Selected Topics in Social Psychology

2021-2022 Fall Semester

Course Code: PSY 445/545

1. Brief Introduction

This course will cover three main topics in social psychology, namely well-being, self-regulation, and
their link. Students will be expected to read some scientific articles and discuss the empirical findings,
theoretical models, and assumptions in the readings throughout the semester. Additionally, students
will be required to discuss limitations, future steps, implications, and applications of the findings or
theories in the readings.

2. Distribution of class hours

3. Course Goals and Learning Objectives

Because this course is based on class discussions, developing your skills in the following areas is
essential:

a) Communication and Discussion: You are expected to listen to the Instructor’s and your
classmates’ ideas, comments, and opinions. Being able to respect and discuss different views is
one of the main components of this course.
b) Critical Thinking: Even though you are expected to learn theories, findings, and the literature
covered in this course, please do not forget that science is a matter of progress. Therefore,
please do not hesitate to discuss current findings and have a critical and open mind. When you
do this, however, please consider the communication and discussion goals of this course.
Discussions should be done respectfully.
c) Not intuition, but science: Please do not forget that science is based on research methods.
Your daily observations and experiences, of course, are essential to understand many social
psychological concepts. Nevertheless, do not forget that your ideas and opinions may not be in
line with scientific findings.
d) Research methods: Although we will focus on different social psychological topics, similar
research methods are used to research various topics. Getting familiar with how scientists in
social psychology conduct their research is one of the learning objectives of this course.
4. Required Text

All the articles listed below are required readings in this course.

Well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction

(1) Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being:
Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 403-425.

(2) Oishi, S., & Westgate, E. C. (2021). A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and
meaning. Psychological Review.

(3) Kushlev, K., Heintzelman, S. J., Lutes, L. D., Wirtz, D., Kanippayoor, J. M., Leitner, D., & Diener, E.
(2020). Does happiness improve health? Evidence from a randomized controlled
trial. Psychological Science, 31(7), 807-821.

(4) Buecker, S., Denissen, J. J., & Luhmann, M. (2020). A propensity-score matched study of changes
in loneliness surrounding major life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

(5) Choi, H., Oishi, S., Shin, J., & Suh, E. M. (2019). Do happy events love company? Cultural
variations in sharing positive events with others. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 45(4), 528-540.

Self-regulation

(6) Inzlicht, M., Werner, K. M., Briskin, J. L., & Roberts, B. W. (2021). Integrating models of self-
regulation. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 319-345.

(7) Job, V., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2010). Ego depletion—Is it all in your head? Implicit
theories about willpower affect self-regulation. Psychological Science, 21, 1686-1693.

(8) Hofmann, W., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2012). What people desire, feel conflicted about,
and try to resist in everyday life. Psychological Science, 23, 582-588.

(9) Mazza, G. L., Smyth, H. L., Bissett, P. G., Canning, J. R., Eisenberg, I. W., Enkavi, A. Z., ... &
MacKinnon, D. P. (2021). Correlation Database of 60 Cross-Disciplinary Surveys and Cognitive
Tasks Assessing Self-Regulation. Journal of personality assessment, 103(2), 238-245.

(10) de Boer, B. J., van Hooft, E. A., & Bakker, A. B. (2011). Stop and start control: A distinction within
self‐control. European Journal of Personality, 25(5), 349-362.

(11) Wood, W. (2017). Habit in personality and social psychology. Personality and social psychology
review, 21(4), 389-403.

(12) Pronk, T. M., Karremans, J. C., Demetriou, A., van der Meij, L., & Denissen, J. J. (2020). The role
of self-control and sociosexual orientation in partner selection: A speed-dating study. Journal of
Social and Personal Relationships, 0265407520977675.

(13) Li, J. B., Vazsonyi, A. T., & Dou, K. (2018). Is individualism-collectivism associated with self-
control? Evidence from Chinese and US samples. PloS one, 13(12).
Self-regulation and Well-being

(14) Tangney, J. P., Baumeister, R. F., & Boone, A. L. (2004). High self‐control predicts good
adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of
Personality, 72(2), 271-324.

(15) de Ridder, D. T., Lensvelt-Mulders, G., Finkenauer, C., Stok, F. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2012).
Taking stock of self-control: A meta-analysis of how trait self-control relates to a wide range of
behaviors. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16, 76-99.

(16) Bernecker, K., & Becker, D. (2020). Beyond self-control: mechanisms of hedonic goal pursuit and
its relevance for well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0146167220941998.

(17) Kokkoris, M., & Stavrova, O. (2020). The dark side of self-control. Harvard Business Review.

(18) Wiese, C. W., Tay, L., Duckworth, A. L., D'Mello, S., Kuykendall, L., Hofmann, W., ... & Vohs, K. D.
(2017). Too much of a good thing? Exploring the inverted‐U relationship between self‐control
and happiness. Journal of Personality, 86, 380-396.

(19) Karremans, J. C., Pronk, T. M., & van der Wal, R. C. (2015). Executive control and relationship
maintenance processes: An empirical overview and theoretical integration. Social and
Personality Psychology Compass, 9(7), 333-347.

(20)Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., ... & Sears, M.
R. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public
safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 2693-2698.

(21) Richmond-Rakerd, L. S., Caspi, A., Ambler, A., d’Arbeloff, T., de Bruine, M., Elliott, M., ... &
Moffitt, T. E. (2021). Childhood self-control forecasts the pace of midlife aging and preparedness
for old age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(3).

5. Assessment

The summary of grading is as follows:

Undergraduates Graduates
(PSY 445) (PSY 545)
Type of assessment % of total grade % of total grade
Reaction papers 50% 50%
35% (Group 30% (Individual
Group project (PSY 445) / Individual Project (PSY 545) Project Project
presentation) presentation)
Discussion Participation 15% 20%
Total 100% 100%
 Reaction papers (in the status of a take-home exam)

 Undergraduates are expected to write 6 reaction papers throughout the semester.

If you submit more papers, the highest 6 for the undergrads (highest 8 for the grads) will
be considered in the final grade calculation.

The paper should be min. 1 and max. 2 pages long. I’m going to upload the guidelines for
reaction papers to the SuCourse. You are going to decide for yourself for which weeks you
will submit a paper. For example, you can skip the next two weeks and prefer not to submit
a reaction paper. Nevertheless, you should ensure that you upload 6 reaction papers if you
are an undergraduate student and 8 papers if you are a graduate student at the end of the
semester. It is you who should follow how many papers you uploaded.

Reaction papers should be uploaded to the SuCourse before class time on Tuesdays. For
example, reaction papers for the 3rd week’s readings should be uploaded before the first
class on Tuesday in the 3rd week. One paper with the lowest grade will not be included in
the final grade calculation at the end of the semester.

 Group Project (PSY 445) and Individual Project (PSY 545)

For the group projects, each group will consist of 2-3 individuals.

Each project is expected to be presented in a 20-25 minutes talk.

The topic of the presentations should be about either advantages and disadvantages of
having and/or wanting self-control in the days of COVID-19, or possible effects of COVID-
19 pandemic on self-control. You are expected to consider this topic at the personal,
interpersonal, and/or group levels with possible moderation and/or mediation processes.
You need to generate a research question and present it with its theoretical justifications.
See this link as an example.

 Participation

Each student is expected to join the discussions in classes. The Instructor will evaluate the
performance of the participation in each class.

Those of you who will be prepared well for the courses will have an opportunity to gain higher
grades for participation. Asking topic-related questions, making comments about the readings
and/or other students’ opinions, sharing your point of view or thoughts will all be considered
for the participation grade.

If you are present at that class, you can participate in discussions. There is no possibility for
make-ups. You need to attend all 3 classes in a week to get a grade for your participation in
that week.
  Research points (Extra credits)

Students can optionally serve as participants in research that is run by Sabanci University
researchers. By participating in research, you can get research points. For this course, you
will be able to earn up to 6 research points (1 credit equals ~ 29 minutes of research
participation). These 6 RP points will be converted to 3 points added to your overall total at
the end of the semester. More information on the available research projects will be
provided during the semester.

You will be able to sign up for the experiments and get your research points through the
online Sona system at [Link]

Please, carefully read the Guide for Students: Sabanci University Experiment Credits System
(Sona), which will be uploaded to the Course Website.

6. Grading

>=90 A
85-89 A-
80-84 B+
75-79 B
70-74 B-
65-69 C+
60-64 C
55-59 C-
50-54 D+
45-49 D
0-44 F

7. Timeline

Week starting
Week Content Article #
with
1 27 September Syllabus + Article discussion
2 4 October Article discussion 1
3 11 October Article discussion 2, 3
4 18 October Article discussion 4, 5
5 25 October Article discussion 6, 7
6 1 November Article discussion 8, 9
7 8 November Article discussion 10, 11
8 15 November Article discussion 12, 13
9 22 November Article discussion 14, 15
10 29 November Article discussion 16, 17
11 6 December Article discussion 18, 19
12 13 December PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
13 20 December PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
14 27 December Article discussion 20, 21
8. Other announcements
 I may slightly change this syllabus throughout the semester. I will let you know in case I make
any changes.
 You are expected to read the readings (articles, see the timetable above) before class time.
 Please do not forget that as a university policy, all University members have to behave
according to the academic principles mentioned here:
[Link] Please read all those
principles.
 Plagiarism from either external resources or your classmates’ work or any type of fraud (e.g.,
cheating, copying) will not be tolerated. Students who engage in these behaviors will fail in
this course and be a subject of a disciplinary inquiry.
 Any type of work that will be graded (presentations, response/reaction papers etc.) has an
exam status, and any kind of “intihal” (plagiarism) in the graded work will be categorized as
cheating.
 Make-ups can be allowed only in case of an emergency (e.g., medical emergency). The
student should email me as soon as possible in this type of situation.