UHB2201: Human Relations

This course examines relations among individuals, groups and organizations. Human relations are considered from the perspectives of:

what individuals, groups and societies consider to be important or unimportant, good or bad, desirable or undesirable (i.e., values);

the processes by which people form impressions and build up knowledge about others and others' behavior (i.e., social cognition); and

the positive or negative feelings or evaluations that people have about themselves and other individuals, groups and societies (i.e., attitudes).

The course recognizes the diversity of values and attitudes in society but also emphasizes values that are shared across cultures. In addition, the research and debate on the impact of values, attitudes and social cognition are critically examined.

Course Objectives:

An educated person should have an appreciation of the factors that influence human relations among individuals, groups and organizations. This module uses research in organizational behavior, sociology and psychology as a basis for students to:

enhance their understanding of the processes of and influences on social behavior; and

apply this understanding in order to work effectively in groups and organizations.

Course Schedule

Lecture 1. Introduction - Framework & Methods

Readings:

McKenna, Ralph J. 1995. The Undergraduate Researcher's Handbook: Creative Experimentation in Social Psychology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Chapter 1: Undergraduates and Original Research in Social Psychology.
Chapter 2: Observational Research on Campus.

Schutt, Russell K. 2006. Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research. Fifth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Chapter 3: The Process and Problems of Social Research.
Chapter 6: Causation and Research Design.

De Vaus, D. A. 2002. Surveys in Social Research. Fifth edition. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. Pp. 52-54.

Lecture 2. Social Cognition - Thinking about Human Behavior

Readings:

Howard, Judith A. 1995. Social Cognition. In Karen S. Cook, Gary A. Fine and James S. House (eds.). Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Plous, Scott. 1993. The Psychology of Judgment and Decision-Making. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chapter 16. Attribution Theory.

Supplementary reading:

Miller, Joan. 1984. Culture and the Development of Everyday Explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46: 961-978. [Focus on pp. 972-976.]

Lecture 3. Social Cognition - Thinking about the Self

Readings:

Fiske, Susan T., and Taylor, Shelley E. 1991. Social Cognition. Second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chapter 6: Social Cognition and the Self.

Supplementary readings:

Pratkanis, Anthony R., and Greenwald, Anthony G. 1985. How Shall the Self be Conceived? Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 15: 311-329. [Focus on pp. 316-324.]

Baumeister, Roy F. 1993. Conceptions of Self and Identity: A Modern Retrospective on Allport's View. In Kenneth H. Craik, Robert Hogan and Raymond N. Wolfe (eds.) Fifty Years of Personality Psychology. New York: Plenum Press. [Focus on pp. 180-184.]

Margolis, Diane R. 1998. The Fabric of Self: A Theory of Ethics and Emotions. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pp. 8-11.

Baumeister, Roy F. 1997. The Self and Society: Changes, Problems, and Opportunities. In Richard D. Ashmore and Lee Jussim (eds.) Self and Identity: Fundamental Issues. New York: Oxford University Press. [Focus on pp. 204-214.]

Lecture 4. Social Cognition - Interconnections with Other Disciplines

Readings:

McKenna, Ralph J. 1995. The Undergraduate Researcher's Handbook: Creative Experimentation in Social Psychology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Chapter 9: Nonreactive Campus Research.

Supplementary readings:

Hooper, Beverley. 1998. Flower Vase and Housewife: Women and Consumerism in Post-Mao China. In Krishna Sen & Maila Stivens (eds.) Gender and Power in Affluent Asia. London: Routledge.

Anderson, Carol M., and Stewart, Susan. 1994. Flying Solo: Single Women in Midlife. New York: W. W. Norton. Pp. 50-77.

Lecture 5. Attitudes - What Are They?

Readings:

Oskamp, Stuart, and Schultz, P. Wesley. 2005. Attitudes and Opinions. Third edition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Chapter 1: Background: History and Concepts. [Focus on pp. 3-13.]
Chapter 3: Explicit Measures of Attitudes. [Focus on pp. 44-60.]
Chapter 4: Structure and Functions of Attitudes and Beliefs. [Focus on pp. 88-92, 98-110.]

Supplementary readings:

Ward, Colleen A. 1995. Attitudes Toward Rape: Feminist and Social Psychological Perspectives. London: Sage.
Chapter 2: Attitudes Toward Rape and Rape Victims: Survey Research.

Lecture 6. Attitudes - How Do We Learn Them? What Are Their Functions?

Readings:

Oskamp, Stuart, and Schultz, P. Wesley. 2005. Attitudes and Opinions. Third edition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Chapter 8: Formation of Attitudes and Opinions.

Feldman, Robert S. 2001. Social Psychology. Third edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Chapter 11: Persuasion: Changing Attitudes and Behavior.

Supplementary readings:

Lazar, Michelle M. 1999. Family Life Advertisements and the Narrative of Heterosexual Sociality. In Phyllis G. L. Chew and Anneliese Kramer-Dahl (eds.) Reading Culture: Textual Practices in Singapore. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

PuruShotam, Nirmala. 1998. Between Compliance and Resistance: Women and the Middle-Class Way of Life in Singapore. In Krishna Sen and Maila Stivens (eds.) Gender and Power in Affluent Asia. London: Routledge.

Lecture 7. Attitudes - Problem Areas

Readings:

Stroebe, Wolfgang, and Insko, Chester A. 1989. Stereotype, Prejudice, and Discrimination: Changing Conceptions in Theory and Research. In Daniel Bar-Tal, Carl F. Graumann, Arie W. Kruglanski and Wolfgang Stroebe (eds.) Stereotyping and Prejudice: Changing Conceptions. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Bierhoff, Hans-Werner. 1989. Person Perception and Atttribution. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Chapter 3: Stereotypes.

Supplementary readings:

Chirot, Daniel. 1997. Conflicting Identities and the Dangers of Communalism. In Daniel Chirot and Anthony Reid (eds.) Essential Outsiders: Chinese and Jews in the Modern Transformation of Southeast Asia and Central Europe. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Ng, Yi-Sheng. 2006. SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century. Singapore: Oogachaga Counseling & Support. Chapter 14: A Mother's Story: Khoo Hoon Eng.

Brislin, Tom. 2003. Exotics, Erotics, and Coco-Nuts: Stereotypes of Pacific Islanders. In Paul M. Lester and Susan D. Ross (eds.) Images that Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media. Second edition. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Walsh-Childers, Kim. 2003. Women as Sex Partners. In Paul M. Lester and Susan D. Ross (eds.) Images that Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media. Second edition. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Allen, Irving L. 1990. Unkind Words: Ethnic Labeling from Redskin to WASP. New York: Bergin & Garvey.
Chapter 5: Men…..and One Hundred Epithets for Ethnic Women.

Lecture 8. Attitudes - Interconnections with Other Disciplines

Supplementary readings

LaFollette, Marcel C. 1990. Making Science Our Own: Public Images of Science, 1910-1955. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chapter 5: Women in the Laboratories.
Chapter 6: Scientific Stereotypes.

Twine, France W. 1998. Managing Everyday Racisms: The Anti-Racist Practices of White Mothers of African-Descent Children in Britain. In Jodi O'Brien and Judith A. Howard (eds.) Everyday Inequalities: Critical Inquiries. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Winder, Roger V. P. 1999. Looking Over the Edge: Coping with a Gay Identity in Singapore. In Phyllis G. L. Chew and Anneliese Kramer-Dahl (eds.) Reading Culture: Textual Practices in Singapore. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

Lecture 9. Values - Perspectives, Dimensions & Acquisition

Readings:

Rokeach, Milton. 1973. The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press.
Chapter 1: The Nature of Human Values and Value Systems.

Kekes, John. 1993. The Morality of Pluralism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Setting the Stage.
Chapter 3: The Plurality and Conditionality of Values.

Supplementary readings:

Williams, Robin M. 1979. Change and Stability in Values and Value Systems. In Milton Rokeach (ed.) Understanding Human Values: Individual and Societal. New York: Free Press.

Shalit, Wendy. 1999. A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue. New York: Free Press.
Chapter 12: Beyond Modesty.

Lecture 10. Values in the Singapore Context

Readings:

Kau, Ah-Keng, Tan, Soo-Jiuan, and Wirtz, Jochen. 1998. Seven Faces of Singaporeans: Their Values, Aspirations and Lifestyles. Singapore: Prentice Hall.
Chapter 3: Values and Traditions.

Quah, Jon S. T. 1999. Searching for Singapore's National Values. In Jon S. T. Quah (ed.) In Search of Singapore's National Values. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

Rasheed, Zainul A., and Mahizhnan, Arun. 1999. The New Environment, the Young Singaporeans and National Values. In Jon S. T. Quah (ed.) In Search of Singapore's National Values. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

Supplementary readings:

Quah, Jon S. T. (ed.) 1999. In Search of Singapore's National Values. Singapore: Times Academic Press.
Appendix A: White Paper on Shared Values.
Appendix B: Our Shared Values.

Dacanay, Marie Lisa M. 2006. Social Entrepreneuship: An Asian Perspective. 2nd International Social Entrepreneuship Research Conference, New York, April 7-8, 2006.

Lecture 11. Values in the International Context

Readings:

Freeman, Michael. 1996. Human Rights, Democracy and 'Asian Values.' The Pacific Review 9: 352-366.

Kim, Uichol. 1994. Individualism and Collectivism: Conceptual Clarification and Elaboration. In Uichol Kim, Harry C. Triandis, Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Sang-Chin Choi, and Gene Yoon (eds.) Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method, and Applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Supplementary readings:

Taylor, John. 1993. Are You Politically Correct? In Francis J. Beckwith and Michael E. Bauman (eds.) Are You Politically Correct? Debating America's Cultural Standards. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Ravitch, Diane. 2003. The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Chapter 1: Forbidden Topics, Forbidden Words.
Appendix 1: A Glossary of Banned Words, Usages, Stereotypes, and Topics.

Choi, Jung-Min., and Murphy, John W. 1992. The Politics and Philosophy of Political Correctness. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Chapter 1: The Contours of the PC Debate.
Chapter 2: The Cultural Battlefield.

Lecture 12. Values - Interconnections with Other Disciplines

Readings:

Mahbubani, Kishore. 2004. Can Asians Think? Third edition. Singapore: Times Editions. Pp. 68-92.

Kane, Robert. 1994. Through the Moral Maze: Searching for Absolute Values in a Pluralistic World. New York: Paragon House.
Chapter 8: Environment, Gender, and Culture.

Supplementary readings:

Sheridan, Greg. 1999. Asian Values, Western Dreams: Understanding the New Asia. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Chapter 14: Asian Values on the Road Again.

Etzioni, Amitai. 1996. The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society. New York: BasicBooks.
Chapter 8: The Final Arbiters of Community's Values.

Assessment Methods

Handouts