The goal of this second complex writing assignment is for students to display their abilities to connect social psychology phenomenon to life.
The task for the assignment is as follows:
- Choose one of the social psychology topics listed below
- Topics: Routes to Persuasion, Cognitive Dissonance, Conformity, Groupthink, Compliance (any one of the techniques, either as presented in video lecture or in the book), Obedience, Stereotype, Prejudice, Discrimination, Altruism/Prosocial Behavior, Bystander Effect, Diffusion of Responsibility
- Choose a popular media topic that you can see through the lens of one of those topics. What is considered popular media is broad in scope and you have freedom to choose from within. This can include a popular television program, a well-known individual (fictional or real), a recent news headline, etc.
- Examples (you may not use these for your own):
- The current Nespresso commercial with George Clooney, from the routes to persuasion framework
- (From Krem.com): “Washington veteran with error in military record finds hope after ‘discrimination,’” from the discrimination framework
- Michael Scott and the episode “Diversity Day” from The Office, from the stereotype framework
- Examples (you may not use these for your own):
- Describe how the popular media topic fits within the framework of the social psychology topic.
- At least 3-4 sentences describing the social psychology topic (you can use the lecture notes or Chapter 15 from your book for this, but be sure not to plagiarize [use quotes!])
- At least 2-3 sentences describing the popular media topic.
- Example: Briefly describe the Nespresso commercial, or the news article, or the episode of “Diversity Day” from The Office. Enough that someone who is not familiar with the topic has a general understanding (assume I don’t know that episode of The Office, or I don’t know the commercial)
- At least 3-5 sentences connecting the popular media topic to the social psychology topic
Grading for the Assignment
Responses should be 8-12 sentences (no more, no less).
Students will be graded on their ability to reply in a clear, concise, and grammatical way, and on their ability to accurately respond to the prompt.
The rubric is as follows:
| Assessment Criteria | Student Learning Outcome | Exemplary 50 | Proficient 30 | Non-Proficient 15 | Poor/Absent 0 |
| Creative Thinking | Students will: Integrate alternate, divergent, or contradictory perspectives or ideas.Connect ideas or solution in novel ways.Create a novel or unique idea, question, format, or product. | Response is thoughtful, contains substantive insight and analysis in relation to topic. Makes strong connections to readings, lecture, experience, workplace. | Response demonstrates understanding. Insight and analysis is adequate. Evidence of connections to larger issues, personal perspective. | Content of response is reasonably accurate but superficial. Some aspects of the response may be off topic. Acknowledges connections exist. | Lacks depth; responses too general, cursory, simplistic in nature. Some aspects of response are off topic. Posts lack connections. |
| Written Communication | Students will: Clarify the purpose of the documentConvey meaning clearly throughout the documentOrganize document logicallyMake choices concerning style, tone, and degree of complexity appropriate to the audience | Response is free of grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. | Response is mostly free of grammatical, spelling and punctuation. | Responses has a limited number of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. | Response contains many grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. |
