Syllabus
Questionnaire
Take This Class?
About Presentations
Presentation Schedule
Pres. Handout Sample
Pres. Bibliography
Rating Sheet
Grades

The presentation schedule has been posted. Please check the link to the above left.

If you look at the words in the title of this course, you'll see that all these areas of investigation converge on the topic of influence and persuasion. Influence is the discipline that concerns itself with either changing (or resisting change) in values, attitudes, and behavior . . . through effective communication. We'll explore humanity's ancient desire to persuade others, but from a modern scientific and psychological perspective. We'll examine several fascets of this discipline, including persuasion, compliance, propaganda, and mind control--and how people may resist these same influences.

The first several lectures will serve as a theoretical "influence boot camp," where we'll learn basic, effective persuasion tactics that are effective in changing attitudes and behavior. After we've completed this basic training, we'll go on to examine applied techniques used by masters of communication: commercial advertisers, experienced social action activists, and by the political elite whose goal it is to achieve and maintain political power.

• 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: USC Office Room ASC 129
USC Office Hours: Tuesday 2:30-3:45, Thursday 5:30-6:45 pm. You can also use email to arrange a phone appointment with me at other times. Brief communications are welcome via email, but I try to avoid lengthy email discussions. If there's a lot to talk about, please come by during office hours.

Please note that I rely heavily on filters to keep my mailbox free of spam, so if you want to send me an email, it's important that:

1) you put the words "COMM 510" in the title/subject line of the email (this will allow the message to pass through the filters);
2) Please don't send unsolicited attachments. If I've asked you to send me a particular email attachment that we've discussed, please send textual material with either Microsoft Word, RTF, or TEXT formatting, and send graphics as JPG, EPS, Photoshop, or Illustrator files. You can "zip" or "stuff" documents before sending them, and you can use binhex or mime encoding to send them.

August 30

Introduction. Policies. History of Communications.
Assignment 1:
Take the influence diagnostic & preferences test during class class.
Assignment 2:
Complete the online questionnaire and bring it to the September 13 class (see link in upper left hand corner of this page).
Reading:
The online syllabus (read the material under the links found in the upper left hand corner of this page).

September 6 - Short Class

Refer to the presentation schedule and find your articles.
Reading:
Perloff, Chapter 1: Introduction.

September 13

Ethics. Attitudes defined and measured. Methodology. Presentation example.
Reading:
Perloff, Chapter 2: Defining & Measuring Attitudes.

September 20

Cognitive Response. Dual Process Models.
Reading:
Perloff, Chapter 5: Cognitive Processing Models of Persuasion
Presentations start.

September 27

Strong Attitude. Forming Attitudes. Attitude & Behavior.
Reading: (last text reading for midterm)
Perloff, Chapter 3: Attitude Formation
Perloff, Chapter 4: Attitudes & Behavior
Presentations.
Presentations included on midterm end here.

October 4

Influence Tactics I.
Reading (for final, not midterm):
Start Rhoads & Cialdini (found online here)
Presentations (included on final).

October 11

Influence Tactics II.
Reading (for final, not midterm):
Finish Rhoads & Cialdini (found online here)
Presentations (for final, not midterm).
Lecture material for midterm ends here.

October 18

The Communicator & The Receiver.
Reading:
Perloff, Chapter 6: Source Factors - Optional (not on final)
Perloff, Chapter 8: Channel & Receiver Factors - Optional (not on final)
Presentations.

October 25 - Midterm Test

November 1

Saleince. Framing. Style.
Reading:
Perloff Ch 7: Stylistic Effects
Excerpt from Siegel & Doner (found online here)
Presentations.

November 8

Consistency Revisited. Values.
Reading:
Perloff, Ch. 10: Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Presentations.

November 15

Commercial, Social, and Political Communication Campaigns.
Reading:
Perloff Ch 12: Campaigns
Presentations.

November 22 - Thanksgiving Vacation

November 29

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

December 6 - Final Test

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 is important in this class, so attendance will be noted. What happens if you get sick, or an unavoidable emergency occurs? For this reason, you're given one week's worth of unpenalized absences (except for summer courses, where you're allowed just one free absence), for which no reasons or excuses are required or requested. Even if you miss a single class for a good reason, please don't ask me to excuse it, because no excuse is necessary.* Each additional unexcused absence, however, will erode your grade by a third of a letter (a B, for example, becomes a B- on the second unexcused absence and a C+ on the third, and so on). So it goes without saying that you should save your no-penalty absences for when you need them. If you must miss a class, please contact a fellow student for notes, since class notes are not available from the instructor.

Various class assignments are considered under the broad heading of "Participation," including filling out class questionnaires, faithfully rating peer presentations, handing in exercise worksheets, etcetera.

Not allowed in class: 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).

(*Unless, of course, you miss class on your presentation day. Please don't skip class on your presentation day unless you're really ill, and you'll need to bring documetation of your illness 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 documentation of course.)

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 60% of your grade. (There's more information about presentations and tests under the "About Presentations" link.) 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 40% 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: I haven't yet decided whether or not there will be a final paper for this class. Let's see how the presentations go.

Copyright © 2001 by Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.
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