COURSE SYLLABUS
Dr. Orr's Persuasion Com 403 Spring 1997
BOOKS: R.B. Cialdini, INFLUENCE (New York: Quill),
1984.
G.T. Fairhurst and R. A. Sarr, THE ART OF FRAMING (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), 1996.
OBJECTIVES:
- To Analyze key elements in the communication process of persuasion.
- To understand the leading theories of persuasive influence.
- To examine influence attemps in contemporary society as they are exhitited in politics, psychotherapy, religion, and business.
- To practive persuasive performances, such as, speeches, interviews, and negotiations.
- To improve as a successful, ethical, and wise influcence participants in society.
COURSE OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION: LABORATORY EXPERIENCES IN PERSUASION
THEORIES OF PERSUASIVE INFLUENCE
A. PERSUASION AS POWER
1. Six sources of social power
a. Coercive power
b. Reward power
c. Referent power
d. Legitimate power
1. Impersonal legitimacy
2. Personalized legitimacy, or reciprocity
e Expert power
f. Information power.
2. Power and the Power holder
a. Kipnis on corrupting power
b. Power and automatic responses
c. Power and self management
B. PERSUASION AND DISSONANCE THEORIES
1. Dissonance model A.
2. Dissonance model B.
3. Challenges and revisions of dissonance theory
C. PERSUASION AS EVOCATION
D. PERSUASION AND SCARCITY THEORY
E. PERSUASION AS THEORIES OF SYMBOLISM
1. Constructionism
a. The principle of subjectivity
b. The principle of symbolization
c. The principle of power
d. The principle of consensual validation
2. Symbolic Strategies
a. Framing
b. Nuance
c. Dramatization
d. God terms and devil terms (Spin)
e. Figures of speech: anaphora, anithesis, parallelism, metaphor,
metonomy, syndecdoche, and oxymoron.
f. Storeis, archetypes, and folktales
g. Non-discursive symbols
h. Language intensity
i. Language immediacy
j. Visionary leadership
3. Strategies of identification
a. Edging
b. Abstraction and common ground
c. Confirmation
d. Victimization
e. Entrainment
d. Collaboration
II. APPLICATIONS OF PERSUASIVE THEORIES
A. Analyzing persuasive events
1. Modes of analysis.
2. A case analysis of persuasion and healing.
a. Research on the placebo effect
b. Modes of inducing belief in healing
(1) Managing the surround
(2) Gaining initial commitments
(3) Establishing power
(4) Demolition
(5) Guilt and fear appeals
(6) Abreaction
(7) Social proof
(8) Language manipulation
(9) Entering a new social reality and telling others
c. Evaluating help for de-moralization: a rhetorical perspective
B. Practicing the art of persuasion
1. The case of meeting the press
2. The press conference as news and persuasion
3. The art of bridging or "scoring on defense"
4. Priming
5. Questions to handle with care
6. The press interview versus the employment interview
B. Priming as a lifetime education
THE BASIS FOR GRADING:
- 1. Success on three examinations
- 2. Success on two papers.
- 3. Success on one persuasive performance.
GRADE DISTRIBUTION:
- First exam 100 points.
- Second exam 100 points.
- Third exam 100 point.
- First paper 50 points.
- Second paper 50 points.
- Performance 50 points.
- Extra credit will be given for exceptional and frequent class participation.
GROUND RULES:
- Attend class. if you don't you will not be able to pass the exams. Attendance will be governed by the rules of WCU as outlined in the University catalogue.
- Do not ask to be excused from an exam because of other school work. Exams will only be excused due to serious illness.
- Do not submit late papers. One grade will be reduced for each late day. No grade Higher than "D" will be given to a final paper presented after the announced deadline.
- Please keep a copy of submitted work. If a paper does not reach me I will ask for your second copy. Without a copy the paper will need to be considered an "F."
- Papers submitted after the final date for submission will not receive a grade higher than "D."
- Please secure a University e-mail address so I can communicate with the class.
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