Most people spend much of their lives interacting with others in groups.
Families and friendship groups play key parts in transmitting values, norms, and meanings from parents to children and from person to person throughout life. Within ongoing social groups, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of each person affect, and are affected by, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others. Even when a person is seemingly alone, the imagined or implied presence of others constrains her or his thoughts, feelings, and behavior to a greater or lesser extent. This course is an introduction to the theories and research over the last 60 or 70 years that have extended and refined these early insights. There will be three exams and six quizzes.