PSYCHOLOGY 380: Introduction to Social Psychology

Each exam in this course is non-comprehensive, meaning that each

covers material presented on and between the specified dates. As

stated on your syllabus, EXAM #1 covers material from Sep 4 to

Sep 29.

Because each exam covers ample material -- drawn from the

lectures, textbook, reader and reinforced in discussion sections

-- you will maximize your exam performance if you: (a) keep up

with the reading, take notes at lectures, and participate in

section; and (b) adopt an active studying strategy to prepare for

exams. In this handout, I offer my suggestions regarding this

second point.

Here are three tips for active studying:

TIP 1. Identify all the key ideas and concepts in the readings

and lectures. In the textbook, these are often presented in

boldface and in margin notes. In the lectures, draw from the

opening outline and notes from subsequent slides. Turn this page

over for tips on culling key ideas from the READER articles.

Lecture slides are available on the web.

TIP 2. Work to master the definitions of key ideas, concepts

or theories, and to understand the related underlying issues and

boundary conditions. For example, ask yourself: What social

phenomenon was this idea developed to explain and why? When does

this idea come into play? How is it different from (and similar

to) other key ideas you've learned?

TIP 3. Most importantly, work to recognize and generate "real-

life" examples that illustrate key ideas. In other words, don't

stop at mastering the abstract social psychological terminology.

Develop your confidence in applying each abstract idea or concept

or theory to real-life, personal and social experiences. So, for

each abstract term, come up with a concrete real-life example of

it. Once you have identified such an example -- critique it! Is

this a "good" example of the abstract concept? Why or why not?

Can you think of a better or another example? It is precisely

this sort of flexible and adept crossing from (a) abstract social

psychological terms to (b) real world events and experiences,

that we aim to assess in each exam.

Once you've developed confidence with Tips 1 and 2 above, Tip 3

can be fruitfully taken up in pairs or small groups.

Culling Key Ideas from Articles

Some of the readings -- especially in the READER -- don't offer

as much guidance as do the textbook and lectures in identifying

the key ideas. It's sometimes hard to know what is important in

the mass of information each presents. Being able to answer each

of the following three questions will help you get a solid grasp

of each reading and, in doing so, help you prepare for each exam.

#1 What was it about?

First, answer this question in a sentence or two. In order to do

this, you will have to identify one of the biggest ideas of the

entire piece. Try to step back from the details of what was

discussed, and instead identify the big story. Another strategy

is to discern why this particular piece was assigned that

particular week. How does it connect to what you've read in the

textbook or heard in lecture? Tailor your answer such that a

bright person with no background in psychology could understand

you. In other words, use real, everyday language, not technical

language or jargon. Do you have a good, short description of

what this article was about? Good. Now, come up with another!

A reading may have more than one big story. More importantly

though, you should be able to paraphrase your short summary

several different ways.

#2 What did it show?

This is a different question than #1 above. Here, you summarize

(again, in everyday language) the findings of the reading. Once

again, step back and summarize in broad terms. Then paraphrase

your summary! Try to find several different ways of saying it.

You might want to try beginning your answers to this question

with words like "It showed how..." or "It showed that even

when..." or "It showed that if ...".

#3 How did it show it?

Now that you have summarized what was shown in the reading, be

able to say how this was established. This summary will often

pertain to the methods used in the research cited in the reading.

For instance, suppose your answer to #2 above was something like:

"This article showed that once we have a theory about a person,

this theory is very resistant to change." Then your answer to #3

might be something like "People who had strong stereotypes about

Blacks were given data that contradicted their view, yet they

didn't adjust their stereotype. Instead, they discounted or

denigrated the new data." For research articles, the answer to

#3 is the empirical support for your answer to #2. Again, find

several different ways of saying it.