Professor David Pizarro
email: dap54@cornell.edu
Office Location: 224 Uris Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00
Class times/room:
Mondays/Wednesdays 2:55-4:10, Goldwin Smith 132
TAs:
Jun Fukukura: jf399@cornell.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 4:10-6:10
Office Location: G80 Uris Hall
Erik Patel: erp8@cornell.edu
Office Location: B66 Uris Hall
Office Hours: Mondays 12:50-2:50
See "people" tab above for more info on your Instructor and TA's.
Course Website:
http://social.psych.cornell.edu/385/
Course Description:
We’ve all been mad, sad, happy, and disgusted. Some of us get nostalgic at times, and some of us are easily embarrassed. We’ve been feeling these emotions nearly our whole lives, and this makes us all emotion experts of a sort. Nonetheless, these feelings can be mysterious. Where do they come from? Do people across all cultures experience similar emotions? How can we regulate our emotions? Do emotions make us less rational? Do they make us smarter? What triggers certain emotions? Are there gender differences in emotions? The science of emotion is fairly young, but there has been an enormous amount of progress in understanding emotional phenomena in the last few decades.
In this course, we will tackle the aforementioned questions and more. By the end of the course you should be familiar with the most influential theories of emotion--from the evolutionary explanations of emotion to the developmental and social factors involved in making us emotional creatures. So while we are all intuitive experts on emotion, by the end of the course you will have a different kind of expertise--one grounded in the most recent scientific discoveries in this exciting field.
Required Text:
Oatley, K., Keltner, D. & Jenkins, J. (2006). Understanding emotions. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers (UE). (available at Cornell Bookstore)
Additional readings will be provided by the instructor in electronic format (via hyperlink on the course website).
Course requirements:
Course requirements: Three exams (three non-cumulative midterms) based on lectures and readings. Note that lecture slides will be made available in PDF format AFTER class (please don’t email me to ask me to make them available before class, or in a different file format).
One 4-5 page term paper on whether emotions harm or help judgments and decisions. Due on the last day of class.
Evaluation:
Your grades will be calculated as follows: Grades will be based on 3 exams (25% each) and a term paper (25%). Exams will be short-answer and multiple choice.
Grade cut-offs, in percentages:
A: 94 and above A-: 90 B+: 87
B: 83 B-: 80 C+: 77
C: 73 C-: 70 D+: 67
D: 63 D-: 60
If you miss one exam due to emergency medical reasons (and have a note from your doctor including his/her contact information) your in-class exam grade will be based on the other two exams.
There will be NO MAKE-UP EXAMS and NO EXCEPTIONS to this grading policy. Please take note of the exam dates before deciding whether to take this course.
Extra Credit: There will be opportunities to participate in psychology experiments for extra credit. You will be able to receive up to 7 points of extra credit (1 point for each ½ hour).
COURSE SCHEDULE
Below you will find a schedule for the lecture topics, readings and tests which should give you an indication of what we will be doing this term. You are required to keep up with the readings. Please note that the lecture schedule may change as the course progresses: we will keep the course website updated with lecture topics (as well as lecture slides).
Week 1:
September 1: Introduction to the Course
September 3: What is an Emotion?
Read: OK&J Chapter 1
Week 2:
September 8: Studying Emotion: Measurement and Manipulation
September 10: The Function and Evolution of Emotions
Read: OK&J Chapter 2 & 5
Week 3:
September 15: Emotion in Non-Human Animals (in-class video, Discovery Channel: Why dogs Cry and Chimpanzees Smile)
September 17: The Basic Emotions
Read: OK&J Chapter 4 & 7
Week 4:
September 22: The Development of Emotions
September 24: Emotion & Memory
Read: OK&J Chapter 12
Week 5:
September 29: The Primacy of Affect
*October 1: First Exam
Read: OK&J Chapter 6
Week 6:
October 6: Emotion & Judgment
October 8: Erik Patel Guest Lecture (Instructor Away)
Read: OK&J Chapter 10
Week 7:
October 13: NO CLASS-Fall Break
October 15: Emotion & The Brain
Read: OK&J Chapter 11
Week 8:
October 20: Emotion & Culture I
October 22: Emotion & Culture II
Week 9:
October 27: Emotion Disorders (in-class video, BBC Documentary: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive)
October 29: Individual Differences in Emotions
Read: OK&J Chapter 3
Week 10:
November 3: Happiness
November 5: Good: Emotions as the Foundation of Human Morality
Read: Dan Gilbert readings: see Course Docs section for links to articles
Week 11:
*November 10: Second Exam
November 12: Evil: The Emotional Roots of Hate, Violence, and Other Bad Things
Read: OK&J Chapter 13 & 14
Week 12:
November 17: Sex & Love
November 19: Laughter, Humor, and a little bit of Crying
Read: Hypnotic disgust makes moral judgments more severe (PDF)
Read: Panksepp on Laughing (PDF)
Both readings in "Course Docs" section of website
Week 13:
November 24: Emotional Intelligence
November 26: NO CLASS-Thanksgiving Break
Week 14:
December 1: Forgotten Topics in Emotion Research
December 3: Grand Conclusions
Read: OK&J Chapter 9
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