The concepts and principles of social perception, social interaction, and social influence can be applied to any social or professional setting.
The concepts and principles of social perception, social interaction, and social influence can be applied to any social or professional setting.
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.
Social Psychology and Science
What are some of the core ideas defined by social psychologists that impact your career and home life?
How is your profession influenced by principles of social psychology?
How can understanding and applying concepts of social cognition and person perception be applied in your personal and professional life?
Preparation
Read the Assessment 1 Context document for information about the subject of this assessment.
Use the Capella library and the Internet to research theories of social psychology and strategies for minimizing social influence in political debates. Some suggestions for keyword searches include (but are not limited to): debate format analysis; moderator influence; the impact of social and mainstream media; self-presentation and visual influence; minimizing bias; presentation style, and voter perception.
The authentic deliverable for this assessment is a proposal with an executive summary. There are many resources on the Internet and free templates or examples, if you choose to use one as a guide for completing this assessment. This assessment is also an exercise in disciplined professional writing. Carefully distilling information to maximize conveyance of knowledge with the minimum of space is as rigorous as writing an academic paper.
Click the link provided to view the following resource, which you will use to complete the assessment.
Executive Summary/Proposal Template [DOC] Download Executive Summary/Proposal Template [DOC].
Instructions
Assume the role described in the following scenario as you complete this assessment.
You are a political consultant to a “better government” citizen group, such as the League of Women Voters. You have been hired to develop guidelines for holding neutral and fair public town-hall style debates, covered by social and mainstream media, to ensure that the voters make up their own minds as free of social influence as possible.
Deliverable
Develop a proposal of research-based guidelines for neutral and fair public debates and media coverage. The first part of the proposal is an executive summary, which should be about one page in length.
The Executive Summary
Writing must be succinct, clear, and comprehensible to a layperson. The purpose of the executive summary is to:
Provide a concise analysis of the problem.
Explain the rationale.
Report the main conclusions.
The first two subheadings constitute the executive summary portion of your proposal:
Analysis of the Issue: Social Influence and Politics
Analyze how social psychology theory can be applied to identify and reduce sources of social influence in a debate setting.
Write an introductory paragraph or two.
Analysis of the Issue: Perception and Bias
Assess how social context (relationships, groups, and culture) influences perception and behavior in a debate setting.
Write an explanatory paragraph or two.
Proposed Guidelines
Write research-based guidelines for fair public debates and media coverage.
Use subheadings to organize content.
Use bullet points and phrases for main points, in addition to short, succinct paragraphs.
Include a visual, such as a graph, table, or chart to succinctly convey information, if you choose.
Guidelines for Fair Public Debate
Integrate principles of social psychology and research to develop guidelines for fair public debate.
Consider the following guiding questions as you develop the guidelines.
How does the format affect voter perception?
How can a moderator influence voter perception?
How can social and mainstream media be managed in a debate for balance?
Consider the implications of visuals and voter perception.
What participant behaviors would you prohibit?
How do you propose to manage the behavior of the audience?
References
Support positions with references from scholarly and professional literature.
Support each guideline with at least one reference using APA format and style.
Additional Requirements
Length: Maximum length is four pages.
References: Your references may include both scholarly literature and practitioner sources. Support each guideline with at least one current reference.
Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and APA format and style.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Analyze methods and principles of social psychology and their application to important social phenomena in contemporary society.
Analyze how social psychology theory can be applied to identify and reduce sources of social influence in a debate setting.
Competency 3: Synthesize social psychological theory and research to generate new understandings of social phenomena in contemporary society.
Assess how social context (relationships, groups, and culture) influences perception and behavior in a debate setting.
Integrate principles of social psychology and research to develop guidelines for fair public debate and media coverage.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the psychological professions.
Support positions with references from scholarly and professional literature.
Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and APA format and style.
Context
Social psychology focuses on the behavior of the individual in a social context. It is the scientific study of how people think, feel, and behave in the presence of others. Research in social psychology has traditionally focused on social perception, social interaction, and social influence.
SOCIAL PERCEPTION
Social perception has to do with how we perceive ourselves, other people, and groups of people. Social interaction includes interpersonal relationships, aggression, and helping behavior. Social influence includes research on conformity, compliance, and obedience to authority. Social psychology also has applied areas that focus on health, law, and business. A fundamental process in social perception is social categorization. We classify people and events based on their similarities to one another. As a result, we develop cognitive schemas that allow us to interpret events and decide how to respond to social situations. An over-reliance on categories and schemas can lead to stereotype formation, which is a root of prejudice, discrimination, racism, and sexismAs recently as the 1980s, the field was dominated by a focus on social cognition. Since then, social psychology has moved beyond this focus on social cognition to a new era that emphasizes research on sociocultural perspectives, social-biological evolutionary perspectives, and the integration of a variety of theoretical perspectives. The development of new technology like the Internet has led to an exciting new line of research that focuses on new types of social interaction such as online behavior.
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Jones & Davis, 1965; Kelley, 1967) explains how we understand our social world. Attributions are the explanations that we come up with to understand our behavior and other people’s behavior. We often base our interpretation of reality on limited information about other people and events and do not have the time or the inclination to fully analyze behavior and situations. As a result, we often exhibit a number of attribution biases (Ross, 1977; Jones, 1990). A few examples of these many attribution biases include fundamental attribution error, false-consensus effect, and actor-observer effect. More recently, attribution theory has been extended to help understand a wide variety of human behavior in interpersonal relationships.
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCES IN OUR WORLD
Social psychology is the scientific study of how behavior is influenced by the presence of others such as individuals, groups, and society. In this course, you will focus on social perception, social interaction, and social influence. You will explore current research and theory in the field and apply it through scenarios, or to your own current or future professional setting.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media are any means of interaction in which people share, create, and exchange information and ideas through virtual communities and networks. The topic of social media was chosen as a general topic of inquiry for this course because the use of social media is changing every aspect of society globally. Understanding how social psychology identifies and anticipates these technology-based changes in our world is an important aspect of understanding the core tenets of social psychology.
References
Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. Wiley.Jones, E. E., & Davis, K. E. (1965). From acts to dispositions: The attribution process in person perception. Advances in Experimental Psychology, 2, 219-266.Jones, E. E. (1990). Interpersonal perception. Freeman.Kelley, H. H. (1967). Attribution in social psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238.Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 173-220). Academic Press.
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