Imagine that you are a professional change agent and that you have been hired to bring about an important change in an area of your choice.
Examples:
You want to get people to stop discriminating against a particular minority group
You want to get people to adopt a helpful or healthy new behavior (e.g., recycling, wearing seatbelts, volunteerism, reducing gasoline consumption, quitting smoking, etc.).
You want to get people to vote for a particular candidate who is currently running far behind in the polls.
You may also choose some other problem area that interests you.
Develop your strategies for changing your chosen behavior(s). Use research and theories described in your text to support your choices of strategies. In a 2-3 page, double-spaced paper, answer the following questions:
What problem area have you chosen to work on and why?
List the specific goal(s) that you have set in this change program (this is like an operational definition!). In other words, what actual behavior(s) should show change as a result of your efforts (e.g., increased number of hours volunteered per week, reduced automobile driving, etc.).
What techniques would you use to produce the changes listed in question #2? Give specific, concrete examples. For instance, what would the ad look like, what would you say to people as you conducted your door to door campaign, or what incentives or rewards would you give?
What are the theoretical principles on which your techniques are based? For example, giving everyone a nickel if they recycle a plastic or glass bottle is a technique based on reinforcement principles.
How would you know if your program has been successful? That is, how will you actually assess the amount of change in the behavior(s) that you listed in question #2?
