Case Studies for Teaching Social Psychology

Dr. Thomas Heinzen, at William Paterson University of New Jersey, is proudest that he has mentored more than 60 student presentations and published research. He has been a keynote speaker at a variety of teaching-related conferences, including NITOP, Rocky Mountain Teaching of Psychology, and the Association for Psychological Science about his book on Clever Hans and facilitated communication. He has been elected as a fellow to the Eastern Psychological Association, to the Association for Psychological Science, and to Division 1 of the American Psychological Association. He has also been an invited speaker at several technology conferences to discuss how to apply principles of game design to social problems such as improving rates of college completion. Students have honored him with a variety of awards that range from being the winning lab in an egg-tossing contest to numerous recognitions from the Psychology Club. Dr. Wind Goodfriend has been named Faculty of the Year three times in her 19 years as a professor at Buena Vista University. This distinction is the result of an all-student vote, and her General Psychology course was chosen as the “Most Recommended” individual class in the entire university by the BVU newspaper. She has also won the Wythe Award, one of the largest collegiate teaching prizes in the nation. She has written over a dozen book chapters about psychology in pop culture, four textbooks for Sage, three Audible audiobooks about psychology, dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles, and has published over 30 journal articles featuring her undergraduate students as the first author. She also wrote and “starred” in a docuseries about the psychology of cult manipulation for The Great Courses. Wind won the 2023 Undergraduate Teaching & Mentoring Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

• Preface: To Students and Their TeachersChapter 1: How Do Social Psychologists Think?To Wear or Not to Wear an Ineffective Mask: That Was the Question During the Coronavirus PandemicAn Exercise About Sex and Social InteractionismThe Neighs Have It: Testing Theories With ExperimentsA Painful Intuition: BloodlettingChapter 2: The Social Psychologist’s ToolboxCrucial Experiments: Who’s Talking Now?Ethnography: Gang Leader for a DayHealth Detective: The Missing Pump HandleWitchcraft and False Confessions: Then and NowChapter 3: The Social SelfPhineas Gage: The Self With a Hole in His HeadThe Changing Self: Identity of Transgender IndividualsThe Disappearing Self: Lost MemoryThe Pregnant Self: Does My Bump Look Big in This?Chapter 4: Social CognitionIntuition in the Neonatal Intensive Care UnitDual Processing Medical DiagnosesGirl or Boy? Gender Socialization Begins at UltrasoundSexual Scripts and Sexual RegretsChapter 5: Person Perception“Tell Me the Truth—Am I Too Pretty?” Marilyn Monroe and the Halo EffectFrom Street Kid to Magician: Self-Fulfilling PropheciesIntellectual Bloomers: The Slow Creation of a Classic StudyThe Rock in the Coffin: Terror Management TheoryChapter 6: Attitudes and PersuasionCognitive Dissonance, Part I: Prelude to a TheoryCognitive Dissonance, Part II: The Flying Saucer That Never CameUnderstanding Drug Use: The Theory of Planned BehaviorChapter 7: Social InfluenceObedience Plus: More Data From the Shock ExperimentsMods and Rockers: A Moral PanicBig Fish Eat Small Fish: Social Coordination in a Violent WorldChapter 8: Group ProcessesMore Than a Game: The Prisoner’s DilemmaInterpersonal Rejection: A Case Study of 14 School ShootingsOn the Shoulders of Giantesses: The First Computer ProgrammersChapter 9: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and DiscriminationEconomic Anxiety and the Illegal Deportation of U.S. CitizensIntersectionality: Sojourner TruthEnvironmental Psychology and Institutional Discrimination: What Happened at Erasmus High School?Footnote 11: After the Doll StudiesChapter 10: Helping and Prosocial BehaviorThe Misunderstood Murder of Kitty Genovese: A Continuing Case StudyZombie Wasps and Altruistic Vampire BatsThe Bacon Truce: Cooperation Despite WarThe Subway Samaritan: The Mathematics of Relative AltruismChapter 11: AggressionDoloreisa’s Story: Aggression, Prostitution, and Sex TraffickingThe Great Train Robbery: Violence as EntertainmentThe Cinderella EffectChapter 12: Intimate RelationshipsReligion and Marriage CounselingMale Victims of Relationship AbuseThe Influence of Dating TechnologyHappily Ever After: Ingredients to a Long, Happy MarriageReferencesIndex