Make Social Psychology Deanza College Smoking An

Assignment: Pick a real-world current event and analyze it from a social psychological perspective.The broad objective of this assignment is to make social psychology “real” by discussing how anactual social event can be understood using the social psychological theory and research you have learned about in this course.

Describe your “Current Event”: The event can be any current event that was reported in a newspaper, magazine, TV, or on the internet during Fall 2019-Summer 2020. The event does not necessarily have to be a “serious” news story; a “pop culture” event is fine. You may not use apersonal anecdote from your own life. Make sure to describe the event in sufficient detail so that we can understand it. You must also include a link to the newspaper or magazine article where you found the event in your references.

Describe your Theory, Concept, Research: You can choose any one or more of the social psychological theories, concepts, research findings we have talked about or read about in class. Please do not give a detailed description of all nuances of some social psychological theory. Provide a straightforward discussion of the theory, concept, or research you are going to focus on in your paper, describing it in sufficient detail so that we know you understand it and its relevance to understanding your chosen social event. Include references to the scientific literature you drawn upon (e.g., as cited in the Gilovich et al. textbook). Outside reading is fine, but not required. This is not meant to be a literature review, but rather a “thought piece”: show your thinking and apply whatyou have learned about social psychological theory to a real-world event.

Describe How the Theory, Concept, Research Helps “Explain” the Event: This is really the main purpose of the paper. The challenge is to pick an event that illustrates how one or more of the social psychological processes we have learned about helps explain how/why that particular social event unfolded. The best answers will be ones in which the explanation is original and where details of the event can be used to support your argument that the social psychological phenomenon really played an important role in how the event unfolded. For example, do not simply pick an act of violence and then describe all the different theories and research findings about aggression. Pick an event that can really be better understood by invoking (for example) cognitive dissonance theory, or correspondence bias, or the foot-in-the-door technique (among many, many others) and try to“make your case” by citing specific aspects of the event (e.g., quote from witnesses, descriptions inthe media) that bolster your point.

5 pages length.