2020 Election Challenge*

Your “Election Challenge” is to use psychology to persuade at least three people to vote for a U.S. presidential candidate of your choice on Tuesday, November 3. In each case, these people should be individuals who would otherwise vote for another candidate or would not vote at all.

Why?

Why does leadership at the federal level matter? It matters because it can affect issues that are most important to you. Whether you are passionate about student debt, immigration, economic spending allocation (to schools, defense, the social safety net, etc.), social justice, or other issues, both local and national level leadership make a big difference.

Part I. “Approach” three people

In this part of the assignment, your task is to get at least three people to vote for the U.S. presidential candidate of your choice. Use social psychological principles in your persuasive appeal. These people can be:

• Registered voters who were planning to support a candidate other than yours
• Registered voters who were not planning to vote in this election
• Unregistered voters whom you persuade to register and vote for your candidate

Note: You can “approach” anyone (given social distancing and CDC guidelines) face-to-face, online, via face time or zoom. I would not recommend approaching total strangers online as they may not give you the time needed. Also, please note that you don’t need to change minds to get credit for the assignment; the challenge is simply to make your best effort and analyze the experience. Even if you’re not eligible to vote in the upcoming U.S. election, see if you can persuade three eligible voters to support your chosen candidate. To make the assignment as fair as possible, students who are U.S. citizens should not trade their own vote in order to persuade others to support their candidate, and they should not count their own vote among the three.

Keep in mind that it usually much easier to convince people to vote*, than to convince them to vote for your candidate. Voter turn out matter too! The more people who are able to vote, the more our leadership represent the voice of the people. One way to boost voter turn-out is via personal conversations between people who trust each other. (Links to an external site.)

Part II: Write About Your Experience

Turn in a one or two-page description of your activities, the reactions people had, and your best estimate of how many votes you ultimately secured for your candidate. When drafting your paper, make sure it explicitly discusses at least three concepts from the course. For example, you could use concepts related to source attributes, routes to persuasion, fear appeals, foot in the door technique, foot in the face technique, cognitive dissonance, attitude inoculation, etc. Please see the text for more ideas.

FYI: How and where to register to vote: Nationally (Links to an external site.) or if you live in Texas (Links to an external site.)

*If you find that you do not want to do this assignment, you can opt-out. Instead, turn in a paper that focuses on using psychology (and in particular the concepts from this unit) to increase voter turnout. You will need to discuss at least 3 concepts from the text and find one empirical, peer-reviewed journal article on the topic to support your conclusions.

(c) Jamie Hughes 2020 (adapted from action teaching.org)

THE LINK FOR  personal conversations between people who trust each other    https://qz.com/1449789/votewithme-app-shows-if-friends-and-family-voted/

THE LINK FOR NATIONALLY   https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

Target Behavior and Outcome Criteria DefinitionThis assignment is the first component of your course project. Identifya real-life case example to study from your current workplace, your research, or the course resources. Please make sure you choose a case study that will allow you to fully explore all the course competencies as you progress through your project components. Refer to the syllabus for a full list of the course competencies.For this assignment, you will be assessed on your understanding of the following course competencies: Recommend intervention goals based on client preferences, supporting environments, risks, constraints, and social validity. Communicate in a manner that is scholarly and consistent with expectations for professionals in the field of psychology.After selecting your case study, you will: Identify the target behaviorin your case study. Define the target behaviorin your case study. Your definition must be objective, clear, and discriminative so your instructor can understand what is and what is not an example of the target behavior. Well-written target behavior definitions are necessary to accurately and reliably measure behavior and to aggregate, compare, and interpret data. Well-written definitions are also necessary to guide ongoing program decisions, apply interventions consistently and accurately, and provide accountability. Explain the social significance of the target behavior. Define the outcome criteria for changing the behavior in the case study.Outcome criteria should reflect the goal for completion of the intervention. The outcome criteria should be specified before any intervention effortsbegin.How to Organize Your PaperUse the following subheadings in your paper and format your subheadings in current APA style. Case Study Description. Target Behavior Definition. Social Significance. Outcome Criteria Definition. References.Assignment RequirementsYourassignment should meet the following requirements: Written communication: Should be free of errors that detract from the overall message. APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style guidelines. Resources:3–5scholarly or professional resources. Length: 5–6double-spaced pages, excluding title page and list of references. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.

Please download this activity, type your answers, and then turn it in using the link below. This is due by the end of week 7.

Background

This case involves a comparison of American reactions to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the U.S. drone attacks in Yeminiand Pakistan. The Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting occurred on December 14th 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. A young man named AdamLanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide. Lanza was said to have obsessive compulsive disorder and his father suspected he may have had other mental disorders (Solomon, 2014). The reaction to the Newtown shooting is compared to reactions to the U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen beginning in 2009 (Smith, Rondeaux, & Warrick, 2009). Amnesty international in 2013 called several of these attacks unlawful because civilians who were killed were unarmed (“U.S. drone strike killings in Pakistan and Yemen ‘unlawful,’” 2013).

The news article was written following the Newtown shooting by a journalist, Glenn Greenwald, at The Guardian (this is a U.K. publication) The author argues that Americans are prejudiced against Muslims. He suggests that our shared outrage about the Newtown shootings on the one hand, and our indifference toward Pakistani and Yemeni children killed as a result of our “war on terror” provides evidence of the dehumanization of Muslims. The story may be linked to other issues involving racism in America such as the 2014 incident with Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO which spawned the tweeted hashtag #blacklivesmatter and associated political activism. Close readers of the article may also note how the author focuses on President Obama as the causal agent responsible for promoting dehumanization and racism. This may be contrasted with racism toward the President within and outside the U.S.A.

To learn more about anti-Black and anti-Muslim racism or to discuss other issues related to dehumanization, aggression, and prejudice please post to the discussion board (miscellany section or student lounge) or contact the instructor. I can recommend a number of very good articles on this topic or point you toward organizations for activism (nationally such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the MuslimARC, or NAACP; contact me for more information or for info about local organizations).