Due Date: See Syllabus
Length: 4.5-5 pages
Assignment Goal
The goal of this assignment is to create an argument that explains the industrial food system from a psychological perspective. The argument should address at least three different positions in the industrial food system (animal, worker, manager are required) in order to explain how this system functions on a day-to-day basis.
Assignment Description
This assignment will require students to use the class texts for a specific purpose: discovering how psychological attitudes, emotions, moods, and behaviors keep the industrial food system running. Since students must approach these psychological aspects from three different perspectives, their arguments will once again shade between description and analysis. Students may focus on any psychological aspect that overlaps the three different groups, separates them, or plays a relational role between them (various attitudes and feelings in one group may affect or cause feedback in another).
Research
Since we cannot run tests on real people, students will have to use the available texts in addition to practicing some research. The research students may want to focus on is any research that describes the emotional capacities of mammals, with an emphasis on cows and pigs. They may also do research on bird behavior. The purpose of this research is to allow students the opportunity to explain how and why animal emotions do or don't play a role in the daily reproduction of the industrial food system. Students may do research, however, on any and all aspects of this assignment.
Students must cite or refer to three outside sources beyond those we've examined in class. ONE of these sources must be an academic source found through an academic search engine.
Library Visit
We will visit the library to learn about research methods. See course blog for date.
