14-Social Psychology

01.1_1-Radiolab: Ethics and Morality

There's quite a bit in this Radiolab story, but the central question is where does morality come from? Is morality taught or is it innate? For our purposes, this will be a memorable example of evolutionary psychology.

Here's the link to the story: http://www.radiolab.org/story/91508-morality/

I wanted to reiterate some of the things that I was discussing in class about class notes. Specifically, with this story, there is quite a bit of extraneous stuff that can be ignored. The storytelling is rich, complex, surprising, and memorable. That's why I use it. Michael Sandel, the famous philosophy professor from Harvard uses the trolley experiment has used and presumably still does use it in his classes as well. Your notes, however, should be shorter rather than longer, but include lots of space to add things later on.

01.1_1-Charlottesville

Here's the website that I've been using concerning the events in Charlottesville, VA, over the past few weeks, and, in specific, those of August 12th.

http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/elesson-setting-classroom-expectations-trust-tolerance-civil-discourse/

The assignment is to reflect on the events in Charlottesville by looking up and thinking about the terms social learning, social psychology, and motivation. Your written reflection should not be long, just read about the terms in the King text or online and think. For example, a psychologist might focus on motivation. One of the people interviewed said that he was there "because this is my town and I don't want to be intimidated". What do you think motivated him to be there, and then to talk to a reporter? Where do his ideas come from? Do you think he learned these ideas or does he have an instinct that compels him?

Don't write about that guy unless you're at a loss. I would prefer you pose and answer your own questions.