PSY 3510
Social Psychology
(online course)

Dr. Tamara J Ferguson

This entire website
is the syllabus!!!

Read it all!
Every single link above!

Welcome to Social Psychology!

I am looking forward to the semester with each of you and hope that you find this class both informative and enjoyable.
Anyone is more than welcome to peruse this syllabus, and —in fact— I would encourage students to read it thoroughly before deciding to sign up for the course. You need to know what you are getting into before making the commitment! Nonetheless, there are some sections (the homework quizzes, the chat sessions and transcripts, the instructor’s lecture notes, the videos) that only registered students can access via a username and password which they need to request in an e-mail message by the second day of the semester, as indicated in the course calendar.

Course Overview

In this course we will cover all the chapters in your textbook, but not in their numbered order. Specifically, we will insert the last chapter 9 between chapters 1 and 2 at the beginning of the course because understanding the research methods in social psychology is essential for all the other concepts we will study (see the course calendar for details). Every assigned chapter has a corresponding homework quiz, and occasionally there are “review” quizzes that cover multiple chapters (NOTE: there are strict rules that penalize points for late submissions!) There are also three cumulative, comprehensive exams that cover everything studied up to that point in time.

Course Objectives

Introduce students to the multiple facets of the field of social psychology.
Expose students to the research methodologies employed in this field.
Provide an overview of how social psychology affects real-world issues and problems.

Special Needs

Students with disabilities can rest assured that I will attempt to accommodate them as best I can. Please note, however, that in most cases this might require that the individual acquire additional hardware and/or software. For example, those who are visually impaired will likely need to equip their operating systems with a good text-to-speech utility to “read” the syllabus, text, and instructor's outlines out loud. In all such cases, those students need to contact the USU Disability Resource Center to document their special need and arrange for help with other aspects of the course, such as the homework quizzes and exams.

Questions? Problems? Comments?

At the bottom of each web page in this syllabus is a link to send an e-mail. This is the fastest, most convenient, and most reliable means to contact me. In case you want to enter my address into your e-mail program, it is: psytech_[at]casteyanqui_[dot]com (just substitute the proper punctuation when you type it).

NOTE: You will need to configure your e-mail “filters” to accept deliveries from my server, “casteyanqui.com,” so that both my messages and the automated homework confirmations do not end up in your “trash” or “junk” folders!

There are also chat sessions on Thursdays evenings at 7:00-8:00 PM most weeks during the semester. You can open the chat window by clicking on the corresponding link in the menubar at the top of the page, but to enter the chatroom itself you have to know the same username and password used for the homework quizzes, videos, and lecture notes. This is why you need to send me an e-mail message by the second day of the semester, as indicated in the course calendar. I will provide you those strings in my reply, and from that point forward I will also know your preferred e-mail address.
The chat sessions constitute my “office hours” when you can pose your questions, get clarification on the concepts that elude you, and “chat” about what we are learning each week. Attendance is not required, and you will not earn points for being there, nor lose points for not showing up, but I can assure you that the chat sessions can be informative and useful: they are the only opportunity that you will have to “talk” with me face to face (more accurately, screen to screen).