My teaching interests focus on attitudes, persuasion, and research methods in personality and social psychology. Three courses I am currently teaching are described below, with links to course websites, where available.

Psychology of Persuasion

This advanced undergraduate course examines the psychological processes that underlie persuasion. Central and peripheral routes to persuasion are discussed in the context of direct social encounters and in relation to mass communication. The course provides a background review of attitudes, their measurement, and their relation to behavior. This is followed by a discussion of several principles of interpersonal influence, including the principles of reciprocity, consistency, commitment, and modeling. The next part of the course is devoted to a review of theory and research on persuasive communication. The Hovland school and other classical approaches are contrasted with more recent developments, such as the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. The last part of the course briefly considers the application of these psychological principles in such areas as consumer, health, and voting behavior.

Attitudes and Opinions

This graduate seminar deals with theory and research in the area of attitudes and attitude change. The first part reviews the history of the attitude concept, theories of attitude formation and organization, and methods of attitude measurement; the second part examines the dynamics of attitudes, including the attitude-behavior relation; and the third part deals with communication and persuasion.

Research Methods

This course serves as a graduate-level introduction to the scientific methods and practical aspects of conducting research in social and personality psychology. Emphasis is placed on the development of such skills as experimental design, construction of reliable and valid measurement procedures, critical analysis of research literature, and effective writing of empirical papers.