Politics

Psychology & History of Voting & Politics History Students - Summarize and describe the election of 1960 and 1968. Psych Students - age (too young/old to vote?), moral reasoning skills/Kohlberg, attraction/tv debates & ad campaigns

here's some info on Kohlberg's stages: Kohlberg’s stages of moral development http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development http://www.aggelia.com/htdocs/kohlberg.shtml Level 1: Preconventional Morality Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment orientation Stage 2: Self-interest orientation Level 2: Conventional Stage 3: conformity Stage 4: social-order maintaining orientation Level 3: Post-conventional Stage 5: social contract motivation Stage 6: Universal ethical principles
 * Sarah Hennessy Ist period psych**
 * all of these are quite indepth, we shouldnt need any more info on them, I hope.*

Kohlberg's stages of moral development relate to voting age because the "stage" that a particular person is in may determine how they vote, as this "stage" will dictate their voting motivations. For example, a person in the conventional level, stage 3 may vote due to a desire to conform to social norms (everybody else is doing it when they turn 18). Conversely, a person in the post-conventional level, stage 5 may vote in an election because they feel a moral obligation to society as a whole. The first stage doesn't really apply to voting age, since these people would be too young to vote. The pages that I have researched also say that people don't generally regress through the stages, so I guess we dont have to worry about the first stage that much. The hardest part about deciding voting age changes (correlating to these stages of development) is that there are no specific ages during which time a person "graduates" from one stage to another. Determining which stage a person is in is really based on their individual actions. In relation to voting, "young voters" (18-24 yrs) who don't vote may still be in stage 3, as they do not feel an obligation to maintaining a social contract. People in this same age group who DO vote may be in stage 4 or even in the next level, in stage 4 or 5.

Here's some pictures we can use for the moral stages/voting age ppt pages: teens: http://www.mentor.lib.oh.us/picts/teen2.jpg http://votesmart.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/rtv-for-blog.jpg (rock the vote) http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/016SglBeEK5tQ/610x.jpg (teen rally) http://www.elcivics.com/images/voting-ballot.jpg (teen voting) http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1284/628133318_2d21a8a754.jpg (yeah not really expecting us to use this, but still funny) adults: http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Electronic-Voting-System-Analysis23jul03.jpg (adult voting) http://www.clubhousewreckards.com/images/voting_booth.gif (cartoon voting booth) http://img.errorik.com/2004/2004-11-02__schwarzenegger-voting.jpg (arnold voting)

Traditional voting perceptages (ages) http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/voting/004986.html In general, it seems that the youngest age group (18-24) have both the lowest voter registration rate and the lowest voter turnout. Why? Logistically, this may be due to a lack of easy voting access (if in college, they have to submit an absentee ballot). But in terms of Kohlberg's stages, it could also mean that the 18-24 year old may not vote because they have not yet reached the post-conventional stage of moral development. The next age group, 25-35 year old, have reached this stage and vote because the feel a moral obligation to society under the social contract theory; this means that they feel that have a duty to vote to voice thier opinion (especially if they are unhappy with the previous administration; they would feel like they had an olbigation to vote if they want things to change.)

[|http://www.stanford.edu/~siyengar/research/papers/advertising.html] This seems like a good website for psychology of communication and advertising. it highlights the moral obligations that are sliding downhill and the lack of responsibility of campaigners. the author believes that voters have become desensitized with media advertising in politics, and the advertising still done in media makes little difference to them. The mudslinging of today's campaigns teaches young adults little restraint and shows that insults are the best was to make people agree with you. promotes bullies maybe?
 * Sara Henderson ** **2nd period psych**

http://www.research.ucla.edu/chal/29.htm from this i got that negative advertising of candidates decreases voter turnout. it also promotes bad blood among legaislatures who will later need to cooperate and promotes cynicism in constituents.

Here is an image of a political ad for the pwpt. http://www.basisonline.org/images/2007/07/23/17.jpg http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/H/o/1/gop_campaign_plan.jpg http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/graphics/oberweis_2.gif

Stanford - U.S. History 3rd Period**
 * Will Marshall

http://winstonsalem.nc.schoolwebpages.com/education/staff/staff.php?sectionid=1697 This seems to be good website to start for U.S. History, but be forewarned: Any and all instructions on this page are vague and very unhelpful.

http://www.multied.com/elections/1968.html This is a very extensive website that contains everything needed for researching the election of 1968. The site has everything from the Democratic and Republican Convention, Electoral and Popular Votes, and State Results. It also contains graphs and biographies of the candidates involved in the election.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/postwar/election/election.html This is a good start for the election of 1960. It contains a simple time line and four documents from this era.

__Parker:__ Hey Marshall it's Parker i'm your other partner on this and i didn'y know how you wanted to go about splitting up the work. I'll log back on tonight to see what you think about how we should split it up i guess we could just each do a date, so you could do 1960 and i could do 1968, let me know.

Will : OK. I think I can get the 1968 election, if that's alright.

__Parker:__ Hey Sarah I'm pretty sure i can handle all the psych slides without anymore info. Thank you for all the info and will and i should have all the info you need on the elections in a day or two.

Sarah: OK. Parker, sounds great. I started the PowerPoint, and it's saved on the K:\ drive. Sara, I will do the election of 1960, if that's cool with you. Guys, feel free to rearrange the PowerPoint slides wherever you want. Should the psych slides go first?


 * Sara Henderson **: I added to the PowerPoint. i started the citations page, but I do not know what sources Sarah Hennessy used. Am i supposed to put the citation on the slide also?

Sarah: I did, but you can delete it if you want.

<span style="color: rgb(119, 44, 3)">__Parker:__ Hey will you and i need to do our slides so just call me tonight my cell is 624-3337.

__Parker:__ Will marshall i've done my slides and the new updated powerpointed has been added i just replaced the link at the top. You just need to do your two slides.

Parker: Never Mind i found ur slides.