Syllabus

Course title: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Psychology

Instructor: Scott Akalis

SYNOPSIS

Kiss freshmen year goodbye and prepare for an academic boot camp that would bring senior psychologists to their knees! Just kidding. This course will involve very few boring lectures, very little memorization, no tests, and will only meet once a week. You may ask, “wait, am I still in school?” Yes, but sophomore tutorials are a different sort of school. Instead of drool-inducing lectures and anxiety-invoking exams, you will engage in interesting discussions over real psychology articles and you will learn to think and write like a real psychologist. However, as class meets only once a week and is very small, punctual attendance will be mandatory and I will know if you are missing. Indeed, this will likely be the smallest psychology class you ever have, so take advantage of the opportunities it will provide for discussion and collaboration.

Following an introduction and a review of the psychologist’s basic skills, we will start with classic psychology topics, most of which deal with problems and pathology, among other “bad” things. Following that unit, we will depart from the mainstream of psychology and cover topics that have more recently emerged and may well be the areas that capture the interest of the field in the future. The second unit covers a rapidly-developing movement named Positive Psychology, the focus of which is the “good” side of human nature. Finally, the last part of the semester will address controversies of interest to the research psychologist and also contentious issues facing the ordinary person, earning these last two units the “ugly” title.

Although the reading and writing load in this course is large to oppressive, I have tried to make the material light and engaging. I will not let us dwell entirely on depression and prejudice, in the hope that topics like optimism and happiness will rub off from the readings and writings to the reader/writer. I have also made the course “top heavy,” with most of the workload falling in the first two-thirds of the semester. I imagine that most of your other classes will have the opposite design, so I hope that this helps you manage your courseload.

In addition to learning how to write psychological papers and read primary source materials of diverse content, a key objective of all sophomore tutorials is to familiarize you with psychology’s three different levels of analysis. Psychological phenomena in each major content area will be conceptualized as the product of events at these three levels, the foci of which are:

The Brain - addresses the mechanisms that underlie mental processes and behavior (ranging from genetic to biochemical to neural to information processing)

The Person - addresses the content of mental processes and behavior (including beliefs, goals, motivations, and attitudes)

The Group - addresses the effects of the social surroundings (ranging from dyads and small groups to communities and culture).

Just to make it clear which levels of analysis each reading addresses, you will see the letters B, P, and/or G in brackets after each reading. You will also be encouraged to incorporate the interaction of multiple levels of analysis into your writing whenever possible.

In general, I have tried my best to introduce what I consider to be essential background for any beginning psychologist, at the same time as I included topics that I think are important and interesting for any person. The nice thing about psychology, as I hope you will find, is that these two spheres often overlap. Few other professions allow one to gain such perspective on one’s personal life. Thus, I hope this course will catalyze learning on two fronts, practicing the skills of a psychologist and perhaps providing insight on how to make your personal life more positive and meaningful.

GRADING

Discussion Points – 15%

            By 8pm each Sunday night, you will post the questions and comments that came to you when going over the week’s readings. The exemplary set of points would address multiple readings from multiple perspectives. These thoughts can take the form of cries for clarification, comments concerning subjects you found interesting and worthy of discussion, study ideas, or criticism. I am assigning these discussion points instead of a weekly discussion paper, so that we can open up, rather than close, avenues of discussion. Oh, and it’s also easier for you. Speaking of which, everyone will receive one “Get-out-of-discussion-points-free” card at the beginning of the semester so that you may skip submitting these one time without penalty. Oops, I just compared discussion points to jail.

Participation & Preview Presentations – 20%

            I understand that some people naturally talk more than others. I only ask that you prepare thoroughly for discussion by tackling all of the readings and trying your best to participate.

            Just as the discussion points need not be in any one particular format, the preview “presentations” do not need to be formal, anxiety-provoking affairs. I do not expect you to have your long papers written before you give these presentations and, in fact, the presentations may be used as brainstorming sessions during which you can get feedback from all of us regarding your paper ideas. The purpose of these “presentations” is not only to give your classmates and me an idea of what you find interesting, but also to let you experience creative group process as it takes place in psychology lab groups. Each student will have 5 minutes, most of which will ideally be spent discussing their topic after they have briefly introduced it.

Long Papers (2) – 40%

            In these papers, you will review a topic of your choice within the broad area specified. The paper should bring the reader up to speed with the field’s current understanding of your topic and the path of studies that led there. You should also end with some look ahead at what aspects of the topic are left unresolved. These papers should be written in APA style and total 8-10 pages.

Short Paper (1) – 10%

            This paper is meant to get you thinking about designing experiments of your own. Your objective is to employ a recently-emerging paradigm (implicit measures – the topic of the previous week) and address how demographic differences (culture, gender, or development – the topic of two weeks prior) may affect your study’s results. The short paper will only require miniature literature review (briefly covering the past use of the methodology you would employ), methods (detail the participants, materials, and procedure of your proposed experiment), and results (predictions, including the effects of participant differences) sections of the standard APA paper and should be no more than 6 pages in length.

Sophomore Essay Reflection – 10%

            This assignment is just to get you thinking about possible sophomore essay topics. Write an informal 3 page paper about an area of your choice and the research questions within it that interest you most. You may write this paper from the first-person perspective, describing how this topic fits into your interests. This paper will not be graded on grammar or APA style (you can even write it in crayon), although one might remain wary of forming bad habits. You will not be held to this topic for your actual sophomore essay, but it is important to begin thinking about it before spring semester.

Random Drawing – 5%

            This portion of your grade will be determined by the arbitrary roll of a die. Sorry, that’s life.

** Extension policy: Late papers will be marked down 2 grades per day late (A to B+, B+ to B-, etc.). Extensions are only offered in rare cases limited to the death or near-death of one’s self or loved ones.

SCHEDULE

1. Introducing the Course & Reviewing the 3 R’s of Psychology (9/26)


Unit I: The Bad

2. Mistakes: Errors, Irrationality, & Stereotyping (10/3)

NO CLASS – Columbus Day (10/10)

3. Disorders & Death (10/17)

4. Gambling: Where Irrationality meets Pathology (10/24)

* “Bad” long paper due at 6pm in mailbox (10/27)

Unit II: The Good

5. Introduction to Positive Psychology (10/31)

            >May be moved to 4-6pm to accommodate trick-or-treating

6. Optimism v. Pessimism (11/7)

Unit III: The Ugly - Controversies in Conducting Research

7. Demographic Differences: Gender, Culture, & Development (11/14)

* “Good” long paper due at 6pm in mailbox (11/17)

8. Implicit Methodologies (11/21)


Unit IV: The Ugly – Controversial Topics in Society

9. The Sights and Smells of Sex (11/28)

* “Ugly” short paper due at 6pm in mailbox (12/1)

10. Self-Control (12/5)

11. Religion & Moral Emotions (12/12)

12. How to Ace Your Final Exams: Memory & Procrastination (12/19)

* Sophomore essay reflection due at 6pm in mailbox (1/9)

READINGS

APA’s Publication Manual, 5th ed.

Course CD


1. Introducing the Course and Reviewing the 3 R’s of Psychology (9/26)

APA Publication Manual (5th Ed.). ^ Familiarize yourself

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UNIT I: THE BAD

2. Mistakes: Errors, Irrationality, & Stereotyping (10/3)

Errors & Irrationality:

Schkade, & Kahneman. (1998). Does living in California make people happy? A

focusing illusion in judgments of life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 9, 340-

346. [P,G]

Schwarz, N., Bless, H., Strack, F., Klumpp, G., et al. (1991). Ease of retrieval as

information: Another look at the availability heuristic. Journal of Personality &

Social Psychology, 61(2), 195-202. [P,G]

Forgas, J. P., & Moylan, S. (1987). After the movies: The effect of mood on social

judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13, 467-477. [P,G]

Sherman et al. (2002). Imagining can heighten or lower the perceived likelihood of

contracting a disease. In Gilovich, Griffin, & Kahneman (Eds.) Heuristics and

Biases (pp. 98-102). [P]

Stereotyping:

Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility: Identity

salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological Science, 10(1), 80-

83. [P,G]

Sidanius, J., Van Laar, C., Levin, S., & Sinclair, S. (2004). Ethnic enclaves and the

dynamics of social identity on the college campus: The good, the bad, and the

ugly. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(1), 96-110. [P,G] ^ Skim


***NO CLASS – Columbus Day (10/10)


3. Disorders, & Death (10/17)

Disorders:

Damasio, A. R. (1995). Decartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain (pp. 34-

79). New York: Avon. [B,P,G]

Rosenheck, R. A., & Fontana, A. (2003). Post-September 11 admission symptoms and

treatment response among veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric

Services, 54(12), 1610-1617. [P,G]

Death:

Pyszczynski, T., et al. (1996). Whistling in the dark: Exaggerated consensus estimates in

response to incidental reminders of mortality. Psychological Science, 7(6), 332-

336. [P,G]

Landau, M. J., et al. (2004). Deliver us from evil: The effects of mortality salience and

reminders of 9/11 on support for president George W. Bush. Personality and

Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9), 1136-1150. [P,G]


4. Gambling: Irrationality meets Pathology (10/24)

Langer, E. J. (1975). The illusion of control. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 32(2), 311-328. [P,G]

Chambers, R. A., & Potenza, M. N. (2003). Neurodevelopment, impulsivity, and

adolescent gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 19(1), 53-84. [B,P,G]

Delfabbro, P. H., & Winefield, A. H. (2000). Predictors of irrational thinking in regular

slot machine gamblers. The Journal of Psychology, 134(2), 117-128. [P,G]

Chau, A. W., Phillips, J. G., & Von Baggo, K. L. (2000). Departures from sensible play

in computer blackjack. The Journal of General Psychology, 127(4), 426-438. [P,G] ^ Skim


* Preview Presentations


* Long paper due on a “Bad” topic (10/27)


UNIT II: THE GOOD


5. Introduction to Positive Psychology (10/31)

Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An

introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14. [P,G]

Myers, D. G. (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people. American

Psychologist, 55(1), 56-67. [P,G]

Fredrickson, B. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The

broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218-

226. [P,G]

Buss, D. M. (2000). The evolution of happiness. American Psychologist, 55(1), 15-23.

[B,P,G]

Davidson, R. J. (2002). Toward a biology of positive affect and compassion. In

Davidson, Richard J. (Ed); Harrington, Anne (Ed). Visions of compassion:

Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhists examine human nature. (pp. 107-130).

[B,P,G]


6. Optimism v. Pessimism (11/7)

Power of Expectations:

Assefi, S. L., & Garry, M. (2003). Absolut memory distortions: Alcohol placebos

influence the misinformation effect. Psychological Science, 14(1), 77-80. [B,P,G]

Optimism, Happiness, & Health:

Taylor, S. E., et al. (2000). Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health.

American Psychologist, 55(1), 99-109. [B,P,G]

Harker, L., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions of positive emotion in women’s college

yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across

adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 112-124. [P,G]

Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological

Science, 7, 186-189. [B,P,G]

Pessimism & Its Positive Aspects:

Norem, J. (2001). Defensive pessimism, optimism, and pessimism. In E. C. Chang (Ed.),

Optimism and pessimism (pp. 77-100). Washington, DC: American Psychological

Association. [P]

Phillips, L. H., Bull, R., Adams. E., & Fraser, L. (2002). Positive mood and executive

function: Evidence from Stroop and fluency tasks. Emotion, 2(1), 12-22. [B,P,G] ^ Skim


* Preview Presentations


UNIT III: THE UGLY – CONTROVERSIES IN RESEARCH


7. Demographic Differences: Gender, Culture, & Development (11/14)

Gender:

Eagly, A. H. (1995). The science and politics of comparing men and women. American

Psychologist, 50(3), 145-158. [P,G]

Saucier, D.M., Green, S. M., Leason, J., MacFadden, A., Bell, S, & Elias, L. J.. (2002).

Are sex differences in navigation caused by sexually dimorphic strategies or by

differences in the ability to use the strategies? Behavioral Neuroscience, 116(3),

403-410. [B,P,G]

Culture:

Nisbett R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I, & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of

thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108(2), 291-

310. [P,G]

Children:

Troseth, G. L., & DeLoache, J. S. (1998). The medium can obscure the message: Young

children’s understanding of video. Child Development, 69(4), 950-965. [B,P,G]


* Long paper due on a “Good” topic (11/17)


8. Implicit Methodologies (11/21)

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(2), 230-244. [P,G]

Nelson, L. D., & Norton, M. I. (2005). From student to superhero: Situational primes

shape future helping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 423-430. [P,G]

Pelham, B. W., Mirenberg, M. C., & Jones, J. T. (2002). Why Susie sells seashells by the

seashore: Implicit egotism and major life decisions. Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology, 82, 469-487. [P,G] ^ Note that there are 10 studies described

here, so you may skim

Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-

esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4-27. [B,P,G]


UNIT IV: THE UGLY – CONTROVERSIES IN SOCIETY


9. The Sights and Smells of Sex (11/28)

Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary

perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100(2), 204-232. **Read  

only if you haven’t already been introduced to evolutionary theories of sex

Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior:

Evolved dispositions versus social roles. American Psychologist, 54(6), 408-423.

[B,P,G]

Dutton, D. G., & Aron, A. P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction

under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

30(4), 510-517. [P,G]

Nelson, L. D., & Morrison, E. L. (2005). The symptoms of resource scarcity: Judgments

of food and finances influence preferences for potential partners. Psychological

Science, 16(2), 167-173. [P,G]

Salter, F. (1996). Carrier females and sender males: An evolutionary hypothesis linking

female attractiveness, family resemblance, and paternity confidence. Ethology

and Sociobiology, 17, 211-220. [B,P,G]

Thornhill, R., & Gangestad, S. W. (1999). The scent of symmetry: A human sex

pheromone that signals fitness? Evolution and Human Behavior, 20, 175-201. [B,P,G]


* Short paper due on study design that uses implicit methodology and takes culture, gender, or development into account (12/1)


10. Self-Control & Awareness: Why was Buddha Fat? (12/5)

Tice, D. M., Bratslavsky, E., & Baumeister, R. F. (2001). Emotional distress regulation

takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do it! Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 53-67. [P,G]

Wegner, D.M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-

52. [P,G]

Gilbert, D. T., Brown, R. P., Pinel, E. C., & Wilson, T. D. (2000). The illusion of external

agency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 690-700. [P,G]

Ward, A., & Mann, T. (2000). Don’t mind if I do: Disinhibited eating under cognitive

load. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 753-763. [P,G]

Davidson, R. J., et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by

mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570. [B,P]


11. Religion & Moral Emotions (12/12)

Religion:

Ramachandran, V. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain: Human nature and

the architecture of the mind (pp. 174-188). London: Fourth Estate. [B,P,G]

Heberlein, A. S., & Adolphs, R. (2004). Impaired spontaneous anthropomorphizing

despite intact perception and social knowledge. PNAS, 101(19), 7487-7491. [B,P,G]

Birgegard, A., & Granqvist, P. (2004). The correspondence between attachment to

parents and God: Three experiments using subliminal separation cues. Personality

and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9), 1122-1135. [P,G]

Moral Emotions:

Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to

moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834. [P,G]

Haidt, J. (2003). Elevation and the positive psychology of morality. In C. L. Keyes, & J.

Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived. (pp. 275-

289). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. [P,G]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


12. How To Ace Your Final Exams: Memory & Procrastination (12/19)

Memory:

Schab, F. R. (1990). Odors and the remembrance of things past. Journal of Experimental

Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16(4), 648-655. [B,P]

Weingartner, H., Adefris, W., Eich, J. E., & Murphy, D. L. (1976). Encoding-imagery

specificity in alcohol state-dependent learning. Journal of Experimental

Psychology: Human Learning & Memory, 2(1) Jan 1976, 83-87. [B,P]

Mednick, S. C., et al. (2002). The restorative effect of naps on perceptual deterioration.

Nature Neuroscience, 5(7), 677-681. [B,P]

Procrastination:

Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination,

performance, stress, and health: The costs and benefits of dawdling.

Psychological Science, 8(6), 454-458. [B,P,G]

Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the “planning fallacy”: Why

people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology, 67(3), 366-381. [P,G]


* Preview Presentations of Sophomore Essay Reflection


*Sophomore Essay Reflection Due After Break (1/9)



COULDN’T GET ENOUGH?


1. Introducing the Course and Reviewing the 3 R’s of Psychology

Reading:

Kosslyn, S. M. & Rosenberg, R. S. (2001). How to read, critically evaluate, and write

research papers. In Psychology: The brain, the person, the world (Appendix B).

Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Researching:

Cohen, J. (1990). Things I have learned (so far). American Psychologist, 45(12), 1304-

1312.

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports

on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84(3), 231-258.

Schwartz, N. (1999). Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers. American

Psychologist, 54(2), 93-105.

Writing:

Bem, D. J. (1987). Writing the empirical journal article. In M. P. Zanna & J. M. Darley

(Eds.), The compleat academic: A practical guide for the beginning social

scientist (pp. 171-201). New York: Random House.

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews. Review of

General Psychology, 1(3), 311-320.

Fama, J., & Carson, S. (2001). Writing for psychology at Harvard: A guide for

psychology concentrators. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University.


2. Mistakes : Errors, Irrationality, & Stereotyping

Errors & Irrationality:

Tversky & Kahneman. (2002). Extensional versus intuitive reasoning. In Gilovich,

Griffin, & Kahneman (Eds.) Heuristics and Biases (pp. 19-48). [P]

Bless, H., Clore, G. L., Schwarz, N., Golisano, V., Rabe, C., & Wolk, M. (1996). Mood

and the use of scripts: Does a happy mood really lead to mindlessness? Journal of

Personality & Social Psychology, 71(4), 665-679. [P]

Medvec, Madey, & Gilovich. (2002). When less is more: Counterfactual thinking and

satisfaction among Olympic medallists. In Gilovich, Griffin, & Kahneman (Eds.)

Heuristics and Biases (pp. 625-635). [P,G]

Stereotyping:

Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test

performance of African-Americans. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 69, 797-811. [P,G]


3. Disorders, & Death

Disorders:

Ursu, S. et al. (2003). Overactive action monitoring in obsessive-compulsive disorder:

Evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging. Psychological Science,

14(4), 347-353. [B,P]

Frank, J. D. (1982). Therapeutic components shared by all psychotherapies. In J. H.

Harvey & M. M. Parks (Eds.), The Master Lecture Series, Vol. I: Psychotherapy

Research and Behavior Change (pp. 73-112). Washington, D.C.: American

Psychological Association. [P,G]

Gleaves, D. H. (1996). The sociocognitive model of dissociative identity disorder: A

reexamination of the evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 120(1), 42-59. [B,P,G]

Death:

Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1997). Subliminal exposure to

death-related stimuli increases defense of the cultural worldview. Psychological

Science, 8(5), 379-385. [P,G]

Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., & Cook, A. (2002). Mortality salience and the spreading

activation of worldview-relevant constructs: Exploring the cognitive architecture

of terror management. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131(3),

307-324. [B,P,G]

Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror management theory of self-

esteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and conceptual

refinements. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 61-139. [P,G]

Taubman-Ben-Ari, O. (2000). The effect of reminders of death on reckless driving: A

terror management perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science,

9(6), 196-199. [P,G]


4. Gambling: Irrationality meets Pathology

Lots – many of which are from economics journals [see CD]


5. Introduction to Positive Psychology

Fredrickson, B. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General

Psychology, 2, 300-319. [P,G]

Isen, A. M., Daubman, K. A., & Nowicki, G. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative

problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1122-1131.

[P,G]

Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic to orchestrate mind

and virtue towards excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 122-136. [P,G] ^

contrast to errors literature in problem psychology

Diener, E., & Lucas, R. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.

Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276-302. [B,P,G]

Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 3, 181-

185. [P,G]


6. Optimism v. Pessimism
Power of Expectations:

Ferguson, R. J., Mittenberg, W., Barone, D. F., & Schneider, B. (1999). Postconcussion

syndrome following sports-related head injury: Expectation as etiology.

Neuropsychology, 13(4), 582-589. [B,P]
Optimism & Pessimism:

Danner, D. D., Snowdon, D. A., & Friesen, W. V. (2001). Positive emotions in early life

and longevity: Findings from the nun study. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 80(5), 804-813. [B,P,G]

Affleck, G., Tennen, H., & Apter, A. (2001). Optimism, pessimism, and daily life with

chronic illness. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism (pp. 147-168).

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. [B,P,G]

Redelheimer, D. A., & Singh, S. M. (2001). Social status and life expectancy in an

advantaged population: A study of academy award-winning actors. Annals of

Internal Medicine, 134(10), S6. [P,G]

Maruta, T., Colligan, R. C., Malinchoc, M., & Offord, K. P. (2000). Optimists vs.

pessimists: Survival rate among medical patients over a 30-year period. Mayo

Clinic Proceedings, 75(2), 140-143. [B,P]

Segerstrom, S. C., Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1998). Optimism is

associated with mood, coping, and immune change in response to stress. Journal

of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1646-1655. [B,P,G]
Happiness:

Smith, R. H., Diener, E., & Wedell, D. H. (1989). Intrapersonal and social comparison

determinants of happiness: A range-frequency analysis. Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology, 56(3), 317-325. [B,P,G]

Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science,

13(1), 81-84.

Myers, D. G. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6, 10-19. [P,G]

Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident

victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 36(8),

917-927. [P,G]

Schwarz, N., & Strack, F. (1998). Reports of subjective well-being. In D. Kahneman, E.

Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.) Well-Being (pp. 61-84). [P,G]


7. Demographic Differences: Gender, Culture, & Development

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Rusting, C. (1998). Gender differences in well-being. In D.

Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-Being (pp. 331-351). [B,P,G]

Jones, C. M., Braithwaite, V. A., & Healy, S. D. (2003). The evolution of sex differences

in spatial ability. Behavioral Neuroscience, 117(3), 403-411. [B,P,G]

Levine, S. C., Huttenlocher, J., Taylor, A., & Langrock, A. (1999). Early sex differences

in spatial skill. Developmental Psychology, 35(4), 940-949. [B,P,G]


8. Implicit Methodologies

Coren, S. (1999). Do people look like their dogs? Anthrozoos, 12(2), 111-114. [P,G]

Young, T. J., French, L. A. (1996). Perceived competence of U.S. Presidents, 1933-1989:

Presidential news conferences and the mere-exposure effect. Perceptual & Motor

Skills, 83(1), 153-154. [P,G] ^ Spells bad news for Bush!

Sohlberg, S., & Birgegard, A. (2003). Persistent complex subliminal activation effects:

First experimental observations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

85(2), 302-316.

Harmon-Jones, E., & Allen, J. B. (2001). The role of affect in the mere exposure effect:

Evidence from psychophysiological and individual differences approaches.

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(7), 889-898. [B,P,G]

May, C.P., Hasher, L., & Foong, N. (2005). Implicit memory, age, and time of day:

Paradoxical priming effects. Psychological Science, 16(2), 96-100. [B,P,G]


9. The Sights and Smells of Sex

Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary

perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100(2), 204-232. [B,P,G]

Shackelford, T. K., Buss, D. M., & Bennett, K. (2002). Forgiveness or breakup: Sex

differences in responses to a partner's infidelity. Cognition & Emotion, 16(2),

299-307. [B,P,G]

DeSteno, D. A., & Salovey, P. (1996). Evolutionary origins of sex differences in

jealousy? Questioning the “fitness” of the model. Psychological Science, 7(6),

367-372. [B,P,G]

Perrett et al. (1999). Symmetry and human facial attractiveness. Evolution & Human

Behavior, 20(5), 295-307. [B,P,G]

Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R. L. (2000). Love and attachment processes. In M. Lewis, & J.

Haviland-Jones (Eds.) Handbook of emotions (pp. 654-662). New York: Guilford

Press. [P,G]

Helmreich, R., Aronson, E., & LeFan, J. (1970). To err is humanizing – sometimes:

Effects of self-esteem, competence, and a pratfall on interpersonal attraction.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 259-264. [P,G]

Murray, S. L., et al. (2002). Kindred spirits? The benefits of egocentrism in close

relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(4), 563-581.

[P,G]

Goldenberg, J. L., et al. (1999). Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: Why is sex such a

problem? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1173-1187. [P,G]


10. Self-Control & Awareness: Why was Buddha Fat?

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is

the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

74(5), 1252-1265. [P,G]

Baumeister, R. F., & Exline, J. J. (2000). Self-control, morality, and human strength.

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19, 29-42. [P,G]


11. Religion & Moral Emotions

Barrett, J. L., & Keil, F. C. (1996). Conceptualizing a nonnatural entity:

Anthropomorphism in God concepts. Cognitive Psychology, 31, 219-247. [P,G]

Barrett, J. L. (2000). Exploring the natural foundations of religion. Trends in Cognitive

Sciences, 4(1), 29-34. [P,G]

Rozin, P., Haidt, J., & McCauley, C. R. (2000). Disgust. In M. Lewis, & J. Haviland-

Jones (Eds.) Handbook of emotions (pp. 637-653). New York: Guilford Press.

[B,P,G]

Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic

emotion. Cognition & Emotion, 17(2), 297-314. [P,G]

McCullough, M. E., Kilpatrick, S. D., Emmons, R. A., & Larson, D. B. (2001). Is

gratitude a moral affect? Psychological Bulletin, 127(2), 249-266. [P,G]


12. How To Ace Your Final Exams: Memory & Procrastination

Schachter, D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and

cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54(3), 182-203. [B,P]