Psyc 306: Social Psychology

WAC Formal Writing Assignment:

 Social Psychology Goes to the Movies

Dr. Schlehofer

Purpose: Social psychological theories, concepts, and principles provide explanations for human behavior in a myriad of contexts.  Movies are not only fun to watch, but also provide us with an opportunity to capture human behavior on film.  For this assignment, you will watch a movie and provide a social psychological explanation of a scene (or scenes) from the film.

Instructions: Watch one of the movies indicated below.  All should be easily obtainable in a local video store.  After watching the movie, write a paper in which you apply four different concepts or theories learned in this course to a scene or scenes in the movie. 

Your paper should: (1) fully describe the relevant scene(s) from the movie you chose (assume your reader (me) has seen the movie, but provide enough information so that the reader can identify the scene); (2) fully describe each of the four social psychological concept, theories, or principle you are applying; and (3) explain how each concept relates to the scene you identified.  **It is also possible that a scene violates a social psychological theory; if you choose, your paper can also describe how a scene fails to conform to predictions from theories learned in class. 

Movie Choices:

Independence Day	12 Angry Men	North Country
Footloose	The Breakfast Club	Titanic
Shrek	Minority Report	A League of Their Own
Needful Things	ET	Ray
Crash	Beauty and the Beast	Pretty Woman
Meet the Parents	Something New	Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle