Assignment: Elaboration Likelihood Model

When you listen to persuasive communication, what contributes to your decision to change your mind, to buy a product, or to participate in an activity? How do factors related to who is speaking, the content and context of the communication, and your motivation inform your attitude and behavior?

Think back to Week 2 when you examined ego involvement and its influence on decision making. This week, you are exploring "routes to persuasion." Consider in what ways your degree of involvement informs how you process information. Keep in mind that "routes to persuasion" are constructs, not physical pathways in the brain. The routes we take differ depending on the situation. Sometimes we take more time to deliberate on information, which is the central route. However, we don't always have time-or want to take time-to consider all information that comes our way. We make a quick decision by processing through the peripheral route, because it takes less effort and lower ego involvement. Which route do you think you use most often?

For this Assignment, you will explore routes to persuasion by applying the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), presented in the text reading this week, to an experience in your life.

To prepare:

• Think of a time when you were influenced by someone else to make a substantial change in your life (e.g., enroll in your program at Walden; change jobs; move to another city; or address a habit, such as to stop smoking).
• Recall the details of the situation, including the person who influenced you.
• Analyze the situation and how you moved through it in terms of the components of the ELM featured in the graphic on page 192 of the text, paying particular attention to the route(s) to persuasion that you used (e.g., when the routes overlapped for you, if they did, or whether you used the same route throughout the situation).
• Consider what informed how you engaged with the person(s) who influenced you and other aspects of the situation.
• Also, consider the ethics of the method(s) of influence, using the code of ethics you consider most appropriate to the situation.

Submit a 3- to 5-page paper that addresses the following:

• Describe the situation, the change you were influenced to make, who influenced you, and the nature of the influence. Choose the topic of drug addiction that I had for 25 years. My biggest influence was my partner of 40 years. Include what finally made me seek inpatient therapy was the point where my partner would no longer be a co-dependent to my addiction and hence I became homeless until I sought out the treatment. As of now I am 5 years clean.
• Apply the ELM model, and explain the experience for you in terms of the ELM components.
• Explain the ethics of the influence you experienced and how your relationship with the person(s) who influenced you was impacted.
• Explain insights you gained from analyzing this experience using the ELM model that you would apply the next time you want to make a change in your life or are encouraged to make a change by others.