Assignment on Social Psychology and Health & Stress

Instructions for Social Psychology Assignment

Below are a series of questions based on the chapters we have covered (Chpts.13-16).  You will find your textbook and notes helpful in answering some of these questions.  When uploading your assignment onto CU LEARN,  make sure it is in a WORD or PDF format.  Other formats will NOT BE MARKED.   Make sure your name and student number is included on your submission. The value for each question is indicated.  TOTAL:  47 marks.

Chapter 13 Social Psychology (10 marks)

Rationale:  The purpose of this activity is to review the routes of persuasion and factors that influence persuasion discussed in Chpt. 12.

Instructions:  For this assignment, you will seek out 2 print ads (copy and paste the chosen ads below) for the same or similar product. You will need to find 2 advertisements that demonstrate the 2 different routes to persuasion as described by the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981, 1986).

In other words, one advertisement that you find will have been designed to be processed via the central route, while the other advertisement will have been designed to be processed via the peripheral route.

Next, you will explain how the route is impacted by the characteristics of the following three factors: 1) the source (who is delivering the message), 2) the message (what is the content of the ad and how is it constructed), and 3) the audience (who is the intended audience).

1. Below provide the 2 print ads chosen (copy and paste from your source)

2. Explain (make sure you are clear which ad you are referencing Label them “Ad #1” and “Ad #2”) why one ad is an example of the central route and why the other ad is an example of the peripheral route. It should be clear in your explanation that you understand the definition of both routes.  (a couple of sentences per explanation). 4 marks

3. For Ad # 1 indicate what the source is that is being used. (a couple of sentences). 1 mark

4. For Ad # 1 ad indicate what the message is. (a couple of sentences). 1 mark

5. For Ad # 1 ad indicate who the intended audience is (a few words). 1 mark

6. For Ad # 2 indicate what the source is that is being used. (a couple of sentences). 1 mark

7. For Ad # 2 ad indicate what the message is. (a couple of sentences). 1 mark

8. For Ad # 2 ad indicate who the intended audience is (a few words). 1 mark

Chapter 14 Health and Stress – Case Study (14 marks)

Rationale:  Given the role that stress plays in our lives, students are well-served by considering the symptoms of stress and the differences between adaptive and maladaptive coping.

Instructions:  Read the Stress Case Studies below and answer the questions that follow. 

Stress Case Studies

Read the following case studies, which detail typical daily routines. 

Case study 1

Pawan (38) works as an administrator and lives with his daughter, Aneela (8), in Vanier. This is his typical day:

6.30am: Get up, prepare two packed lunches and start getting Aneela ready.  Chase around with sports kit and try to do some housework including putting on a load of washing.  Coerce Aneela into some clarinet practice (ten minutes arguing, resulting in three minutes practice).

8.00am: Drive Aneela to school then continue to work, a distance of about 10 miles, worrying about Aneela left in an almost deserted playground.

9.00am: Work starts, but I am often late.  Breakfast is a sandwich.  It is not particularly a stressful job and I enjoy it, but I have been there six years and I really need to earn more money or try something different. For practical reasons it would be difficult for me to change so I do get frustrated.

5.00pm: Collect Aneela at 5.30.  She does activities three days, and on the other two I leave work at 3.00pm.

6.30pm: Cook dinner and encourage Aneela to do her homework.

8.00pm: Aneela puts herself to bed while I catch up on bills, paperwork, and housework.  When things get really bad, two or three times a year, I get a horrible racing heartbeat and shoulder pains as I get very tense in my neck and back.  I then start to feel permanently anxious.  My biggest stress is feeling that I cannot devote enough time to Aneela, mainly because of work.  I used to see friends on a regular basis but now I rarely bother as it’s another hassle and expense getting a babysitter for the evening.  I knew early on that I would be bringing up Aneela on my own and we don't live near any family who could help me juggle a job and child.  Sometimes it is hard to make ends meet.  If Aneela is ill, I can't work, and my annual vacation, 25 days a year, doesn't cover the 13 weeks of school holidays.  The company has been good about giving me unpaid leave but I have to take far too much.  It’s difficult having to rely on friends, asking favours all the time makes me very tense.

Case Studies

Answer the questions below:

1. Life events – Identify one stressor that qualify as long term or life-changing.

2. Daily hassles - Identify two day-to-day stressors - the kind which almost everybody experiences every day.

3. Psychological responses - Identify TWO psychological responses to stressors

4. Physiological responses - Identify TWO physiological responses to stressors

Case study 2

Mel, 46, is a Business Analyst.  She, her husband and three children aged 8, 12, and 16, live in Oshawa and she commutes to Toronto.  This is her typical day:

6.00am: Alarm goes and I have an hour to wake up and get ready.  I make a packed lunch and my husband drives me to the station.  The kids are still in bed.

6.59am: Catch the train.  Usually see friends on the train and chat.  The train is supposed to get in at 8.30am allowing me half an hour to start work at 9.00am but the trains are so unreliable that I'm late about three times a week.  I enjoy most parts of my job but I get very nervous about giving presentations. There is also the constant pressure of finding my next contract.

6.00pm: Leave work and catch the 6.30pm train. I try to finish any bits of work on the train.

8.10pm: I'm home, if the train is on time.  My husband has made dinner and the whole family eats together. The kids then go on the Internet and do homework and I'm not usually energetic enough for much more than watching TV by this point.  Commuting is the main stressor in my life and late trains make me furious.  I'm aware that my husband has to do most of the housework and looking after the children - there is always football training and music lessons to taxi them around to.  He also works part time, so I do feel guilty.  Fortunately we have a very strong relationship and I try to spend as much time as possible with my family on weekends.

Answer the questions below:

1. Life events – Identify one stressor that qualify as long term or life-changing.

2. Daily hassles - Identify two day-to-day stressors - the kind which almost everybody experiences every day.

3. Psychological responses - Identify TWO psychological responses to stressors

4. Physiological responses - Identify TWO physiological responses to stressors

Chapter 15 Psychological Disorders: What is Abnormal? (23 marks)

Rationale:  The purpose of this activity is to review criterion for psychological disorders.

Part 1: Instructions: For the exercise below, review the criteria we talked about in class used for assessing abnormal behavior.  Then, for each scenario below, pick ONE criteria that you believe applies.  Write down what the criteria is under each scenario, and provide a very brief (one or two sentence) explanation why this scenario demonstrates that criteria

What Is Abnormal?

1. Terry has been having terrible nightmares at least three times a week from which he wakes up shaking and sweating. _________________________

2. Vanda has visions and hallucinations that she often uses to guide her important decisions. _________________________   

3. Tanya hears voices speaking only to her whenever she turns on television, but she is not upset about it. _________________________

4. Sam is afraid of snakes. He refuses to go for walks where there are trees because of this. _________________________

5. Sandy has been plotting to assassinate the governor next time she appears locally. _________________________

6. Mary continues to be very upset about her sister’s death, even though the accident that killed her happened two years ago. She still wears dark mourning clothes and cries almost every day whenever she thinks of her sister. She doesn’t eat well, and has had problems sleeping for the past two years_________________________

7. Harry is so fearful of crowds that he can no longer ride the bus to work. _________________________

8. Luke, a 35 year old male, often urinates on the street. This behavior has been going on for the past 10 months.   _________________________

Part 2:  Instructions: For each of the following brief case studies, identify the disorder being described.  After you indicate the disorder, identify TWO symptoms from the case study that justifies your answer. Be specific, using the case study symptoms.

1. Edwina is worried, anxious, and sure that something terrible is going to happen to her. She’s not sure what it would be, but she “just knows.” The feeling occurs on almost a daily basis and frequently keeps her awake at night. This has been going on for over a year.

2. Last week, Roger suddenly quit his job. He told his family he had decided to learn carpentry. He purchased a truckload of wood and nails, which now sits in his driveway because he changed his mind and decided to enroll in a school for massage therapy. The school confirms that he registered but that he has not attended class. Roger claims that he can learn all he needs simply from reading the books. For the last 3 days, he has not slept. He started to read the massage therapy books but became so upset by the lack of quality photos in the texts that he bought a camera. Today, he is taking photos for his new career as a photojournalist.

3. Maurice is sleeping 12 to 16 hours a day. Over the last two months, his weight has dropped 10 pounds, and he feels as if it takes all his effort to fix a simple bowl of soup. He feels as if he is sitting at the bottom of a hole and simply can’t climb out.

4. When Angela walks into a room full of people, she turns red and feels that everybody's eyes are on her. She’s embarrassed to stand off in a corner by herself, but can’t think of anything to say to anybody. She finds these experiences to be humiliating and can’t wait to get away.

5. Doug was a soldier with the Canadian forces in Afghanistan. Several members of his group were killed in action. Upon returning home, Doug started having nightmares about his tour of duty. He felt guilty that so many of his friends had been hurt and yet he emerged without a scratch.