Assignment: Expectancy-Value Theory and Cultural Considerations

Take a moment to consider what you have explored so far about the role of influence and persuasion in everyday interactions. You have examined theories developed by experts to provide a vocabulary and way of thinking about how influence and persuasion operate in daily life. People use persuasion theories to address specific needs, such as how to market products-the focus of the Discussion this week. Another use of persuasion theories is in working to change attitudes that create social problems.

One problem in many U.S. schools is bullying, including cyberbullying. According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, 22% of U.S. students, nearly one in four, report being bullied during the school year.

For this Assignment, you will use the expectancy-value theory of persuasion as the foundation of an anti-bullying program in your own community. You will prepare a training that you could give to a small group of students in a local middle school who are designated peer mentors. Those in your training will work with their peers to help combat bullying on that middle school campus. Your training participants already know about the statistics of bullying and other facts and figures. Your job is to develop an interactive one-day training that applies the expectancy value theory. What can you do with a small group of middle school kids so you get the information you need about bullying from the students' viewpoints? Consider the influence of cultural characteristics of young adolescents in middle school and the demographics of your community that would be reflected in your audience of peer mentors.

Note: You are not required to conduct an actual training.

To prepare:
- Imagine the following scenario:

You are a consultant who specializes in anti-bullying strategies. You are part of a team and others have already given their presentations to the middle school students in your community who are part of a peer-mentoring program. Your role is to engage students as anti-bullying mentors and to present strategies based on the expectancy-value theory that they can use to positively influence their peers' attitudes and behavior.

- Review the reading in the text on the expectancy-value approach to attitudes.

- Review the Learning Resources with information on bullying, including cyber bullying. Consider information and statistics that you would include in a persuasive presentation to students.

- Research sources within your community or online to determine the incidence of bullying, including cyberbullying, locally or, if more appropriate, within your state or region.

- Review the Learning Resources on middle school culture. Consider distinguishing characteristics of middle school culture and how those characteristics will influence your presentation to students.

- Based on your knowledge and experience, consider the demographics of your community that would be reflected in your middle school audience and how those considerations will influence your presentation to students.

- Consider the exact language you would use in your training so the students can apply strategies that are based on the expectancy value theory, factoring in cultural considerations of the middle school students that you have identified.

- Since you are to develop an interactive training, please review the document at this website that has activities you might incorporate as you do the training with the middle school peer mentors.

Bring to mind an attitude that you have held for a long time. If you could imagine this specific attitude as a structure, what would be the foundation? What has helped to cement this attitude in your thinking? Where might emotion and culture fit in?

This week, you will study the nature of attitudes and the theories that explain how attitudes are structured. You will examine connections between attitudes and concepts, such as beliefs, values,and ideology. You will also apply specific theories to familiar situations. In the process, you will explore how theories about influence and persuasion not only explain common behaviors but also can be useful for achieving specific goals and solving societal problems.

In addition, the focus on ethics continues this week. You will again use ethical standards to guide and evaluate approaches to influence and persuasion in different settings. You will also consider how culture influences attitudes in a given circumstance and why culture is a consideration in effectively changing attitudes.

Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Evaluate advertisement appeal to target population based on principles of ego involvement
- Apply expectancy-value theory to professional and personal situations
- Evaluate the expectancy-value theory as a persuasive approach
- Analyze the importance of culture on influence

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

- Describe the setting for your training, including demographics of your community and the cultural characteristics of your middle school students. (My community is New Orleans, LA.)

- Explain why the expectancy-value theory is appropriate to use as a persuasive approach to prevent or stop bullying.

- Analyze how what you know about the culture of middle school students and about your community impacts the training you develop.

- Write at least a one-page script of your training based on the scenario for this Assignment. What activities from the Activities document will you use? Although you are not required to conduct training, keep privacy issues in mind. If you reference actual incidents, students, or school personnel in your script, change all names and identifiable details.

- Conclude your paper by explaining the insights you gained from applying the expectancy value theory, including a rationale for understanding the culture of an audience that you want to influence.

Note: Support the responses within your Assignment with evidence from the assigned Learning Resources, including in-text citations. Provide a reference list for resources you used for this Assignment.