Reference no: EM133192864
PSYC1010 – Introduction to Psychology – Assignment #2 Creating a Campaign to Increase Altruistic Behaviour
In this second assignment, I’m going to ask you to build on the lessons you learned while completing assignment #1. With assignment #1 you developed a behaviour modification plan to change a target behaviour of your choice. Now I’m going to ask you to think about how you would go about changing a specific type of behaviour, known as altruistic behaviour, in yourself and in others. Altruism is a fancy way of referring to acts of kindness or generosity directed toward others that do not appear to be directly related to an external reward. I think the world needs more of from all of us, so I want you to use what you’ve learned in the course to increase altruism.
The behavior I want you to target is blood donation. Canada has one of the lowest rates of blood donation in the developed world, with only 7% of the eligible population donating. That number is even lower in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where participation rates hover closer to 2% of eligible donors. I want you to design a program or campaign to increase Canadian’s rate of donation.
Explain what your plan would involve and tell me how each aspect of your plan addresses or is justified by one of the factors listed below. There is a lot of room for creativity here, but keep in mind that your program MUST address 4 of the 6 aspects of altruistic behaviour below.
- Reciprocity norm
- Social responsibility norm
- Kinship
- Observational learning
- Emotions (e.g., fear, guilt)
- Reinforcement and punishment
While each of your plans will be unique and I’m eager to read the creative things you come up with, make sure that your plan to improve Canada’s blood donation rates focuses on things like:
- The content and distribution of advertisements (e.g., paper-based, TV, social media) for blood donation.
- The role that educators and/or physicians could or should play in encouraging blood donation in their students or patients.
- What (if any) rewards blood donors should receive after donating blood.
- How you would attempt to combat or challenge the fears often associated with the process of donating blood
- What emotions you could play on or manipulate in order to increase blood donation rates.
In creating your plan you should use your textbook (chapters on learning/behaviour modification, emotion, and social behaviour-altruism), as well as my lecture slides, and the website link on altruism posted to Moodle, but you MUST also use at least 1 of the peer-reviewed articles listed below. You can find these articles using the York electronic library databases, but I’ve also posted the articles for your convenience here on Moodle.
Abolghasemi, H., Hosseini-Divkalayi, N. S., & Seighali, F. (2010). Blood donor incentives: A step forward or backward. Asian Journal of Transfusion Science, 4(1), 9–13.
Godin G, Vezina-Im LA, Belanger-Gravel A, Amireault S. (2012). Efficacy of interventions promoting blood donation: a systematic review. Transfusion Medicine Review, 26, 224-376.