ABSTRACT
In a social psychology course, Carpenter Sandra assigns a content analysis research project to document stereotypes portrayed in the media. Carpenter Sandra believes that students are impressed with the effects they reliably obtain with the social influence paradigm and with their own ability to develop and execute an informative experiment. Research has consistently demonstrated that learning is substantially facilitated by techniques that actively involve the students. Students formed five groups of four to six individuals, and each group was given a reference list of 12 social psychological experiments. The list included classic studies, such as Milgram's (1963) research on obedience. The laboratory on social influence demonstrates how human behavior may be altered by the actions of others, a phenomenon of keen interest to students and of central import to the discipline. Carpenter Sandra designed the project to develop particular skills. Students from two social psychology classes evaluated the content analysis project using a 5 point, Likert-type scale, ranging from 1.
