Instructor: Catherine Puckering, Department of Communication, College of Letters and Science
Description: The theme of the proposed freshman seminar is persuasion and social influence in action. Course material will include a review of some of the most important compliance tactics used to get us to say, “yes.” As a communication-related seminar, focus will be on the style and content of influential messages we encounter on a daily basis. A range of topics will be explored, including reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. We will consider how we use these concepts in our own persuasive attempts and how these concepts are used by advertisers and businesses to get us to purchase their products and services, by politicians to influence our votes, by health professionals to get us to engage in healthier lifestyles and by family and friends to get us to accept their opinions and values. Participants in the proposed seminar will view and analyze real-life examples of persuasive messages. The primary goals of the seminar will be to provide participants with knowledge about influence strategies they encounter on a regular basis, an understanding of how to create more effective persuasive messages, and strategies to resist unwanted influence attempts.
Format: The first seven meetings will include mini-lectures by the instructor, small group exercises designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply concepts, and brief video presentations. These meetings will be structured around the material presented in Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: Science and Practice. The remaining three classes will be reserved for discussion of students’ individual research projects. Students will attend a two hour seminar once per week for the ten week duration of the course. In the first seven weeks of the course students will be expected to spend approximately three hours per week reading the assigned material and gathering examples for class discussion and one hour per week gathering materials for their research projects. By the eighth week of the course, it is expected that students, in regular consultation with the instructor, will spend their time researching and preparing either: 1) a portfolio of persuasive messages and accompanying analyses of those messages or 2) an original persuasive message that incorporates an accurate understanding of current research. Grading: There will be two, equally weighted grade components. They will include: 1) a participation grade based on regular and meaningful contributions to course activities and discussions and, in particular, presentation of their individual research project and 2) the research project described above.
About the Instructor: Catherine Puckering earned her M.A. in Communication Studies from CSU, Sacramento in 1999. She is currently working on her Ph.D. from the Communication Department at the University of Washington. Her areas of interest include social influence, instructional communication and interpersonal communication.