structure of and theories about attitudes

For this Discussion, you will consider ego involvement as a key influence on decision making, with advertising as the subject. You will imagine yourself as a small business owner who needs to create an online ad for a specific product that you want to put on your website. You will explore how to influence the largest number of consumers to purchase your product.

To prepare for part one: Ego Involvement and Influence

• Review the Week 2 Learning Resources. In particular, pay attention to Perloff’s discussion of ego involvement as part of social-judgment theory, and to the persuasion principles in the Kaptein & Halteren article. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00779-012-0585-3
• Decide on your business, the specific product you want to sell, and who is likely to be your target customer.
• Consider which of Kaptein & Halteren’s persuasion principles might work best for influencing your website visitors to purchase your product.
• Think about the component of ego involvement in social judgment theory. Consider how you could create an ad with language that appeals to both consumers with low ego involvement and consumers with high ego involvement.
• Also consider advertising ethics you would need to follow in creating your ad.

Note: You are not required to create and submit an ad as part of your post

post responses to the following:

• Briefly describe your business, your target audience, and the specific product you are selling online.
• Present the principle(s) of persuasion you would use to sell this product, and justify why the principle(s) you chose would be best for your ad and target consumers.
• Explain what you would emphasize about the product to appeal to online consumers with low ego involvement and what you would emphasize to attract consumers with high ego involvement. In your response, be sure to demonstrate your understanding of ego involvement and what makes each group of consumers different.
• Select the specific advertising ethics that you were most mindful of in creating your ad, and explain your thinking.

Part two: Expectancy-Value Theory and Cultural Considerations

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. https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201910_05/BS_PSYC/PSYC_3007_WC/artifacts/Middle_School_Bullying_Student_Reported_Perceptions_and_Prevalence.pdf
• Research sources online to determine the incidence of bullying, including cyberbullying, locally or, if more appropriate, within the state of Mississippi 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. https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/measuring-student-safety-bullying-rates-at-school
• https://edsource.org/2015/taking-aim-at-the-middle-school-plunge-with-a-positive-culture/83159
• 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. (http://bullyproofclassroom.com/great-anti-bullying-activitie)

Submit a 3-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.
• 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.