Advanced Social Psychology
Fall 2002
-- Dr. Jackie Eller
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Contents of This Page
Texts: Required and Recommended|
Course Description|
Student Responsibilities|
Grading|
Office/Office Hours|
Course Outline|
Recommended - Not at Bookstore
The Social Construction of Reality
Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann
Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology
Ed. by Karen S. Cook, Gary Alan Fine and James S. House
Mind, Self and Society
George Herbert Mead
Required
A Watched Pot: How We Experience Time
Michael G. Flaherty
The Self We Live By: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World
James Holstein and Jaber Gubrium
Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America
Gary Alan Fine and Patricia Turner
Other invaluable sources for reviews, articles, references:
-- Social Psychology Quarterly, major sociological social psychology journal from the ASA.
-- Annual Review of Sociology, especially since '99 or so
-- Handbook of Social Psychology, especially 4th edition
-- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, major psychological social psychology journal.
-- Symbolic Interaction
Additional articles will be required.
The main goal of this course is that you further your understanding of how
we become social creatures and how, through our everyday interactions with
one another, we make and re-make ourselves and our social worlds. One
important implication of the ideas we will debate in this course is that
if we understand how it is that we participate in the construction of our
own realities, then we can take a more active and purposeful approach
toward making this the sort of world in which we want to live!
1. This is a graduate seminar. You are expected to come to class, be
on time, and be prepared to contribute to class discussions. I expect you
to think critically, interact with other students and ask questions in
class. The time we spend together will be devoted to a scholarly and
intellectual exchange of ideas. Throughout the semester each of you will
be responsible for leading discussions of certain topics. (200 pts.)
2. Final exam (200 pts.) --
3. Concept analysis paper -- 150 pts.
You are to choose a concept from those we study this semester and
analyze it in relationship to some community. This community could be a
workplace, friendship group, public setting, etc. The goal is to research
the concept and discuss how it constructed within the community you
choose. Hopefully this would be of publishable quality.
Final grades will be computed through a simple tally of points using the
following scale:
550 - 517 A
516 - 506 A-
505 - 495 B+
494 - 462 B
461 - 451 B-
450 - 440 C+
439 - 407 C
406 - 396 C-
< 396 F
e-mail: jaeller@frank.mtsu.edu
webpage: http://www.mtsu.edu/~jaeller/socpsy.html
1417 E. Main (Sociology/Anthropology Annex) 898-2125; FAX 898-2125
MF 11:30-2:30
TR 1:00-3:00
Other times by appointment.
Aug 19 -- Intro to the course and each other
----- What is Social Psychology? Status of the field assignment
26 -- The field of social psychology
----- read the illustrative example (begins pg. 394) from "Sociological miniaturism: seeing the big through the small in social psychology" Stolte, Fine and Cook in Annual Review of Sociology 27:387-413(2001).
----- Discuss field assignment: approximately 20 journals each
- Social Psychology Quarterly -- 10% random sample since 1980
- Symbolic Interaction -- 10% random sample since 1993
- Journal of Social Psychology -- 10% random sample since 1980
Sept 2 LABOR DAY
9 -- Self
The self, as that which can be an object to itself, is essentially a social structure, and it arises in social experience.
- Mead
----- read and begin discussion of The Self We Live By Each of you are likely to have a chapter or portion to present and discuss.
----- read "The Dissolution of the self" - Gergen
----- see the following pages for Mead, Blumer and Goffman: Mead Project| Dead Sociologists Page
16 -- Continue discussion of The Self We Live By
Some useful sites from the Red Feather Institute
Marx
For a more focused piece see:
Self and Soc Org
John Welsh has done a lot of work on the structure [and
alienation] of self in dramaturgical societies...one is at:
Welsh
There are several mini-lectures on the website which speak to
both the sources of and problems of self toward an affirmative postmodern
modality....check them at:
Mind|
POMO|
Sociolinguistics|
Family|
Gender
23 -- Identity
----- read "Social psychology of identities" by J. Howard, Annual Review of Sociology 26:367-393(2000).
----- read "Ethnic boundaries and identity in plural societies" by Sanders in Ann Rev Soc 28:327-357(2002).
----- FYI "The study of boundaries in the social sciences" by Lamont and Molnar in Ann Rev Soc 28:167-195(2002).
30 -- The Person and Social Interaction
I know of no way in which intelligence or mind could arise
or could have arisen, other than through the internalization by the
individual of social processes of experience and behavior, that is,
through this internalization of the conversation of significant gestures,
as made possible by the individual's taking the attitudes of other
individuals toward himself(herself) and toward what is being thought
about. - Mead
----- readings on accounts, motives, disclaimers, calling out, etc. to follow
Oct 7 -- Society and social interaction
The changes that we make in the social order in which we are implicated necessarily involve our also making changes in ourselves.
- Mead
In the dialectic between nature and the social constructed
world the human organism itself is transformed, In this same dialectic
man(woman) produces reality and thereby produces himself(herself). -
Berger and Luckmann
----- READ and DISCUSS - Social Construction of Reality, Berger and Luckmann
14 -- Discussion of A Watched Pot
21 and 28 -- Social psychology and emotion
----- read "Emotion and the history of human society" by Massey in American Sociological Review 67,1:1-29 (2002)
----- FYI check out the Mead Project again, Darwin's The Expression of Emotion in Man
----- FYI -- Scheff "The Sociological Discovery of Shame"
----- FYI -- The Red Feather Journal of Postmodern Criminology Go to the journal and Volume 8 which is a special issue on Shame.
----- FYI -- Heise "Conditions for empathic solidarity."
----- Individual reading/presentation assignments -- Clark, Franks, Goffman, Gordon Clanton, Hochschild, Kemper, and Smith-Lovin
Nov 4 -- Comparative social psychology
----- READ - Section on Weber's methods in Cross-National Research in
Sociology edited by M.L. Kohn
You might also check out Cross-cultural challenge to social
psychology edited by M.H. Bond.
----- Each of you should bring ONE good article that discusses some aspect of comparative social psychology to add to the discussion.
11 -- Collective behavior
----- read and discuss Whispers on the Color Line
18 -- Applying social psychology
----- each student to bring article that discusses this topic
----- Final exam distributed
25 -- Final exam due
----- catch-up on material
Dec 2 and 9 -- Up to six presentations of papers each night
- 15-20 min, conference style
- 6-7:15 --
- 7:30-8:45 --