10.1073/pnas.0913149107
Goldstein, N. J., Cialdini, R. B., & Griskevicius, V. (2008). A room with a viewpoint: Using
social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer
Research, 35(3), 472–482.
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., McElreath, R., et al. (2005).
“Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale
societies. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(6), 795–815.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X05000142
Henrich, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Ensminger, J., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., et
al. (2006). Costly punishment across human societies. Science, 312(5781), 1767–70.
doi:10.1126/science.1127333
Keltner, D., Kogan, A., Piff, P. K., & Saturn, S. R. (in press). The sociocultural appraisals,
values, and emotions (SAVE) framework of prosociality: Core processes from gene to
meme. Annual Review of Psychology.
Kogan, A., Saslow, L., Impett, E.A., Oveis, C., Keltner, D., & Saturn, S. (2011). A thin-slicing
study of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and the evaluation and expression of the
prosocial disposition. Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 19189-
19192.
Le, B. M., Impett, E. A., Kogan, A., Webster, G. D. D., & Cheng, C. (2012). The personal and
interpersonal rewards of communal orientation. Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships, 30(6), 694–710. doi:10.1177/0265407512466227
Milinski, M., Semmann, D., & Krambeck, H.-J. (2002). Reputation helps solve the “tragedy of
the commons”. Nature, 415(6870), 424–6. doi:10.1038/415424a
Nowak, M. A. (2006). Five rules for the evolution of cooperation. Science, 314(5805), 1560–3.
doi:10.1126/science.1133755
Page 21
Oveis, C., Horberg, E. J., & Keltner, D. (2010). Compassion, pride, and social intuitions of self-
other similarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(4), 618–30.
doi:10.1037/a0017628
Rand, D. G., Dreber, A., Ellingsen, T., Fudenberg, D., & Nowak, M. A. (2009). Positive
interactions promote public cooperation. Science, 325(5945), 1272–1275.
doi:10.1126/science.1177418
Rand, D. G., Greene, J. D., & Nowak, M. A. (2012). Spontaneous giving and calculated greed.
Nature, 489(7416), 427–30. doi:10.1038/nature11467
Rodrigues, S. M., Saslow, L. R., Garcia, N., John, O. P., & Keltner, D. (2009). Oxytocin receptor
genetic variation relates to empathy and stress reactivity in humans. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106, 21437–21441.
Schnall, S., Roper, J., & Fessler, D. M. (2010). Elevation leads to altruistic behavior.
Psychological Science, 21(3), 315–20. doi:10.1177/0956797609359882
Valdesolo, P., & Desteno, D. (2011). Synchrony and the social tuning of compassion. Emotion,
11(2), 262–6. doi:10.1037/a0021302
Wedekind, C., & Milinski, M. (2000). Cooperation through image scoring in humans. Science,
288(5467), 850–852. doi:10.1126/science.288.5467.850
10) Well-being - Dr Alex Kogan
What makes people happy? This age old question has puzzled philosophers, scientists, and lay
people alike for thousands of years. Two common sources people turn to for achieving happiness
are money and religion. We will discuss how research both supports and questions the utility of
both money and religion to help people be happy. Additionally, we will discuss cross-national
differences in well-being and factors that are associated with these differences. We will also
discuss how emerging evidence suggests that too much happiness could be a bad thing, and the
value of emotional stability and diversity.
Essay Topics
1) Discuss how money and religion might promote and inhibit happier lives.
2) What are the factors that explain differences in well-being across societies?
3) What are three ways we can promote happiness?
4) Is there such a thing as too much happiness?
Readings
Carter, T.J., & Gilovich, T. (2010). The Relative relativity of material and experiential
purchases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 146–159.
*Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness, and a proposal for a
national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34-43.
Diener, E., & Chan, M. Y. (2011) Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to
health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. 3(1), 1-43.
Page 22
*Diener, E., Ng, W., Harter, J., & Arora , R. (2010). Wealth and happiness across the world:
Material prosperity predicts life evaluation, whereas psychosocial prosperity predicts
positive feeling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 52-61.
*Diener, E., Tay, L., & Myers, D. G. (2011). The religion paradox: If religion makes people
happy, why are so many dropping out? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
101, 1278-1290.
Green, M., & Elliott, M. (2010). Religion, health, and psychological well-being. Journal of
Religion and Health, 49(2), 149-163.
*Gruber, J., Mauss, I. B., & Tamir, M. (2011). A dark side of happiness? How, when, and why
happiness is not always good. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(3), 222-233.
*Howell, R.T., & Hill, G. (2009). The mediators of experiential purchases: Determining the
impact of psychological needs satisfaction and social comparison. The Journal of Positive
Psychology, 4, 511-522.
*Howell, R. T., & Howell, C. J. (2008). The relation of economic status to subjective well-being
in developing countries: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 536 – 560.
Kogan, A., Sasaki, J., Zou, C., Kim, H.S., & Cheng, C. (2013). Uncertainty avoidance moderates
the link between faith and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of Positive
Psychology.
Lucas, R. E., & Schimmack, U. (2009). Income and well-being: How big is the gap between the
rich and the poor? Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 75-78.
McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual
and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 112–127.
Millar, M., & Thomas, R. (2009). Discretionary activity and happiness: The role of materialism.
Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 699-702.
Morrison, M., Tay, L., Diener, E. (2011). Subjective well-being and national satisfaction:
Findings from a worldwide survey. Psychological Science, 22, 166-171
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R., (2004). Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide.
Cambridge University Press: UK.
*Oishi, S., Diener, E., & Lucas, R. (2007). The optimum level of well-being: Can people be too
happy?. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 346-360.
*Oishi, S., & Schimmack, U. (2010). Culture and well-being: A new inquiry into the
psychological wealth of nations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 463-471.
Oishi, S., Schimmack, U., & Diener, E. (2011). Progressive taxation and the subjective well-
being of nations. Psychological Science, 23, 86-92
*Oishi. S., Kesebir, S., & Diener, E. (2011). Income inequality and happiness. Psychological
Science, 22(9).
Okulicz-Kozaryn, A. (2010). Religiosity and life satisfaction across nations. Mental Health,
Religion & Culture, 13(2), 155-169.
Sasaki, J. Y., Kim, H., & Xu, J. (in press). Religion and well-being: An analysis of an oxytocin
receptor polymorphism (OXTR) and culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
Schimmack, U., Radhakrishnan, P., Oishi, S., Dzokoto, V. & Ahadi, S. (2002). Culture,
personality, and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life-satisfaction.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 582-593
Tay, L., & Diener, E. (2011). Needs and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology.
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Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2003). To Do or to Have? That Is the Question. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1193-1202.
Witter, R.A., Stock, W.A., Okun, M.A., & Haring, M.J. (1985). Religion and subjective well-
being in adulthood: A quantitative synthesis. Review of Religious Research, 26, 332-342.
Wirtz, D., Chiu, C., Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2009). What constitutes a good life? Cultural
differences in the role of positive and negative affect in subjective well-being. Journal of
Personality, 77, 1167-1196.
11) Personality and Motivation - Professor Brian R. Little
This set of three lectures provides a framework for studying personality and human flourishing.
We will examine and challenge some common assumptions about the nature of human nature
and the factors that shape the course of human lives. Lecture 1 examines the influence of stable
traits of personality on human well-being and achievement. It concludes that traits, commonly
understood, are necessary, but not sufficient, for a full account of well-being. Lecture 2
introduces the concept of “free traits” of personality and demonstrates some of the subtleties of
how we often act out of character. The final lecture explores the notion that human flourishing
depends on the sustainable pursuit of core personal projects.
Readings and Supervision Questions:
For a brief overview of the major themes of these lectures see:
Little, B. R. (2008). Personal projects and free traits: Personality and motivation reconsidered.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1235–1254.
For a rather strange paper on the more arcane aspects of personality science see:
Little, B. R. (2005). Personality science and personal projects: Six impossible things before
breakfast. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 4–21.
Lecture One: Personality and Well-Being: The Case for Fixed Traits
Argyle, M., & Lu.,L. (1990). The happiness of extraverts. Personality and Individual
Differences. 11, 1011–1017.
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job
performance: A meta- analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26.
Cain, S. (2012). Quiet. New York: Crown.
Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2006). Creativity versus conscientiousness: Which is a better predictor
of student performance? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 521–531.
Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on
subjective well-being: happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 38, 668–678.
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DeYoung, C. G., Peterson, J. B., & Higgins, D. M. (2002). Higher order factors of the Big Five
predict conformity: Are there neuroses of health? Personality and Individual Differences,
33, 533–552.
DeYoung, C. G. (2010). Personality neuroscience and the biology of traits. Social and
Personality Psychology Compass 4, 1165–1180. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00327.
Jang, K. L., Livesley, W. J., & Vernon, P. A. (1996). Heritability of the Big Five personality
dimensions and their facets: A twin study. Journal of Personality, 64, 577–592.
Lucas, R. E., Le, K., & Dyrenforth, P. E. (2008). Explaining the extraversion/positive affect
relation: Sociability cannot account for extraverts’ greater happiness. Journal of
Personality, 76, 385–414.
Lykken, D. T., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological
Science, 7, 186–189.
MacKinnon, D. W. (1962). The nature and nurture of creative talent. American Psychologist, 17,
484–495.
Nettle, D. (2007). Personality: What makes you the way you are. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Supervision Essay Topic for Lecture 1:
1) Illustrate and explain how differences in personality are consequential for human well-
being and achievement.
Lecture 2: On Acting out of Character: Toward a Free Trait Agreement
Cervone, D., & Mischel, W. (2002b). Personality science. In D. Cervone & W. Mischel (Eds.),
Advances in personality science (pp. 1–26). New York: Guilford Press.
Fleeson, W., Malanos, A., & Achille, N. (2002). An intra-individual, process approach to the
relationship between extraversion and positive affect: Is acting extraverted as “good” as
being extraverted? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1409–1422.
Little, B. R. (1983). Personal projects: A rationale and method for investigation. Environment
and Behavior, 15, 273–309.
Little, B. R. (2011b). Personality science and the northern tilt: As positive as possible under the
circumstances. In K. M. Sheldon, T. B. Kashdan, & M. F. Steger (Eds.), Designing
positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward (pp. 228–247). New York:
Oxford.
Little, B. R., & Joseph, M. F. (2007). Personal projects and free traits: Mutable selves and well
beings. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro, & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal project pursuit:
Goals, action and human flourishing (pp. 375–400). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Little, B. R., Salmela-Aro, K., & Phillips, S. D. (Eds.). (2007). Personal project pursuit: Goals,
action and human flourishing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Salmela-Aro, K. (1992). Struggling with self: The personal projects of students seeking
psychological counselling. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 33, 330-338.
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Supervision Essay Topic for Lecture 2:
1) What are free traits and how do they influence well-being?
Lecture 3: Personal Projects and the Shape of a Life: Passion, Compassion and Sustainable
Pursuit
Little, B. R. (1989). Personal projects analysis: Trivial pursuits, magnificent obsessions, and the
search for coherence. In D. Buss & N. Cantor (Eds.), Personality psychology: Recent
trends and emerging directions (pp. 15-31). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Little, B. R. (2007). Prompt and circumstance: The generative contexts of personal projects
analysis. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro, & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal project pursuit:
Goals, action and human flourishing (pp. 3–49). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Mauss I. B, Tamir M, Anderson, C. L, & Savino, N. S (2011). Can seeking happiness make
people unhappy? Paradoxical effects of valuing happiness. Emotion, 11 (4), 807-15.
PMID: 21517168
McGregor, I. (2007). Personal projects as compensatory convictions: Passionate pursuit and the
fugitive self. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro, & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal project
pursuit: Goals, action and human flourishing (pp. 171–195). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
McGregor, I., & Little, B. R. (1998). Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: On doing well
and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 494–512.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on
hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52. 141–166.
Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). Change your actions, not your circumstances: An
experimental test of the Sustainable Happiness model. In A. K. Dutt & B. Radcliff
(Eds.), Happiness, economics, and politics: Towards a multi-disciplinary approach (pp.
324–342). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Supervision Essay question for Lecture 3:
1) Discuss the proposition that human flourishing is achieved through the sustainable
pursuit of core personal projects.
12) Self and Identity - Dr Gillian Sandstrom
Who are you? Are you always the same “you”? How well do you know yourself? These
questions have been the target of philosophical inquiries for millennia, but social psychology
also has something to say about these fundamental questions. In these lectures, we will examine
how the self-concept is formed and how we think about our past and future selves. We will also
examine the ways in which we learn about ourselves, and the role that other people have to play
in this process. Finally, we will discuss self-esteem, contrasting two different theories that
attempt to explain what self-esteem is and why we need it.
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Essay Topics
1) Is it possible for someone to act like one person when with their family and like a
different person when with their friends? What are the consequences of self-concept
consistency?
2) What does social psychology have to say about how the self changes over time? How
is your present self similar to and different than your past self and your future self?
3) Consider the various ways we learn about ourselves. Are there some aspects of the
self that we are more likely to learn about on our own, and other aspects that we are
more likely to learn about from others? What would happen if these two sources of
learning resulted in different conclusions?
4) Should parents and teachers make it a priority to increase children’s self-esteem?
Readings
Ackerman, J. M., Goldstein, N. J., Shapiro, J. R., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). You wear me out: The
vicarious depletion of self-control. Psychological Science, 20(3), 326–332.
Baccus, J. R., Baldwin, M. W., & Packer, D. J. (2004). Increasing implicit self-esteem through
classical conditioning. Psychological Science, 15(7), 498–502.
Bem, D. J. (1967). Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance
phenomena. Psychological Review, 74(3), 183–200.
Bryan, C. J., Walton, G. M., Rogers, T., & Dweck, C. S. (2011). Motivating voter turnout by
invoking the self. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(31), 12653–
12656.
Buhrmester, M. D., Blanton, H., & Swann Jr, W. B. (2011). Implicit self-esteem: nature,
measurement, and a new way forward. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
100(2), 365–385.
*Collins, R. L. (1996). For better or worse: The impact of upward social comparison on self-
evaluations. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 51.
Crocker, J., & Major, B. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of
stigma. Psychological Review, 96(4), 608.
*Crocker, J., Sommers, S. R., & Luhtanen, R. K. (2002). Hopes dashed and dreams fulfilled:
Contingencies of self-worth and graduate school admissions. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 28(9), 1275–1286.
*Dunning, D., Meyerowitz, J. A., & Holzberg, A. D. (1989). Ambiguity and self-evaluation: The
role of idiosyncratic trait definitions in self-serving assessments of ability. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1082.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human relations, 7(2), 117–140.
*Harmon-Jones, E., Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & McGregor, H.
(1997). Terror management theory and self-esteem: Evidence that increased self-esteem
reduces mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 24–
36.
Heine, S. J., Takata, T., & Lehman, D. R. (2000). Beyond self-presentation: Evidence for self-
criticism among Japanese. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(1), 71–78.
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*Hill, T., Smith, N. D., & Lewicki, P. (1989). The development of self-image bias: A real-world
demonstration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15(2), 205–211.
Holmes, J. G. (1987). Salient private audiences and awareness of the self. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 52(6), 1087–1098.
Kraus, M. W., Chen, S., & Keltner, D. (2011). The power to be me: Power elevates self-concept
consistency and authenticity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(5), 974–
980.
*Leary, M. R., Tambor, E. S., Terdal, S. K., & Downs, D. L. (1995). Self-esteem as an
interpersonal monitor: The sociometer hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 68(3), 518–530.
Lewicki, P. (1983). Self-image bias in person perception. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 45(2), 384.
Markus, H., & Wurf, E. (1987). The dynamic self-concept: A social psychological perspective.
Annual Review of Psychology, 38(1), 299–337.
*Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources:
Does self-control resemble a muscle? Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), 247–259.
*Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on
mental processes. Psychological Review, 84(3), 231–259.
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004b). Why do people
need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130(3),
435-468.
Crocker, J., & Nuer, N. (2004). Do people need self-esteem? Comment on Pyszczynski et
al.(2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 469–472.
Leary, M. R. (2004). The function of self-esteem in terror management theory and sociometer
theory: Comment on Pyszczynski et al.(2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 478-482.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2004). Avoiding death or engaging life as accounts of meaning and
culture: Comment on Pyszczynski et al.(2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 473–477.
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004a). Converging
toward an integrated theory of self-esteem: Reply to Crocker and Nuer (2004), Ryan and
Deci (2004), and Leary (2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 483–488.
*Quoidbach, J., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2013). The end of history illusion. Science,
339(6115), 96–98.
Rogers, T. B., Kuiper, N. A., & Kirker, W. S. (1977). Self-reference and the encoding of
personal information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(9), 677–688.
Tice, D. M. (1992). Self-concept change and self-presentation: The looking glass self is also a
magnifying glass. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(3), 435–451.
*Vazire, S., & Carlson, E. N. (2010). Self-knowledge of personality: Do people know
themselves? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(8), 605–620.
*Wilson, A. E., & Ross, M. (2001). From chump to champ: People’s appraisals of their earlier
and present selves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(4), 572–584.
*Wilson, T. D., Laser, P. S., & Stone, J. I. (1982). Judging the predictors of one’s own mood:
Accuracy and the use of shared theories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
18(6), 537–556.
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13) The Social Psychology of Aging - Ms Helena Rubinstein
Social Psychology of Aging
In the developed Western world, society is aging; we are living longer but not necessarily more
healthily. Much of the literature in developmental and social psychology focuses on childhood
and adolescence but individuals do not mysteriously cease to develop as they age and there is a
growing interest in how our behaviour changes over the lifespan. This lecture discusses our
attitudes to aging and how these affect behaviour, will introduce you to theories of lifespan
development, and consider social, emotional and personality changes as we age.
Essay Topics
1) Why might holding negative attitudes to aging have adverse effects?
2) What is the role of time in predicting the goals that people pursue and the social partners
they seek?
3) Do people have the same personality at 80 years of age as when they were 8?
Readings
Antonucci, T.C., Akiyama, H. & Takahahi, K (2004) Attachment and close relationships across
the lifespan, Attachment and Human Development, 6 (4), 353-370
*Baltes. P.B. (1993) On the Incomplete Architecture of Human Ontogeny: Selection,
Optimisation and Compensation as Foundation of Developmental Theory. American
Psychologist, 52, 366-380
Baltes, P.B., & Baltes, M.M. (1990) Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model
of selective optimization with compensation. In P.B. Baltes & M.M. Baltes (Eds)
Successful Aging: Perspectives from behavioural sciences (pp1-34) New York:
Cambridge University Press
Bargh, J.A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L., (1996) Automaticity of social behaviour: Direct effects of
trait contrsuct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 71, 230-244
*Bates, J.E., Schemmerhorn, A.C., & Goodnight. J.A., (2010) Temperament and Personality
throughout the lifespan in Lamb, M.E. & Freund, A.M (eds). The Handbook of Life-Span
Development, Vol 2. Social and Emotional Development, Wiley pp 208- 253
*Birren, J.E & Schaie, K.W (2006), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, Elsevier Academic
Press
Blanchflower, D., and A. Oswald (2008): “Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?,”
Social Science and Medicine, 66, 1733-1749
Costa, P.T. & McCrae, R.R. (1988), Personality in adulthood: A six-year longitudinal study of
self-reports and spouse ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 54:5 853-863.
*Carstensen, L.L. (1992), Social and emotional patterns in adulthood: Support for
socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychology and Aging, 7 (3) 331-338.
Carstensen. L.L., & Mikels. J.A. (2005) At the Intersection of Emotion and Cognition: Aging
and the Positivity Effect. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 117-12
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Carstensen, L.L. & Turk-Charles, S. (1994) The salience of emotion across the adult life span.
Psychology and Aging, 9:2, 259-264.
Cuddy, A. J. C.,& Fiske, S.T. (2002). Doddering but dear: Process, content, and function in
stereotyping of older persons. In T. D. Nelson (Ed.) (2002), Ageism: Stereotyping and
prejudice against older persons (pp. 3–26). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
*Cuddy, A.J.C., Norton, M.I., & Fiske S.T. (2005), This old stereotype: The pervasiveness and
persistence of the Elderly stereotype, Journal of Social Issue, 61 (2):267-285
Eibach, R. P., Mock, S. E., & Courtney, E. A. (2010). Having a “senior moment”: Induced aging
phenomenology, subjective age, and susceptibility to ageist stereotypes. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology,46, 643–649
Erikson, E.H. (1980). On the Generational Cycle an Address. International Journal of Psycho-
Analysis, 61:213-223
Fiske, S.T., Cuddy, A.J.C., Glick. P., & Xu.J (2002). A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype
Content: Competence and Warmth Respectively Follow From Perceived Status and
Competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 878-902
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D/E., & Schwatrz, J.L.K., (1998). Measuring the Individual
Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480
Levy, B.R., Zonderman,A.B., & Slade, M.d & Luigi Ferruci (2009) Age stereotypes held earlier
in life predict cardiovascular events in later life, Psychological Science, 20 (3): 296- 298
Linweaver. T.L., Berger. A.K & Hertzog, C. (2009) Expectations about Memory Across the
Lifespan are Impacted by Aging Stereotypes. Psychology and Aging, 24, 169-176
Nunes, A., & Kramer. A.F. (2009) Experience-Based Mitigation of Age-Related Performance
Declines: Evidence From Air Traffic Control. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 15,
12-24
Perdue, C.W., & Gurtman, M,B. (1990). Evidence for the Automaticity of Ageism. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 26, 199-216
Roberts, B.W & DelVecchio, W. F. (2000), The rank-order consistency of personality traits
from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological
Bulletin, 126:1, 3-25.
Staudinger, U. M. and Bowen, C. E. 2010. Life-Span Perspectives on Positive Personality
Development in Adulthood and Old Age in Lamb, M.E. & Freund, A.M (eds). The
Handbook of Life-Span Development, Vol 2. Social and Emotional Development, Wiley
pp 254-297
Rubin, D. C., & Berntsen, D. (2006). People over forty feel 20% younger than their age:
Subjective age across the lifespan. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 13, 776–780
Westerhof, G.J. & Barrett, A.E (2005), Age identity and subjective well-being: A comparison of
the United States and Germany, Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences, 60:3, 129-136
14) Applications: Health Psychology
Why do people smoke and eat too much while they know that it harms their health? How can we
help smokers kick their habit and tackle the obesity epidemic? How are health and illness
socially constructed? This series of three lectures gives an overview of the wide range of topics
Page 30
addressed by health psychologists; explains how psychological theory can help to predict and
change behaviours in order to promote health and well-being; and examines the psychogical
impacts of chronic illness and identifies cognitive and emotional coping strategies
Essay Topics
1) The University of Cambridge is planning a campaign to reduce binge drinking among
undergraduates. What advice would you give to them about developing the campaign so
that it is based on relevant theory and evidence from psychology?
2) What are the implications of the ‘intention-behaviour gap’ for health behaviour change
interventions?
3) Using social cognitive theories, explain why many patients do not take their medication
as prescribed by their doctor.
4) Choose one chronic illness (e.g., diabetes)
(a) Using the definition of health provided by the World Health Organisation (1948)
describe the potential impacts of this illness on health and well-being.
(b) Identify psychological factors that are associated with successful coping.
Reading List
Introductory texts
Abraham, C., Conner, M., Jones, F., & O’Connor, D. (2008). Health Psychology: Topics in
Applied Psychology. Hodder Education: London.
Sarafino, E. P. (2004). Context and perspectives in health psychology. In S Sutton, A. Baum, and
M. Johnston (Eds.) The Sage handbook of health psychology (pp. 1-26). London: Sage.
Predicting and changing health-related behaviour
Conner M & Norman P (2005). Predicting health behaviour. Open University Press. ISBN:
9780335211760. http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|eresources|83637
Fishbein M., Triandis H.C., Kanfer F.H., Becker M., Middlestadt S.E., Eichler A. Factors
influencing behavior and behavior change. (2001). In Baum A., Revenson T.A. & Singer
J.E. (Eds.) Handbook of health psychology (pp. 3-17). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gollwitzer P.M. & Sheeran P. (2006) Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-
analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Psychology, 38, 249-68
Sniehotta F.F. (2009). Towards a theory of intentional behaviour change: Plans, planning, and
self-regulation. British Journal of Health Psychology 14, 2, 261-273.
Designing and evaluating interventions
Kok G., Schaalma H., Ruiter R.A.C., Van Empelen P., Brug J. (2004). Intervention mapping:
Protocol for applying health psychology theory to prevention programmes. Journal of
Health Psychology 9, 1, 85-98.
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Michie S, Richardson M, Johnston M, Abraham C, Francis J, Hardeman W, Eccles MP, Cane J,
& Wood CE (2013). The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy (v1) of 93
Hierarchically Clustered Techniques: Building an International Consensus for the
Reporting of Behavior Change Interventions. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, doi:
10.1007/s12160-013-9486-6.
Michie S. & Abraham C. (2004). Interventions to change health behaviours: evidence-based or
evidence-inspired? Psychology and Health, 19, 1, 29-49.
Van Sluijs EMF et al. (2006) Physical activity measurements affected participants’ behaviour in
a randomised controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 59, 404-411.
Coping with chronic disease
Cameron, L. D. (2003). Anxiety, cognition, and responses to health threats. In L. D. Cameron &
H. Leventhal (Eds.), The self-regulation of health and illness behaviour (pp. 157-183).
London: Routledge.
Cameron, L. D., Petrie, K. J., Ellis, C. J., Buick, D., & Weinman, J. A. (2005). Trait negative
affectivity and responses to a health education intervention for myocardial infarction
patients. 20(1), 1 - 18.
Galazka, S. S., & Eckert, J. K. (1984). Diabetes mellitus from the inside out: Ecological
perspectives on a chronic disease. Family Systems Medicine, 2(1), 28-33.
Hagger, M. S., & Orbell, S. (2003). A meta-analytic review of the Common-sense Model of
illness representations. Psychology and Health, 18(2), 141-184.
Horne, R. (1999). Patients' beliefs about treatment: The hidden determinant of treatment
outcome? Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 47(6), 491-495.
Paterson, B., Thorne, S., Crawford, J., & Tarko, M. (1999). Living with diabetes as a
transformational experience. Qualitative Health Research, 9(6), 786-802.
Petrie, K. J., & Reynolds, L. (2007). Coping with chronic illness. In S. Ayers, A. Baum, C.
McManus, S. Newman, K. Wallston, J. Weinman & R. West (Eds.), Cambridge
Handbook of psychology, health and medicine (2nd ed., pp. 46-49). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
