Social Psychology Demonstrations
Demonstrations
are a fun way to learn psychology and bring it to your friends and family.
And, as a bonus, you can come back and tell the class what happened!
In pairs, you will be assigned to do one demonstration to try out on
a handful of people (6-8 or so). You will then teach the concept to
the class and report what happened when you tried it out. You will also
write a short paper.
Presentation
(20 pts): Easy. Create a presentation in PowerPoint (required).
This presentation needs, more than anything, to be CLEAR! It should be
about 5 minutes long (not longer).
- Describe
the phenomenon (find the info in the text and your primary sources).
- Describe
what you did, that is, your method (show us your stimulus materials).
- Describe
what happened - did most people conform to expectations? If not, why
do you think they didn't?
Paper
(60 pts): The paper should follow the format of an empirical research
report but does not need to be quite as formal.
- In
the introduction, describe the concept/phenomenon briefly (probably
in a couple of paragraphs). You need to CITE primary sources here -
use can use PSYCINFO to find at least 2 primary source JOURNAL ARTICLES.
- In
the method, mention how many people you included and why you chose those
people. Describe the task you had people do.
- The
results will be descriptive - in general what did people do, what was
their reaction. Did it go as planned? Averages may be good to include
too, if appropriate.
- Finally,
the discussion section should simply focus on whether or not the demo
"worked" overall, and why you think it did (or didn't).
You
should include your stimulus materials as well. I expect the paper will
probably be 3-5 typed, double-spaced pages. The paper is due on the day
you give your presentation in class unless other arrangements have been
made.
NOTE:
- I
will assign each pair a general topic, but you will need to come talk
to me at least one week before your topic is presented in class to discuss
a more specific project.
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