Proposal for University of Connecticut General Education Course Development Grant

The present proposal seeks support for the development of a new 200-level general education course that will examine issues of diversity and multiculturalism from a social psychological perspective. Current events and trends in the U.S. and global demography strongly suggest, and perhaps dictate the need for cultural fluency and proficiency. Presently, the Department of Psychology has several courses in which topics relevant to these issues are broached, but none in which the methods, implications, and challenges of multiculturalism are dealt with directly and examined in the manner being proposed. Indeed, only two courses have multiculturalism as a primary topic of focus (PSYC241W: Psychological Mechanisms of Bias & Oppression; PSYC270W: Black Psychology). However, both of these are “W” courses, thereby limiting both the number of students served (to a combined total under 50 per year), and the nature of the instruction, student participation, and evaluation. While the proposed course is likely to share some small overlap in content with PSYC270W, restrictions will be implemented to exclude students who have already taken PSYC241W (Bias), and/or the proposed course should be used to replace PSYC241W completely.

The proposed course aims to specifically satisfy the new Group IV general education requirements. The focus of the class will squarely be on addressing issues of diversity and multiculturalism, particularly those relevant to various racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. Thus, new and enhanced content and modes of instruction are proposed (as summarized below).

Course & Instructional Objectives:

Students will (i) learn to appreciate, understand, and form explanations for multiculturalism and the need for cultural fluency and proficiency, (ii) be introduced to theoretical perspectives and behavioral research evidence that seek to explain the nature and mechanisms of intergroup relations and the psychology of culture, prejudice, and biased behavior, (iii) explore the psychosocial origins, operation, and consequences of bias for and against various racial/ethnic groups (especially in the U.S.) as reported in psychological literature, as well as popular media, (iv) examine and discuss the components of prejudice, and the dynamics between perpetrators, targets, society at-large, and social institutions, (v) be aided in developing action-oriented strategies for critical thinking and communication about group and cultural differences (and similarities), and the potential and challenges to reducing prejudice through multiculturalism.

In addition to short exams, and assessment of in-class participation and individual portfolios, evaluation of the course in meeting these objectives will involve a mid- and end-of-semester course evaluation, and assessment of student attitudes toward multicultural stimuli using empirically-validated survey and experimental instruments (given at the beginning and end of the course). The group data of students in the course will be compared to data from similarly-situated University of Connecticut students who do not undergo multicultural instruction. Importantly, only consenting students will participate (anonymously) in these latter assessments, and approval of all research methods and material will be obtained from the Institutional Review Board of UConn’s Office of Research Compliance.

Modes of Instruction & Teaching Innovations:

(i) Students will be guided in developing and maintaining an individual portfolio for the class. Accordingly, a secure “webcast” program will be added to WebCT so that students can communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and classmates, submit assignments, participate in demonstrations of psychological experiments (see below), and maintain a “blog” for the course. (Note: webcast refers to generation/retrieval of data from an Internet-based program, while blog refers to an Internet-based journal made up of updated entries that are arranged chronologically). Adding webcasting and blogging to other capabilities of WebCT will be important applications of technology for instruction and evaluation as full records will be kept of content, reviewer vs. author changes, time-of-postings, etc. In addition, these tools can also serve to elicit intrinsic motivation and critical thinking as students get to compare their own quizes, survey responses, and (initial) experimental data to subsequent trials, and other participants’ (grouped) data, as well as control their work progression and submission, and see their work unfold in stages and derivations.

(ii) To enliven learning and help crystallize students’ understanding, several psychology faculty whose research relates directly to diversity and multiculturalism, such as Drs. Dovidio (aversive racism), Pratto (social dominance), Quinn (stigma), and Williams (racial identity), will be enlisted for use of their laboratories to demonstrate these phenomena. Such demos will be preceded (or where necessary, followed) by instruction to integrate the concepts underlying the research. For example, in the laboratory, we can demonstrate potential divergence between explicit and implicit attitudes towards members of different racial/ ethnic groups by showing students how self-reported ratings of familiarity with other races may vary greatly from physiological startle reactions to an other-race face. Similarly, very powerful learning about multiculturalism and bias also can be inculcated by teaching students about the meaning of response time (or latency), then having them use their individual portfolios to confidentially record (and track changes in) their latency-based implicit attitudes toward various racial/ethnic groups as they go through the course.

(iii) Examples from both popular media (e.g., motion pictures, television programs) and academic media (e.g., educational videos) will be reviewed for course inclusion to enhance learning by increasing student engagement. Following the presentations, students will post reactions to their web portfolios and, in subsequent class periods, facilitated small-group discussions will be used to expose students to peer reactions, while a “triage” lecture period will highlight and integrate relevant concepts from media presentations and class discussions with research and theory. Babbidge/Culpepper library staff will be consulted to acquire, and then make such media available out-of-class to allow students of multiple learning styles and speeds to acquire knowledge in more individual ways. For instance, examples of news broadcast and print media coverage after the murder-charge/arrests of actor, Robert Blake and athlete, O. J. Simpson can be used to explore how seemingly benign presentations (e.g., Newsweek magazine significantly darkened Simpson’s complexion in a cover photograph) may reflect racial stereotypes.