Psy 325:
Stereotyping & Prejudice

Kathy Oleson

Reed College

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Course Schedule (Readings)

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Conference Discussion

Written Work

Journals

Term Paper

Commenting on Others' Papers

Research Project, Report and Presentation

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Conference Discussion

Participation

Active participation is critical to the conference format. I expect you to come to class having completed the readings for that day and ready to discuss them. You will have a variety of opportunities to contribute to class discussions. Participate by contributing when you have something to add, by responding to others’ remarks with those of your own, and by generally sharing your perspectives. Your critical assessment of the class materials is highly valued. The class is a conference in which we all discuss ideas and should feel free to ask questions. Your class participation, including discussion questions and comments posted to the course bulletin board, is equal to 22% of the overall class points.

Conference Facilitation

For many of the conferences, a quarter of the class will be responsible for posting questions and issues to the course bulletin board. These conference facilitators will also help me monitor issues that come up and answer questions related to the topic prior to class. I expect all members of class to read the course bulletin board before class & encourage you to send in questions, responses, and comments. Before class, I will read all questions and issues raised by 10 am the day of the class. I encourage you to continue the discussion of that day’s topic after the in-class meeting to enrich our discussion during the next in-class meeting.

You will be asked to facilitate the conference discussion twice every 3 weeks; you are responsible for sending in your first facilitation post by 8 pm the night before the class. If you facilitating discussion for Monday’s class, for instance, you are asked to post questions and comments by 8 pm Sunday night. You will sign up for facilitation days during the first week of class.

Facilitation Questions, Issues, and Comments. Your questions and comments posted to the course bulletin board can take many different forms. Below are possible issues that you could raise.

Possible Discussion Question Topics/Issues

1. What issues remain confusing or need clarification?

2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research both in terms of the methods and the validity of them?

3. Discuss alternative explanations for the findings. Do the explanations provided by the researchers make sense to you? Are there other explanations that seem equally compelling?

4. Under what conditions would different results be found? What are the "boundary conditions" of these ideas/findings? How might other variables (e.g., race, gender, status) qualify or change these findings?

5. Discuss linkages across the readings. How does the research that you are reading relate to previous topics that we have discussed? How are the themes as represented in these readings similar or different to how they have been presented in other class readings?

6. How can these readings be applied to real life? Do they explain why a social phenomenon or problem exists?

7. What are the implications of this research -- for social interaction, for personal relationships, for public policy? Can the findings help us in some way?

8. Provide examples of how these results are seen in everyday life, in the media, in literature, or in film.

9. Provide counter-examples of how opposing results can be seen in everyday life, in the media, in literature, or in film. Suggest reasons why these situations may differ from those of the research. Are there conditions under which you would expect one result versus the other?

10. What additional research questions does this work stimulate? What specific questions need further exploration? How would you test those hypotheses?

11. Whatever seems important, interesting to you. The point of these questions or comments is to get people thinking about the topic in more depth.