Course: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Bennett
Module: Week 13 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 8 — Apply psychological science to social behavior (the social-psychology portion).

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 13 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Short week — Thanksgiving: on a Tuesday/Thursday section, only Tue Nov 24 meets this week; Thu Nov 26 (and Fri Nov 27) the campus is closed for Thanksgiving. Dates below assume that pattern, with end-of-week work due Sunday Nov 29, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 13 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 13: Social Psychology

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This week is about the most powerful force acting on your behavior — other people. Why does a driver who cuts you off get branded "a jerk," while you, doing the exact same thing, were "just in a hurry"? Why do reasonable people go along with a group they can see is wrong, or follow an order they'd swear they'd refuse? Why does a person in trouble sometimes get less help in a crowd than they'd get from a single passerby? Social psychology is the science of how the people around us — present, imagined, or merely implied — bend our thoughts, our feelings, and what we actually do.

A note on the short week

It's Thanksgiving week. Campus is closed Thursday Nov 26 and Friday Nov 27, so on a Tue/Thu section we meet only once — Tuesday Nov 24. Don't worry: the Lecture Tutorial 13 covers the whole week's material with your AI tutor, so anything we don't get to in our single class is fully there for you. Plan to do the discussion and the readings before the holiday — the deadlines are built around the break. Then enjoy the time off.

The week's big question

"How much of what people do is driven by who they are — and how much by the situation they're in?"

By the end of the week you'll be able to take almost any social moment — someone conforming, obeying, helping, or staying silent — and explain it the way a social psychologist would: not "what's wrong with that person," but "what was the situation doing to them."

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Explain attribution and the fundamental attribution error — the difference between dispositional (it's the person) and situational (it's the circumstances) explanations, why we over-blame other people's character, and how the self-serving bias flatters our own.
• [ ] Explain how attitudes and behavior shape each other — cognitive dissonance (Festinger: we change attitudes to match what we've done), the foot-in-the-door phenomenon, and central vs. peripheral routes to persuasion.
• [ ] Describe conformity and obedience — Asch's line studies (group pressure; normative vs. informational influence) and Milgram's obedience experiments (situational power; the ethical issues) — and why people underestimate both.
• [ ] Define the main group effects and the bystander effect — social facilitation, social loafing, groupthink, group polarization, deindividuation — and why more bystanders can mean less help (diffusion of responsibility).

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next. (Deadlines are set around the Thanksgiving closure — note the earlier discussion dates.)

Heads-up on the AI tutorial: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work against what we cover in class. Chatbots routinely blur the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias, or overstate the drama of Milgram while burying the real finding (situational power over ordinary people). Catching the model is the point.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early. (Over a holiday especially: get the work in early and then actually rest.)

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. Every term this week is a plain-English idea first (an attribution is just the explanation you give for why someone did something; conformity is going along with the group). The vocabulary comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize two tiny hooks. "For others, blame the person; for ourselves, blame the situation" (that's the fundamental attribution error). And "Asch bends what you'll say; Milgram bends what you'll do."
• Practice the situational read. Catch one snap judgment a day ("what a jerk," "how lazy"), then force one plausible situational explanation next to it. That flip is the whole skill.
• Remember the headline lesson: the situation is stronger than you think. We badly overrate personality and underrate circumstances — the FAE, Asch, Milgram, and the bystander effect all make the same point from different angles.
• Treat the chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It drafts; you check — especially when it blurs the two biases or dramatizes Milgram. That habit is the whole semester in miniature.

You don't need any special background for this week — just your own experiences in groups, traffic, and crowds as examples. Come ready to argue about how much "free will" you really had the last time you went along with everyone else. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 13

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Mon Nov 23, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Mon Nov 23."

Subject: Week 13 — it's the situation, not (just) the person 🚦 (+ a short Thanksgiving week)

Hi everyone,

Quick one. A driver cuts you off in traffic, and the word that pops into your head is some version of "what a jerk." Now think about the last time you cut someone off — were you a jerk, or were you late, distracted, or dealing with something? Almost everyone explains other people by their personality and themselves by their situation. That gap has a name — the fundamental attribution error — and chasing down why it happens is most of this week.

This week — Social Psychology — we tackle the big question: How much of what people do is driven by who they are, and how much by the situation they're in? By Friday you'll be able to take almost any social moment — someone conforming, obeying, helping, or staying silent — and read it the way a social psychologist would: situation first, character second.

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 13 — work through attribution & the fundamental attribution error, cognitive dissonance, conformity (Asch), obedience (Milgram), and the bystander effect with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. You'll catch the model blurring two biases or dramatizing Milgram, not just trust it. Due Sun Nov 29.
2. Quiz 13, Discussion 13, and Assignment 13 also close Sun Nov 29 — but because of the holiday, the discussion's initial post is due Wed Nov 25 (before the break), so start early and leave time to reply to classmates.
3. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One scheduling note (please read): this is Thanksgiving week. Campus is closed Thursday Nov 26 and Friday Nov 27, so we meet only on Tuesday Nov 24. Everything we don't cover in that single class is fully in the Lecture Tutorial — you won't miss content. Get your work in before the break and then take the time off. You've earned it.

One promise: this is the week psychology stops feeling like it's about "other people" and starts explaining your own last group chat, group project, and traffic jam. We lead with plain-language ideas, then give them their proper names. By Friday, the next time you catch yourself thinking "what kind of person does that," you'll know to ask "what kind of situation makes most people do that."

Bring your own life in groups and crowds (and maybe a strong opinion about whether you'd have resisted) to class on Tuesday — and happy Thanksgiving.

See you soon,
Prof. Bennett