CHARACTERISTICS AND INFLUENCE
Try to imagine what it must have been like to elect a national leader before the days of television or even radio. Consider Abraham Lincoln, who ranks among the greatest U.S. presidents. Although he is famous for many of his speeches, relatively few people in the 1860s would ever have heard him speak. Most would not know what his voice sounded like and what impression his words made as he spoke. Many would have seen his image but not know what he was like in person and the impact of his physical presence. Despite how we honor Lincoln today, he was not nearly as popular when he was president. There were plenty of critics who did not see him as competent. Consider one factor—Lincoln’s appearance. If you knew little else about him, how would his photo influence your view of him?
Contrast that experience to what we know today. All forms of media cover the U.S. presidential elections. You get constant opportunities to evaluate firsthand a presidential or vice-presidential candidate’s characteristic as a communicator and qualities as a leader. As you examined through the reading in the text, you may be influenced by a candidate’s social attractiveness, authority, and credibility. Consider how the core characteristics of expertise, trustworthiness, and goodwill apply not only to political candidates, but to other people in our lives and inform how we pay attention to them and how they influence our thinking and actions.
For this Assignment, you will explore the characteristics of a communicator and how source factors in persuasion influence your views of a speaker and the person’s words and ideas. You will analyze a national presidential or vice presidential debate for your response to the two candidates, with emphasis on your judgment of their credibility.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673927
https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673927
To prepare:
Select one of the following U.S. presidential or vice presidential debates as the focus of your assignment: John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon: September 26, 1960 George H. W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro: October 11, 1984 Barack Obama and John McCain: September 26, 2008 Access the media link related to your chosen presidential or vice-presidential debate in the Learning Resources to view the debate. (You are not required to watch the entire debate.) Access the associated transcript for reference in citing examples from the debate. Review the Week 4 reading in the text, paying particular attention to the relevant information in Chapter 12 related to the components of credibility, such as the core characteristics, role of context and types of bias.
Submit a 3- to 5-page paper that addresses the following:
Provide examples of each of the core characteristics (trustworthiness, expertise, and goodwill) for each debater from the debate. That is, if you are watching the Kennedy/Nixon debate, you would give examples of where Kennedy and Nixon each demonstrated trustworthiness, expertise, and goodwill. Evaluate the role of context (culture, or politics, or economics) in the debate. For example, how did the economic downturn during the Obama/McCain debate possibly play a role in how viewers thought about each candidate? Describe the debaters’ biases. Explain the impact of the debaters’ social attractiveness on your analysis. Based on your analysis of the core characteristics (trustworthiness, expertise, goodwill), rate each participant on a scale of 1-5; 1 for not credible and 5 for highly credible. Support your rating with information from the Week 4 Learning Resources and the specific debate. Share your biases for or against each candidate and explain how your biases informed your rating of each person.
Note: Support the responses within your Assignment with evidence from the assigned Learning Resources, including in-text citations. Provide a reference list for resources you
WEEKLY RESOURCES
(https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673946)
BY DAY 7
https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673946
https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/224961/modules/items/9673946
PSYC_3007_Week4_Assignment_Rubric
used for this Assignment.
Before submitting your final assignment, you can check your draft for authenticity. To check your draft, access the Turnitin Drafts from the Start Here area.
1. To submit your completed assignment, save your Assignment as WK4Assgn_LastName_Firstinitial
2. Then, click on Start Assignment near the top of the page. 3. Next, click on Upload File and select Submit Assignment for review.
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