Discussion: Persuasion and conformity

Discussion: Persuasion and conformity

For this two-part part discussion topic you will describe how persuasion and conformity affect your life.

Identify a source or method of influence that informs, “persuades,” and impacts how you think, act, and view the world. Describe:

the positive and negative of this influencer

what things you could do to improve your ability to become more personally responsible, better informed, and how to exercise greater “critical thinking”

Think of a time you were in a situation where you were influenced by one of the compliance techniques described in the text (e.g. Foot-in-the-door, lowballing, door-in-the-face, that’s not all, law of reciprocity). It could have been with a sales person, a family member, a friend, etc. Identify the:

factors that caused you to conform

whether you think it was a good thing or a bad thing that you conformed – whether you felt manipulated or pressured in any way

In your response posts classmates, add substantive analysis or evaluation that either augments and deepens their concepts or presents alternative perspectives. Use relevant “You Tube” or article links if it they would add to the discussion.

GRADING
To earn the full 15 points, you must complete three important parts in a timely manner and the high quality work must consist of clear, complete, and insightful responses. Originality and creativity in your responses are encouraged. (See Grading and Rubrics for the Discussion Rubric.)

Cite and reference at least one empirical source to support your main and response posts.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.