31 Aug Love is Blind
FinalProject Instructions
General Instructions
In this course, wehave provided several examples of how social psychological topics apply to realworld scenarios (e.g., misattribution of arousal in The Bachelor,prosocial behavior with The Subway Hero). Now, its your turn to find anexample of social psychology in the wild. For your final project, your taskis to (1) identify a piece of media that demonstrates a social psychologicaltopic we reviewed in class, (2) find a research study on this topic usingPsycINFO (more instructions to come) to help you describe the topic, and (3) describehow the topic and the research study you found explain the phenomena observedin the selected media.
In addition toapplying social psychological concepts to real world scenarios, an objective ofthis course that you can effectively explain your observations to people whohave a limited knowledge of social psychology. Therefore, you will be allowedto choose how you would like to present your final project. You may submit a:
– Paper (3 4 pages)
–
If you choose to write a paper, you can either write a formalAPA-style paper. Please make sure you present it professionally (i.e., avoid slang in yourpaper).
Step 1
Your first task isto identify a piece of print or broadcast media (e.g., a persuasiveinfographic, news segment, reality television show, documentary, etc.) anddescribe how it demonstrates an example of a social psychological topic. Youmay choose to focus on how the writers/production team exploit social behaviorto elicit a behavior or attitude from subjects in the production (e.g.,contestants) or from the audience (e.g., viewers at home). You alternativelychoose a scene/clip that demonstrates social psychological phenomenon in aninteraction between subjects.
For example, if Iwere to choose The Bachelor franchise, I may critique how the producersplan dates. Throughout the show, the bachelor (or bachelorette) attendone-on-one dates with their suitors. Often, these dates feature exciting andemotionally arousing activities such as splashing out on luxury goods, takinghelicopter rides, learning tantric yoga, or going skydiving. Although thesedates make for fun content for viewers of the show, the producers mayunwittingly evoke misattribution of arousal in the bachelor(ette) andtheir date. Misattribution of arousal occurs when people confuse physiologicalresponses caused by fear or anxiety resulting from perceived danger withfeelings of liking toward another personif this were my real project, Iwould go on to describe a study examining misattribution of arousal and thencompare the experimental scenario with the events on the show, but I alreadydid that in Lecture 8; Close Relationships! J
Be sure to give usa brief overview of the media you selected so we have some context for thesituation. If you are using a specific clip or clips, please provide us with alink so that we can view it or include the clip in your project.
Step 2
After identifying and describing your chosen media, define the relevantsocial psychological topic. Your goal is to explain a complex conceptthoroughly and accurately for an audience who may not know anything about it(so, not your professors).
Then, use PsychINFO or Google Scholar to conduct a literature search and find a research study (preferably anexperiment) that provides evidence of the topic in question. Please download the article you use and attach it to your finalsubmission. In your description of the study, you should include:
– The research question andhypothesis
– The methods the researchersused to test their hypothesis (explain what they had participants do)
– Their results (how didparticipants behave?) and their conclusions (how did they interpret thefindings)
Returning to my Bachelorexample, I would describe the bridge study (see Lecture 8) to explain howmisattribution of arousal functions.
Step 3
Finally, apply the topicand the study to your selected media. Compare the methods the researchers usedto the scenarios in your selected media. What is the overlap? How closely doesthe example you chose map onto the study you described? How do you know the topicis relevant to this piece of media? Think about the pattern of results from thestudydid you observe the same outcomes in the example you provided?
Again, returning tothe Bachelor example, Iwould compare the scenario researchers created in the bridge study to the datesproducers arrange on the show. Then, I would explain how the results of thebridge study are applicable to the outcomes on the showhow do we knowmisattribution of arousal has taken place?
Please use the following clip,https://youtu.be/o-lkX22XOow “Love is Blind” The Lauren and CameronStory. Please talk about the following social psychology topic,Interpersonal relationship, and proximity.
