Essay question and instructions TASK
1250 words
Background: Many factors may influence if we comply with a request from another person, whether it is to donate money to a charity or vote for a particular political party. This essay topic falls within the field of social psychology and after reading research findings on compliance and persuasion compliance (for example), you will discover the factors that predict whether we are likely to comply with a request from someone.
Scenario: Agnieszka is a 22-year-old female who does not eat meat or animal products, only listens to hardcore punk music and is currently studying law at Macquarie University. While in Cooltown to visit a friend, Agnieszka is approached by Piotrek, a 70-year-old male, who eats meat everyday and only listens to classical music. Piotrek is standing outside Cooltown Station, collecting signatures for a petition to keep government funding for a local radio station that has a small audience and plays classical music.
Before asking Agnieszka to sign the petition, Piotrek engages Agnieszka in a polite and very friendly conversation, starting with “Hello, how are you?” and asking what she’s doing in Cooltown today, where she was born and whether she’s working and/or studying at the moment. It is revealed in the conversation that: Agnieszka and Piotrek both love soccer (but are big fans of rival teams), were raised in very different environments (city vs country, respectively) and both have a very similar surname.
Essay question: Based on the information presented in the scenario , do you think Agnieszka will sign the petition? In your response, list at least three reasons as to why you think Agnieszka will OR will not sign the petition and provide research findings as evidence to support each reason. Note that you must take a position, that is, state whether Agnieszka will, or will not, sign the petition.
Note: The information provided above is more than sufficient to answer the essay question, so do not make any assumptions about the behaviours and/or thoughts of Agnieszka and/or Piotrek.
Important information and things to include in your essay
Clearly state your position (i.e., whether you agree or disagree with the question) and present a critical discussion of the research which supports your position.
You have been provided with seven starter references to help you with your essay. You can choose to use as many or as few of the starter references as you would like. However, it is strongly recommended that you read the starter references first, before doing your own research. They will give you a good idea of the type of literature and research which is appropriate and relevant for your essay.
You will find that some of the starter references have multiple studies within the one article. You do not need to discuss each study from a single article in depth, but instead you can pick one or two studies from the article which help illustrate your point.
Each of your arguments should be supported by at least one primary source from a peer-reviewed journal article. It is not enough to simply cite a study that supports your position. You should provide enough detail about the study so that the reader can understand how the study supports the argument you are making. This might include a brief summary of the method, findings, conclusion, strengths, and/or limitations/caveats.
Incorporate at least one relevant theory into your essay, and highlight whether the research you present is consistent or inconsistent with that theory.
SUBMISSION
An Electronic copy only of the Essay should be submitted via Turnitin software. A hardcopy is not required. Most file types are accepted, but not .pages.
It is department policy that assignments are set in terms of a specified word limit and specified format which are as follows:
1250 words maximum (Please include your Word Count on the title page of the Essay) Double-spaced lines
Correct length essay title
Use size 12 Times New Roman font (or other accepted fonts, see manual for list) Margin of 1 inch (2.54 cm) at the top, bottom, left, and right of every page
The word limit includes in-text referencing but does not include the reference list at the end, nor the title page.
ESSAYS ARE NOT ACCEPTED AFTER THE RETURN OF MARKED MATERIAL.
Penalties for breaching word limit: 5% (i.e., 1.5 ) mark deduction for every 100 words over the limit. For example, essays 1349 words and under, will not receive a penalty. However, essays 1350-1449 words long will lose 1.5 marks, essays 1450-1549 words long will lose 3 marks etc.
Penalties for late submissions: Late submissions will receive a 5% penalty (i.e., 1.5 marks) for every 24 hours after the due date/time, including weekends and public holidays, unless an extension has been granted through special consideration. No late submissions will be accepted more than 5 days after the submission deadline, unless special consideration has been granted. No further submissions will be accepted after the marked assignments are returned and feedback is released to students. All extensions need to be formally requested at ask.mq.edu.au, not the unit convenor or tutors, in line with the Special Consideration policy.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
There are two tutorials are dedicated to how to write in psychology, be sure you have completed these tutorials which also includes an exercise for you to mark an essay using the rubric below.
Specifically addressed the topic and required elements of the essay question. Developed a robust, theoretically solid and evidence based argument.
Accurate presentation of literature demonstrating good knowledge of the research area and perspectives. Thoughtful, insightful, specific, and cogent conclusion on the question/topic.
Overall structure and format of the essay – did each section contain the required elements? Overall style, presentation, language, and grammar.
Citations and references list of sources used, formatted in the latest APA style. STARTER REFS
The starter references are available for download via the Leganto link.
Note: the starter references are the recommended place to start researching the area. Whether or not you chose to cite them is up to you.
Aune, R. K., & Basil, M. D. (1994). A relational obligations approach to the foot-in-the-mouth effect. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 546-556.
Darley, J. M., & Batson, C. D. (1973). “From Jerusalem to Jericho”: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(1), 100–108. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034449
Dolinski D., Nawrat M., Rudak I. (2001). Dialogue Involvement as a Social Influence Technique. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(11):1395-1406. doi:10.1177/01461672012711001
Emswiller, T., Deaux, K. and Willits, J. E. (1971). Similarity, Sex, and Requests for Small Favors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1, 284-291. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1971.tb00367.x
Howard, D. J. (1990). The influence of verbal responses to common greetings on compliance behavior: The foot-in-the-mouth effect. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 1185-1196.
Kruger, D. et al. (2020). Combining observational and survey methods to investigate coalitional psychology: Request compliance and team loyalty. Human Ethology, 35, 53-66. https://doi.org/10.22330/he/35/053-066
Munz, K. P., Jung, M. H., Alter, A. L. (2020). Name similarity encourages generosity: a field experiment in email personalization. Marketing Science, 36(6), 1071-1091. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2019.1220
General Tips and Essay Advice Do not use direct quotes!
Paraphrase, do not copy a passage of text and change a few words – Turnitin will pick up on this and contribute to your score on the originality report.
Reading scientific journal articles can be challenging to get used to, you might have to read one paper a couple times to understand it when just starting out in psychology (but stick with it, it will get easier with practice).
Introductory paragraphs should state the structure of the essay (i.e., what each section covers) and the position taken by the author with respect to the essay question.
Each paragraph should clearly address the essay question – the opening sentence of a paragraph usually reflects what will be addressed in the paragraph and the final sentence in a paragraph is usually a
summation of the paragraph and also demonstrates how this particular paragraph relates to the essay question/s.
Essays should briefly and concisely define any key terms used.
Be sure to clearly state your position and present published studies which clearly demonstrate how the research findings support your position.
It can also be powerful to present published studies that DO NOT support the position you take. However, such counter-evidence should be challenged by critiquing the study (if possible) so as to diminish the veracity of the study’s results. For example, if all the studies you cite to support your position have been conducted with females but the one study that doesn’t support your position was conducted with males, then you could argue that the opposing findings are due to sample differences and therefore do not compromise your arguments and position.
Consider whether the ecological validity of each study you cite compromises or bolsters your arguments. For example, a study conducted inside the lab where participants answered questions about how they predict they would react in certain situations has less ecological validity than a study which records a participant’s behaviour in real-world settings without their awareness.
Conclusions should recap the aim of the essay, the position taken and a very brief overview of the key findings used to support the position take. A concluding sentence that highlights any caveats or limitations of the findings presented or offers avenues of future research, are good ways to finish an essay.
Reference your arguments accurately – if an idea is not your own you need to acknowledge this and provide and accurate citation. If an idea is your own you need to provide evidence from the literature that supports it.
To write a good essay you will need to do your own research and find articles relating to your particular essay argument, and extend beyond the starter references.
There is no set minimum of maximum number of references you need to cite in your essay.
Finally, thoroughly read over your essay and fix all typos and poorly worded sentences before submitting!
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