THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
C&J 557 – Section 001

Seminar: Persuasion

FALL 2007

Olaf Werder Class Time: T 7:00-9:30 pm

Office: C&J 230 Class Location: C&J 121

Phone: 277- 2199 email: owerder@unm.edu

Web: http://www.unm.edu/~werder/

http://ereserves.unm.edu (password: lobo557)

Office Hours- (T 5:00-7:00 pm) and by appointment

Course Materials

Required Text

Your required texts are:

O‘Keefe, Daniel J. (2002). Persuasion: Theory & research (2^nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Supplemental readings are available on our course web site. You are responsible for making sure that you have read all the readings and supplemental in-class handouts and assignments if you were absent.

Suggested Texts

Listed below are some supplemental books that may be useful resources to you during the semester.

Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2007). Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (3^rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon (excerpt chapters will be provided).

Rice, R. E., & Atkin, C. K. (Eds.) (2001). Public communication campaigns (3^rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Stiff, J. B. (1994). Persuasive communication. New York: Guilford.

Rogers, W. (2007). Persuasion: Messages, receivers, and contexts, New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Course Overview

This course is designed to introduce students to the study and application of principles and practices of persuasion in various settings. By reviewing social scientific literature, we will examine the variables involved in successful and unsuccessful persuasion. You will find not only that persuasion applies to all communication contexts (individual, dyadic, and organizational), but also that it can be directly applied to your own experiences.

The course is intended for graduate and professional students in (mass) communication and related social sciences. Students should have some background in the social or behavioral sciences. Upper division undergraduates may be admitted by permission of the instructor. It is not necessary that students have previously taken courses in Mass Communication or Persuasion, although this is encouraged in both cases.

By blending theory and practice, this course (a) provides a starting point for developing knowledge of promotional campaigns, (b) encourages thoughtful criticism of past campaigns based on solid theoretical ideas, and (c) equips students with creative problem-solving skills that hopefully can be applied to the design of actual campaigns.

Ethical Conduct

This course emphasizes ethical practices and perspective. Above all, students and instructors should strive to communicate and act, both in class interactions and in assigned coursework, in a manner directed by personal integrity, honesty, and respect for self and others. Included in this focus is the need for academic honesty by students as stated by the UNM Pathfinder. Students need to do original work and properly cite sources. For example, be aware of plagiarism--directly copying more than 3 or 4 words from another author without quoting (not just citing) the author is plagiarism. Further, dishonesty in quizzes, tests or assignments; claiming credit for work not done or done by others; hindering the academic work of other students; misrepresenting academic or professional qualifications within or without the University; and nondisclosure or misrepresentation in filling out applications or other University records is also considered a violation of ethical conduct.

All such cases will be at a minimum receive a zero grade for that particular exam or assignment and at a maximum may result in failure in the course and be reported to the proper university committee.

Students with Disabilities

Qualified students with physical and learning disabilities needing appropriate academic adjustments should contact me as soon as possible to ensure your needs are met in a timely manner. Handouts are available in alternative accessible formats upon request.

Diversity

This course encourages different perspectives related to such factors as gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and other relevant cultural identities. This course seeks to foster understanding and inclusiveness related to such diverse perspectives and ways of communicating..

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

- gain an understanding of basic theories of persuasion drawn from social science literature and describe different models of persuasion planning.

- be familiar with the study of persuasive effects, source, message, receiver and content factors as well as the process of social influence on the change of attitudes, values, and actions.

- learn to analyze persuasive attempts using these theories and apply an appropriate planning model in the development of promotion programs

- learn to design your own persuasive messages on the basis of these theories on a topic of interest (e.g., health, policy, commercial).

- formulate program goals and objectives and develop an evaluation plan.

-identify instructional strategies for different populations.

-create effective education materials to communicate about programs.

-present a program plan using effective presentation strategies.

Course Evaluation

1) Seminar reports / participation: .............................. 75 pts. (15%)

2) Assignment, homework: …..………………....…..... 100 pts. (20%)

3) Research project: …............................................... 175 pts. (35%)

4) Take-home exam: …………………………….……. 150 pts. (30%)

Your final grade in this class will be calculated by adding the points you have accumulated throughout the semester (up to a possible score of 500 points). Letter grades will be assigned using the following grading scale:

(A) = 500 – 448 (B) = 447 – 398

(F) = 299 and below

Course Requirements

1a. Reading and seminar participation:

Students should read all assigned material by the dates listed in the syllabus and be prepared to participate in a discussion of key topics from the readings. As this is a graduate seminar, the success of this course fully depends on students carefully reading and synthesizing material before class and actively attending each class session. Grading is combined with the reports.

1b. Seminar reports:

Each student will sign up for two reports during the semester. Each report should be 15-25 minutes in length. You should assume that your colleagues have read the article and do not need to have its contents repeated. However, you should draw from the article some key insights and questions and use these to generate discussion. The reports should contain a summary (!) of the key ideas, examples of the concepts other than the authors have provided, case studies/ role play/ questionnaires/ any other form of instructional vehicles that help the class understand the concepts and gets them involved. Also, have a few questions or critiques prepared and have a one-page handout for class distribution. Sign-up will happen in the second week of class. The two reports/discussion leaderships and overall participation are worth 75 points.

2. Assignments:

You have a choice of completing 2 of 5 short papers:

Paper	Topic	Brief Overview
Option 1	Survey Assignment	The option requires students to create a questionnaire and discuss the results and effectiveness of their survey.
Option 2	Magazine Advertisement	The option allows students to evaluate a print advertisement with respect to Maslow’s hierarchy of need.
Option 3	Cognitive Dissonance	The paper requires that students construct a billboard advertisement using the principles of cognitive dissonance.
Option 4	Elaboration Likelihood Model	The assignment requires students to tape a PSA from TV and analyze the message features with the ELM.
Option 5	Fear Appeal	The option allows students to create a flyer/ poster using their knowledge of fear appeals to maximize the effectiveness.

Assignments are due by 5 p.m. on the day indicated in the course schedule and should be submitted to the instructor either in person or electronically (owerder@unm.edu). Each assignment is worth 50 points for a total of 100 points.

3. Research project:

Each student will design a research study that involves some instrument, some stimulus, and some replication or development of a persuasive theory. The paper should be a complete research design with a sample pilot of the instrument and/r stimulus on a real population (classes and groups of professional colleagues are acceptable). The study must involve some of the persuasion theories that we have studied in class and can combine one or more theories. The research design and pilot study should be 15-20 pages in length or of sufficient length to cover the subject. The persuasion research project should have the following features:

a. Research question and/or hypotheses related to persuasion theory

b. Operational definitions related to persuasion theory constructs

c. Literature review and sampling techniques

d. Instruments and procedures

e. Results and discussion of the pilot project

The study should be formatted in a way that resembles the design of a completed study. As such, it should include the appropriate instruments, target audience description and justification for the project.

A useful template for the project can be found in the articles published in Communication Research Reports. To see examples, please check the Communication & Mass Media Complete database of our library. You can follow this link if you use the electronic version of this syllabus. This assignment is worth 175 points.

4. Take-home exam:

On Dec. 4 each student will bring a completed take-home exam to class. The instructor will provide dinner at his house followed by a discussion of your take-home. The exam questions will be given one week prior to the time they are due. The exam will consist of four questions and will be worth 150 points.

Tentative Course Schedule

Date Lecture Assigned Assignments

Topics Readings Due

Aug 21 Introduction

Aug 28 Persuasion, Attitudes and Action Ch. 1 Sign-up reports

Sep 4 Functional Approaches Ch. 2

Sep 11 Belief-based Models Ch. 3 Assignments

discussed

Sep 18 Cognitive Dissonance Ch. 4

Sep 25 Behavioral Intention Ch. 5

Oct 2 Elaboration Likelihood Ch. 6 Assignment 1

due

Oct 9 Persuasive Effects Ch. 7

Oct 16 Source Factors Ch. 8

Oct 23 Message Factors Ch. 9

Oct 30 Receivers and Context Factors Ch. 10 Assignment 2

due

Nov 6 Attitude Behavior Compliance Gaining Readings 1-5

Evaluation and Evidence of Success

Nov 13 Visual, Nonverbal Appeals Readings 6-8

Motivational Appeals

Nov 20 Ethics of Persuasion Reading 9

Nov 27 Take-home exam distribution and review

Research project presentations

Dec 4 Take-home exam due in hard copy Take-home

Meet off-campus due

Dec 11 Final Research

Paper due

Supplemental Readings

1. Hornik, R., & McAnany, E. (2001). Theories and evidence: Mass media effects and fertility change. Communication Theory 11(4), 454-471.

2. Guttman, N. (1997). Beyond strategic research: A value-centered approach to health communication interventions. Communication Theory, 7(2), 95-124.

3. Yzer M.C., Diero F.W., and Buunk B.P. (2000). Can public campaigns effectively change psychological determinants of safer sex? An evaluation of three Dutch campaigns. Health Education Research, 15(3), 339-352.

4. Hornik, R., & Yanovitzy, I. (2003). Using theory to design evaluations of communication campaigns: The case of the national youth anti-drug media campaign. Communication Theory, 13(2), 204-224.

5. Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2007). Compliance gaining, In: Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (3^rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 226-244. [go to EReserves]

6. Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2007). Nonverbal influence, In: Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (3^rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 165-183. [go to EReserves]

7. Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2007). Visual persuasion, In: Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (3^rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 299-321. [go to EReserves]

8. Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2007). Motivational appeals, In: Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (3^rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 271-293. [go to EReserves]

9. Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2007). The ethics of persuasion, In: Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (3^rd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 348-367. [go to EReserves]