PSYC 3007: Influence And Persuasion

 

People who join the helping professions, such as teaching, counseling, and crisis work, often speak about their passion to serve others. If you have ever been in a class or a work environment where you stood for others without a voice or for a cause you believed was right, you can be considered a social advocate. Social advocacy is one way as a Walden student and beyond that you can forward social change and fulfill the Walden University outcome to facilitate positive social change.

The persuasion theories and strategies that you are studying this week can add to your bank of knowledge and research to support you taking action as an advocate. This Assignment is an opportunity for you to practice use motivation and compliance strategies in your efforts to bring groups together to change minds and hearts.

For this Assignment, you will respond to the following scenario:

You are a social advocate for a group of individuals in your community who feel disconnected from the community because of their distinguishing characteristic(s) (e.g., language, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, beliefs) and have experienced discrimination. Members of this group want to use a room at the local community center for a much-needed program (e.g., language classes, an after-school program, a support group, etc). However, the individuals who run the community center, known as The Board, have a reputation of denying proposals from minority groups. As this group’s advocate, you believe that if you can get the two groups together, understanding and an agreement might be reached.

To prepare:

• Review the Week 5 Learning Resources.
• Fill in the details of this scenario. Choose a group that you would advocate for based on your experience or interests, and identify a focus of their proposal based on a realistic need.
• Consider that The Board’s funding contract has a clause about serving the whole community.
• Consider which strategy you learned about this week – either the “foot-in-the-door” strategy or the “door-in-the-face” compliance strategy – would be more effective in working with The Board; the goal is to get The Board to the meeting to hear your group’s proposal.
• Consider how to use cognitive-dissonance theory to persuade a change in view by The Board in your scenario.

By Day 7

Submit a 3- to 5-page paper that includes the following:

• Using either the foot-in-the-door strategy or the door-in-the-face strategy, explain how you will get The Board to attend an information meeting about the group’s proposal.
• Explain in enough detail to demonstrate that you understand the strategy, and why you believe the strategy you chose will work to motivate The Board to come to the meeting.
• Assume your strategy worked and The Board is now at the meeting where your group is going to present their proposal. Your next goal is to get the board to feel dissonance. Explain why you want the Board to experience dissonance. Next, based on your readings, discuss the specific activity that will believe will induce these feelings and why you chose this activity.
• Based on the techniques to relieve dissonance discussed in Chapter 11, describe an activity you will provide at the meeting to help The Board relieve their feelings of dissonance, and explain why your activity will be effective in helping them to relieve their dissonance. Why will relieving the Board’s dissonance be an important part of your meeting with them?

Evaluate the ethics of using these compliance strategies and explain your reasoning based on specific ethical guidelines.

PSY 211 Research Design Worksheet

 

Citation of Literature

S.M. Watson, C. W. (2007). A Framework for Addression the Needs of Students Prenatally Exposed to Alcohol and Other Drugs. Preventing School Failure, 25-33. S.N. Mattson, K. C. (2006). Focused and Shifting Attention in Children with Heavy Prenatal Alcohol Exposure. Neuropsychology, 361-369. Tracy Dennis, M. B. (2006). Reactivity and Regulation in Children Prenatally Exposed to Cocaine. Developmental Psychology, 688-697.

 

Gap Identification

Prenatal exposure to drugs is when a child is exposed to drugs before being born while in the mother’s womb. This happens because it can pass through the placenta from the mother to the child. Some of the drugs include alcohol and cocaine. For my research, I looked at articles that talked about the effects of drugs in kids who were exposed to drugs prenatally.

 

Research Question

In all the three articles, the authors have focused the research on children that have been exposed to drugs before birth and the consequences of the exposure in terms of learning and behavioral problems. The first two articles focused on children who had been exposed to alcohol as well as other drugs, while the last one looked at pre-schooling kids prenatally exposed to cocaine. All the researches have focused on the effects of the drugs in children and the problems the children are facing. However, the articles have not looked at how the children can be helped to cope up with these challenges and how education institutions can help them not fail in their studies. According to all the articles, the children have slow problem-solving skills as compared to healthy children. Therefore, my research question will be, ‘how can educators prevent school failure among learners that have been exposed to drugs prenatally?’

 

Research Design

The research method that I will utilize is survey and observation. The article done by Watson et al. has some areas where educators need to focus on when dealing with learners that have been exposed to drugs prenatally. In my research project, I will use a small population of educators and learners prenatally exposed to drugs as well as the mother of the child. In the survey part, the mother of the child will have to fill out a form describing the behavior of her child in terms of school and problem-solving skills. The teacher will also fill out a form on the behavior of the sample population of prenatally exposed children. The teacher will indicate the behavior of the child before the research and after the research. The focus will be given to the attention of the learner during certain activities, problem-solving skills, and class performance. The sample population of the kids that I plan to work with is four, ranging from four years to ten years.

The observation part will come in the four weeks program. In this part, the children will be involved in special learning methods with the teachers paying particular attention to the areas noted in the article by Watson et al. Then the teachers and the mothers will again fill out a survey form noting the changes in the learners. The results will be compared and therefore help in creating a curriculum that will prevent failure in learning among prenatally exposed students. I chose this research design because it will ensure that the results are quality and reliable. More so, I have chosen four weeks, which is about a month. Even though the period is short, it will prevent issues such as the sample population pulling out of the program. I also think that this research method is perfect for my project because it engages not only the learner and the educator, but also the parent of the child. This will make the mother feel involved in the growth of her child and to feel special as well. It is essential during research to ensure that the sample population feels comfortable and involved.

 

Issues of Ethics

Some of the ethical issues involved in this research is recording the students when engaging in various activities to assess their behavior. The research will be conducted ethically with consent from the mother on the child being filmed to serve as a record of analysis of the behavior of the child. More so, the mother will need to give records showing that the child was prenatally exposed to drugs and, if possible, mentioning the type of drug the child was exposed to. Also, the teacher should consent to participate in the program and agree to be recorded while educating this child. This will serve as evidence to show the areas in which the educator paid attention to. Also, I will ensure that all the participants, including the children, are informed of what is happening and have adequate knowledge of the research so as to give informed consent. The articles that I used for my research have influenced my decision to address ethical issues because, in all the articles, the participants gave an informed of consent.

To sum it all up, children prenatally exposed to drugs are affected in terms of learning and behavior. They have a problem in understanding the concepts taught in class as well as slow problem-solving skills. These, therefore, frustrate most of them. More so, the children perform poorly in class. My research is, therefore, aiming at looking at ways in which the children can be taught and understand the concept and prevent them from failing in class. The research design will be survey and observation. The learners will be observed as different, and more engaging teaching methods are used. This will lead to a suggestion based on the findings of a curriculum that will help learners that were exposed to drugs before birth to succeed not only in the classroom environment but in their behavior as well and other skills required in life.