A highly relevant construct that may need more emphasis in our psychology courses is genetic attributions. Attributions are causal explanations people make for specific behaviors, characteristics, occurrences, or differences. Research has found that genetic attributions are related to numerous biopsychosocial phenomena (e.g., perceptions about…

Research in social psychology has the potential to address real-world issues involving racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Literature on confrontation suggests that addressing racism can be seen as a persuasive act that will allow for more effective interpersonal interactions. In this article, we explore the persuasive…

Full-time teaching-focused faculty at research universities may hold alternative titles such as Assistant Teaching Professor, Instructor, or Lecturer. We manipulated the title of a fictitious faculty target to investigate how such titles are perceived. Student and lay respondents (N = 317) respected and liked all targets, and their ratings did not…

Over the past several decades, the shifting social climate has led to a steady increase in legal rights, social acceptance, and visibility for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. However, there are still marked individual differences in levels of sexual prejudice as well as varying levels of comfort and exposure to the LGBT…

This article presents some psychosocial aspects of disability linked to the person--environment relation that teachers should share in the psychology classroom. Disability is an often-overlooked form of diversity, one that teachers should discuss alongside race, gender, sexual orientation, social class/socioeconomic status (SES), religiosity, and…

We describe an active learning exercise to teach students about social stigma. After lecturing on the topic, the instructor distributes a worksheet and shows several clips from the movie "Shrek," pausing after each clip to lead a discussion of the concepts. We provide information about the movie scenes, the student worksheet, and…

It is important to understand the many controversies about cognitive sex differences because beliefs about these differences are often used to justify pubic policies and individual actions. As teachers of psychology, we need to provide a safe environment where students can think and argue about why, how, and how much females and males are similar…

Discussing socioeconomic status in college classes can be challenging. Both teachers and students feel uncomfortable, yet social class matters more than ever. This is especially true, given increased income inequality in the United States and indications that higher education does not reduce this inequality as much as many people hope. Resources…

The authors describe a demonstration of stereotype use in everyday language that focuses on common phrases reflecting stereotypic beliefs about ethnic groups or nationalities. The exercise encourages students' discussion of stereotype use. Students read 13 common phrases from the English language and stated whether they had used each phrase and…

Research suggests that university students tend to hold negative attitudes about older adults. However, there is some evidence to suggest that these ageist attitudes can be challenged and changed through curricular intervention. The current study was designed to determine whether the "Activities of Older Adults" exercise as part of a…

Abnormal psychology instructors often use traditional and personal methods to educate students about and improve student attitudes toward mental illness and professional help-seeking. Data from abnormal psychology students (N = 190) were used to determine if and how students' attitudes toward mental illness and professional help-seeking attitudes…

Neumann (2005) called for an analysis of marginalization and inclusion of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students in psychology. As psychology instructors begin to infuse such content, the curriculum still overwhelmingly neglects the transgender community. This invisibility of transgender people within psychology courses allows for perpetuation of…

We designed a classroom activity to foster students' understanding of what schemas are and how they function. We used a video of the instructor as an infant to illustrate how schemas influence gender stereotyping. Before the video, we told students that the baby was either a boy or a girl. After the video, students rated whether the baby would…

To challenge students' stereotypes about gendered performance on motor skills tasks, we developed a classroom active learning demonstration. Four 3-person, same-gender teams received either a Barbie(r) doll or a Transformer(r), and team members dressed the Barbie or manipulated the Transformer from a tank to a robot as quickly as possible, with…

Describes an evaluation instrument which measures student attitudes and misconceptions about college psychology. (JR)