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
|
|
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
|
|
Oct. 9
(11of28)
|
Meaning and Other
- Shared Experience, Shared Meanings
- Collisions of Meaning and Experience
- Coorientation
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
Nov. 22
|
Thanksgiving. No Class.
|
Nov. 27
(24of28)
|
|
- Baumeister 12, 13, Epilog
|
Communication and Social Cognition: Moving on |
Nov. 29
(25of28)
|
|
- 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
|
|
End of Term Stuff |
Dec. 10
(28of28)
|
Term Paper Presentations. Note that this is a MONDAY class. |
|
Dec. 14 |
Final Exam: 2:00PM-4:00PM |