psychology paper

Imagine that our country is under threat of an imminent nuclear attack. You must make the important decision of who to let into the nearest fall-out shelter. There are 12 people vying to get in, but you can choose only five. Your choices include:

• a 40-yr-old violinist who is a suspected narcotics pusher
• a 60-yr-old architect
• a 26-yr-old lawyer who will only go in if he can bring his wife
• the lawyer’s 24-yr-old wife who has just gotten out of a mental hospital
• a 70-yr-old rabbi
• a 34-yr-old retired prostitute who was so successful that she has been living on her annuities for five years
• a 12-yr-old girl with a below-average IQ
• a male high school student who needs a wheelchair to get around
• a 20-yr-old gang member
• a 23-yr-old female Catholic graduate student who speaks publicly on the virtues of chastity
• a 28-yr-old male physicist who will only come into the shelter if he can bring his gun
• a 19-yr- old college student who has just come out of the closet

Determine which five you will choose for the fallout shelter.

Once you have made your five selections, write up an explanation for your choices. Why did you pick those five? And why not the others? What thoughts and/or feelings did you have about this type of decision?

Think about the following social psychology concepts and/or other concepts from your unit readings:

• Attitudes and social influence (e.g., norms, systematic vs. heuristic persuasion)
• Attributions
• Group categorization
• Stereotypes
• Prejudice (positive and negative)
• Discrimination
• Survival: Frustration-aggression, reproductive selectivity, and/or evolution
• Correspondence bias
• Reciprocal altruism
• Cognitive dissonance