Social Psych Chapter: Quick Exercise

[sue_frantz]

Next week I’ll cover the social psych chapter in Intro Psych. I’ve been thinking of some quick and easy ways to get students to do some deeper thinking around the social psych concepts covered in the textbook.

In all cases, I’ll use think/pair/share – ask students to take a minute to think and jot down a response, take a minute to share their response with a neighbor, and then ask for a few volunteers to share their responses with the class. If you use a classroom response system, like Socrative, ask volunteers to type in their responses. Do these as you go or at the end of class as a recap.

“You see a person trip and fall down steps. If you have fallen prey to the fundamental attribution error, what would you say caused the person to trip?”

“You want to borrow $20 from a friend. If you were to use the foot-in-the-door technique, what would you ask your friend first?

“You want to borrow $20 from a different friend. If you were to use the door-in-the-face technique, what would you ask your friend first?

“You are working on a group project. The group leader is fostering groupthink. What is the group leader saying?”

“You are the leader for a group project. You want to avoid groupthink. What are you saying?”

“You are at a local sporting event. The fans of the local team are exhibiting ingroup bias. What are they doing or saying?”

“You are standing on a street corner with dozens of other people as you watch two cars crash into each other. You notice that you and your fellow witnesses are in the midst of experiencing the bystander effect. What are you thinking in that moment that keeps you from helping?”

“You are in a car accident. A crowd has gathering on the sidewalk, but the bystander effect has them frozen. What can you do or say to increase the likelihood of someone helping?”