Social Psychology Project 

Spring 2017 | Craig Fredin

This handout helps explain your class project. Your task is to develop a creative project that demonstrates/comments on one of the social psychological phenomena we have covered in class (attitudes, attitude change, conformity, obedience, compliance). I encourage to you to scan through the chapters and explore different social theories, concepts, famous experiments, etc. Find some area of social psychology you have an interest in and further explore that area (i.e. Milgram’s experiment, cognitive dissonance, implicit bias, altruism, Prisoner’s Dilemma, etc). Projects that bring together multiple phenomena are especially encouraged. 

You should use any artistic medium you wish (photography, video, graphic design, prose, poetry, electronic art/design, visual art, etc). The goal is to have you merge your creative side with your scholarly side and integrate social psychology into your everyday life. 

PROPOSAL (Due 2/12): Post/submit in the “Project Proposal” area of canvas a 1-2 page paper describing your project in detail. Address the medium you will be using, the phenomena you will be examining and the general concept of the project. You may submit your proposal early to get a jump start on the project. 

I will be keeping track of your progress via gentle prying, prodding and nagging. Please make a good effort to begin your work early. Contact me with any questions, comments or concerns. 

FINAL PROJECT (Due 4/3): Final projects must be submitted before or on this date by 11:59pm. Projects submitted late will be docked 10 points; projects not handed in before April 10th will be given a 0. 

Grading Breakdown: 

Portion Criteria Point Value 

Proposal: Is it in on time? How thought out is it? 10pts 

Creativity:  How innovative and creative is it? 10pts 

Topic: Is this a topic that is appropriate to Social Psychology / this course?   Were multiple topics integrated? 20pts 

Accuracy: Does your project accurately depict the psychological    phenomenon you chose?  30pts 

Appearance: Is it presented nicely / well put-together? 5pts 

 OVERALL: 75pt

Sample Acceptable / Unacceptable Project Ideas: 

These are simply guidelines. The general idea is that, no matter what specific type of project you are doing, its main focus must be on social psychology. It must be clear that you are meeting the goals of the project listed on the previous page. 

Acceptable: 

Create an online scrapbook of 15-20 advertisements that use specific influence techniques and describe exactly how they use them. Or, create your own advertising campaign that employs influence/attitude change techniques. Or write a play wherein the characters are affected by some social psychological phenomenon. 

Unacceptable: 

Pictures of yourself reading the textbook 

Projects that are irrelevant to social psychology 

Projects in poor taste (e.g. extremely violent or obscene material) 

Projects that involve breaking the law, cheating, harming others, or placing others at ri

More ideas will be posted in the next week. Contact Instructor with ideas to discuss. Remember, you must get approval for your topic by instructor and the project proposal must be completed before due day/time before proceeding with project.