Attitudes and Social Influence

Code:

P816

Acronym:

AIS

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Psychology

Instance: 2007/2008 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master Psychology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIPSI	18	Official Curricular Structure 2007/2008	4	-	6	54	162
			5

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

At the end of the semester, students should know the theories developed in the research on attitude and behavior change. They should be able to detect and analyze the processes and the effects of the processes of persuasion and social influence. The students should, moreover, know how to use, ethically, different persuasion strategies, likely to produce a change in attitudes or behaviors in several contexts, namely advertisement, marketing, communication or political campaigns. They should also know how to identify and resist manipulative, unethical, influence strategies.

Program

Attitudes: Definitions, models, measurement
Attitudes: Functions and consequences. Attitudes and behavior.
Persuasion: ancient and modern theories
Persuasion: The source, the message, the target
Majority influence. Norms and normative behaviors
Minority influence. Strategies and effects
Authority, obedience, mind control
Principles and strategies of interpersonal persuasion
Persuasion, influence and mass media
Advertisement, marketing and communication campaigns
Ethics of persuasion. Resistance to persuasion.

Teaching methods and learning activities

2 hours per week: theory
2 hours per week: practice

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Subject Classes	Participação presencial	52,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

Continuous evaluation based on observation, analysis and application of persuasive practices. Attendance required.
Individual final report, including a section on bibliographical research and a section on analysis of influence processes and/or ethical application of influence strategies.

Calculation formula of final grade

Evaluation of practical work : 40% of the final evaluation
Evaluation of final report : 60% of the final evaluation

Examinations or Special Assignments

Practical work of observation and analysis of influence strategies.
Exercises on the application of models and theories of persuasion and social influence.
Redaction of an original work in a domain where influence is exerted, to be chosen by the student.

Observations

Basic bibliography:
Oskamp, S. & Schultz, P.W. (1998). Applied Social Psychology. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Perloff, R.M. (2003). The dynamics of persuasion (2nd edition). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Turner, J.C. (1991). Social influence. Ann Arbour: Open University Press.