Experiential Projects:
Three required projects have been designed to provide students with
first-hand, direct experiences relevant to principles central in our
course.
Note that each of these projects must be cleared /approved by your
section Teaching Assistant PRIOR to enacting them, or you will get
no credit for them. This caution is exercised to prevent you from
engaging in some activity that might be dangerous, illegal, immoral,
or not intellectually productive. Give your TA a brief description
of what you plan to do-- In Writing--, at least a week prior to
the time you wish to begin the activity and get his/her signed approval
before starting out. Questionable projects will be personally discussed
with you, and in some cases with Dr. Z as well, and modifications
negotiated.
1. On Being a Deviant For A Day: The objective is to violate some
basic aspect of your self image for an entire day, without telling anyone why
you are doing this deviant action, and to observe both how others react
to you and how you respond to this experience. You will write a brief
report of 3-4 pages that answers each of these 5 questions in a
thoughtful fashion, using this format:
1) What I did to make myself a deviant; 2) Why I chose that particular
dimension or action; 3) How various people responded to ME; 4) How I
felt, what I thought before and during this experience, and finally, 5)
What did I learn from this experience -- about MYSELF and about deviance/
conformity.
Date report is due: Friday, 2/14, your Valentine to us.
2A. On Being a Target {or an Agent} of Social Influence: The
objective is
to experience sensitively how some other person(s) attempt(s) to
influence you in a specific situation.
You will write a brief report of 3-4 pages that describes:
1) Why I chose that situation to experience; 2) How I presented myself;
3) The physical and social nature of the influence setting; 4) Influence
tactics used on me; 5) How I felt while in the setting; and finally, 6)
What I learned from this experience.
Date report is due: Either Friday, 2/28 or Friday, 3/7
2B. On Being an Agent {or Target} of Social Influence: The
objective is
to experience perceptively the sense of power and achievement in
persuading another person to modify her or his behavior in some directed
fashion -- to start, stop, or change some response. This behavior change
must be in a Pro-social direction, such as getting someone to stop
smoking rather than to start smoking, or to start energy conservation, or
to become less shy, or to give blood to a local blood center, donate to
Stanford University, etc.
(However, Seductions are personal achievements not suitable for academic
credit). You will write a brief report of 3-4 pages that describes:
1) Why I chose the TARGET person and the particular change domain; 2) My
planned change strategies and specific tactics; 3) My actual time line
and procedure; 4) Objective assessment/ evaluation of my efficacy, how
well did it work; and finally, 5) What I learned from this experience.
Date report is due: Either Friday, 2/28 or Friday, 3/7
3. A Self-Directed Change: This is a new assignment for this course
that
is coordinated with the new first section on The Self as the focus of
mind control. During the first weeks of the term, you must select one
aspect of your behavior that you would like to change for the better,
such as, weight control, smoking cessation, shyness reduction,
overcoming procrastination, modifying your biased time perspective, or
any other that you believe you can show some positive results on by the
end of the term.
You will write a brief report of 3-4 pages that describes:
1) The area of personal change sought; 2) Why you desired this change;:
3) What has prevented you from doing so in the past; 4) What strategies
and tactics did you use; 5) How do you evaluate your success, do you
think it will last, and 6) What did you learn from this exercise.
Date report is due: Friday, 3/14, last day of the term
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