Syllabus
Questionnaire
Take This Class?
About Presentations
Presentation Schedule
Presentation Samples
Pres. Bibliography
Rating Sheet
Ex Credit
Grades

Exercises

1/8/02 - Check here for updates! Please note that the cap for this class will not be raised. Please check online registration for any vacancies that may open.

1/15/02 - I've added another sample of a good presentation. Be sure to look at it under the "Presentation Samples" link to the left.

1/16/02 - I've added the Presentation Schedule and the Presentation Bibliography to this website. See the "Presentation Schedule" and "Pres. Bibliography" links above left. You can go get your articles now! Hot tip: Get them ASAP in case you run into difficulties.

This course is designed to teach you about influence. We'll explore this subject from a scientific and psychological perspective. We'll examine several forms of this discipline, including persuasion, compliance, propaganda, and mind control--and how to resist these same influences. We'll learn basic, effective persuasion tactics that are effective in changing attitudes and behaviors in a variety of situations. Then, we'll go on to examine applied techniques used by masters of communication: commercial advertisers, experienced social action activists, and the political elite.

• Perloff, R. M. (1993). The Dynamics of Persuasion. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN# 0805804900 or 0805813772

Check in the USC bookstore for availability before ordering online. If you are having difficulty locating the text, you may contact a number of online book sellers or the publisher, including amazon, barnes & noble, borders, campusi, ecampus, and others.

Instructor: Dr. Kelton Rhoads. USC Office Room ASC 129 (on the north side of the building on the first floor, accessable via the concrete outdoor walkway). Office hours are Tuesday 1-2 pm & Thursday 3:30-6:30 pm. You may also call me at work at the number given in class. Please leave a message and your phone number if I'm not in. Note on Email: I dislike email. My email box is filled with hundreds of messages every time I check it (and I check it on an irregular basis). I ignore or delete most of it without reading it, because I rely on filters to auto-delete any mail that is not recognized by my address book. Therefore, I request that students not email me unless we have pre-arranged to exchange files. Although I won't be receiving student emails, I have given you my work telephone number instead. Please call me at work or stop by during office hours if you want to talk to me.

Teaching Assistants: Xiaolu Zhao. Office Room: 332. Office Hours: from 4:00pm to 6:00pm Tuesday & by appointment. Ph 213 740 3939 during office hours. Xiaolu handles in-class issues, absences, etc. Francesca Gardini grades the presentations. She may be reached via email for appointments and questions. Special March Office Hours Tuesdays 10-12 in Office Room: 326. (Francesca is holding office hours so that those who are interested in improving their presentation grades can visit her.)

January 8 & 10

Policies & Syllabus. Introduction. History of Persuasion.
Reading:
The online syllabus in its entirety (but not the online reading assignments found beneath certain dates on the calendar below--those reading assignments are for later in the course). Be sure to access all the links in the upper left hand corner of this page: Syllabus, Questionnaire, Take This Class, About Presentations, Presentation Schedule, Pres. Handout Samples, Pres. Bibliography, Rating Sheet, Grades. Be certain you agree with class policies if you decide to stay in this class.
Assignments:
Complete the online questionnaire and bring it to class on Jan 15 (see "questionnaire" link in upper left hand corner of this page).

January 15 & 17

History of Persuasion continued. Methods & Definitions.
Reading: Perloff, Chapter 1: Introduction
Assignments:
Possible quiz on the syllabus and ch 1.
Refer to the presentation schedule and find your articles for presentation.

January 22 & 24

Ethics of influence. The Persuasion Sequence.
Reading: none assigned.
Assignments:
Refer to the presentation schedule and find your articles for presentation.

January 29 & 31

No class this week--professor is out of town. You should have photocopies of all your presentation articles in hand by now!
Reading: Perloff, Chapter 2: Defining & Measuring Attitudes.

February 5 & 7

Attitudes. Strong Attitudes. Forming Attitudes. Attitudes & Behavior.
Reading: Perloff, Chapter 3: Attitude Formation &
Perloff, Chapter 4: Attitudes & Behavior
Presentations start - the first people to present will be those whose last names begin with the first letters of the alphabet.

February 12 & 14

Persuasion Tactics I.
Reading: Perloff, Chapter 6: Source Factors

February 19 & 21

Persuasion Tactics II.
Reading: Perloff Ch 7: Message Effects. This is the end of the reading for the midterm.

February 26 & 28

Persuasion Tactics III.
Reading: None assigned.

March 5 & 7 - Midterm Test on March 5

March 5: Midterm. Midterm review sheet is here.
March 7 Lecture: Compliance Tactics I.
Reading for March 7: Rhoads & Cialdini (found online here).

March 12 & 14 - Spring Break, No Class

March 19 & 21

Compliance Tactics II.
Reading: Perloff, Ch 11: Interpersonal "Persuasion" (Compliance).

March 26 & 28

Theory: Cognitive Processing Models
Reading: Perloff, Ch 5; Cognitive Processing Models

April 2 & 4

Theory: Social Judgment Theory & Dissonance
Reading: Perloff, Ch 9; Social Judgment Theory
Perloff, Ch 10, Cognitive Dissonance Theory

April 9 & 11

Social and Political Communication Campaigns.
Reading: Perloff Ch 12: Campaigns

April 16 & 18

Using the Rhoads Influence System.
Reading: Perloff Ch 8: Channel and Receiver Factors.

April 23 & 25

Cults & Mind Control.
Reading: Singer, Cults in Our Midst and the 3 cult pages from my website.

April 30 - Final Test - 2-4pm in our regular room. (Thanks to Xiaolu who tracked down the time.) Download the final review sheet here.

A typical class consists of:

1) A review of important points from the previous class period;
2) A lecture, sometimes followed by an in-class exercise;
3) Concurrent student presentations at the end of the period.

Readings, Attendance & Participation: Please read assigned text readings before class, so we can have informed discussions. It's important to keep up with the reading. If you wait until the week before the test to read the assigned material, you won't learn or retain the material as well and you'll likely do poorly on exams. Readings that are assigned in addition to the texts will be found linked to this website under the calendar section. A thorough understanding of the assigned readings will be necessary in order to obtain top grades on the exams and in your project. Attendance and overall class participation (such as filling out class questionnaires, faithfully rating peer presentations, handing in exercise worksheets, etcetera) is considered for scores that border between a higher and lower grade (--unless your absences are egregious, in which case an abnormal amount of absences can lower your grade by a full letter.) Even if you miss a class for a good reason, please don't ask me to excuse it, because no excuse is necessary-- unless, of course, you miss class on your presentation day. Please don't skip class on your presentation days unless you're ill or there's a serious emergency. You'll need to bring documetation of your illness or emergency if you miss class on your scheduled presentation day. You'll be asked to make up two presentations for any presentation you were scheduled to give, but didn't (unless you have a legitimate excuse and documentation, of course). If you must miss a class, please contact a fellow student for notes, since class notes are not available from the professor or the TA.

Not allowed in class: active phones or pagers or other electronic or manual devices that are audible; audio or visual recording devices. Allowed in class: computers (if they are used for taking notes and don't become a distraction) and PDAs (ditto).

Information Presentations: One of the "deliverables" of this class is a database of information to which you may refer later in your career. In other words, one of our collective goals is to acquire and understand the related information that's found in journal articles or book chapters. To this end, information of this sort will be collected, analyzed, and presented in a number of student presentations that pertain to various aspects of attitude or behavior change. You will make several presentations (the actual number is determined by the size of the class) based on articles or chapters you'll read. You will present your findings to small subgroups within the class. Those of you who have participated in "poster sessions" already have a good idea of what these student presentations will be like. The presentations are given in a casual and interactive atmosphere. Past students have told me they liked the presentations--both doing them and listening to them--because peer-to-peer teaching is an effective and fun way to learn. Our class will foster a supportive atmosphere for the presentations, which are graded in such a way that most of the presentations will receive high marks. You will not be graded on your presentational style, but rather on your ability to convey the information you've been assigned to understand and encapsulate. In other words, it's the preparation for, not the execution of, your presentation that's graded. Your peer's ratings of your presentation will be factored into my own to come up with your presentation grades. Questions from the student presentations will show up on the tests. Your presentations will be worth 40% of your grade. There's more information about presentations and tests under the "About Presentations" link to the above left, be sure to read them. We won't be able to start working on presentations until I have a stable count of the number of people in the class; I expect to post assignments during the second or third week of class.

Exams: There will be 2 multiple choice exams which will count for 60% of your grade. (The final may have a few questions from the previous tests, but not many.) The exams will concentrate on your knowledge of the material we've covered and your ability to apply the principles we've learned. You should know the material assigned as reading, the material presented in lectures, and the material given in the student presentations, to do well on the tests. I rely on the tests to motivate your reading of the text assignments, so don't expect to ace the tests if you just come to class and take notes. Some of the standardized test questions that come with the textbooks will be used in the construction of tests. (There's more information about presentations and tests under the "About Presentations" link.)

Paper: There isn't one for this class. Lucky you!

Most documents on this website are available as HTML, text, JPEG and GIF, all of which are handled by modern web browsers. Some documents available on this website are in PDF format, readable by Acrobat-configured web browsers and also the free stand-alone program, Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can get your free copy of Acrobat at www.adobe.com or click on the icon below.

---

Copyright © 2002 by Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.
www.workingpsychology.com
All rights reserved.