Davis A. Foulger, Ph. D.

Visiting
Professor
Fall, 2005-Spring, 2006
and Fall 2001-Spring 2003

COM 395: Social Cognition: Semester Class Schedule and Assignments

Date Class Focus/Activity Assignments Due Module

Aug. 28

(1 of 28)

First Day of Class
  • Course Overview.
  • Social Cognition in Context.
  • Introductions
None. An Introduction to Social Cognition

Aug. 30

(2 of 28)

Defining Social Cognition
  • Models
  • Vocabulary
  • Its role in the communication process of relationship building
Sept. 4

(3 of 28)

The Nature of Meaning
  • Signal, Sign, and Symbol
  • The Phenomonological View: Experience as Meaning
  • The Semiotic View: Language as Meaning
  • A Chicken and Egg Pairing
  • Semantic Networks
  • Semantic Meaning and the Inexpressible
  • Knowledge and Fact
  • Baumeister c. 1,2
  • Index Card Assignment 1:
    • Pick a favorite word
    • Without looking it up in the dictionary, define it in your own words (use up to half of your 3x5 card)
    • Look it up in the dictionary
    • Contrast your definition with the dictionary definition
The Nature and Social Origins of Cognition
Sept. 6

(4 of 28)

The Nature of Emotion

  • Emotion and the Inexpressible
  • Feelings and Truth
  • Brain Structures and Biochemistry
  • Losing Control
  • Goleman c. 1,2; Appendices A, B
  • Index Card Assignment 2: Recall a highly emotional moment from your life (emotional distress, intense feeling, joy, sadness, depression, frustration, love, hate, anger, rage, etc).
    • What was it?
    • What caused the feeling?
    • What did you do about it?
Sept. 11

(5 of 28)

Class Cancelled Due to Tragic Events in New York and Washington  
Sept. 13

(6 of 28)

What is Critical Thinking?

  • The Nervous System
  • Filtering, Parsing, and Interpretation
  • Logic, Illogic, and Sophistry
  • Critical Thinking and Analysis

 

  • Brookfield c. 1,2
  • Index Card Assignment 3: Think about something you'd like to change in your life:
    • What is it?
    • Name three things you might do to change it
Sept. 18 Rosh Hashanah: No Class

 

Sept. 20

(7 of 28)

The Cognitive Organ

  • Sense, Nervous System, Brain, Interpretation, and Memory
  • Perception, Thinking, and Knowing
  • Nature Versus Nurture; Chemistry versus Coming Together; Structure Versus Process
  • Men, Women, and Wiring
  • Tieing Knowledge, Emotion, and Analysis together
Meaning and Self
  • Knowledge of Self
  • Beliefs
  • Baumeister 3, 4, 5
  • Index Card Assignment 4: Read through this entire syllabus, paying particular attention to the sub-bullets in column 2 ("Class Focus/Activity"). Pick three sub-bullets that seem particularly interesting to you and write them on your index card. (Note: this is a first step toward picking a term paper topic, so try to pick things that really do seem like they might be interesting.)
Communication, Social Cognition, and Self
Sept. 25

(8 of 28)

Emotion and Self

  • Values and Self
  • Affects, preferences, values, moods, and emotions
  • Goleman 3,4,5,6
Sept. 27

Yom Kippor: No Classes

 

Oct. 2

(9 of 28)

Rational Analysis and Self

  • Attitudes and Arguments
  • Attitudes and Behavior
  • Brookfield 3,4,5
  • Index Card Assignment 5: Select a topic for your term paper. Write, on an index card, a tentative paper title and a one paragraph overview of what you plan to do in the paper.
Oct. 4

(10of28)

Who are we anyway?

  • Communication, Meaning, Emotion, and Rational Analysis
  • Cognitive Style and Personality
  • Social Image Perception
  • Beliefs, Values, Attitudes, and Behavior
  • Gender and Cognition
  • TBD
Oct. 9

(11of28)

Meaning and Other

  • Shared Experience, Shared Meanings
  • Collisions of Meaning and Experience
  • Coorientation
  • Baumeister, c. 9, 10, 11
Communication, Social Cognition, and Other
Oct. 11

(12of28)

Emotion and Other

  • Shared Feelings
  • The Collision of the Inexpressible
  • Feelings and Behavior
  • Being Understanding with Understanding
  • Non-Verbal Cues
  • Goleman c. 7,8
  • Index Card Assignment 6: Recall a conversation you had with a significant other (probably an argument) in which, in retrospect, you decided you were talking about different things.
    • What was the conversation about?
    • What were you talking about?
    • What were they talking about?
Oct. 16

(13of28)

Rational Analysis and Other

  • Attribution Theory
  • Knots
  • Brookfield, c. 6,7
Oct. 18

(14of28)

Meaning, Emotion, Rational Analysis, and Other

  • Social Perception
  • Social Categories and Person Perception
  • Racism: Emotion-Biased Rational Analysis based on Stereotypes and Labeling
  • Gender and Cognition
  • Index Card Assignment 7: Create a question that could be asked on the mid-term. I commit, in advance that, quality allowing, I will use your questions as the basis at least half the questions on the exam. Please take this one seriously. I will not give credit if I don't think your question was a serious one. Questions should entail a written response (short answer or short essay) and be based on the readings and lectures. We will discuss these questions during the last 25 minutes of class Thursday (consider it a review session on what might matter on the exam).
Oct. 23

(15of28)

Mid-Term Exam

Index Card Study Questions are available here.

Oct. 25

(16of28)

Workplace, Family, and Meaning
  • Finding meaning in work, love, family and community
  • Jargons and Private Vocabularies
  • Baumeister c. 6, 7
Communication, Social Cognition, and Community
Oct. 30

(17of28)

Workplace, Family, and Emotion
  • Dealing with emotion in work, love, family and community
  • Intimacy, Illusion, and the Inexpressible
  • Emotion in he Workplace

Group Project Announced

  • Goleman c. 9, 10, 12
  • Index Card Assignment 8: Think about your life 10 years from now. What will you (do you think or hope you will) be doing?
Nov. 1

(18of28)

Workplace, Family, and Critical Analysis

  • Building Self-Esteem Through Workplace and Family
  • Attribution and Appearance
  • Negotiating Rules for Interaction in Groups
  • Brookfield 8
Nov. 6

(19of28)

Social Cognition in the Community
  • Social Inferences and Relationships with Others
  • Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Speech, and the intersection of rights, responsibilities, and cognition
 
Nov. 8

(20of28)

Group Project Presentations

Society and Meaning

  • Dictionaries, Glossaries, and Official Meanings
  • Law, Tort, and Meaning
  • Baumeister 8
Communication, Social Cognition, and Society
Nov. 13

(21of28)

Society and Emotion

  • The Mutual Expression of Emotion
  • Emotion, Effects, and Law
  • Morality, Responsibility, and the Unregulatable
  • Rage and Society
  • Goleman 13, 14, 15
Nov. 15

(22of28)

No Class. At Digital Divide Conference in Austin

 
Nov. 20

(23of28)

Society and Critical Analysis

  • Social Logics and Cognitive Realities
  • NAPSTER and the collision of social logics
  • Finding ones place in the world

The Dynamics of Self in Decision Making and Problem Solving

  • Reducing the Self to a Number
  • Self-Actualization and Social Cognition
  • Brookfield 9, 10

Nov. 22

Thanksgiving. No Class.

Nov. 27

(24of28)

  • Taking Control: Meaning
  • Baumeister 12, 13, Epilog
Communication and Social Cognition: Moving on
Nov. 29

(25of28)

  • Taking Control: Emotion
  • Goleman 11, 16
  • Index Card Assignment 9: What is the meaning of life? (at least for you)
Dec. 4

(26of28)

  • Taking Control: Critical Analysis
  • Brookfield 11, 12, Epilog
  • Term Papers Due
Dec. 6

(27of28)

Term Paper Presentations

  • None.
End of Term Stuff
Dec. 10

(28of28)

Term Paper Presentations. Note that this is a MONDAY class.
  • None.
Dec. 14 Final Exam: 2:00PM-4:00PM